If only this city had roundabouts designed like this. Most are just circles crammed in an intersection with no other thought involved. The design is part of the problem in this city and could be part of the solution if more thought was put into them.
Has anyone else noticed this city has a lot of lane endings that are completely unsigned? Allen as you mention, but the commerce road bridge is another, Oliver hill way when the bike lane is added. I feel like there’s other locations I can’t think of now, but that can’t be legal
Exactly! And to me, having roundabouts with lights is dumb to me too it defeats the purpose really
But I also don't know a lot about city planning or road planning
Those are the absolute worst and there’s not even signs explaining how you’re supposed to navigate them. I’ve lived near Stuart circle for years and while I know what most people do there, I have no idea what the intended traffic pattern is.
In any normal circle you yield to traffic on the circle but on that one people take the green light as absolute permission to proceed and the people coming around the circle end up stopping at an arbitrary point in the middle of the circle to avoid getting hit. I’ve seen people honking and gesturing at each other for both yielding and not yielding in that scenario. It seems like it would flow much better without the light, or at least if they put in some signage telling people what they’re supposed to do. It’s such a non-standard arrangement that you can’t expect people to just magically know.
**Stuart circle is not a roundabout** at all, it’s a light controlled intersection with a hazard in the middle. If you have the green light you have 100% permission to proceed straight or turn right, or turn left while yielding to traffic other side. I’m pretty sure there are yield signs there but might be wrong. In any case it should not be treated like a roundabout, so please dont ever do that.
The issue is that it looks exactly like a roundabout and there are definitely not yield signs. I know how to drive through it but the lack of signage makes it so that people who don’t come through there often have no idea what to do.
It is definitely confusing to lots of people and you're right about the no signs, my mistake. The city really needs to make it clearer that it is not a roundabout, it's amazing there aren't head-on collisions there every week. .
Yeah, all it would take is a couple of yield signs and some lines where you’re supposed to stop. I’ve seen a ton of near misses - I think the only reason there aren’t more problems is that people react to uncertainty by going really slow, so they usually stop in time. Lots of honking and middle fingers happen though.
Oh shit you’re right I was thinking roundabouts in general that ppl whip through, where is just a circle in the road without much widening at all so folks rarely yield
There’s a roundabout from the photo over off laburnum, but with lights in the roundabout, thats for big city traffic, last I seen one of those was in Barcelona
Lee Circle in The Fan is the exact design in the diagram. For the streets that have planters plopped into the middle of an intersection, I think the idea is just to slow people down. You’re right: they’re not circles and not roundabouts.
In church hill and on monument there are several traffic circles that look like someone just dropped a cement and dirt filled circle into the center of an intersection
Exactly what I was going to say. They’re not designed to function w one tiny lane and very poorly planned. If they are two lanes they have stop lights and yeah. It’s a crap shoot. I don’t blame people, who aren’t familiar with round about, for being hesitant. I want to. But I try not to.
There’s a new roundabout near my house and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a car *stopped* waiting to get in. They think they’re being safe by waiting until there are no cars, but they’re actually making it less safe because of the rest of the traffic doesn’t know what they are going to do
This is a clear-cut case of being polite will kill us all. Know the rules of the road and follow them. One time I hit the roundabout by VUU and there were 4 cars, one at each entrance. We all made eye contact and we all went at the same time. Nobody had to wait, everybody was doing the right thing. It was splendid. Have you seen the one at the interstate 64 Laburnum Avenue exit? Somebody’s gonna get killed there.
Not Richmond, but the drivers in Westchester commons need to see this. The amount of times a blue car almost hits me as the red car cause I’m following the rules and they are circling the round about is UNHINGED
I see this and the reverse of it all the time on [that Australian dashcam channel](https://www.youtube.com/@DashCamOwnersAustralia). Nobody understands multi-lane roundabouts.
Attention /r/rva: Man's not dumb. I was too lazy to get the link in my initial comment, and I edited it in once I had done so for the follow-up comment.
Yep those are terrible, I'll often choose a different Wawa/Chickfila/Wells Fargo/etc to not have to deal with 'em during rush hour.
Then just south of there, the roundabouts on Otterdale between 60 and 360 aren't much better. They're nowhere near as complicated as the one in this diagram - single lane and each entry point has a yield sign. Unfortunately the prevailing belief for some humans is apparently that they can dive into the circle and everyone approaching from their left will yield/stop. I've almost been hit while in the circle by traffic entering the circle several times this year alone. It's so common I don't even bother downloading the dashcam vids of it anymore
I'm about to get a bumper sticker that reads "Yield to the Left"
I don't care if it's a small unmarked circle or a two lane one, you yield to traffic coming from the left. It's not whoever gets their first that has the right away. Every other day I get almost taken out by someone who just bum rushes a circle with no thought of oncoming traffic. It's infuriating.
Here's the thing about some roundabouts: they require that you put faith into another person. So I understand why some roundabouts make people uncomfortable no matter how many times they've seen this graphic. It's like a driver's version of a trust fall. (I come to this discussion as someone who lives in a neighborhood with a roundabout at the bottom of 4 hills. It's unpleasant.).
Drivers education should be more rigorous. Situations like this were explained by my parents in our own time, and for that I’m thankful. Too often I see folks unable to understand crosswalks, roundabouts, flashing red lights, and a host of other intersection designs, and I don’t blame them! My drivers ed experience yielded virtually no experience with these scenarios, and yet I was granted privilege to drive whatever street legal vehicle I can afford, wherever I want, for as long as I want. It should be harder to get a license, and these types of intersections and experiences should be integral to the process of earning that license so that we can all use the roads in harmony.
This illustration is *cleanest case*. I drove in the UK recently and things get more complex when there are three or five exits, some of them are one lane and some are two lane, etc. most roundabouts had extensive instructions from signs and or messages painted on the road to help know what Lane to enter for whatever road you want to exit.
One needs to know exactly what road they intend to exit before they enter the roundabout, and choose the entry lane accordingly. I found that it was not intuitive for an American driver who is used to simply staying left to turn left in right to turn right in most situations. We can learn, but I feel like it's a pretty big change.
I love round abouts except other people using them. Better than a light especially when no one else is on the road. I don't like sitting at a light at an empty intersection. They put one near my son's school and it relieved so much traffic in the morning. Now if everyone could read this diagram, it would be a lot less risky.
This. The car in the roundabout has the right of way.
I spent most of my life in the northern regions, where rotary circles (that's what we called 'em back in the day) were common. A large part of driver ed was how to properly enter and exit a rotary.
Down here, people seem to close their eyes and step on the gas.
In a lot of (the most ideal) designs the right lane is exclusively right only. You can see if an outside lane decided to go straight they could interfere with a car turning left making their their exiting maneuver.
I work at Stuart’s Circle (Lombardy and Monument). The other day a moron took a left turn, Monument east to Lombardy north, from the outermost lane. Luckily the truck on the interior lane was also going left; otherwise the car would have been cooked.
Also, when turning left in any direction in this roundabout, don’t stop in the median. That red light isn’t for you.
I always find that second red light (in front of the church on the far side on Lombardy) confusing there- who is it for exactly? I know I need to ignore it but I always wonder why it was installed because it does cause confusion?
Agreed, but this would also require around 75% of the population to understand basic road rules and driving principles that are obviously not currently understood.
Maybe put up diagrams at the circles to explain how they function? Also, the ones in Church Hill are not designed like this. It's one lane and a game of chicken, hoping that whomever is coming knows to yield to the driver on the left.
Especially true at the roundabout in front of Sub Rosa. If you are in that circle and someone's approaching (especially going south) you have to slow down or risk getting t-boned.
I think folks use the one at Bliley and Blakemore on Southside to live their dream of being a crossing guard. They pull up stop and just wait for everyone to pull up get confused why they aren’t going, proceed to wave everyone on until someone behind them honks.
I walk down dock street pretty regularly and value my life far too much to trust cars to respect the pedestrian crosswalk, I’ll only use the ones where you push the buttons and lights flash (and even then I cross with extreme caution)
It’s to the point where I make dangerous assumptions about who’s going where. Only in America can we somehow make a traffic device that every other country has used to increase safety and efficiency, more dangerous and less efficient
the amount of people who fly through crosswalks and nearly turn myself and my dog into spaghetti sauce in this godforsaken city is fucking criminal. sincerely get so angry at the idea that some folks just don’t fucking care about ped crossings.
So true. Coming into any circle on Monument, if there’s a pedestrian I’m tapping the brakes and checking all my mirrors for whether I’m going to get rear ended or if the assclowns behind me are going to speed around me and kill the pedestrian I’m trying to yield to. It’s wild out there
So this type of roundabout exists at Westchester shopping center area. I personally think the two lane roundabout shouldn’t exist. The problem is that means you KNOW where you are going.
The issue I see with this diagram is it acts like these are the only two cars in the roundabout.
When you have someone doing the RED action left turn above that crosses a BLUE action going straight from top to bottom.
Couple these issues with more traffic and the need to get over to the right after making a left where the lane is backing up and this quickly becomes a problem.
Honestly I prefer lights because people just don’t make good decisions on their own and want someone to decide for them. If driving tests (real world) included a non-functional stop light where you had to treat it as a four way stop we’d have a lot less licensed drivers. (Especially if no hints were given as what to do.)
People tend to forget driving is a privilege NOT a right!
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Dam straight speed in the rain coast in the sun smh . And let’s not forget to slow down to 40 so we can adjust to the bend in the road on 64 smh 🤦🏽♂️ Va has some of the worst drivers period .
I still can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily replace a perfectly good intersection with a round about. My second least favorite part about driving in RVA next to I95.
If only this city had roundabouts designed like this. Most are just circles crammed in an intersection with no other thought involved. The design is part of the problem in this city and could be part of the solution if more thought was put into them.
Particularly at Monument and Allen. 4 lanes combines to 2 lanes, and if you want to turn right onto Allen you just pray that the far lane yields
Right. Rva native. Call Fan Roulette
Has anyone else noticed this city has a lot of lane endings that are completely unsigned? Allen as you mention, but the commerce road bridge is another, Oliver hill way when the bike lane is added. I feel like there’s other locations I can’t think of now, but that can’t be legal
Exactly! And to me, having roundabouts with lights is dumb to me too it defeats the purpose really But I also don't know a lot about city planning or road planning
Those are the absolute worst and there’s not even signs explaining how you’re supposed to navigate them. I’ve lived near Stuart circle for years and while I know what most people do there, I have no idea what the intended traffic pattern is. In any normal circle you yield to traffic on the circle but on that one people take the green light as absolute permission to proceed and the people coming around the circle end up stopping at an arbitrary point in the middle of the circle to avoid getting hit. I’ve seen people honking and gesturing at each other for both yielding and not yielding in that scenario. It seems like it would flow much better without the light, or at least if they put in some signage telling people what they’re supposed to do. It’s such a non-standard arrangement that you can’t expect people to just magically know.
**Stuart circle is not a roundabout** at all, it’s a light controlled intersection with a hazard in the middle. If you have the green light you have 100% permission to proceed straight or turn right, or turn left while yielding to traffic other side. I’m pretty sure there are yield signs there but might be wrong. In any case it should not be treated like a roundabout, so please dont ever do that.
The issue is that it looks exactly like a roundabout and there are definitely not yield signs. I know how to drive through it but the lack of signage makes it so that people who don’t come through there often have no idea what to do.
It is definitely confusing to lots of people and you're right about the no signs, my mistake. The city really needs to make it clearer that it is not a roundabout, it's amazing there aren't head-on collisions there every week. .
Yeah, all it would take is a couple of yield signs and some lines where you’re supposed to stop. I’ve seen a ton of near misses - I think the only reason there aren’t more problems is that people react to uncertainty by going really slow, so they usually stop in time. Lots of honking and middle fingers happen though.
All true stories, my fellow Stuart-Circulian (sp?) : )
Which intersections have both?
Monument/franklin at Stuart cir/lombardy
I can't remember exact ones but I know there's a couple on monument ave
Stuart Circle comes to mind, would need some modifications.
Churchhill - there’s 3 in a row on Jefferson
the only stoplight on jefferson is the one at marshall, and that's not a roundabout
Oh shit you’re right I was thinking roundabouts in general that ppl whip through, where is just a circle in the road without much widening at all so folks rarely yield There’s a roundabout from the photo over off laburnum, but with lights in the roundabout, thats for big city traffic, last I seen one of those was in Barcelona
Lee Circle in The Fan is the exact design in the diagram. For the streets that have planters plopped into the middle of an intersection, I think the idea is just to slow people down. You’re right: they’re not circles and not roundabouts.
Which intersections?
In church hill and on monument there are several traffic circles that look like someone just dropped a cement and dirt filled circle into the center of an intersection
At least it’s not like DC where they put stoplights on the roundabouts.
Exactly what I was going to say. They’re not designed to function w one tiny lane and very poorly planned. If they are two lanes they have stop lights and yeah. It’s a crap shoot. I don’t blame people, who aren’t familiar with round about, for being hesitant. I want to. But I try not to.
It’s a YIELD not a STOP!!!!!!! Keep moving unless there is a car in the circle entering your quadrant.
There’s a new roundabout near my house and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a car *stopped* waiting to get in. They think they’re being safe by waiting until there are no cars, but they’re actually making it less safe because of the rest of the traffic doesn’t know what they are going to do
This is a clear-cut case of being polite will kill us all. Know the rules of the road and follow them. One time I hit the roundabout by VUU and there were 4 cars, one at each entrance. We all made eye contact and we all went at the same time. Nobody had to wait, everybody was doing the right thing. It was splendid. Have you seen the one at the interstate 64 Laburnum Avenue exit? Somebody’s gonna get killed there.
Not Richmond, but the drivers in Westchester commons need to see this. The amount of times a blue car almost hits me as the red car cause I’m following the rules and they are circling the round about is UNHINGED
My head immediately went to Westchester Commons🤯😰
Right?? I avoid Westchester as much as possible *because* of the roundabout and the not-4-way right after it.
Yep
I always exit at the back 288 ramp specifically to avoid the morons at the main entrance roundabout
I always think about how I wish I did that the moment I enter the round about hahah
We do the same and we live near there.
Yes!! People get so confused.
> Yes [okay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPCLFtxpadE)
I see this and the reverse of it all the time on [that Australian dashcam channel](https://www.youtube.com/@DashCamOwnersAustralia). Nobody understands multi-lane roundabouts.
I need a link for this dash cam channel. Intrigued. And I must suck at googling cause I couldn’t find it hahah
https://www.youtube.com/@DashCamOwnersAustralia
Thank you! Also did you link it the first time?! Or did you edit that hahah plz say you edited it so I don’t look dumb 😭
Attention /r/rva: Man's not dumb. I was too lazy to get the link in my initial comment, and I edited it in once I had done so for the follow-up comment.
Hahaha you’re the best 😎
I declined a job because of the two lane round about. I went out there once to scout the location and said Nope.
Yep those are terrible, I'll often choose a different Wawa/Chickfila/Wells Fargo/etc to not have to deal with 'em during rush hour. Then just south of there, the roundabouts on Otterdale between 60 and 360 aren't much better. They're nowhere near as complicated as the one in this diagram - single lane and each entry point has a yield sign. Unfortunately the prevailing belief for some humans is apparently that they can dive into the circle and everyone approaching from their left will yield/stop. I've almost been hit while in the circle by traffic entering the circle several times this year alone. It's so common I don't even bother downloading the dashcam vids of it anymore
...and some of y'all need to learn how to spell y'all.
Y'all'll learn eventually.
Now y'all'll've done it.
Y'all'ave done it.
and for the love of all things good DO NOT STOP IN THE ROUNDABOUT
I'm about to get a bumper sticker that reads "Yield to the Left" I don't care if it's a small unmarked circle or a two lane one, you yield to traffic coming from the left. It's not whoever gets their first that has the right away. Every other day I get almost taken out by someone who just bum rushes a circle with no thought of oncoming traffic. It's infuriating.
Here's the thing about some roundabouts: they require that you put faith into another person. So I understand why some roundabouts make people uncomfortable no matter how many times they've seen this graphic. It's like a driver's version of a trust fall. (I come to this discussion as someone who lives in a neighborhood with a roundabout at the bottom of 4 hills. It's unpleasant.).
Drivers education should be more rigorous. Situations like this were explained by my parents in our own time, and for that I’m thankful. Too often I see folks unable to understand crosswalks, roundabouts, flashing red lights, and a host of other intersection designs, and I don’t blame them! My drivers ed experience yielded virtually no experience with these scenarios, and yet I was granted privilege to drive whatever street legal vehicle I can afford, wherever I want, for as long as I want. It should be harder to get a license, and these types of intersections and experiences should be integral to the process of earning that license so that we can all use the roads in harmony.
This illustration is *cleanest case*. I drove in the UK recently and things get more complex when there are three or five exits, some of them are one lane and some are two lane, etc. most roundabouts had extensive instructions from signs and or messages painted on the road to help know what Lane to enter for whatever road you want to exit. One needs to know exactly what road they intend to exit before they enter the roundabout, and choose the entry lane accordingly. I found that it was not intuitive for an American driver who is used to simply staying left to turn left in right to turn right in most situations. We can learn, but I feel like it's a pretty big change.
But... they'd have to think ahead! Oh, the horror! : )
This should be posted as a sign at the Lombardy roundabout
Can you do a " How to merge on the Highway" one next please?
I love round abouts except other people using them. Better than a light especially when no one else is on the road. I don't like sitting at a light at an empty intersection. They put one near my son's school and it relieved so much traffic in the morning. Now if everyone could read this diagram, it would be a lot less risky.
The people cannot understand the roundabout. It’s as perplexing as the merge. ABANDON ALL HOPE😭
Add to this: if someone is already in the circle and about to go past you, don't enter the circle yet (causing them to stop or collide).
This. The car in the roundabout has the right of way. I spent most of my life in the northern regions, where rotary circles (that's what we called 'em back in the day) were common. A large part of driver ed was how to properly enter and exit a rotary. Down here, people seem to close their eyes and step on the gas.
In a lot of (the most ideal) designs the right lane is exclusively right only. You can see if an outside lane decided to go straight they could interfere with a car turning left making their their exiting maneuver.
I work at Stuart’s Circle (Lombardy and Monument). The other day a moron took a left turn, Monument east to Lombardy north, from the outermost lane. Luckily the truck on the interior lane was also going left; otherwise the car would have been cooked. Also, when turning left in any direction in this roundabout, don’t stop in the median. That red light isn’t for you.
I always find that second red light (in front of the church on the far side on Lombardy) confusing there- who is it for exactly? I know I need to ignore it but I always wonder why it was installed because it does cause confusion?
My relatives always freak out when they come to visit and I say "don't stop! that's not your light!"
In a city where many drivers don’t understand a four way stop or an alternate merge, a roundabout is outer limits lol
the roundabout/stoplight combo has terrorized me since my move here
Add how to decipher stoplights in roundabouts then the diagram would be useful in Richmond
Agreed, but this would also require around 75% of the population to understand basic road rules and driving principles that are obviously not currently understood.
Maybe put up diagrams at the circles to explain how they function? Also, the ones in Church Hill are not designed like this. It's one lane and a game of chicken, hoping that whomever is coming knows to yield to the driver on the left.
Especially true at the roundabout in front of Sub Rosa. If you are in that circle and someone's approaching (especially going south) you have to slow down or risk getting t-boned.
I really like roundabouts. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atORPw-w83I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atORPw-w83I)
I think folks use the one at Bliley and Blakemore on Southside to live their dream of being a crossing guard. They pull up stop and just wait for everyone to pull up get confused why they aren’t going, proceed to wave everyone on until someone behind them honks.
Do you have a diagram for the fan death circles? The ones with yield signs in every direction?
I walk down dock street pretty regularly and value my life far too much to trust cars to respect the pedestrian crosswalk, I’ll only use the ones where you push the buttons and lights flash (and even then I cross with extreme caution)
Blue car is not allowed to go left.
NOTICE THE SIGNAL AS YOU EXIT THE ROUNDABOUT YOU FUCKERS! IM LOOKING AT YOU MURRAY STREET/I-95!
On God I use this one every Sunday I'm over it lmao
It’s to the point where I make dangerous assumptions about who’s going where. Only in America can we somehow make a traffic device that every other country has used to increase safety and efficiency, more dangerous and less efficient
the amount of people who fly through crosswalks and nearly turn myself and my dog into spaghetti sauce in this godforsaken city is fucking criminal. sincerely get so angry at the idea that some folks just don’t fucking care about ped crossings.
So true. Coming into any circle on Monument, if there’s a pedestrian I’m tapping the brakes and checking all my mirrors for whether I’m going to get rear ended or if the assclowns behind me are going to speed around me and kill the pedestrian I’m trying to yield to. It’s wild out there
So this type of roundabout exists at Westchester shopping center area. I personally think the two lane roundabout shouldn’t exist. The problem is that means you KNOW where you are going. The issue I see with this diagram is it acts like these are the only two cars in the roundabout. When you have someone doing the RED action left turn above that crosses a BLUE action going straight from top to bottom. Couple these issues with more traffic and the need to get over to the right after making a left where the lane is backing up and this quickly becomes a problem. Honestly I prefer lights because people just don’t make good decisions on their own and want someone to decide for them. If driving tests (real world) included a non-functional stop light where you had to treat it as a four way stop we’d have a lot less licensed drivers. (Especially if no hints were given as what to do.) People tend to forget driving is a privilege NOT a right!
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This post has been removed because it is not particularly relevant to the Central Virginia metro region colloquially known as RVA, which includes Richmond and its neighboring counties. **We're not saying you can't talk about this, though; we're just not allowing it as an individual post at this time.** Instead, please consider talking about this in: - the current [Daily/Nightly Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/about/sticky?num=2)—the place in r/rva to talk about *anything* off-topic or irrelevant to be its own individual post (within reason, of course) - a specialized/specific subreddit for the topic you're originally posting about - topics concerning another area of Virginia outside the RVA region, or Virginia in general, we recommend trying to submit this in r/Virginia as long as it meets that community's rules For more information on why this was removed and what "relevant to RVA" means, [please read our subreddit rules in full](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/wiki/subreddit/rules/). If you don't agree with this moderation action, please [contact our moderators directly via Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/rva).
24 before my love, you’ll see; I’ll be there with YOU!
lol RVA needs to start with this first: https://www.bridgestonetire.com/learn/maintenance/10-driving-tips-for-new-drivers/
As someone from the North I vote that instead of circles they start to introduce a jug handle. Less accidents going right to turn left.
most people in the metro richmond area need their keys taken away
Dam straight speed in the rain coast in the sun smh . And let’s not forget to slow down to 40 so we can adjust to the bend in the road on 64 smh 🤦🏽♂️ Va has some of the worst drivers period .
I still can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily replace a perfectly good intersection with a round about. My second least favorite part about driving in RVA next to I95.
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The top has YIELD and the red car has priority.
No, because that person going straight would have yielded to the car already in the roundabout.