[BigV]

Originally Posted by glatt

I thought they were the same thing. we have these weird traffic circle intersections here in the city. but they have traffic signals, so they are the worst of both worlds.

The conventional roundabouts (the UAE has never really implemented miniroundabouts) have difficulty in dealing with unbalanced flows, especially during peak hours when the traffic entering on an arm is considerably greater than the traffic leaving by it. In such situations, there is frequently a shortage of gaps in the circulating stream and as such, delays may become excessive.

As in many other parts of the world, roundabouts have been commonly used in central city areas where traditionally they were used to resolve traffic and pedestrian conflicts in the large open squares that existed in the early 50’s and 60’s. The central island frequently covered a large area of the square and was utilized for ornamental flowerbeds or statues whilst traffic circulated around the surrounding carriageway.


Increasing traffic demand, and the pressure to allow pedestrians to cross the carriageway at grade, has resulted in many of these roundabouts being connected to signal control, so that more positive control over traffic movements on an area wide basis may be exercised. At first part-time signals were introduced but the continued growth in demand resulted in most of these becoming full-time signals at all the key locations in the city.

Perhaps?