Take Care using Traffic Circles

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  #16  
Old 08-28-2014, 11:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Chi-Town View Post
My feeling on the roundabouts is that people don't have a disregard for the law, they just don't know. And after five years of going through them I have come to realize there is no hope. I approach them as if everybody is a kamikaze pilot.
I agree with Chi-Town and also with Bogie. It is because he like many of us have been here for many years and have read dozens of round about threads and that is the reason he put up the popcorn symbol. I think popcorn means, I am going to sit and watch this new discussion. That is all. I don't think he meant it to be malicious. Bill of Bill-n-Brillo would put up the popcorn symbol and when he went to Crispers he would pass out a sack of popcorn for everyone.
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Old 08-28-2014, 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Chi-Town View Post
My feeling on the roundabouts is that people don't have a disregard for the law, they just don't know. And after five years of going through them I have come to realize there is no hope. I approach them as if everybody is a kamikaze pilot.

Perfect perspective. Excellent plan.

And we have to remember that sometimes a turn signal is just a turn signal. Signifying nothing. Or anything.

Now, I must go get into my white car with the Florida plates and navigate a few roundabouts to drive to Publix. (I love Publix. I love the green shirts and bright lights. But I have to run past that alluring bakery section, holding my nose and trying not to look. -- but sometimes I just can't get past it.)

Seeya in the roundabouts.
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Old 08-28-2014, 11:50 AM
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Thousands of new people move into TV every year. They cannot possibly have seen, much less read, the lengthy prior threads on here, about roundabout safety.

The o.p. is 100% correct in bringing this danger to our attention. Most newbies know how to navigate a single-lane roundabout, but they often have never driven one with 2-lane exits.

For newcomers: Do not enter the roundabout if anybody is coming around in the quadrant on your left. Yield to them, as they might be coming 3/4 of the way around and are about to exit the circle onto the street to your right. You can get t-boned because they expect you to yield to traffic coming on your left when you're about to enter (as the driver of the small white car would have been expecting the truck to do, IF the truck driver had obeyed the Yield sign before entering like a speed demon).

Also, stagger your spacing to not be beside anybody inside the circle. Sometimes boneheads change lanes inside the circle, and sometimes trucks or high SUVs have rolled over on the sharp curves of the circles. (Yesterday there was a cement truck roll over, and my first hope was that it wasn't in a roundabout, next to a car.)

I've seen a Sumter County brochure on safe navigation of these 2-lane exit roundabouts. Maybe somebody can find it.
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Old 08-28-2014, 12:11 PM
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The OP description very apt and the suggestion of using turn signals prudent and something I do on a continuum .

Unfortunately not all residents are on TOTV and if they not all take heed and/or simply forget such admonishments

From the standpoint of signal use, I treat every round-a-bout as if it were a four corner intersection so that those vehicles around me know if I intend to exit or enter the circle. Unfortunately as respects signals apparently many residents buy cars not equipped with signals. I suppose by foregoing this feature they save money on their purchase
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Old 08-28-2014, 12:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter View Post
Here we go again.
it came early this year!
  #21  
Old 08-28-2014, 03:50 PM
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Can make you dizzy after going around so many of them.:screwy:
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Old 08-28-2014, 05:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Aandjmassage View Post
Can make you dizzy after going around so many of them.:screwy:
Yes, but you are supposed to exit by 3/4 around.
Unless you get stuck in the inside lane.......
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Old 08-28-2014, 05:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Biker Dog View Post
TURN SIGNAL!!!! Please learn to use them.
Lack of turn signal use is a particular pet peeve of mine, especially when the police don't use them!
  #24  
Old 08-28-2014, 09:05 PM
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You would think that with all the issues, accidents and expense of keeping up with the eye candy planted in the circles four times a year, that the developer would have done something a little different and definitely safer, instead of the dreaded circles. There are two down at Brownwood that are within less than 1/4 of a mile of each other. You barely straighten out your steering wheel and are into the next one.

Yes, the circles are beautiful to look at but that's the extent of it. Their diameters are too small to be effective or safe. I've said before that they are gas guzzlers and play havoc on our tires.

I hope these circles aren't in the cards for the new area in Fruitland Park. There are many beautiful things that can be done to enhance the intersections, that besides being Villages eye candy, are safe, too.
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Old 08-28-2014, 10:06 PM
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Some of drivers of the white trucks may not understand "YIELD"

Perhaps a sign with "Ceda el Paso" could be added below the "Yield"
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Old 08-28-2014, 10:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Bonanza View Post
You would think that with all the issues, accidents and expense of keeping up with the eye candy planted in the circles four times a year, that the developer would have done something a little different and definitely safer, instead of the dreaded circles. There are two down at Brownwood that are within less than 1/4 of a mile of each other. You barely straighten out your steering wheel and are into the next one.

Yes, the circles are beautiful to look at but that's the extent of it. Their diameters are too small to be effective or safe. I've said before that they are gas guzzlers and play havoc on our tires.

I hope these circles aren't in the cards for the new area in Fruitland Park. There are many beautiful things that can be done to enhance the intersections, that besides being Villages eye candy, are safe, too.
"The developer" put in the roundabouts to be "eye candy"?????????????

That's not what the county sheriff and Federal Highway Administration say in the Roundabout video on the Sumter Sheriff's Office website here (6th video on the page)…

Public Service Video:
Modern Roundabouts: A Safer Alternative
PSA's and Videos
  #27  
Old 08-28-2014, 10:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee View Post
Almost every day I travel from the 466 area to Sumter Landing using Belvedere/Buena Vista and the traffic circle at Belvedere/Winifred. Yesterday I was returning home approaching the traffic circle from the south, had slowed down to get into the traffic circle and make my turn around and into Belvedere, when a large white truck came down on my right hand side at high speed and literally blew through the traffic circle without stopping. At the same time there was a small white car making its way around the traffic circle and out onto Winifred - thankfully he must have realized that the truck was not going to stop and had slowed to a stop across my lane. The truck blew through at high speed and the driver of the small car very carefully proceeded out of the traffic circle into Winifred. There is no doubt in my mind that had the car driver not stopped in the circle he would have been a fatality.

I am posting this as a warning to people who are relatively new to the area to take care when entering the circles, you really do not know whether the other drivers on the road know how to use the circles.

So use your indicators so that other people know where you are going and slow down to a safe speed when entering and exiting the circles.
Thanks Madelaine, we all occasionally need a reminder. This would also be valuable if it were published as a "Letter to the Editor" in the online newspaper or in the Daily Sun.

I have no doubt that people need a reminder about driving the roundabouts safely. However I fear that publishing a reminder on TOTV doesn't reach the newbies or contractors or renters. Many members of TOTV either don't reside in TV yet, or are long-term residents.

Still, it's a step in the right direction, and a well-deserved reminder. I hope we're reminded again in the Daily Sun when Silly Season commences.
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  #28  
Old 08-28-2014, 11:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sunnyatlast View Post
"The developer" put in the roundabouts to be "eye candy"?????????????

That's not what the county sheriff and Federal Highway Administration say in the Roundabout video on the Sumter Sheriff's Office website here (6th video on the page)

Public Service Video:
Modern Roundabouts: A Safer Alternative
PSA's and Videos
Yes -- our circles are "eye candy."
They are beautiful, always meticulously maintained, and visitors and would be buyers are in awe of them . . .
until they live here.

They are too small and consequently, cause more prooblems than they solve.
I have lived in many cities that make use of circles and the ones here are the smallest (in diameter) I have ever seen or tried to navigate around.

Regardless of what the video is telling you, most residents don't know how to navigate them and/or are intimidated by what the other guy may do.
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Old 08-29-2014, 07:21 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonanza View Post
Yes -- our circles are "eye candy."
They are beautiful, always meticulously maintained, and visitors and would be buyers are in awe of them . . .
until they live here.

They are too small and consequently, cause more prooblems than they solve.
I have lived in many cities that make use of circles and the ones here are the smallest (in diameter) I have ever seen or tried to navigate around.

Regardless of what the video is telling you, most residents don't know how to navigate them and/or are intimidated by what the other guy may do.

Apparently, you didn't bother to watch the video. I think the experts in the field, including AARP, know better. I trust their knowledge, education, and testing. The bottom line, they are far safer than lights, or 4 way stops signs... period. It is not too late to "Get out of Dodge"
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Old 08-29-2014, 08:51 AM
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Leave Dodge? And miss the opportunity to complain?
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