accident at traffic circle in river heights, one man in hospital

"while emergency crews said they have been responding to collisions at traffic circles across the city."

People like this asshat are tres annoying:

It's a traffic circle, not rocket science. What do you want, a 4-day course? A book on how to use them? Follow the arrow!

What scares me about using a traffic circle are the OTHER drivers trying to navigate a too small circle with all kinds of blind spots.

I reckon that all these accidents were calm ones.

LOL! JTF! I nearly spit out my lunch laughing at that!

Do you mind if I steal that for a blog post I'm writing about the circles?

not at all..enjoy

hehehe

Looks like its confirmed.

Winnipeg is too dumb for traffic circles.

grumpy old man wrote:What scares me about using a traffic circle are the OTHER drivers trying to navigate a too small circle with all kinds of blind spots.

Unless you have a blind spot in your windshield, you have no excuse.

Wait 'til the snow arrives...

Before i went on MArty's show, I tried them out.

They fail to meet 2 criteria in my process. one they don't add anything of economical benefit. they cost more than stop signs after all. 2 they don't make things safer. Hitting the curb at 25 Km's per hour,wasn't a good thing and at higher speeds, damaging.

I have a concern with winters when wheels lock up. Perhaps if you hit the right curb, because you have to do a jog at eahc one, you may throw the left wheels onto the side of the curb, perhaps inducing a rollover pending vehicle you drive.

I think before they build anymore of them, they take a year or so to study the experience.

Taken from Google maps, at the same zoom level.



I think seeing the two satellite photos side by side illustrates the difference between a real traffic circle and whatever you want to call the obstructions that are up in River Heights. GROSVENOR IS JUST A DOT COMPARED TO ROYALWOOD!

You are forced to drive slower through the larger circles. I've seen people swerve their way through the Grosvenor circles at 50kmph. The fact that you CAN make it through these without 'calming' your speed proves their uselessness.

Imagine if the car involved in the accident was registered to Jan Currier!

Ok, so I've now seen one, actually two of these mini-traffic obstructions in place. In fact, one of them is 5-6 blocks from my house, and the other is 3 blocks away from the first. Now that these "circles" are in place, especially along a route I used frequently, I won't be using that route at all....calm that, I'll find another route to un-calm.

A properly built, and accommodated traffic circle makes sense in the right situation. These....on the other hand...are a complete waste of time, money and resources.

sputnik wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:What scares me about using a traffic circle are the OTHER drivers trying to navigate a too small circle with all kinds of blind spots.

Unless you have a blind spot in your windshield, you have no excuse.

Wrongo sport. Take a drive down Grosvenor and look for yourself. Don't assume anything.

Another "feature" coming soon that was included with the anti-traffic programme: Bike Boxes...

Don't worry, folks out in Toronto have no idea what they are either: http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/874187--bike-boxes-a-mystery-to-toronto-cyclists-drivers

What Winnipeg.ca has on it's website: "While some of the above projects call for the installation of Bike Boxes, the City of Winnipeg is not currently in a position to make use of bike boxes. We have recently received the required approval from the Province of Manitoba and are currently developing the proper guidelines for their use. The use of bike boxes in locations where guidelines are met will be considered for future projects."http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/MajorProjects/ActiveTransportation/HikeItBikeItLikeIt.asp

oh yeah bike boxes.. sure I can see that as being a good idea.

provided the cyclists no longer snake up through stopped traffic to get to them... that gonna happen?

grumpy old man wrote:People like this asshat are tres annoying:

It's a traffic circle, not rocket science. What do you want, a 4-day course? A book on how to use them? Follow the arrow!

What scares me about using a traffic circle are the OTHER drivers trying to navigate a too small circle with all kinds of blind spots.

I'm with you that Winnipeg drivers are pretty incompetent. Yesterday on the way home some guy was tailing a few feet behind a car, went from that to cutting someone else off, then ran both the pedestrian red light at confusion corner (northbound pembina), and the red light crossing osborne.

I don't get what that guy is talking about either. Instructions are in the drivers manual so why would anyone want a separate book or course?

well my dad got his drivers license by driving around the block once in a 2 ton grain truck that never had signal lights.. so I am not sure why we would be surprised that people have problems with improperly designed traffic circles

I'm not surprised that people may be having trouble with them at first. But I don't get why people have been complaining that there's no education about them. There's one official book on driving, and traffic circles are in it. If someone wants education on them all they need to do is look in the only source to find the answer. It's not like the information isn't available if people took 30 seconds to look for it.

Well, you know, people don't read manuals - whether for their electronic gadetry or road obstructions. Things should be apparent enough to not have to go to school on - which, you may note - wasn't a requirment for continuing to drive in Wpg. This traffic issue will no doubt also be chocked up to "idiot Winnipeg drivers". Anybody ever wonder why - when there's a train/vehicle accident/death (like yesterday) - there's never a mention about "idiot trains" or for trains to "JustSlowDown"? Yet when somebody is killed standing in the road - it's idiot Manitoba drivers. A person was on CJOB yesterday talking about this. In fact - from the construction industry. He revealed this - that the majority of "construction zone accidents" result from machine operators and inattenion of workers - not from drivers. The logical onus for safety should be on the people occupying the road that cars systematically and routinely drive on. He went further to say that flaggers should be certified in safety/dangers and that that accreditation exists - yet few do it because it's not required. He also critisized the industry for putting kids in these flag positions. So - the circle accident should be considered for what it is - a result of putting a cement obstacle in what was a straight drive for years. One might even have forecast the accident/s. The "idiot drivers" thing is getting tired - and Winnipeggers should understand that they are not uniquely retarded behind the wheel.

If the point of these things is to calm traffic, which really means to slow it down, why don't the brainiacs just reduce the speed limit?

Now, if this is to help out the autobody busineses, screw the brainiacs!!

Well, we seem to be the only ones who can't use traffic circles. If that guy I saw blow through the red light at confusion corner on the way home yesterday got into an accident, no one would say it was because there was a traffic light there.

That would be the only logical explanation - that the Autobody Industry of Manitoba sponsored this "safety" initiative. Not unlike how it would only make sense to discover that the Midas brake company sponsors the short amber program. What other basis would there be?

You miss the point. That would be the expected result (accident) if they placed the traffic light in the middle of the road. I wonder why they hang them from above?