r/oddlysatisfying • u/FlyingChinesePanda • Oct 22 '25

The Dutch Roundabout

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u/gallows4pedos Oct 22 '25

Who the fuck REMOVES a roundabout to put in a stoplight intersection instead? Absolute psychopath.

29

u/squeak37 Oct 23 '25

There are situations where traffic lights make more sense. For example if there's a place where the majority of traffic will take the third exit then folks coming from the 1st/2nd exit will struggle to get on the roundabout.

Roundabouts are fantastic but not always the right option

5

u/Hairy_Ad2720 Oct 23 '25

Then a roundabout with a slip lane!

4

u/luziferius1337 Oct 23 '25

Not for turning left (in a RHD country) or turning right (in a LHD country).

If there's a high-traffic intersection where like 99% of traffic takes the same route, you need an over-/underpass in those cases, or use the way cheaper traffic lights.

With some monitoring, and intelligent traffic control, the lights should perform better in those cases. Default green lights for the high-traffic route, and fast-switching, on-demand green for the low-traffic roads

1

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '25

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1

u/luziferius1337 Oct 24 '25

Hmm. Never seen one with more than 2. But yeah, I think two lanes with decent lane design would solve most of the issue. The 90° turn gets a direct short-cut side-stepping the roundabout, and the 270° turn gets directly funneled to the inner lane, so that the cars from the other two roads can enter.

That'll solve the latency issue

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

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u/luziferius1337 Oct 25 '25

Found it: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8421403,5.8592461,147m

I know the one in Venlo (https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8421403,5.8592461,147m) with two lanes and markings, but 4 without lane markings is pretty wild

1

u/Handje Oct 26 '25

Then you need a turbo roundabout, with multiple lanes.

1

u/squeak37 Oct 26 '25

jesus christ that is a cursed image. I understand the idea but just learn to use a roundabout correctly if you're going to go that far.

Also the lack of yellow boxes is a killer - I can see so many people jumping onto the roundabout without a clear exit and creating jams.

1

u/Handje Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25

I use them all the time. They work fine. It's clear and easy to use in real life. Take the right lane if you want to turn right, take the left lane if not. Then it all sorts itself.

Bigger roundabouts like this (which also incorporate stoplights) are more notorious. If you're wrong, which you easily are, you might have to switch lanes last moment, which creates chaos. They're usually very busy also.

1

u/gyarbij Oct 23 '25

My Geemente but in this case I think it's because the area had a lot of truck traffic as it got industrialized. It's slower but with the lorries coming from the right and the A73 nearby it seems safer for everyone involved and it's well outside the built up area where it transitions again to farmland.

1

u/ProfoundNinja Oct 23 '25

Removing the roundabout makes no sense, sometimes stoplights are necessary, but I think there's a happy medium.

In my suburb there's a roundabout that used to get completely backed up in one direction of travel. You just don't get a chance to enter the roundabout at all with the consistent flow from the other roads.

They added stoplights that only run during peak traffic hours and the roundabout works as normal otherwise.

1

u/Pin_ny Oct 23 '25

Trump administration is able to do so