Eastern KY Gets Its First Roundabout

Not quite the epic disaster that one might expect, but you can tell a number of folks didn't understand the thing.

*sigh*

I suppose that's an acceptable alternative to Yakkity-Sax. Just this once.

I like how they come up to the roundabout and jump into the oncoming lane. Instinctually you would try to remain on the right side of the road unless your brain were permanently stuck in ass backwards or european mode.

Just what you would expect from the state that brought us Moscow Mitch and CHUD Paul.

I read the title as Runabout and now I haz a disappoint.

Did you hurt yourself falling from that height? Someone get him a chair and a shot after that fall.

First thing I noticed too. Without context I figured maybe it's some different kind of roundabout than what I've ever been on. That said I'm not a fan of roundabouts.

I will say that Yakety Sax is perfect for the JFK Zapruder film. Am I alone in thinking this? Or is there actually a second demented sicko behind that grassy knoll?

Even floridians can use them properly which makes me wonder if the only reason kentucky does not have more accidents is because there are not so many cars on the roads. Looks like KY drivers are pretty dumb fucks.

Roundabouts are not terrible as long as they are not multiple lane and in high traffic areas.

I don't understand that thing. WTF?

Eh, I feel bad for them. We have several roundabouts here and it's a gamble whether or not you'll get someone approaching who knows how to use it, or who chooses just to make their own path through it. They had to build the center circle 4 times as high as the ground around it because people were driving right through it. Roundabouts are a fine idea, but springing them on people who have driven the same way, via the same road rules, for the past three or four decades is not a good idea.

that's not a roundabout. That's a cluster fuck. Maybe someone's messing with you.

That's the most basic four-way roundabout in the history of roundabouts. How can anyone misunderstand it, it's so basic. Ha, it looks like they didn't even put up any traffic signs to guide people to where . . . oh.

Of course not. Only furriners use roundabouts.

We've had them in southeast wisconsin for years and people here still don't understand how to traverse them.

I'm a big believer in roundabouts. They are much handier and safer than traffic lights for quite a few intersections. Nevertheless, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. I have to navigate through this maze regularly, and it really isn't easy to figure out which way you're supposed to go to get to where you want to be.

Roundabouts are so easy. I don't understand how people get so confused by them, especially the simple ones at a regular four-way intersection.

When I visited the UK a couple years, even driving on the wrong side of the road the roundabouts were easy to handle.

It is not the roundabout I have a problem with, it is obviously the kentucky drivers using the roundabout that makes it a mess. I say nuke kentucky from orbit as a warning to the rest of the red meat and be done with it. Or should I just say socialism because that seems to be worse in some people's minds?

Here in the Netherlands we put in some greenery in the inner circle, like shrubs...

We're afraid to do things like that here in the US. We don't want panhandlers to enjoy their surroundings too much.

That's what they ended up doing. Made it 4 times higher, covered it in grass, and shrubs, and they added a reinforced brick sign that says "welcome" and the town's name on it. I'm wondering whether anyone will take it as a challenge.

You aren't going to ruin my freedumb to drive straight!

Maybe not, but we will ruin your ford f150's ability to.

In the name of all things holy!!! How do you say "ya can't get there from here" in French? That unimaginable goat-screw looks like a picture of brain neurons.

The center of a roundabout would be a pretty bad place to panhandle.

Actually, any roundabout would be, given the lack of a light for people to stop at.

Some of the smaller ones in my area are built with a standard curb-height island and concrete in the middle so that a car would fuck itself up, but semis can drive right over them with no trouble. (Generally in lower-traffic areas where there wasn't enough real estate available to built one with a wide enough radius for a semi to use it the normal way.)

Photo analyzed, looks easy to navigate

How can you fail at this?

We have traffic-light controlled roundabouts in the UK. Not all of them, but those with many exits and high traffic flow.

How can some drivers succeed at this? It's a struggle just to get drivers to turn on their headlights when it's raining and the sun has set 45 minutes prior to them getting behind the wheel.
I have even tried to get a cop's attention so they can do something when I see drivers doing this (and the cop has to see it too unless they are legally blind) but get ignored every time.
I guess the cops are trying to focus on the person going two miles over the speed limit.

The day I got back from Japan, a group of friends in college wanted to celebrate (like they needed a reason), anyway, they're all "getting ready" (putting on makeup, trying on dresses) and I'm bored beyond belief. So, Miriam hands me her car keys and suggests I go buy 4 more 40oz ....some kind of beer. I get back in the car and head back to the apartment and sitting at the red light turning back onto the college campus, I realize there's a cop behind me with his lights on. Weird. When the light turns green, I slowly pull onto the campus parkway and off to the right when a campus police car pulls out of a parking lot right in front of me forcing me to pull over - as if I was going to try to outrun them on a dead end road. Whatever. Now, I'm think "what the hell did Miriam do in this car that I'm being attacked like this!?" I lived on campus during the school year and there's a bus into town. So I didn't have a WV driver's license. So, I gave him my Japanese driver's license. He asked how long I'd been back - I said about 6 hours. Then he asked how many beers I'd had. I told him just one (didn't tell him it was a 40ouncer). Anyway, turns out, I didn't turn my headlights back on after getting the beer.

In WV, they're serious about that shit.

Also...

All the idiots around here turn their driving lights on at night. This means they do not have their tail lights on. These should not even be a thing. What is the purpose of turning your headlights on and not having your tail lights on? The cops do not do shit about that either. There are a lot of the older people who do not turn their headlights on and then do the suicide cut across three lanes of oncoming traffic because they can't judge distances at night because of their bad vision. At least 2 or three times a week they are scraping some elderly person out of the grill of the car that hit them making a left. At least the jewish ones try to get in before sundown a couple of nights a week. I have to wonder which prophet of the torah realized this would save lives way back before there were cars and people died at 35 before they were too old to drive.