@@redacted6650 no, i checked in my head before i made the comment i’m pretty damn sure they turn right in my country, so they gotta turn left over there 😅
@@redacted6650 Are you from UK/AU/NZ? Because roundabouts turn right only when you drive on the left side of the road, which isn't the case in Indiana
He likes to spend the tax money and use the city's credit. Carmel has a lot of debt now. Only a city of wealthy people can afford a mayor like him. Having said that, the roundabouts are nice, and some of the other things the mayor has pushed on the city are good, but there is a downside to it all. I liked the city the way it was before the mayor came here and all the growth. However, I like the city now with the roundabouts. Unfortunately, though, you need a good income to live in Carmel now.
@@Irishfan lol isn't spending tax money like the job of a mayor? It's perfectly okey to take on debt to build and improve infrastructure, because it will generate long-term benefits and positive externalities even after the mayor retires. Roads arent cheap, you know.
Carmel is the bougie area that has the money to act as a gated community. This is an interview with a mayor that has the money to fix a problem. This works anywhere, with any mayor, when they are known for wealth and attempts at segregation.
@@SAHD_Guy I think it's still important to highlight this kind of thing. Yes a lot of municipalities can't afford fixes like those in Carmel, but that's not the only reason city planning sucks. There are plenty of bougie areas throughout the US that won't adopt these types of solutions even though they have the budget for it. Why? Because they won't think outside the box and try different traffic management strategies.
Although they may look a bit intimidating, roundabouts are quite an ingenious invention. And Carmel's mayor sounds like he's just woken up. What a deep voice.
@@RoadGuyRob you should try clapping at the start of the recording, I believe it's basically what Hollywood does with their slates for sound balancing.
As a spaniard used to elevated roundabouts, I can confirm USA "but 1 bridge is cheaper than 2" approach of squishing the circle is just genious, never thought of it and I use one everyday
It seems like the peanut shape is a compromise to work around existing roads being too awkward for a circle/cost/land savings . Can't speak for Spain but the British roundabouts work fine... Until you come across one with traffic lights......
@@bergonius Two full roundabouts connected together (or one big one obviously), for better traffic flow and separation, this is done in other parts of Carmel and is the normal way to do it. maps.app.goo.gl/kEooXSermG8RPUiV6 maps.app.goo.gl/FHjE8oo3xBWEp7R29
Actually, I didn't have a big problem with driving through Carmel and on or across Keystone Ave before the rebuild and conversion to roundabouts. I may be more patient than most people. However, I am glad it was done. All the roundabouts in Carmel have made traveling to anywhere I go quicker, cutting my time in half on my longest routes.
You know, that just sounds like the strange concept some countries in the world have. It's called "driving school". It's a place where you learn how to drive a car, know street signs and navigate the streets. ;)
They become fun even, after enough time you realize roundabouts require communication and constant awareness of your surroundings. Full engagement with fellow drivers. Driving as it should be
Traditionally, a highway isn't even a particular road... It is a route often including multiple different roads. The US has limited.access freeways, of course. But we do a pretty poor job at that thing between a street with direct access to places and freeways.
@@flinx There may be a difference in how we call our roads and I just felt the need to point it out since it sounded so weird to me. In Poland highways and expressways are basically the same thing, the former having a speed limit of 140 kph and the latter of 120 kph. Both usually lead around and not through cities. They always have hard shoulders (except for the older parts of the motorways) and never have any at-grade intersections,. There are only interchanges that can only be stituated a few kilometers apart (further apart in the coutryside and closer together near cities, additionally the expressways have shorter required spacings than motorways have). Their begining and end is always marked by a special sign, as in all of Europe. The expressways also differ very slightly in the width of lanes and hard shoulders, which are narrower, they can also have one lane in each direction in some cases (it's rather rare and the speed limit is changed to 100 kph then, as there isn't usually a median in that case). Other than those we have national roads, which are state-maintained, but are almost always single-lane with no median, although there are exceptions and the speed limit is then raised to 100 kph, as opposed to the usual 90 kph. They often lead through the centers of towns and villages or even cities, where the speed limit is 50 kph, as they are usually built-up areas, that is however often not obeyed by the drivers in smaller towns without speed cameras. Voivodeship roads function similarly to national roads, although they are maintained by the voivodeships. Medians and higher amounts of lanes are even rarer on them (with some notable exceptions, like the DTŚ in Upper Silesia).
The roundabout phobia is a real problem that we need to cure. I love driving in Carmel and would like to see roundabouts in more cities I drive in. Just one hundred and forty miles to the north of Carmel in my hometown where I grew up the state wanted to remove an interchange at the junction of two state highways and replace it with a roundabout. The public opinion was totally against the roundabout, so the state is building a grade intersection with Michigan left turns. I see that as a nightmare. The state gets rid of the cost of the bridges, and the automobile insurance companies get the cost of accidents in the unsafe Michigan Left Turn intersection.
It is, the cure to this is to start small. Find a 4-way stop and replace it with a roundabout. Also, your hometown is going to hate the Michigan Left Turn even more. The one at 96th and Allisonville rd is hated by everyone. I think it may have been a failed experiment as they've been doing construction on it already despite the pavement being in good shape.
Roundabout addiction is a real problem. We have too many roundabouts being put in without proper design with regards to things like visibility and heavy truck traffic. All for a realistically marginal increase in traffic flow and increase in accidents.
Here in Phoenix, people have no idea how to use them. Folks will just stop in the middle of the roundabout to try to let someone in not realizing that the traffic that's in the traffic circle has the right of way.
Indianapolis has warmed up to modern roundabouts and have been replacing stops with roundabouts. I live near on on the far west side. Also, the other Indy suburbs have been adding massive amounts of roundabouts. Also, the state of Indiana has been building them on some state highways.
That's because people there are uncivilised. Come on a trip to Europe and rent a car anywhere and you'll see how much better not having stopsigns is. I come across 4 or 5 in my 30 min commute and it's already almost too annoying.
I used to not be a fan of roundabouts, but I now am. People still drive through them too fast, and some are a bit tight for my semi truck. Crossing as a pedestrian or cyclist can be sketchy at a time's. Even with the flashing pedestrian lights, drivers don't always stop.
The real solution would be a single commuter lane walled off from the rest of the road that never stops, but local businesses despise them for bypassing their stores and they can be expensive to build (due to the necessary overpasses/underpasses to be built for cross traffic to pass over.
Thanks Rob for doing a video series in my area. The roundabouts and construction in the Fishers, Noblesville, Carmel area for the past decades are paying off. Thanks again Rob!
I couldn't afford to stay in Carmel. My cheaper hotel was up toward Westfield/Fishers/Noblesville. If I ever moved there, I likewise couldn't afford Carmel, but would look at that area (not planning to move there, but if I did...)
In the Netherlands there are a lot of intersections with a lot of lanes that only exist around the intersection. The biggest example I know are three light-controlled roundabouts on N220, N223 and N213 which are all less than a mile apart from each other. In one case there's just one lane that turns into five lanes before the intersection (1 left, 3 straight on, 1 right). Then between two intersections (about 2,000ft apart) the three lanes continue and turn into seven lanes (2 right, 2 straight on, 3 right). And if you continue to go straight on, the two lanes just turn into a single one again. All that capacity is necessary, because most of this area is covered by greenhouses, which are very important for the Dutch economy, so there's a lot of freight traffic in this area
I truly believe you have the best channel on all of UA-cam. The quality, the concepts, and your personality all make this such an amazing watch each and every time. Great work!
Driving up Keystone/37 in Carmel is awesome for everyone. My Doctor is one intersection north of where the roundabouts and 37 going under ends. Traffic is slower there and no sidewalks. It is jarring. Taking a strode under the cross streets seems simple, but is genius. The Carmel/Fishers area is booming because of this and other things. I would surmise that the GDP increase more than covers the costs for an infrastructure project like this.
Here before someone comments "90% of all planners quit one lane before fixing traffic forever". But yeah it is a good thing that we recognize that road widening doesn't actually fix traffic, it just accommodates more cars. The way to fix traffic is to find ways to make best use of the road space that is available, instead of just widening.
Yes, but also making it easier for people NOT to drive is an important part of what Carmel did - allowing for more biking and walking. For bigger cities, investing in public transportation would be necessary. Most trips in the US are short and don't require cars, even in the suburbs. If we designed cities for people, not cars, we'd get a lot less traffic.
@@louiszhang3050 Yeah and cars use a huge ton of space. There is a reason in the olden days not everyone in the city owned a horse. Not that we don't want cars at all, we just want fewer of them, and we want there to be options for those in the city. People in the countryside may always have to drive, and that's fine, but for people in a city a car is a hassle. People may commute to work by car still, but for shorter trips, if those options are available, they will probably walk, cycle, or take public transit, and the few times they will need a car, they will face decreased traffic congestion and less aggressive drivers.
And alternatives to driving so not everyone needs a massive rolling living room to do anything. The people who just wanna go to the store close by can just take a bicycle and get some exercise in while they're at it.
Awesome video as always Rob! When that lady asked if you were with the news, you should have answered "much more useful, educational videos on UA-cam". We appreciate you man.
@@RoadGuyRobI dunno if it's intentional or not, but you nail the reporter "accent", if that makes sense. It's actually a huge reason that I love your videos though I have no idea why.
I’ve learned way more about how Roundabouts are better than red lights in these two videos alone than I ever did. Normally the red light intersections i’ve been in are not in congested areas so I’ve not had to think about the logistics too much.
I recognized this Rob. They did the same thing on Hwy 41 and 141 (Underpass triple roundabout) and Hwy 41 and 32 (triple roundabout overpass) in Green Bay, WI.
Could you explain more on why some traffic lights are on driveways? How do they get setup? Do they need the owner’s consent and need to remake their driveway? What if it has to be there and the owner doesn’t allow it? This may be a stupid question. But it’d be cool if I got an answer
As a resident of Indy, the Indy gov needs to get over themselves and build more roundabouts. I would love to have them. I think the north side anyway would appreciate them. The only people who don’t like them are ones who encounter them infrequently.
Awesome to see a mayor willing to go through a jurisdictional transfer. Its' really frustrating that the city where I work we have great ideas for state routes, but no one seems to want to pull the trigger and have that discussion. So we keep pointing the finger at who's to blame when it comes to fatal crashes and design. Well done Carmel!
I am always trying to educate people in my community how we can avoid building wide roads if we use roundabouts instead of traffic lights. Thank you so much for making this excellent video that explains why!
As an Aussie who grew up just across the tracks from Canberra/ACT - roundabouts made walking my 60kph/37mph residential home streets to/from school (that often had busses going up/down them) safe and comfortable, whilst also allowing the traffic on the main road through town flow smoothly to peal-and-pack at like 80kph/50mph once outside the residential and semi-residential areas. What Memorial Circle was was a (Controlled) Traffic Circle and not a proper Roundabout due to the stop-start nature of the signaled segments it was built with, whilst proper Roundabouts are at-worst a Give Way intersection (though it seems Americans don't know how to use those from what I've seen and read) in terms of traffic control.
We Australians call Give Way the Americans call Yield. Roundabouts work better in Australia because of our "give way to the right" rule which maps into roundabouts. Americans also have "give way to the right" at intersections but roundabouts would need "give way to the left" for the same effect.
Oh and I used to live near the worst intersection in Queensland (corner of Albert St and Station Rd, Bethania) according to RACQ. There was a mix of Give Way and Stop signs and no one could read it. I wish they replaced it with a large roundabout but instead they installed a stupid set of traffic lights. It's ridiculous for a relatively quiet intersection to have to wait 5 minutes at an empty red light!
@@lztx Americans have a "first come, first served" rule. "Priority to the right" is a thing only in some states, and it generally only applies when multiple vehicles arrive at the same time.
I work in civil engineering for electricity distribution, but I love discussing roadway engineering. Unfortunately my role doesn't translate well, although the concepts of power distribution and transmission can be compared to local streets and interstates.
Grade separation is so incredibly powerful its why we still have minimum spec 2 lane freeways in some very busy cities. yeah they back up, but once the bottleneck is cleared the rest of the freeway clears fast. Unfortunately grade separation is deeply unpopular in urbanist circles, most are just hoping that the efficiency of transit and bikes can make up for the inefficiency of traffic lights.
Hey Rob! Thanks for everything you do! I appreciate you for making these videos and travelling to locations to show us what roads are doing! Once again, thank you!
For an upcoming project one of my city engineers touted the benefits to local traffic, citing platoons. They will have more opportunities to turn out of their neighborhood since the cross traffic will be "better distributed into platoons" and I knew what he meant thanks to this UA-cam channel. Good work, Rob!
Great video, you touched on a lot of different topics in the engineering world that I had not heard of before. Platoons? Such a cute name for something so inefficient!
Rob, this has been a great series so far, I absolutely love this stuff! Next time I'm passing through Indiana I'm going to make my way to Carmel just to see all this great stuff in action.
I am getting so sick and tired of traffic lights in my city. None of them are synced, half of them shouldn't even be there, they're green for too long for directions with no cars, and the list goes on. More roundabouts!!!
Your videos are worth the wait!! Do I wish you posted every few days and had this same quality and time on each? YUP! But that would take a big team and you doing nothing but reading scripts while your team does editing, camera, and scripts. lol... Your research for every video is awesome and the way you explain everything is great. I've always been facinated with roads and roadway engineering since I was a kid. I just had no idea how to get into that industry.
Rob, I have been watching your content for a couple months, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot! I was blown away when I realized you don't have a million subscribers. I just watched your video from three years ago about highway on ramp traffic lights in California, and it has all the same style, content, and humor that your new stuff does. I think youre going to just explode one of these days. I wish you all the best, and will be sharing your stuff with friends. Keep it up!
Such good production quality Rob. You occupy a niche on UA-cam that seems to be growing. Good luck!! I was surprised to see only 75k views on this one .
So the mayor saw this elevated roundabout in Spain - remembered it - and then worked with an engineer to improve the concept, make it cheaper, and solve their traffic problems? This guy is amazing. (By the way - thanks for the closed captions!)
This was a really great video dude! Follow a lot of urbanist youtubers and roundabouts aren't a huge topic so these videos have been really great to watch. I would have loved to see more of the simulation and also would have liked to know what happened to all of the $100 million, if the roundabout bridge was only a fraction of that. Imagine being a mayor that said, "Oh hey btw I just made our city $80+ million."
If you think about it, a traffic light basicly cuts the time at which traffic can pass down to a bit below 50% (if traffic in both directions is similar). So to keep the same amount of traffic passing the lights as the road can handle, you'ld need more than double the lanes at the intersection. So a two lane road, would need 5 lanes at the traffic light. After the light it can go back to two lanes.
Been traveling that section of Keystone for almost 30yrs now. These roundabouts were a huge God send. Complete night and day difference. Every where I have been throughout Indianapolis (Marion County) that has put in roundabouts, the traffic moves much more consistent and fluidly... .. minus the handful of people that just can't wrap their heads around them and use them like stops.
10:30 this bit of psychology is pretty interesting because the same thing tricks people into thinking that bike and bus lanes are useless they dont see anyone queued up in them(because theyre free flowing) so it looks like there isnt anyone using it
Yeah. Around here, all of the permanent span wire signals are old, and they don’t do much with long-term temporary signals (they even have a portable signal at an intersection in place of the mast arm that got knocked out by a truck, and have no plans of fixing it). I honestly wish they still installed them. with the kind of wind we get here (can get pretty strong, but not hurricane level), they can actually be better if done right. The lower anchor wire is definitely essential (otherwise, the electrical wires will get bent around and break).
I have never been to Indianapolis or even anywhere in Indiana as a commercial flight stop, but good Lord with the roundabouts. Tried looking to see if you already did a video on one of the worst highways in the northeastern United States and no luck. I have been a subscriber to your channel and it is very informative! If you come here to Philadelphia, you should do a video on just how insane this highway nicknamed the "Surekill" really is!
You could tell me the solution was a roundabout in the beginning of the video and I would still be surprised by the final implementation, it just looks so good and its makes so much sense
10:19 this is so true. This entire video gives so much great insight and I feel like everyone in civil engineering should watch these (and the politicians that control the decisions made by the DOT). We could make our roads so much more safe, efficient, and pleasant for ALL users, not just cars, if we started doing things like this. And the new highway in Carmel looks so much more aesthetically pleasing.
I know it’s expensive for them to do these roundabouts, but it’s like the interstates, it’s expensive to do it the first time but then it’s just maintenance from then on.
Indianapolis hating traffic circles seems ironic given ‘cars driving round a left turning oval’ is their whole thing.
Biggest export is irony
Underrated comment
@@redacted6650 no, i checked in my head before i made the comment i’m pretty damn sure they turn right in my country, so they gotta turn left over there 😅
@@redacted6650 Are you from UK/AU/NZ? Because roundabouts turn right only when you drive on the left side of the road, which isn't the case in Indiana
they got an infield course 😆
This mayor is precious. If only every city had someone like him in charge
He likes to spend the tax money and use the city's credit. Carmel has a lot of debt now. Only a city of wealthy people can afford a mayor like him. Having said that, the roundabouts are nice, and some of the other things the mayor has pushed on the city are good, but there is a downside to it all. I liked the city the way it was before the mayor came here and all the growth. However, I like the city now with the roundabouts. Unfortunately, though, you need a good income to live in Carmel now.
@@Irishfan lol isn't spending tax money like the job of a mayor? It's perfectly okey to take on debt to build and improve infrastructure, because it will generate long-term benefits and positive externalities even after the mayor retires. Roads arent cheap, you know.
I like, how he really understands "more roads mean more cars".
@@bergonius"No spend! Only tax cuts!"
It costs more because it's more desirable
The mayor is a genuine legend. The way he talked and smiled about no one dying there seemed rather honest. Dude actually cares.
He was elected 7 consecutive times and held the office for 28 years before choosing to retire.
@@ModestMuse3 wow
Fantastic guy 👍
Smart engineering 😁
Carmel is the bougie area that has the money to act as a gated community. This is an interview with a mayor that has the money to fix a problem. This works anywhere, with any mayor, when they are known for wealth and attempts at segregation.
@@SAHD_Guy I think it's still important to highlight this kind of thing. Yes a lot of municipalities can't afford fixes like those in Carmel, but that's not the only reason city planning sucks. There are plenty of bougie areas throughout the US that won't adopt these types of solutions even though they have the budget for it. Why? Because they won't think outside the box and try different traffic management strategies.
Although they may look a bit intimidating, roundabouts are quite an ingenious invention. And Carmel's mayor sounds like he's just woken up. What a deep voice.
A few times I had to adjust the equalization in the video editing software. Guy could've been a radio DJ instead of a mayor.
@@RoadGuyRob you should try clapping at the start of the recording, I believe it's basically what Hollywood does with their slates for sound balancing.
@@RoadGuyRob but then we wouldn't have someone making such a big impact here in the Midwest thanks to common sense.
They come with the genius concept of yield, which one isn't required to completely stop.
@@PrograError clapping is for synchronizing the audio and video together, not balancing or equalization.
As a spaniard used to elevated roundabouts, I can confirm USA "but 1 bridge is cheaper than 2" approach of squishing the circle is just genious, never thought of it and I use one everyday
Plus the great thing about that is that it allows you to retrofit an interchange that used to be a diamond.
It's like a Michigan Left but on an overpass with no stoplights!
It seems like the peanut shape is a compromise to work around existing roads being too awkward for a circle/cost/land savings .
Can't speak for Spain but the British roundabouts work fine... Until you come across one with traffic lights......
@@Emotional_Support_Twink I fail to see what they are giving up for it to be a compromise
@@bergonius Two full roundabouts connected together (or one big one obviously), for better traffic flow and separation, this is done in other parts of Carmel and is the normal way to do it.
maps.app.goo.gl/kEooXSermG8RPUiV6
maps.app.goo.gl/FHjE8oo3xBWEp7R29
That must have been sweet relief for the locals. Some civil engineering with my morning coffee. Thanks team road guy!
Indeed it was. We love our roundabouts.
Actually, I didn't have a big problem with driving through Carmel and on or across Keystone Ave before the rebuild and conversion to roundabouts. I may be more patient than most people. However, I am glad it was done. All the roundabouts in Carmel have made traveling to anywhere I go quicker, cutting my time in half on my longest routes.
Roundabouts aren’t really difficult to navigate once you’ve been through a few.
You know, that just sounds like the strange concept some countries in the world have. It's called "driving school". It's a place where you learn how to drive a car, know street signs and navigate the streets. ;)
They become fun even, after enough time you realize roundabouts require communication and constant awareness of your surroundings. Full engagement with fellow drivers. Driving as it should be
@@steemlenn8797 the US has driving schools too, except it's not obligatory before getting the licence
Their even easier for fully autonomous vehicles. Which is where technology is going.
@@erkinalp And state funding for drivers education has fallen off a cliff compared to decades past
As a Pole it blows my mind that a road with traffic lights and at-grade intersections can be called a highway or an expressway.
Well if those traffic lights weren't there you'd be out of a job!
Does Poland have freeways as a separate category from highways? Or are Polish highways what Americans call freeways?
Interstates must be grade separated, but US/State/County Routes (also sometimes called Highways) can be at-grade.
Traditionally, a highway isn't even a particular road... It is a route often including multiple different roads.
The US has limited.access freeways, of course. But we do a pretty poor job at that thing between a street with direct access to places and freeways.
@@flinx
There may be a difference in how we call our roads and I just felt the need to point it out since it sounded so weird to me.
In Poland highways and expressways are basically the same thing, the former having a speed limit of 140 kph and the latter of 120 kph. Both usually lead around and not through cities. They always have hard shoulders (except for the older parts of the motorways) and never have any at-grade intersections,. There are only interchanges that can only be stituated a few kilometers apart (further apart in the coutryside and closer together near cities, additionally the expressways have shorter required spacings than motorways have). Their begining and end is always marked by a special sign, as in all of Europe. The expressways also differ very slightly in the width of lanes and hard shoulders, which are narrower, they can also have one lane in each direction in some cases (it's rather rare and the speed limit is changed to 100 kph then, as there isn't usually a median in that case).
Other than those we have national roads, which are state-maintained, but are almost always single-lane with no median, although there are exceptions and the speed limit is then raised to 100 kph, as opposed to the usual 90 kph. They often lead through the centers of towns and villages or even cities, where the speed limit is 50 kph, as they are usually built-up areas, that is however often not obeyed by the drivers in smaller towns without speed cameras.
Voivodeship roads function similarly to national roads, although they are maintained by the voivodeships. Medians and higher amounts of lanes are even rarer on them (with some notable exceptions, like the DTŚ in Upper Silesia).
Thanks for keeping the public informed on infrastructure!
Happy to! And thanks for your support, @XxXenosxX! (Hope I types that right! A lot of Xs!)
The roundabout phobia is a real problem that we need to cure. I love driving in Carmel and would like to see roundabouts in more cities I drive in. Just one hundred and forty miles to the north of Carmel in my hometown where I grew up the state wanted to remove an interchange at the junction of two state highways and replace it with a roundabout. The public opinion was totally against the roundabout, so the state is building a grade intersection with Michigan left turns. I see that as a nightmare. The state gets rid of the cost of the bridges, and the automobile insurance companies get the cost of accidents in the unsafe Michigan Left Turn intersection.
I know what you’re talking about! The U.S. 12/M-51 intersection in Niles…
It is, the cure to this is to start small. Find a 4-way stop and replace it with a roundabout.
Also, your hometown is going to hate the Michigan Left Turn even more. The one at 96th and Allisonville rd is hated by everyone. I think it may have been a failed experiment as they've been doing construction on it already despite the pavement being in good shape.
Roundabout addiction is a real problem. We have too many roundabouts being put in without proper design with regards to things like visibility and heavy truck traffic. All for a realistically marginal increase in traffic flow and increase in accidents.
Here in Phoenix, people have no idea how to use them. Folks will just stop in the middle of the roundabout to try to let someone in not realizing that the traffic that's in the traffic circle has the right of way.
@@photoniccannon2117That means they're treating it like a rotary then.
Your channel is top notch. Thank you for not incorporating ads into your videos! Excellent work.
Yeah i really love how he only incorporates 2 ads max in his videos
It's a privilege made possible by the 600 contributors on Patreon and viewers like you. Thank you, @thatjpwing!
Yes, UA-cam ads still run (they need to be paid for the video hosting they provide). But I try to limit them as much as I can.
Indianapolis has warmed up to modern roundabouts and have been replacing stops with roundabouts. I live near on on the far west side. Also, the other Indy suburbs have been adding massive amounts of roundabouts. Also, the state of Indiana has been building them on some state highways.
Crazy what one mayor can do, he started a chain of events of roundabouts
roundabouts are basically the simplest intersection type ever, i really dont get why people hate them so much
If poorly designed, they don't work well. A previous video described some important design aspects to make them work well.
for the same reason zipper mergers work best but people hate them; humans don't play by the rules
That's because people there are uncivilised. Come on a trip to Europe and rent a car anywhere and you'll see how much better not having stopsigns is. I come across 4 or 5 in my 30 min commute and it's already almost too annoying.
I used to not be a fan of roundabouts, but I now am.
People still drive through them too fast, and some are a bit tight for my semi truck. Crossing as a pedestrian or cyclist can be sketchy at a time's. Even with the flashing pedestrian lights, drivers don't always stop.
Bad design is usually the culprit, especially if it's in a place that hasn't built many (or any) roundabouts
Wonderfully presented, thank you Rob!
You're welcome. Glad you liked it.
That's one great mayor!
Finally part two is here🥳🎉
Up next: PART THREE. (It's accidentally turning into the "summer of roundabouts," but I've got so much material to still share!)
@@RoadGuyRobWhatever it takes to give the subject well “rounded” coverage.
“Just one more lane bro”
"Induced Demand" aka economic growth 😅
"it'll work this time. trust me, bro."
@@McfunfaceNo.
@@mcrichards694 Great refutation. Really persuasive.
@@Mcfunface Thx I agree.
That was a very clever fix. Carmel, IN is doing stuff right. They've got some great engineers and urban planners.
The real solution would be a single commuter lane walled off from the rest of the road that never stops, but local businesses despise them for bypassing their stores and they can be expensive to build (due to the necessary overpasses/underpasses to be built for cross traffic to pass over.
Thanks Rob for doing a video series in my area. The roundabouts and construction in the Fishers, Noblesville, Carmel area for the past decades are paying off. Thanks again Rob!
I couldn't afford to stay in Carmel. My cheaper hotel was up toward Westfield/Fishers/Noblesville. If I ever moved there, I likewise couldn't afford Carmel, but would look at that area (not planning to move there, but if I did...)
dogbone roundabout! so happy to see this one
In the Netherlands there are a lot of intersections with a lot of lanes that only exist around the intersection. The biggest example I know are three light-controlled roundabouts on N220, N223 and N213 which are all less than a mile apart from each other.
In one case there's just one lane that turns into five lanes before the intersection (1 left, 3 straight on, 1 right). Then between two intersections (about 2,000ft apart) the three lanes continue and turn into seven lanes (2 right, 2 straight on, 3 right). And if you continue to go straight on, the two lanes just turn into a single one again.
All that capacity is necessary, because most of this area is covered by greenhouses, which are very important for the Dutch economy, so there's a lot of freight traffic in this area
I truly believe you have the best channel on all of UA-cam. The quality, the concepts, and your personality all make this such an amazing watch each and every time. Great work!
Driving up Keystone/37 in Carmel is awesome for everyone. My Doctor is one intersection north of where the roundabouts and 37 going under ends. Traffic is slower there and no sidewalks. It is jarring. Taking a strode under the cross streets seems simple, but is genius. The Carmel/Fishers area is booming because of this and other things. I would surmise that the GDP increase more than covers the costs for an infrastructure project like this.
We have done this circle up in the air in Auckland New Zealand - seems to work quite well in tight locations!
Drove across the country alone the roundabout highway interchanges were wonderful
Here before someone comments "90% of all planners quit one lane before fixing traffic forever". But yeah it is a good thing that we recognize that road widening doesn't actually fix traffic, it just accommodates more cars. The way to fix traffic is to find ways to make best use of the road space that is available, instead of just widening.
That or "just one more lane bro"
Yes, but also making it easier for people NOT to drive is an important part of what Carmel did - allowing for more biking and walking. For bigger cities, investing in public transportation would be necessary. Most trips in the US are short and don't require cars, even in the suburbs. If we designed cities for people, not cars, we'd get a lot less traffic.
@@louiszhang3050 Yeah and cars use a huge ton of space. There is a reason in the olden days not everyone in the city owned a horse. Not that we don't want cars at all, we just want fewer of them, and we want there to be options for those in the city. People in the countryside may always have to drive, and that's fine, but for people in a city a car is a hassle. People may commute to work by car still, but for shorter trips, if those options are available, they will probably walk, cycle, or take public transit, and the few times they will need a car, they will face decreased traffic congestion and less aggressive drivers.
And alternatives to driving so not everyone needs a massive rolling living room to do anything. The people who just wanna go to the store close by can just take a bicycle and get some exercise in while they're at it.
Just one more interchange bro
Fun fact Carmel is the first place in the United States to have a traffic light. You can find a little placard on Main Street
Watch Rob's video before this one, Part 1 of this series.
Awesome video as always Rob! When that lady asked if you were with the news, you should have answered "much more useful, educational videos on UA-cam". We appreciate you man.
I feel like I'm a low-wage local TV reporter - except my market is a TOPIC instead of a CITY.
@@RoadGuyRobI dunno if it's intentional or not, but you nail the reporter "accent", if that makes sense. It's actually a huge reason that I love your videos though I have no idea why.
I’ve learned way more about how Roundabouts are better than red lights in these two videos alone than I ever did. Normally the red light intersections i’ve been in are not in congested areas so I’ve not had to think about the logistics too much.
I recognized this Rob. They did the same thing on Hwy 41 and 141 (Underpass triple roundabout) and Hwy 41 and 32 (triple roundabout overpass) in Green Bay, WI.
the title and thumbnail should maybe be more about the new bridge type
like "This bridge changes EVERYTHING you know about intersections"
100%
The same great video, just now with 100% more clickbait!
That peanut shaped roundabout is actually quite genius. It indirectly also acts as a chicane to slow down the traffic.
I love the new roundabouts they installed along my commute home. but ask my family, and "?? I don't get them, theys so confusing!!"
Don't get why people get confused by a roundabout. Not sure what's there to be confused by 😂
Once one figures out how they work they arn't confusing at all.
moreso if they are 2 lanes or less.
Could you explain more on why some traffic lights are on driveways? How do they get setup? Do they need the owner’s consent and need to remake their driveway? What if it has to be there and the owner doesn’t allow it? This may be a stupid question. But it’d be cool if I got an answer
As a resident of Indy, the Indy gov needs to get over themselves and build more roundabouts. I would love to have them. I think the north side anyway would appreciate them.
The only people who don’t like them are ones who encounter them infrequently.
As a hoosier, I'd like to thank you Rob for coming to our great state and continuing to produce high quality content for us road geeks.
Awesome to see a mayor willing to go through a jurisdictional transfer. Its' really frustrating that the city where I work we have great ideas for state routes, but no one seems to want to pull the trigger and have that discussion. So we keep pointing the finger at who's to blame when it comes to fatal crashes and design. Well done Carmel!
We need more roundabouts
Or just a single isolated commuter lane to the freeway that is uninterrupted, but Walmart and McDonald's wouldn't like that...
This is my favorite interchange in cities skylines.
Great video. Roundabouts work so much better than stoplights in so many cases, wish they were more common everywhere in the USA!
I am always trying to educate people in my community how we can avoid building wide roads if we use roundabouts instead of traffic lights. Thank you so much for making this excellent video that explains why!
As an Aussie who grew up just across the tracks from Canberra/ACT - roundabouts made walking my 60kph/37mph residential home streets to/from school (that often had busses going up/down them) safe and comfortable, whilst also allowing the traffic on the main road through town flow smoothly to peal-and-pack at like 80kph/50mph once outside the residential and semi-residential areas.
What Memorial Circle was was a (Controlled) Traffic Circle and not a proper Roundabout due to the stop-start nature of the signaled segments it was built with, whilst proper Roundabouts are at-worst a Give Way intersection (though it seems Americans don't know how to use those from what I've seen and read) in terms of traffic control.
We Australians call Give Way the Americans call Yield.
Roundabouts work better in Australia because of our "give way to the right" rule which maps into roundabouts. Americans also have "give way to the right" at intersections but roundabouts would need "give way to the left" for the same effect.
Oh and I used to live near the worst intersection in Queensland (corner of Albert St and Station Rd, Bethania) according to RACQ. There was a mix of Give Way and Stop signs and no one could read it. I wish they replaced it with a large roundabout but instead they installed a stupid set of traffic lights. It's ridiculous for a relatively quiet intersection to have to wait 5 minutes at an empty red light!
@@lztx Americans have a "first come, first served" rule. "Priority to the right" is a thing only in some states, and it generally only applies when multiple vehicles arrive at the same time.
Never would have thought to see you right next to my home town Rob! Thanks for sharing the stories and history about it that I never knew!
I used to think that of all the engineers, civil engineers, must have the most boring of jobs.
Your videos have completely changed my mind.
It is a 50-50 mix. Sometimes it is boring, and sometimes it's fun and exciting.
I work in civil engineering for electricity distribution, but I love discussing roadway engineering. Unfortunately my role doesn't translate well, although the concepts of power distribution and transmission can be compared to local streets and interstates.
Grade separation is so incredibly powerful its why we still have minimum spec 2 lane freeways in some very busy cities. yeah they back up, but once the bottleneck is cleared the rest of the freeway clears fast. Unfortunately grade separation is deeply unpopular in urbanist circles, most are just hoping that the efficiency of transit and bikes can make up for the inefficiency of traffic lights.
This man is the only one who can make road engineering fun! 🤩
Awesome deep dive into this!
Wonderful case studies to see. Always a good day when your videos release!
Really cool video, love seeing you travel to find interesting projects!
This is a great way to take advantage of the time invested into videos. Great work as always Rob!
Hey Rob! Thanks for everything you do! I appreciate you for making these videos and travelling to locations to show us what roads are doing! Once again, thank you!
For an upcoming project one of my city engineers touted the benefits to local traffic, citing platoons. They will have more opportunities to turn out of their neighborhood since the cross traffic will be "better distributed into platoons" and I knew what he meant thanks to this UA-cam channel. Good work, Rob!
nice vid, keep up the good work.
Will do, thanks!
It's quite simple: If you find a traffic circle confusing, you shouldn't be driving.
maybe after having been told how it works. markings on the road should help as well.
I don’t disagree
Super cool design and a great video!
Wow, outstanding video! I love seeing creative solutions to problems like this.
Rob, I liked how, at the end, you teased what you'd have in your next video. Great work as always.
Thanks for the video Rob!
Awesome video, Road Guy!
Another Banger, Robert! Thank you for always including a holistic perspective and the pedestrian experience!
genuis. great video. thanks rob!
I love love love your videos, i hope you collaborate with some other road youtubers at some point as well
Great video, you touched on a lot of different topics in the engineering world that I had not heard of before. Platoons? Such a cute name for something so inefficient!
1:27 lol, that gave me a good laugh. Well done! :D
That City in Indianapolis just keeps on giving nice stories about smart people getting stuff done
*next to Indianapolis.
Rob, this has been a great series so far, I absolutely love this stuff! Next time I'm passing through Indiana I'm going to make my way to Carmel just to see all this great stuff in action.
another sick video, thanks rob
I just love the roundabout way Rob makes these videos...
I am getting so sick and tired of traffic lights in my city. None of them are synced, half of them shouldn't even be there, they're green for too long for directions with no cars, and the list goes on. More roundabouts!!!
Thanks for coming to my hometown and highlighting this incredible suburban experiment :)
Each and every video you make Road Guy Rob is better than the one before
Keep up the roadwork!
Your videos are worth the wait!! Do I wish you posted every few days and had this same quality and time on each? YUP! But that would take a big team and you doing nothing but reading scripts while your team does editing, camera, and scripts. lol... Your research for every video is awesome and the way you explain everything is great. I've always been facinated with roads and roadway engineering since I was a kid. I just had no idea how to get into that industry.
It is pretty fun to see little bloopers left in. keeps you human instead of just a UA-cam video.
Rob, I have been watching your content for a couple months, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot!
I was blown away when I realized you don't have a million subscribers. I just watched your video from three years ago about highway on ramp traffic lights in California, and it has all the same style, content, and humor that your new stuff does. I think youre going to just explode one of these days. I wish you all the best, and will be sharing your stuff with friends. Keep it up!
Wonderful news story. Thanks Rob!
This is called a double teardrop roundabout. And PennDOT is building a bunch of them!
Such good production quality Rob. You occupy a niche on UA-cam that seems to be growing. Good luck!! I was surprised to see only 75k views on this one .
I live in greenwood and we love roundabouts! We need more of them
Cool video, Rob, thanks!
Great video!!
So the mayor saw this elevated roundabout in Spain - remembered it - and then worked with an engineer to improve the concept, make it cheaper, and solve their traffic problems? This guy is amazing. (By the way - thanks for the closed captions!)
I’ve been watching UA-cam basically nonstop for the past ten years. This is one of the best videos I’ve ever seen.
This was a really great video dude! Follow a lot of urbanist youtubers and roundabouts aren't a huge topic so these videos have been really great to watch.
I would have loved to see more of the simulation and also would have liked to know what happened to all of the $100 million, if the roundabout bridge was only a fraction of that. Imagine being a mayor that said, "Oh hey btw I just made our city $80+ million."
As usual...amazing video...
That is super cool solution. Thank you and have a great day.
If you think about it, a traffic light basicly cuts the time at which traffic can pass down to a bit below 50% (if traffic in both directions is similar).
So to keep the same amount of traffic passing the lights as the road can handle, you'ld need more than double the lanes at the intersection.
So a two lane road, would need 5 lanes at the traffic light. After the light it can go back to two lanes.
The 5 lanes is excluding turning lanes.
But on the other side, a 2 lane road is not often used at full capacity.
I would love to see a video about the Downs-Thomson-Paradox and how it affects the traffic.
Been traveling that section of Keystone for almost 30yrs now. These roundabouts were a huge God send. Complete night and day difference. Every where I have been throughout Indianapolis (Marion County) that has put in roundabouts, the traffic moves much more consistent and fluidly... .. minus the handful of people that just can't wrap their heads around them and use them like stops.
i really appreciate the 2000s commercial energy of this video
Genuinely amazing content
10:30 this bit of psychology is pretty interesting because the same thing tricks people into thinking that bike and bus lanes are useless
they dont see anyone queued up in them(because theyre free flowing) so it looks like there isnt anyone using it
Something I didn’t understand about Indiana was how every traffic light are up on wires. Here in Kansas they do that only for temporary lights.
Wire span prevails in New York State too. They look janky as hell. Embarrassing.
Yeah. Around here, all of the permanent span wire signals are old, and they don’t do much with long-term temporary signals (they even have a portable signal at an intersection in place of the mast arm that got knocked out by a truck, and have no plans of fixing it). I honestly wish they still installed them. with the kind of wind we get here (can get pretty strong, but not hurricane level), they can actually be better if done right. The lower anchor wire is definitely essential (otherwise, the electrical wires will get bent around and break).
Roundabouts rock!!!
Thank you @RoadGuyRob, it was great video. We need mayors like mayor of Carmel!
We live just north of Carmel. Live the roundabouts. Sure it's a learning curve. But once you know where to go it's great.
I have never been to Indianapolis or even anywhere in Indiana as a commercial flight stop, but good Lord with the roundabouts.
Tried looking to see if you already did a video on one of the worst highways in the northeastern United States and no luck. I have been a subscriber to your channel and it is very informative! If you come here to Philadelphia, you should do a video on just how insane this highway nicknamed the "Surekill" really is!
One interesting fact- the short section of Keystone between 96th Street and I-465 is still unsigned SR431!
And it has a stoplight! 🤣
You could tell me the solution was a roundabout in the beginning of the video and I would still be surprised by the final implementation, it just looks so good and its makes so much sense
10:19 this is so true. This entire video gives so much great insight and I feel like everyone in civil engineering should watch these (and the politicians that control the decisions made by the DOT). We could make our roads so much more safe, efficient, and pleasant for ALL users, not just cars, if we started doing things like this. And the new highway in Carmel looks so much more aesthetically pleasing.
I know it’s expensive for them to do these roundabouts, but it’s like the interstates, it’s expensive to do it the first time but then it’s just maintenance from then on.
I love road guy robs videos!