This needs to become the standard. Protected bike lanes are a solved problem, we just need to install them already
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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Cars would be hitting and driving over those 4 lens shaped bits of curb all day.
Just gotta raise them enough to make it uncomfortable for them to do so.
If that doesn't make them comply, then raise further until the vehicles get damaged when driving over them.
Are you talking about the bit past the parking lane?
No, thw rounded corners of the intersection
I mean if they are like the triangle islands they sometimes use for pedestrians and dedicated right turns it might. Just have to make it to thin for a car. They are way to far out in his picture and for some reason even the bike lanes come away from the curb at the corners. I think it might just be bad drawing.
Posted 11 years ago and we have exactly zero of these in my city still.
Would be pointless in a place like Alberta that's for sure. Unless you add a lot of deep sunken bollards. Pickup trucks will just ride right over those curbs and plow into anything as they currently do.
Jersey barriers work in these cases.
We have one of these in Seattle! We could use a lot more.
Please don’t reinvent the weel and just install a Turbo Roundabout. It’s much safer for everyone, incuding cars.
Turbo-roundabouts aren't really urban infrastructure though, nor are they are one size fits all solution to traffic.
They take significantly more space than an intersection would, and are generally used to improve traffic flow for cars, not bikes. Even in the Netherlands they are generally only used outside of cities on main routes for cars, with segregated bike infrastructure to keep cyclists out of the roundabout.
It's car infrastructure, not bike infrastructure.
Edit: I also feel the need to point out that this intersection is not reinventing any wheels.
Protected intersections for cyclists like this are common all over the Netherlands, and are a proven piece of infrastructure when used in the appropriate way.
All bike infrastructure is car infrastructure.
We wouldn't need any bike infrastructure if we just limited all roads to 30kph.
They also get bad when placed on truck routes. Mankato, MN put a bunch in and didn't think about how semis would get around them.
And yes, they're for cars, not bikes.
If the roundabout is properly designed, and the space needed for turning trucks is taken into account, then a truck should be fully capable of navigating a turbo roundabout as well.
Those turbo-roundabouts that are common in the Netherlands are also commonly used by trucks without problem.
That looks more complicated then the average U.S.A. driver can navigate. Hell they struggle with bike lanes and stop signs. We need more stringent driving tests
They are easier to navigate than a regular multi-lane roundabout. The only thing you need to take into account is to sort into the right lane before the roundabout (which requires proper signage) and then it reduces risk on the roundabout itself by eliminating the possibility for lane changes.
It helps keep the flow of cars going smoothly, which is their main benefit.
Source: I live in the Netherlands and turbo-roundabouts are all over the place here.
Easier than a regular roundabout and they looks wonderful. The problems are not its design. The average intelligence of people in the U.S.A. is a bewildering thing. So many people truly and well do not understand traffic rules. They do not understand whay should be basic understanding. I have had people argue with me how stop signs work, how lane end merges work, Ive had people argue to me that it is mean to teach children not to randomly touch people.
The turbo roundabout looks amazing and I would love the opertunity to experience it, many Americans ar incapable of using it. They will blame thier ineptitude on it. We are still fighting for pedestrian walkways, maybe bike accessible infrastructure in more liberal left cities. The people allowed in cars right now are not all ready for a roundabout, no matter how good it is. It is so sad I know they cannot drive in a circle that is too advanced...
People ignore stop signs and bike lanes not because they don't understand them, but because they willfully ignore them (and the bike lanes are not physically separated). There would be a learning period, but if they were common enough, Americans would learn to use a turbo roundabout, though the same conditions that make them blow through stop signs (or red lights!) would also affect turbo roundabouts some way. I have been in regular roundabouts in the US that people seemed to understand just fine.
Certainly there are people that willfully ignore them which is a big problem. There also alot who actually do not understand stop signs. 10% of the time there is at least one person seemingly mystified on how to proceed through a stop sign. And 50% of the time a lane beside me ends I have to be careful not to get sideswiped.
These two groups of idots are why protected bike and pedestrian lanes are essential and why roundabouts will be difficult.
Those people that blow through stop signs and lights will do so in roundabouts and then blame the roundabouts for thier idiocy. Then other idots will nod along saying its the roundabouts fault.
Perhaps with an adjustment period it can work but any politician greenlighting one will get attacked and once there are accidents any politician still supporting them will be attacked.
The idiots are loud and sway way too much politicians, like gestures vaguely at current USA federal administration
The average US driver can't navigate anything and is crashing at signaled intersections all the time already. This at least gives them more guardrails and contains the carnage better.
They just put in like six of these on the main street of my parent's town in Washington. For a route that would otherwise be a stroad they beat the heck out of a traditional signaled intersection, but do little to make the area any more hospitable for biking and walking as they still take up so much space and feature continuous traffic. So, quite good for through routes but not great for density or street "completeness".
When built correctly, the roundabouts mean you only have to cross lane(s) of one-way traffic, with the same sort of safety islands as in the pictured signalized intersections.
Then again with places that are adding roundabouts for the first time, it's hard enough getting people to yield to other drivers let alone bikes and pedestrians.
My complaint isn't that they're impassable for pedestrians and cyclists, it's their sheer size. They're every bit as big as a 5 x 5 lane signaled intersection despite servicing a 2 x 2. And I've yet to see anywhere in the US that has implemented them figure out that they can still put buildings next to them, so they're always occupying the middle of a goofy-wide strip of undeveloped land that functions as a "natural buffer" between the road and the inevitable wall around an adjacent sub-development or big box parking lot. My complaint is just that they're not urban infrastructure, just an improved suburban exchange still in no man's land, and as such don't really improve the land use of an area.
That's true, they do take up more space. That's the trade-off. Sacrificing compactness for the sake of safety. There are fewer conflict points and they remove the chance of getting t-boned. Collisions in a roundabout are less deadly.
I just want to share this one intersection near my house…. Admittedly tight, admittedly no bicycling infrastructure…. During the winter I weekly see tire tracks in the snow across the sidewalk from people who can’t drive well enough to stay on the road when making a turn.
Think of the worst driver you know. There are worse. Millions of them. I don’t feel safe cycling around here , but it’s even worse when I don’t feel safe walking on the sidewalk
We do need to make this protection normal. Let’s start with effing Jersey barriers because drivers are always worse than you expect
Please don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Build raised intersections. Raised to the level of pedestrian and protected bike lanes.
No need for traffic lights either if you slow down traffic. At least in the city.
How do you turn left?
I hate these designs. Best thing to do is to ban the cars from every other road.
Looks like you cross the road when the signal allows it?
I believe ideally these types of crossings allow pedestrians and cyclists to use all four crossings at the same time. Similar to crossings in Japan.
Just my guess with a quick glance.
The design includes traffic signals an left turn lanes.
Sure, ban private cars but what is replacing them?
Bicycles.
Good try, but now think of something more accessible
Recumbent bicycles.
Get better soon, Buddy.
This is really the big problem, but it's solved if it's implemented with a simultaneous crossing for bikes & pedestrians (aka scramble intersections). Without that, turning left means waiting through two (sometimes three!) red lights.
Source: we have one of these here in Cambridge (UK) and they haven't implemented the simultaneous crossing. It's untenable, so cyclists (myself included) do all sorts of dangerous things just to avoid the ridiculous wait times.
This is why you just ban cars from every other road. Its the best solution I've ever ridden on.
Bike lanes need a button for left turns to halt traffic and let them through first on a green bike only light.
Yeah, fuck that. Give the cars a button. Prioritize bicycles.
That's what I said... Prioritize bikes by letting them halt traffic. With a button. Or sensor. Whatever. The lights need to know there's a bike there turning left somehow.
Nah, you are making them a second class vehicle by having to press a button.
The cars shouldn't be allowed on roads designated for cyclists. Or, if a bridge or something forces them to use the same road, the cars should have to press a button and wait for a signal.