WTF is up with all these traffic circles?

Traffic circles (crappy as the one's we have now may be) = still better than stop signs and a 4 way stop IMO.

I think the real problem is most of the asshats with vehicles don't know how to properly pilot them in the first place. Many people round these parts haven't seen a traffic circle, so they poop their pants a little just approaching one. That explains why a "yield" sign is regularly used as a stop sign by many folks.

They're here (traffic circles), they my be que_r, but they ain't going anywhere any time soon.

There's a "wise up" campaign for photo radar, I figure there needs to be a "smarten up" campaign to teach people how to drive, what signs mean, what turn signals do, how to use them, and what your supposed to do when emergency vehicles are approaching (to name just a few)!

The only useful one I've seen in the city so far is on Lakewood Blvd ( at least I think that's the right street ), in St. Vital. It would have been a 4 way stop, and it has enough traffic to warrant the use of the circle. The ones on Waterfront are a joke. I guess they were put there for aesthetics. I'm used to the ones in Edmonton and those are quite large, and function well.

Again, I'm a rookie to this concept. I need to be schooled.

Please. Tell me. What benefit do they provide?

I 'get' this traffic circle:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Waterfront+Drive,+Winnipeg,+Manitoba,+Canada&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.483365,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Waterfront+Dr,+Winnipeg,+Division+No.+11,+Manitoba,+Canada&z=15&layer=c&cbll=49.896991,-97.133457&panoid=caZoIskQ5emFrzXSXNPScw&cbp=12,306.13,,0,5

The one I encountered on Waverley?

Never mind the traffic circles. What the hell is with these crop circles in my back yard?

LivingDead wrote:Never mind the traffic circles. What the hell is with these crop circles in my back yard?

How the hell else is a cyclist supposed to navigate a wheat field safely?! They have a right to be there too, you know.

Mantha wrote:What benefit do they provide?

Seriously.

Anybody.

PLEASE! FILL ME IN!

If it's to accommodate cyclists, I'm going to have an aneurysm.

I've already dialed 9 and 1....

The traffic circles on Waterfront are large enough IMO to do the job and are not intimidating.

The circles on Grosvenor are TOO SMALL to act as a traffic circle. They serve one purpose: slow traffic down. That is their exclusive role. I suppose peeps will get accustomed to them as they are preferable over four way stop signs.

The small circles are intimidating as you don't know what approaching traffic will do. If we all slow down and allow ROW all will be good. That means they actually behave as a completely uncontrolled intersection.

Yeah, the ass-clown contractor in his v24 monster truck approaching from my left didn't seem to think slowing down was part of the equation.

If I get killed crossing one on the way home, please invite all mayoral candidates to a vigil at the intersection in my honour.

no love for your council candidate?

I figured you'd be there anyway, Dean!

oh for sure!

you id those stats from that other link yet?

Nein! What stats?

the city website has these informative words:

http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/MajorProjects/ActiveTransportation/PDF/NeighbourhoodTrafficCalmingCircles2010-07-28.pdf

apparently they are "traffic CALMING circles". STOP signs will be eliminated, but left turns be a pain.

From the linked PDF...

INCREASE SAFETY: Research shows that traffic calming circles result in improved safety and up to 70% fewer intersection collisions. In fact, they are widely applied by traffic engineers for improved intersection safety and reduced collision benefits
for residential neighbourhoods.

heh - Out of all the intersections passed in my 11 km drive to work, the ONLY ONE where my safety was threatened was at the traffic circle. And I used it properly, according to their guidelines.

I should have known it was a cyclist bologna. "Encourage Active Transport".

Balderdash.

They also make a ploy that it will increase property values by offering safer streets. Or, no one will want to live near an intersection that is unnavigable once snow piles up on the curbs.

Am I the only person who thinks this is the most useless thing since unsliced bread?

Mantha wrote:
Am I the only person who thinks this is the most useless thing since unsliced bread?

Maybe, maybe not.

I've only used the ones on Waterfront, and the new one @ Beaverhill/Lakewood

So I can only speak for those two (technically 3) circles.

The beaverhill/lakewood one is long over due. It was that or they'd install traffic lights, as the 4-way stop was backing up traffic like crazy.

On waterfront, the serve their purpose. I've traveled the ones on this street the most...say, the last 7-8 years or so and it's never had any issues with snow in the winter.

Mind you, someone said (I think it was GOM, but I'm lazy) that the others that have recently been installed are smaller than the few I'm referring to. So that could be a deal breaker.

I've used the larger ones in Edmonton (first ones I'd ever seen or driven on...and I didn't know it was coming up, so that was a fun "wholly frick" while traveling in a strange city) and never had any issues. I missed my street, but like magic, all I had to do was to keep doing circles until I could read which street I was looking for!

I like them from the aspect that they remove useless stop signs, as well as reducing stop and go traffic.

I'd be all in favor of doing what other cities do for residential intersections, remove stop signs and replace with yield signs...but there we go again with traffic signs and Winnipeg drivers...

I actually have fun driving the Waterfront one! It fits the area nicely, with the cobbled brick around it, etc.

The thing with that one is it looks like they had the space to do it properly and make a circular path around the centerpiece.

The one I drove past today on Waverley just looks pasted in to a square intersection.

What intersection @ Waverley?

I'd like to see if Google maps and/or Earth has a updated photo to compare the sizes...

I'm pretty sure it was Waverley @ Grosvenor or Fleet...

It was Grosvenor. Although in the image below I used Fleet, the intersections are the same size.

Here's a same size comparison of the two intersections.



EDIT: I used Fleet, but the circle is at Grosvenor. The intersections are the same size.

remove all city councillors and the mayor from office.

their excuses in regards to these matters are laughable.
Put a stop on all these AT projects until such time as they are ACTUALLY reviewed.

grumpy old man wrote:The traffic circles on Waterfront are large enough IMO to do the job and are not intimidating.

The circles on Grosvenor are TOO SMALL to act as a traffic circle. They serve one purpose: slow traffic down. That is their exclusive role. I suppose peeps will get accustomed to them as they are preferable over four way stop signs.

The small circles are intimidating as you don't know what approaching traffic will do. If we all slow down and allow ROW all will be good. That means they actually behave as a completely uncontrolled intersection.

I just thought the waterfront ones were odd. They aren't small, but I didn't know that they were really needed since it seems a stop sign on the west side of the two streets that the circles funnel to would likely be enough for traffic control. We're they the first ones? Maybe an experiment. Either way, they do function. I'm just used to the bigger ones I guess.

I happened to be in River Heights at rush hour this afternoon and found the traffic circles were basically getting used as for way stop signs with a curve to them. They seem really stupid. They are definitely too small.

This is just going to turn the citizens OFF of traffic circles as a concept, IMO.

for way stop signs don't promote quicker, more efficient traffic control.
Can you imagine all those old, female, Jewish drivers that abound in that area?
Those are the +75, that have killed their husbands and are driving a 1981 super Cadillac! lol
I think Sam Katz has a great sense of humour bringing those into that area
I plan to take a chair, a large cup of hot coffee and go down to watch "the action". That will save me a bundle instead of going downtown, parking, having my windows smashed and the added expense of ballet, or MTS, or orchestra tickets.

I was coming home from Daly Burger around 6:30, and CTV had a reporter, camera man and news van parked in front of one of the traffic circles in N. River Heights. My mini van will be/was on tv for a few seconds. Woot?

I nearly got t-boned by an F350 going through one of the bloody things near Grovsner/Waverley about 45 minutes earlier. I was going through and he whipped into the lane, and failed to negotiate the turn. He ended up ON the traffic circle.

Good going, city planners. You've made effective death traps.

If the point was to slow traffic why not just leave the four-way stop signs in? That did a pretty good job of slowing traffic.

Thos circles will be a complete disaster in the winter. There WILL be peeps running right into them. There WILL be snow plows doing a very poor job of clearing snow and ice from them. There WILL be pedestrians hit.

What annoyed me no end was the arrogance of the bureaucrat interviewed in that CTV news feature that CS mentioned. I'm paraphrasing: "get used to them. We're almost finished."

Well chuck you farley. You should be the very first FIRED when they remove these useless things. Probably after a rash of accidents and someone is killed.