Comments on the Ohio roundabout video

I’ve moved the comments here from another post, which was getting long.

Here’s the Ohio video:

Summarizing my comments about the video, it shows roundabouts, a useful, time-efficient though space-intensive intersection design, but it gives some questionable advice on design and on how to use roundabouts. There are safety issues, and also legal implications are unclear, due to a contradiction of normal rules of the road.

• While good advice for pedestrians is given, the video includes an overhead view of a roundabout in a residential area with a crosswalk at only one of the three legs of the intersection.
• The advice for bicyclists to walk in the crosswalks is a surrogate for good design of crosswalks (or crossbikes) so bicyclists can safely ride through them, also reducing delay to both bicyclists and to traffic on the roadway.
• In the video, a bicyclist is shown properly centered in the right lane to exit a roundabout, but just before that he is riding adjacent to a truck, contrary to advice also given in the video. He was in danger of being left-hooked at the previous exit.
• Contrary to normal rules of the road, the video shows and advises that some drivers exit the roundabout from the inner lane, while other vehicles travel through in the right lane. Through-traveling drivers are expected to yield to the ones left-hooking them. What traffic law actually applies is unclear. If there is a special rule for roundabouts, it violates the usual rule and also violates the principle of destination positioning. Bicyclists usually would rather be in the right lane when exiting,

More-detailed comments about the video are below. The URL at the start of each comment links to the location in the video which relates to the comment. I’ve published the same comments on the YouTube page with the video.

0:50 Overhead view shown briefly shows the inner lane leading to a 4-lane exit. However, if you look closely, there are nonetheless dashed lines between the lanes and through arrows in the outer lane, — so the markings do not indicate that all traffic coming from previous entrances must use the inside lane. The markings maximize capacity by allowing exiting from either lane, regardless of where entering — though there is then a conflict between traffic passing an exit in the right lane and exiting from the left lane. My best advice for bicyclists who are riding through the roundabout is to ride centered in the outer lane while approaching the exit to avoid an unnecessary merge and avoid being right-hooked by exiting traffic or left-hooking through traffic, while also being in clearer view of entering traffic than if riding around the outside. Also, the drawing does not address all bicycling and walking movements. There is one cyclist shown in the illustration, riding with the direction of traffic on the sidewalk directly above the roundabout in the image, and that’s OK, but there are no ramps to and from the roadway to the sidewalk; on the other side of the intersection, there is no sidewalk; and there are no crosswalks across two of the three legs of the intersection, in a residential area.

1:00 Police officer narrating indicates that roundabouts “make our communities safer not only for motorists, but for pedestrians as well.” This contradicts the example in the overhead view, which lacks a full complement of sidewalks and crosswalks, and he also does not mention bicyclists.

2:00 Yield principle is good. Yielding is a fundamental principle of traffic operation which is not widely-enough understood. 2:10 vehicles are shown exiting the roundabout in the right-hand lane of a four-lane roadway, and that’s OK.

2:50 “The lane allows left turn, straight-ahead movements and U turns only,” with the unstated implication that drivers must remain in the left lane while exiting.

2:55 “Allowable right-lane movements include right turns or straight-ahead movements.” The two previous statements together establish a left-hook conflict between straight-ahead movements in the right lane and right turns from the left lane.

3:12 Animation at shows a vehicle exiting from the left lane, crossing the right lane in which through movements are permitted.

3:34 “When driving in the left lane, always maintain your lane position until you exit” — left-hook conflict.

3:40 A vehicle making a straight-ahead movement yields to traffic in both lanes when entering. The entering driver may not know whether the driver coming from the left intends to exit (conflict!) or not (no conflict!). The exiting driver is turning right from the left lane, in violation of the principle of destination positioning.

4:15 “The driver in the right lane cuts off the driver in the left lane intending to exit.” This is exactly the same as saying “The driver in the right lane traveling straight through cuts of the driver in the left lane intending to turn right.” The vehicle in the left lane is behind the one in the right lane and not in a position where the leading driver would normally have to look when continuing on a roadway. Both the movements shown — going straight through in the right lane and turning right from the left lane — are permitted movements, according to the animation shown previously — but turning right across a travel lane without yielding is a violation everywhere except, as describe here, in a roundabout.

4:30 “Never change lanes inside the roundabout.” Troubling advice, and especially for bicyclists — not only results in hook conflicts, but also results in unnecessary delay.

4:45 “U Turns are only allowed in the left lane” – Good enough except for the issue with hook conflicts at the exit.

5:15 “If you follow a truck into a roundabout, do not attempt to pass.” Good advice anywhere it would be necessary to share a lane with a large truck to pass it.

5:26 “When emergency vehicles approach, always give them the right of way.” More generic good advice.

6:03 “Never stop inside the roundabout. Instead, continue through the roundabout, then pull over to the shoulder…” (when an emergency vehicle needs to use the roundabout). This would apply in any intersection, but it may be a bit more confusing in a roundabout.

6:10 Advice for pedestrians is good, assuming of course that there is a crosswalk. “A roundabout crosswalk is the same as an unsignalized crosswalk”.” Well, it is an unsignalized crosswalk. More generic good advice.

6:40 “Bicyclists are encouraged to use the crosswalks by walking their bikes.” Sure, bicyclists may become pedestrians and walk their bikes but this is contrary to the current Dutch practice where the bikeway is designed so motorists can yield to bicyclists who are riding, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEXD0guLQY0. A person walking a bicycle in a crosswalk is delayed, and delays other traffic, more than one who is riding, and, broadside to the traffic lanes, is a much wider obstacle — and so more vulnerable — than a pedestrian without a bicycle. Don’t expect bicyclists to obey “Mickey Mouse” advice, but do expect them to get into trouble when crosswalks aren’t designed for safe yielding at bicycle speeds. Safe practice in a crosswalk which is not designed to work at bicycle speeds is to slow or stop before entering the crosswalk, allowing drivers to yield, and then cross quickly, but not all bicyclists may recognize the need to slow, and brakes also occasionally fail. Safest practice is to design crossings so everyone can see clearly and yield, regardless of who is required by law to yield. A roundabout should have ramps to/from the sidewalk, aligned with the direction of travel on the roadway, so bicyclists may enter from the roadway and exit to the roadway…see page 168 of FHWA document here: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/00067/000676.pdf. A Wisconsin page giving roundabout resources includes a link to a video describing both options for bicyclists (near the end of the video).

6:50 “If you choose to ride through the roundabout, the same rules apply for a bike as for an automobile.” The bicyclist is hidden behind a truck while crossing a leg of the intersection and then exits at the next leg, properly centered in the outer lane. The bicyclist would have been vulnerable to a right hook if the truck had turned right at the first exit, and would have been safer merging to the inside lane, and then back to the outer lane — or even better, not riding next to the truck, as was previously suggested in the video. The video image does not show a conflict with a bicyclist exiting from the inside lane, though this problem is shown (and bad advice is given) earlier in the video for motorists. Also, if a roundabout is designed for a 20 mph speed, riding through it is not nearly as intimidating as the video would make out — and a bicyclist in the roundabout is not going to cause nearly as much delay, if any, as one in a crosswalk or bikeway outside the roundabout– granted that riding in the roundabout is only for confident bicyclists.

7:54, again: “Never pass or drive adjacent to a truck in a roundabout.” This is exactly what the bicyclist was shown doing.