Traffic Circle Jam

As Kennewick puts in more and more traffic circles I always wonder how well they will handle traffic. Personally, I think they move traffic much better than regular traffic lights because you do not have to sit and wait for the light to change while there is no traffic coming from the other direction. Sure, some people sit and wait till there is no traffic at all in the circle and some speed through like there was no tomorrow, but overall I think they work.

We are soon to get our first 2-lane circle and it will be interesting to watch people navigate their way around it. The picture shown is a traffic circle in Xiamen, China that has hundreds of cars queued - but I understand it takes about 5 minutes to get negotiate your way through it, but that is much better than waiting 15 minutes waiting for successive red lights.

HatTip: Daily Mail