BMW Drivers **NOT SAFE FOR BMW DRIVERS! :)**

[Dwayne Hicks]

Hi there,

Nearly had an accident this morning. Not sure how roundabouts (traffic circles) work in the rest of the world - in the UK and South Africa, you give way to traffic coming from the right. I reached a roundabout this morning, was there first, and entered the junction. There was a woman in a Beemer who had not even reached the line yet who decided to start accelerating and tried to get through the junction before me. She nearly hit me, would have if I hadn't stopped in time. She then looked at me and wagged her finger back and forth at me with a "You bad person" expression on her face. That really got me! She then screamed off down the road leaving me behind. BMW drivers in this country seem to think they own the roads. No use of indicators, cut people off and don't give a hoot about motorcyclists.

This is one of the reasons I want to buy an M1 Abrams tank. Not even a Beemer can outrun an armour piercing shell.

[Scourge]

Same thing happened last night. Leaving an area where folks sit and watch fireworks and the traffic was mighty heavy. Folks trying to get on the main road and others letting some in. I had let about 5 cars out of a parking lot and decided I'd been good Samaritan enough and was ready to move along myself. One young lady however thought that 5 cars was too few and zoomed out in front of me, causing me to have to slide into the turn lane or take out here little Cavalier w/ my Expedition. She flips me the peace sign, litterally, and begins to ease along at a stately 5mph. Thanks to my newfound love of all mankind I refrained from jumping out of my car putting my fist through her window. Ohhhhh, if it weren't for dark imaginings I don't think we would have an outlet some of the rage that others cause.

[themeatmanlandry]

There's BIG talk about ropundabouts in this country (for some reason). The "powers that be" think they are safer than intersections.

We'd probably be safer if they outlawed BMWs, but . . . whatever.

[md2lgyk]

The "powers that be" think they are safer than intersections.

Not everywhere. The first time I ever saw a roundabout (called a rotary here) was when I moved to Massachussetts back in the '70s. I thought then they were an incredibly stupid idea. Years later I read that Mass. was spending millions to get rid of all of them.

[themeatmanlandry]

The southeast is looking into spending millions to install them. Hmmm . . . I wonder if you could just pry them up and ship them down here?

[inspiron]

The "benefit" of a roundabout over a traditional intersection is that the roundabout is lower in cost to maintain. They don't need an expensive signal (and all of the associated hardware required to run it), they just need the roundabout and some basic street lighting.

However, they need to be careful when building them in warmer regions where there is heavy traffic - we've had problems here that the pavement starts to move around when it's hot and you've got 28-ton trucks going around - the sideways forces on the hot pavement cause it to "warp".

[ChicsterMG]

Originally Posted by Dwayne Hicks

This is one of the reasons I want to buy an M1 Abrams tank. Not even a Beemer can outrun an armour piercing shell.

You can borrow one of mine.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by ChicsterMG

You can borrow one of mine.

I'm next.

[jaydog19833]

If people properly knew how to use rotaries then they would be MUCH more efficient. I know an intersection which was always piled up with cars now rarely has a wait because they put in a rotary.

On the other hand another rotary I know of people ALWAYS blast in from sideroads thinking they have the right of way. The person in the rotary HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY. If everyone understood this we would never need a traffic light (like those horrible signature intersections that are ALWAYS jammed with traffic just because you have to wait for a green light or arrow for every goddamn direction).

[themeatmanlandry]

Car and Driver has a nice editorial on how roundabouts are just another way of pushing the "S-word" (slow) on the driving public. Traffic lights have definite benefits in that they can be timed for smoother traffic flow. Such as:

-During rush hour times, the busy street can be set to have a longer green light so that the heavier flow direction can proceed while a few cars wait at the side streets.

-During non-rush hours, the busy street can have dominance over the light (also possible in rush hour), where a sidestreet would only triger when a car approached.

With a roundabout, everybody slows down.

[inspiron]

Yes, everybody slows down (which isn't bad), but overall the flow of traffic is smoother. You don't burn gas sitting for several minutes at a red light - in most cases, you will be past the "intersection" sooner with a roundabout.

And don't fool yourself ... just because signals *can* be programmed, it doesn't mean that they are properly configured. Again, this is expensive to maintain (a good traffic engineer isn't cheap!)

[jaydog19833]

Ahem.....almost every large intersection the damn red light never picks up my bike. I run red lights too often after a couple rotations and no green for me.

[tlwisner]

Originally Posted by themeatmanlandry

We'd probably be safer if they outlawed BMWs, but . . . whatever.

The difference between a porcupine and a BMW? The porcupine has pr!cks on the outside....

[tlwisner]

Originally Posted by inspiron

(a good traffic engineer isn't cheap!)

In Lexington, Ky, a bad traffic engineer is expensive too.

[finchy's princess]

Roundabouts would be nice, but I bet there would be a lot of accidents at first because there are a lot of dumb drivers that would not know what to do. I personally have never driven in one so I would probably get confused.

[themeatmanlandry]

Cars already in the roundabout have the right of way. Traffic moves in oine direction. You get in . . . get out.

[finchy's princess]

Originally Posted by themeatmanlandry

Cars already in the roundabout have the right of way. Traffic moves in oine direction. You get in . . . get out.

But you know that people would never figure that out

[themeatmanlandry]

Yeah, I know.

[SuzukiGirl1]

I'm assuming that all this BMW driver bashing excludes certain moderatrix's??

[wayout1]

Wow and I thought the engineers out here in Phoenix had just been in the sun too long. We not only have the heat warp issues with the sun (there are grooves that makes my WRX start thinking "rally time") but they seem to think that drivers that cant go in a straight line will be able to figure out which way is right. Meanwhile someone in an H2 is going to figure out that its easier to finally take that thing over the curb - you know how drunk celebreties can get.