Category Archives: traffic circles

RRFBs: Time for Co-opetition

The US Federal Highway Administration has withdrawn its interim approval of  Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) because a company which makes them has patented them. This is a serious public-policy error. The RRFB has proved effective at increasing compliance of … Continue reading

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Some Dutch roundabouts

(Edited and updated  March 30, 2024) Dutch roundabouts have received a lot of publicity, notably here: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/tag/roundabout/ Roundabout design in the Netherlands has seen a long process of trial and error. A design used until bicyclists complained strongly enough about … Continue reading

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Change lanes in a roundabout?

Ohio cyclist Patricia Kovacs posted an e-mail asking some questions about roundabouts: Ohio engineers are telling us to use the inner lane for left turns and U turns. Both the FHWA [Federal Highway Administration] and videos available on our local … Continue reading

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How not to restripe

Gordon Renkes has produced a video showing conditions following restriping at Tamarack Circle in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Here’s a Google overhead view of this rather unusual circular street. Click away the caption balloon to get a better view. You may … Continue reading

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Dr. Furth’s and his students’ plan for South Brookline

On March 14, 2011, I attended a meeting in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. At that meeting, Dr. Peter Furth of Northeastern University, and some of his students, gave a presentation on proposals for street reconstruction and bikeways in … Continue reading

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In defense of neighborhood traffic circles

In a post to an e-mail list, I made the statement: On narrow streets in residential areas…small traffic circles at intersections can slow traffic and reduce the temptation to use those streets for through travel… …which elicited the following response from … Continue reading

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Copenhagen in 1937 — what can it tell us?

I thank Ralph Fertig of the Santa Barbara, California Bicycle Coalition for drawing the attention of the bicycling community to the following fascinating travelogue from Copenhagen, shot in Technicolor in 1937. Not all of the film is about bicycling, but … Continue reading

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