Roundabout

“ A special problem arises here since traffic will arrive at the terminal junction (usually in the form of a roundabout) without leaving the main carriageway of the motorway. It is therefore imperative that adequate warning should be given so that drivers, though still on the motorway, will reduce speed to the greater extent which is necessary to enable them to negotiate the junction in safety. ”

“ If it stops to avoid obstructing the box when its exit is blocked, thereby releasing the flow of entering vehicles, there is likely to be uncertainty over re-establishing right of way when the exit is clear again. Moreover, a vehicle stopped in an outer lane might obscure vehicles lawfully continuing to circulate on the inner lanes (whose exit might not be blocked) from the view of drivers entering the roundabout. Yellow box markings may however be used where traffic entering the roundabout is controlled by signals at all times. ”

“ The sign at figure 36 should be used wherever it is necessary to indicate the approach to a roundabout and adequate warning is not conveyed by a map type advance direction sign. Since a serious accident record has emphasised the need for ample and emphatic advance warning of roundabouts on high-speed dual carriageway roads we recommend that, where appropriate, the sign should be supplemented by a plate bearing the legend 'Reduce speed now' (figure 36a) and sited as proposed in paragraph 266. ”

“ Roundabout, a large swing with four compartments, each the size, and very much the shape, of the body of a cart, capable of seating six or eight boys and girls, erected in a high frame, and turned round by men at a windlass. Fairs and merry-makings generally abound with these swings. ”

“ The marking (diagram 1003.4) carries no street furniture, and may be overrun by large vehicles if necessary.
8.11 The layout should be designed so that drivers are made aware in good time that they are approaching a roundabout. Mini-roundabouts should be used only when all approaches are subject to a speed limit of 30 mph or less. Their use on roads with a higher speed limit is not recommended as it is seldom possible to achieve adequate deflection and the marking may not be sufficiently conspicuous at higher speeds. ”

“ Further guidance may be found in TD51 / 03 in Volume 6 of the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (see para 1.4) .
8.35 If the left-turners are predominantly light vehicles and there is a high proportion of cyclists or heavy goods vehicles leaving the roundabout, differential speeds in adjacent lanes could cause problems, particularly if there is an uphill gradient. This might be especially hazardous for cyclists. ”

“ CONVENTIONAL ROUNDABOUTS
8.7 These have a one-way circulatory carriageway around a kerbed central island, often with flared approaches to allow multiple vehicle entry (see figure 8-1) . Physical splitter islands are used to guide traffic and ensure adequate deflection.
8.8 The Give Way marking to diagram 1003.1 is used; the 200 mm wide line at sites where the speed limit is 40 mph or less and the 300 mm size where the limit is greater than 40 mph. The marking to diagram 1003.3 should be adopted when the roundabout has a small central island, up to approximately 4 m in diameter. ”

“ The detailed arrangements for marking roundabouts and signal controlled junctions are described in sections 8 and 9 respectively.
4.25 The number of marks recommended in table 4-3 is the minimum on each approach, although this is not always possible on minor roads. The number of marks should be extended wherever justified by road or traffic conditions; the marking can with benefit be extended to start at the location of the accompanying warning sign. Figure 4-5 indicates
a possible combination of signs and markings at a road junction. ”

“ They have no sharp bends, roundabouts, traffic lights or crossroads. Drivers joining or leaving the Motorway always do so from the left. Crossing traffic or right-turning vehicles are carried either above or below. ”

“ A quarter of a mile from the junction of the Shore Lane, on the Lower Road, was a willow-shaded spot, where the brook which irrigated Elnathan Mullet's cranberry swamp ran under a small wooden bridge. It was there that I first heard the horn and, turning, saw the automobile coming from behind me. It was approaching at a speed of, I should say, thirty miles an hour, and I jumped to the rail of the bridge to let it pass. Autos were not as common on the Cape then as they have become since. Now the average pedestrian of common-sense jumps first and looks afterwards. ”

“ Thus I have commonly avoided the Great White Road—the broad, smooth turnpike—rock-bottomed and rolled by a State—without so much as a loitering curve to whet one's curiosity, nor a thank-you-ma'am to laugh over, nor a sinful hill to test your endurance—not so much as a dreamy valley! It pursues its hard, unshaded, practical way directly from some particular place to some other particular place and from time to time a motor-car shoots in at one end of it and out at the other, leaving its dust to settle upon quiet travellers like me. ”

“ The car performed what I judged to be a complete circle, and headed on westward. Before we had time to pass a full block, however, another turn came. This ought to be an alley, I said to myself. From the south entrance of the alley we emerged to perform more gyrations. Up one block, down another, completely circling a third, we worked gradually west and south, finally to straighten out in a direction I graphed as southerly on my envelope. Whatever might lie at the end of the journey, the driver certainly could not expect his fare to know much concerning the destination. ”

“ Although the freight and express traffic of those days lacked the picturesqueness of the passenger coaches, nothing illustrates so conclusively what the great road meant to an awakening West as the long lines of heavy Conestogas and rattling express wagons which raced at "unprecedented" speed across hill and vale. Searight, the local historian of the road, describes these large, broad-wheeled wagons covered with white canvas as
visible all the day long, at every point, making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts.... ”

“ In this country where the road pattern is so complicated, we think it would assist travellers in finding their way between important towns if a system of Primary routes other than motorways was established, the roads in which would be clearly distinguished by having directional signs of a particular colour. Moreover, we foresee that this distinction might eventually enable a code of improved driver conduct, aimed at improving traffic flow and safety, to be applied generally to these Primary routes. ”

“ The runabout would angle from one side of the road to the other, in apparent defiance of the way the steering wheel was held, and sometimes it would go its eccentric course slowly and sometimes with a rush—so far as those in the other car could see—without any change in the speed gear. ”

“ However drivers shall overtake on the side appropriate to the direction of traffic if the driver to be overtaken has signalled his intention to turn to the side of the carriageway opposite to that appropriate to the direction of traffic and has moved his vehicle or animals over towards that side in order to turn to that side for the purpose of taking another road, to enter a property bordering on the road, or to stop on that side. ”

“ Perhaps the best general guide is to give the leader the office when his head is abreast of the centre of the road to be turned down. More than this it is useless to say, as everything depends on the width of the road and the angle of the turn. It is, however, always a safe thing to take as much room as possible, and it is therefore a good plan before arriving at the corner to pass off to the opposite side of the road, provided the traffic will allow this to be done. ”

“ The road is of splendid quality, running through the sad, sage-coloured marshes to where a railway bridge on the line from Sittingbourne to Queenborough and Sheerness—a railway bridge and a road bridge combined—now spans the ancient King’s Ferry, across the quarter-of-a-mile channel of the Swale. The toll is cheap—a penny for self and cycle inclusive. ”

“ Added space for turning maneuvers.—All rural sections of the system shall be so designed, at the approach to entrances and exits on the interregional highway, as to provide space outside the through-traffic lanes of the interregional highway for emerging vehicles to decelerate and entering vehicles to accelerate, and, in general, to maneuver as required so that they may safely emerge from or merge with the through traffic stream. The added space may take the form of a taper, a pavement gradually increasing in width, or a taper combined with a lane of full added width. ”

“ We found the roads in most places worthy of the name “highways”; but on the steepest grades, where the outside of the road shelves off into space, with a drop of hundreds of feet, there are no walls or fences, not even railings, to prevent accidents. In the main, the roads are sufficiently wide to allow two cars to pass; in some places, however, the smaller car must back down to a siding to allow the Government cars, which have the right of way on the inside of the road, to pass. ”

“ Those who have traveled for long distances on American roads can have no conception whatever of the delights of motor traveling on the British highways. I think there are more bad roads in the average county, taking the States throughout, than there are in all of the United Kingdom, and the number of defective bridges in any county outside of the immediate precincts of a few cities, would undoubtedly be many times greater than in the whole of Great Britain. I am speaking, of course, of the more traveled highways and country byways. ”

“ Elevation of the interregional highway shall be employed as a means of avoiding frequent grade intersection with other streets and highways mainly under conditions which make it difficult or excessively expensive to obtain sufficient right-of-way for adequate depression of the highway. Elevation of the highway, when employed, generally shall be accomplished by means of a structure of adequate and pleasing design. ”

“ Where the level of any turnpike or public road has to be altered in making any railway, the gradient of any altered road need not be better than the mean inclination of the existing road within a distance of 250 yards of the point of crossing the railway; but where the existing roads have easy gradients, then the gradients of the altered roads, whether carried over, or under, or on the level with the railway, must not be steeper than 1 in 30 for a turnpike road, 1 in 20 for a public carriage road, 1 in 16 for a private or occupation road. ”

“ We have spoken of the width of old-time bridle-paths; with the advent of the heavy freighter these wide routes were doubled and trebled in width. And, so long as the roadbeds remained in a "state of nature," the heavier the wagon traffic, the wider the roads became. We have described certain great tracks, like that of Braddock's Road, which can be followed today even in the open by the lasting marks those plunging freighters made in the soft ground. ”

“ Those who think that sweepin’ a crossing is idle work, make a great mistake. In wet weather, the traffic that makes it gets sloppy as soon as it’s cleaned. Cabs, and ’busses, and carriages continually going over the crossing must scatter the mud on it, and you must look precious sharp to keep it clean; but when I once get in the road, I never jump out of it. I keeps my eye both ways, and if I gets in too close quarters, I slips round the wheels. I’ve had them almost touch me.
“No, sir, I never got knocked down. ”

“ The highways of the present day, radiating from London and the other large centres of industry, and extending their arms to every corner of the land, are wellnigh perfect in their kind, and present a picture of careful and efficient maintenance. Whether we look, for example, at the great north road leading from London, the Carlisle to Glasgow road, or the Highland road passing through Dunkeld, we find the roads have certain features in common: a broad hard roadway for vehicles ”

“ Every carriage-road ought to be wide enough at nearly all points to allow two vehicles to pass each other in safety. Whether it should be wider than that depends upon its location and its importance as a public thoroughfare. Any unnecessary width should be avoided, except on pleasure and showy boulevards, because thereby land is wasted, and labor and cost in construction and repair are increased. All important highways should be wide enough to admit of footpaths five or six feet wide on each side, and of a macadamized or travelled way commensurate to the public traffic thereon. ”

“ That part of the roadway directly next to the curb has a smooth surface, and there is also a smooth surface about a foot wide for the outer wheel of heavy wagons—this only on London Bridge and in a few other very busy thoroughfares. It is a capital plan, and gives satisfaction to all concerned.
ADVICE FROM CHARLES DICKENS.
But in such a vast city, with such enormous traffic, nothing can prevent great loss of life and accidents innumerable from crossing the streets. ”