A Roundabout Way to Curb Climate Change
One of the frankly scary aspects of living in Scotland was driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Scots are actually pretty good drivers, but then again, they have to be because the roads are crazy-narrow and pretty rutty and there’s always cars parked on the side of the road. Always. And did I mention they drive on the wrong side?
Well, another large difference is the prominence of roundabouts (aka “traffic circles”). Though they can be fairly intimidating, especially when they’re at really large intersections, overall I really appreciated roundabouts for their efficiency in both time and energy.
Take, for example, the fact that on a normal Sunday morning I could drive the 2 miles to the church without stopping at all, and surely without stopping at any traffic lights. This made the journey go quickly, but also saved gas.
Since we know that by far the biggest gas consumption occurs when getting your car going from a dead stop–exactly what traffic lights are all about enforcing–roundabouts save energy. I had no idea how much, however, until a recent article in Time.
By reading “You Want a Revolution” an article by Tim Padgett in last weeks Time I learned that roundabout cut hydrocarbon emissions at intersections by as much as 42%. The article “By the numbers” teaser also says, “Ten roundabouts in Virginia save 200,000 gallons of gas a year” (by less idling).
And not only are roundabouts an energy saver, they ease traffic delays by as much as 65% and cause fewer and less severe accidents (because cars more more slowly than through traffic lights, and they don’t drive at right angles).
The article suggests we may be seeing more roundabouts in the US in the coming years. It’s around about time, I’d say.
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They’ve started to build a number of roundabouts in Knoxville at notorious accident areas. The transformation is amazing!
Good article. I hadn’t thought about the energy saving business of roundabouts, but you’re absolutely right!
Is it that the Scots drive on the “wrong” side of the road, or is it just the “other” side”? Maybe its the US that drives on the wrong side. In any event, I find it easier to think of right-hand drive as the “other”… it makes it much easier to adjust. It does however always give me pause when entering a roundabout, espeically an empty roundabout… THAT’s when I struggle with th “other”.
Of course, good point and I write in jest. Megan actually thinks it makes more sense to drive on the left side of the road, because we read from left to right. I guess it’d follow, then, to drive on the right side in Israel. And what language is it that’s written vertically? I guess you’d just have to drive in the center, then;)
Bah! You beat me to this! After I read this in Time last week, I thought about blogging it but didn’t have time to scour Time’s website to find it. And now…you got there first.
Hah! Of course, the sad thing is that in a Web 2.0 world we’re both light years behind. I mean, a week online is like a year anywhere else, right?
[...] } With a nod of appreciation to this post A Roundabout Way to Curb Climate Change, the focus of today’s post is modern roundabouts. In comparison to interactions with traffic [...]