Old Man Posted July 19, 2005 Report Share Posted July 19, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Roundabouts have to have a minimum radius of about fifty feet before they are actually useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted July 19, 2005 Report Share Posted July 19, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Actually, having seen the little ones in Portland and other neighborhoods, I think they're MORE effective in small instances, much better than 4-way unlighted stops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Roundabouts have to have a minimum radius of about fifty feet before they are actually useful. Yeah, they put a number of them in the Boulder that are about useless. They slightly widened existing 4 way intersections, kinda rounded the edges, put an island about 10 feet across in the middle, and signed it as a roundabout. Saying they work poorly is putting it mildly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings What' date=' is the "initial adjustment period" a Darwinian thing, then? [/quote'] Yes. Actually, it happened about once or twice a year that there'd be a tourist who'd never encountered a rotary before. Some drove the wrong way around. A couple would get into it and just screech to a halt. My favorite was the one who went zooming across the middle. Onto the grassy little garden, through the signs, back over the other side, and into the Wendy's. I'm amazed only 2 people went to the hospital with minor scrapes and nothing more. (The first was the driver, the second a guy walking through the parking lot who didn't QUITE get out of the way in time.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings My favorite was the one who went zooming across the middle. Onto the grassy little garden, through the signs, back over the other side, and into the Wendy's. I guess he really wanted that burger... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Actually' date=' having seen the little ones in Portland and other neighborhoods, I think they're MORE effective in small instances, much better than 4-way unlighted stops.[/quote'] No, they don't work well at all, mostly because it's impossible to determine where someone who is in the roundabout wants to get out. The distances are too short for them to signal, so the end result is that everyone has to wait for the one guy in the roundabout to get out--and then the question becomes, whose turn is it to get in? This is in addition to the complete idiocy factor--people going the wrong way, people stopping while in the roundabout, etc. I see these all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings No, they don't work well at all, mostly because it's impossible to determine where someone who is in the roundabout wants to get out. The distances are too short for them to signal, so the end result is that everyone has to wait for the one guy in the roundabout to get out--and then the question becomes, whose turn is it to get in? This is in addition to the complete idiocy factor--people going the wrong way, people stopping while in the roundabout, etc. I see these all the time. Maybe it's how they're set up there, I don't know. The little ones here seem fine and I haven't heard people complain, other than being a minor annoyance as they are round-about. The ones I've seen, no signalling is necessary. Don't forget, people are only going 20-30 an hour. I dunno, hard to explain, I can only go by what drivers tell me as I don't drive. But believe me, I hear what drivers think of stuff a lot! PS - also, there's never really a need to figure out about getting in/out, these are low-traffic streets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings My first encounter with them was over 20 years ago in Scotland' date=' where they call them "roundabouts", IIRC. [/quote'] That sounds like what Alice was talking about, so yes, I agree with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings XTC has a pretty good song about roundabouts. We have a few little roundabouts scattered throughout residential areas here and there. As to Cancer's post just above, some rotaries are simply poorly designed, which can cause problems. I don't know the XTC song ... the one that came to my mind immediately was the old Yes song. I may have to take the CD wallet home and load Fragile into it. I'm comfortable with the concept of roundabouts, since I saw lots of them in my years in Germany. But that was before I was old enough to drive. Realizing that it's saying more about where I've been as an adult than anything else, that one in Lacey is the only one I can recall driving on myself. Given that limit to my experience, I don't think I could tell if it was badly designed or not. Assuming Old Man's comment about a minimum size applies to the inner radius of the driving surface, I think it's below his 50-foot figure; my guess is more like 10 or 12 meters. I haven't paced it off, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I don't know the XTC song ... the one that came to my mind immediately was the old Yes song. I may have to take the CD wallet home and load Fragile into it. I'm comfortable with the concept of roundabouts, since I saw lots of them in my years in Germany. But that was before I was old enough to drive. Realizing that it's saying more about where I've been as an adult than anything else, that one in Lacey is the only one I can recall driving on myself. Given that limit to my experience, I don't think I could tell if it was badly designed or not. Assuming Old Man's comment about a minimum size applies to the inner radius of the driving surface, I think it's below his 50-foot figure; my guess is more like 10 or 12 meters. I haven't paced it off, though. About 10 yards sounds right to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Apropos nothing at all except roundabouts: Back in Umeå, when the first snow of the season has fallen, people (the word is used in the loosest possible form) build, not snowmen, but snow . . . Members . . . In every roundabout in town. Possibly there's some cult behind this. Or bored teens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings That reminds me of a story from England, some 6-8 years ago, about some minor criminals who were sentenced to a couple of hundred hours of community service. They were given the chore of planting flower bulbs in the public areas around the town, but they weren't supervised all that closely. Several months later, the bulbs came up, spelling out things like "SHAG" and "BOLLOCKS" in letters about 1.5 meters across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Mwahahah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Which probably got them another 100 hours of community service... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Whatever for?! Free speech, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Actually' date=' having seen the little ones in Portland and other neighborhoods, I think they're MORE effective in small instances, much better than 4-way unlighted stops.[/quote'] Well, the little ones are mainly for slowing down drivers for uncontrolled intersections. Which I never really got in Portland. The random placement of stop signs on residential streets. The Joan of Arc Roundabout is a nice size for a busy intersection. Though those should be yield signs instead of stop signs for entering it, but even so it works ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 21, 2005 Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Which probably got them another 100 hours of community service... More words, to use huh or do you think they would be supervised more closely this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings One sad note. During GenCon our cat of nearly 19 years died. It was quick, though, and although not expected right that moment it was expected in general as she was in declining health. Per our prior agreement, Alesia let me know when this was happening. It didn't really completely and totally hit me until now, since I'm home alone and the convention high has worn off. Anyway, just for those who would care, as well, I didn't want to start a thread or such as I don't want to dwell on it, just wanted to state it "for the record". There's a lot of aheming about these days, I wonder why? :halo: Wilson, I was sorry to hear about your cat on Friday, hope you and your wife are doing okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 26, 2005 Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Wilson' date=' I was sorry to hear about your cat on Friday, hope you and your wife are doing okay.[/quote'] Thanks, appreciated. We are. 2 of the 3 other cats are still a bit freaked out (poor Andy, who was close to Marconi, pretty clearly went looking for her again today after I opened the bathroom door post-shower), which is too bad as there's no way to explain it to them, the other of the 3 cats is looking at everyone essentially saying, "So who cares? She was old. Let's move on - let's think about me!" You have to love cats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted August 26, 2005 Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings You have to love cats! . . . And if we don't wanna . . . ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 26, 2005 Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Then they'll hurt you or annoy you with constant attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted August 26, 2005 Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Then they'll hurt you or annoy you with constant attention. Truth indeed. It is a natural law. The amount of attention one gets from cats is inverse to the degree of allergy or dislike for felines. I'm a cat person (dog person, too) so they generally ignore me until they want to be fed or let outside/inside. AliceTheOwl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted August 27, 2005 Report Share Posted August 27, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Truth indeed. It is a natural law. The amount of attention one gets from cats is inverse to the degree of allergy or dislike for felines. I'm a cat person (dog person, too) so they generally ignore me until they want to be fed or let outside/inside. Not quite when you've got a bunch of cat people. Though I'm noticing that who has the food, gets more attention. One of the buildings I've worked in the past, someone else always did the feeding. In the last week, I've started doing the feeding. Now, I'm best buds. Though the cats recognise the vet techs and people who help collect the cats. There's one cat that hates all the staff, but comes down for pets from volunteers. His name is Cliff due to being tossed off one. I would of thought we'd have a natural bond! Though as a general rule, I'd say Mentor has it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings N-dimensional interpolation (with N > 1) is a flaming pain in the aspen if you need continuous derivatives and bounded interpolants. You have my sincere sympathies, Cancer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted September 3, 2005 Report Share Posted September 3, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Monty Python...often funny' date=' sometimes hilarious, frequently just bizzare...but [i']never[/i] boring... "Anyone for tennis?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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