by Jack Lee
For many months now the Chico Police Department has turned a blind eye to right of way violations at those new roundabouts on Manzanita at Hooker Oak and Valombrosa, presumably allowing drivers some time to get used to using them correctly, but what they are really doing is allowing drivers to use them incorrectly. Drivers are become intrenched in using them incorrectly and this is going to lead to an accident.
TIP: Drivers on Manzanita DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY AUTOMATICALLY. Each entry point in a roundabout has a YIELD sign and a YIELD sign means exactly that…YIELD! It works just like a 4 way intersection.
Roundabouts should be so simple to use that drivers in Chico should be able to do it with ease. They’re in use all over Europe and thousands of places in the USA, so there is no excuse why drivers here can’t learn to use them correctly. It’s time for Chico PD to generate a little revenue for the city and start issuing citations to errant drivers who cut off other drivers in a roundabout.
What say you Chico PD, going to enforce the law at roundabouts or wait until somebody gets killed before doing anything?
I really do not see how people can %$#@ up a roundabout but I have seen it time and time again. Jack you are making the same mistake reasonable people have been making forever. You are teaching something to people who for the most part already know how to do it correctly. For those few who read this blog and don’t know what they are doing, they will ignore you and continue to vote democrat. lol
And occutard makes my point! LOL
We are conditioned to stop lights and signs. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some people going through the roundabout consider it like a merry-go-round ride…can’t get hurt…just go! Wheeee!!!
How to safely use a roundabout —
Method A
1) Avoid them.
Method B
1)Approach the roundabout in a D4 or larger bulldozer.
2) Spray the blade with a small amount of diesel fuel and set alight.
3) With the blade aflame and billowing black smoke come to a full stop at the roundabout entrance.
4) After yielding for a couple vehicles, sound a hand carried air horn and enter the roundabout.
5) At this point you should be able to transit the roundabout safely unless Ann Schawb happens to be in the circle.
I have to say, if the intersection is still as I remember, if there has not been mongo development to the north and south, the east-west traffic is running bumper to bumper, which renders a traffic circle inoperative.
Somebody in the planning department is monumentally unclear on the concept and needs to be sacked. That’s an intersection that wants a light.
But Jack! Do you know what a four-way light costs?!? You taxpayer, you!
The Hooker Oak traffic is in the minority, and without government protection … and expenditure … the minority takes it in the shorts. This plainly and supportably aggregious and repeated trial, sir, will do you no end of good, so it will.
Pie…lol, geez you should write for Saturday Nite Live
If you think it’s hard to drive through a roundabout, it’s even worse for pedestrians and kids riding bicycles. Since there are no corners for pedestrian to wait at. Driver are so focused on the cars, they aren’t looking for kids.
Fortunately these locations have few pedestrians or bicyclists. However the City wants to build one at downtown where they hold farmers market. (At a cost of about $2M) I fear that this will be become a dangerous situation.
… Libby Writes: That’s an intersection that wants a light….
I would disagree…
See my comments on that from nearly 4 years ago:
http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2008/02/roundaboutzilla-1.html
The original plan was for traffic lights. The intersection layout was a virtual twin to 20th Street & MLK Jr Blvd.
I can’t remember the exact figures, but just the traffic lights was around $500,000, and then the costs for on-going for electricity, inspections several times per year and maintenance kick in.
It is unfortunate that some folks do not follow the simple rules and courtesies of navigating a roundabout…
I live near Hooker Oak Park, and drive, bike or walk the area a few times a day…. There is zero doubt in my mind that the Roundabouts perform far better, offer greater user safety than the Traffic Lights would have… And they cost FAR FAR FAR less to construct and maintain than the signalized intersections that would also required FAR more asphalt surface area to be constructed….
Again… more detail here:
http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2008/02/roundaboutzilla-1.html
Well, I finally saw it – a carfull of high school kids driving around and around in the Manzanita circles, laughing like idiots. I have to admit, it looked like fun. But, I could see how somebody like this could back up traffic for blocks in every direction. And who is there to stop them – call Pie!
Traffic circles were introduced in our town for the benefit of engineers, not drivers. Certainly not for pedestrians or cyclists. The city engineers told us we’d have to get our bikes up to 17 mph to make the Downtown circles safely. That’s pretty damned fast on a bike, especially with a trailer or one of those add-ons for kids. And what about pedestrians – Frogger?!
I’ve learned how to get through them, but mostly I avoid them. When I do use them, I slow down to 15 mph – this is the speed by which you can adjust for oncoming cars. I love taking my dogs through them, next time I might just have some fun, drive around a few times – BARK BARK BARK! BARK BARK BARK! They just go nuts.
Yes, we know they’re cheaper, but unless the onslaught at all four points is more-or-less equal, they don’t work … somebody southbound has to be on the thing … to hold up the somebody eastbound … or the poor slob northbound is never gettin’ on.
You also get into trouble if the traffic is heavy and the circle is tight.
I have to get the car fixed, come have a look.
Q’s comment about ‘The rule on a roundabout is simple: yield to drivers in the roundabout’. OK Q simple enough, but I have heard people have tried to go in both directions sometimes, so to prevent anymore of the ‘With so much misinformation’ snippet comment, do we yield to the left or yield to the right? because I Just want to be safe and well informed out there!
‘The rule on a roundabout is simple: yield to drivers in the roundabout’.
Yeah, but like I said, if the west-east traffic is bumper to bumper in the circle, nobody else is getting in … the circle is broken. And the clever fellas in the planning department should have foreseen the difficulty.
Other than having to watch other drivers and I do it anyway, the things seem to work pretty well. Not really sure how well they will work downtown but the ones by the park work well. Libby, what’s wrong with your car? I hope it is nothing major or a huge pain to get fixed.
Berkeley, where my sister lives, is the traffic circle capital of the west coast. But they’re all for slowing neighborhood traffic, which is rarely heavy, just often faster than is safe. The only one that gets heavy traffic is at the foot of the Marin Avenue hill, but it is so widely huge that there’s never any problem gettin’ in.
And the car runs, it just also burns oil, leaks coolant in some yet to be determined manner, and develops a new noise nearly every week. A four hundred mile jaunt would not be prudent. And I really wanted to take in the Ferndale Christmas Tractor Parade this year too. Sniff, sniff.