Submitted by roadtrip-ne t3_zzbke8 in boston
There’s no limit to how many times they let you go around, just keep at it until you get it right.
Submitted by roadtrip-ne t3_zzbke8 in boston
There’s no limit to how many times they let you go around, just keep at it until you get it right.
I say this all the time (not always about rotaries). Stop being nice. Be predictable. If you are ignoring the right of way and "being nice" you are just endangering those around you.
This is why I don't trust "nice" people. They're the real assholes.
Too busy trying to be nice to one person to be considerate of everyone
Niceholes. Can we just call them that
Perfect, I love it.
Niceholes are mostly female suburban drivers in front of you who suddenly stop to let someone pull out when there is light traffic, even though this process takes longer than just letting the person attempting to pull out wait for a few cars to pass by. These niceholes feel good about themselves because they stopped the cars behind them to let the driver pull out.
I don’t think they’re being nice they just have no idea how it’s supposed to work. Americans don’t have to actually learn to drive to pass a test, what do you expect?
Except we do.
You might happen to be able to drive but the tests you take do not establish that. Anyone could pass the test. Therefore some people can drive, some just know how to go around the block and parallel park.
I had a cousin from Europe who lived with my family for a year in the US and on his list of things to do that year was get a drivers license because it was significantly easier and less expensive to get a license in the US and covert it over to his home country instead of passing the test there.
Our drivers education is a joke here and it’s one of the reasons our roads are so unsafe.
Well said my man
Check out your rta and road accident mortality rate vs countries with a proper driving test. USA 12.4 deaths per 100,000 people. UK 2.9. In the UK you have to take a 1 hour test that includes rotaries, multi lane highways, complex junctions with poor visibility. Any meaningful mistake and you fail. I’ve taken and passed the test in both countries I am very aware which one actually tests whether you can drive properly.
Had this happen the other night - oncoming car was hanging out in a *left turn lane* and the car in front of me just stopped out of nowhere to let them turn. This was from like 30 MPH. Unbelievable.
Oh ffs...if there's ANYTHING that describes NE drivers, its being unpredictable. Its why they are just horrid drivers. Who think they aren't.
Yup. Sitting at an intersection waiting to turn left and I don't know whether I'm going to have some crazy person in oncoming traffic stop and wave me through or some crazy person behind me whip around and turn where there is no gap making oncoming traffic hit their brakes. I've had both happen. It's madness.
Makes me miss LA where I know no one is gonna let me through and we all know 3 cars are turning left once the light turns red.
I’m convinced right of way is not taught in drivers ed in Massachusetts. In any context
I've had friends who grew up in Boston tell me seriously that someone turning left has the right of way. That plus all the waving other people around makes driving here so unpleasant
Wtf, a person turning left barely counts as fully human. They are last in line for everything.
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Unpleasant... And - Unsafe...!!! Don't stop, suddenly, when you've got the right-of-way to wave in someone from a Stop Sign. You could get rear ended or worse. It's not being polite or nice... That's being dangerous.
Sorry a sign told me to show courtesy to side street traffic, excuse me while I slam on my brakes with a line of cars behind me
I know the signs you're talking about, and they make me irrationally angry.
People who think they can jump the green light and turn left ahead of oncoming traffic at a light drive me nuts. It’s cold comfort that if I were to smash into them they’d be at fault.
Lol there is a Wikipedia for a "Pittsburgh/Boston Left" describing an informal right of way. Its one thing if someone pitties you and waves ya through but I hate it when people just fucking go for it.
The driver always has the right of way in MA 😂
They all drive like it anyways.
To be fair there are countries where the right of way changes depending on the STATE you’re in, so if they got their diver’s license elsewhere they genuinely might not know or have thought to look it up until the moment they were faced with a rotary. Mexico is one of such places, 0/10 makes road trips weird.
Also tf is up with the places where the person merging into the rotary has the right of way, it totally defeats its purpose.
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I mean, if someone's in the street I DO go out of my way to not hit them with my car.
Does it matter? Hot take I know but I don't wanna kill someone just because they were jaywalking.
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lol, I don’t think that’s what they said. As an objective fact, legally a person crossing the street outside a crosswalk or against a light is doing so unlawfully. That in no way implies that a driver should not yield in that circumstance, and in practice cars defer to them anyway. That doesn’t mean someone should just walk into the middle of the street whenever they feel like it.
That being said, if an accident ever occurred and there was a lawsuit, the pedestrian can collect damages if they are found by a jury to be any number less than 50% responsible.
The most important rule in life is “don’t be an idiot”. This applies to all.
Drivers: pay attention. Follow the rules of the road, unless doing so in a specific situation is less safe than not following them, in which case do the safest thing. Drive safely and avoid accidents. Try not to succumb to road rage. If you’re going to speed, do it in a safe way - not in residential areas near playgrounds or schools. Speed limits aren’t there to slow you down for no reason, they’re there because most drivers don’t pay attention and pedestrians die at high speeds.
Pedestrians: be visible. Be predictable. Cross when you have the explicit right of way or when you’re sure you’re not impeding the flow of traffic. Look both ways before crossing, yes, even in crosswalks and even on one way streets. Make sure that cars have ample time (5+ seconds) to see you and stop before crossing. Reaction time is like 1-2 seconds, plus stopping time 2 seconds or so. It won’t kill you to wait 5 seconds, it might kill you if you don’t.
"Act as though pedestrians have the right of way no matter what", not "pedestrians have the right of way no matter what."
This happened to my in fresh pond two nights ago. Like, dude, you're IN the rotary, don't stop
That rotary was built by Satan himself.
that rotary is pure evil.
I love the people in the fresh pond rotary who try to stay IN the rotary from the outside lane.
The amount of times I've almost T-boned idiots who do this.
It's not as bad as people who stop on a on ramp because they don't understand yield doesn't mean surrender and that there's a merging lane. That or people merging at 15 mph when there's 4 cars behind them and they basically force you into a dangerous situation.
Or people who drive below the speed limit in the passing lane.
People in general just don't know how to hell to drive.
I’d agree with this more except the number of Massholes bombing down the right lane makes that merge a bit more ‘interesting’. Though you still shouldn’t stop.
My favorite is close proximity on/off ramps, like 93-95, where it’s really obvious to zipper when there is heavy traffic…and people still don’t do it.
The stop at an on ramp yield is not just stupid, it’s dangerous.
The on ramp is there to give you enough time to get your speed consistent with the current highway traffic. That way, you can smoothly merge and drivers on the highway don’t have to do anything. If I am on an on-ramp, this is what I and the other cars behind me are doing - matching our travel speed to the highway speed - if you are the car in front of that line and you STOP at the yield, someone is going to rear end you and it’s not going to be pretty.
Don't ever drive in Pennsylvania. Their on-ramps literally have stop signs at the end before the merge point.
Also the Merritt/Wilbur Cross in Connecticut.
Last time I drove in Pennsylvania I kept getting stuck behind horse and buggy’s.
Worse, those people think they are saving everyone from dangerous speeders.
This is triggering because it just happened to me and I despise it every time. Over a quarter mile long on ramp and this lady is just humming along at 25 mph the entire length then just stops at the end with 4 additional cars behind me. All of us had to stop for this dumbass. This was also an on ramp that had about 500-1000ft of extra lane to help with the merge, not a rt. 1 legit stop sign at the end of the on ramp.
When people do that and there's no cars in the right lane I just pass them and won't let them in. Fuck those people they're going to get someone killed one day.
Also when people go 60 in the left lane and you can't go around and then you're stuck in the death zone of a 18 wheeler in the middle lane. Seriously people if you don't want to go over the speed limit stay the fuck out of any lane other than the right one, ideally stay home.
If they're going slow like that, I hang back, and then wait for a gap and shoot around/past them.
Added bonus: Usually freaks them out.
Forgive them, they were chatting on the phone the whole 15-20 seconds they were driving up the on-ramp, when they should have been scanning traffic to time their merge.
So ITA? shit I was afraid of that 😂
On this note: this guy (MA plates) almost murdered me by not yielding when I was in the circle. I didn’t slow down or give any indication that I was gonna let him in. I had to slam on my brakes and then he gives me a look like it was my fault. I’m lucky no one was behind me.
You think that's bad? I've had people in the rotary try to enter my approach...
when my car is right up against the yield line. There are Do Not Enter signs....
"You know what might help? Maybe we should add traffic lights to the rotary..."
-The people that originally designed Powder House Sq
My second favorite is when a rotary feeds into a very busy intersection with traffic lights, causing the rotary to back up and be unuseable for those going in other directions (looking at you, Medford High St/Winthrop St rotary).
Also Alewife Brook Parkway x Concord Ave with its two rotaries and one road that sees heavy use.
Godspeed to anyone who goes through there at rush hour. A civil engineers worst nightmare
Fun fact, the route 16/route 2 lights right before those two rotaries ALSO used to be a rotary.
The rotary behind Wonderland station in Revere worked great for many years. Then they added a light at the station. And forevermore it's a clusterfuck to get through during rush hour. I've literally spent 15+ minutes trying to get through that rotary, multiple times.
I'm glad I don't live there anymore...
Check out this one from England, they put rotaries in their rotary.
https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/england/3766-swindon-s-magic-roundabout.html
Fuck everything abou---wait, what the hell? I'm stuck at a light? Why would anyone put a light in the middle of a rot--bout that rotary.
Have you been there lately? Works completely differently now. Only one lane. No crosswalks to the center island. There’s still traffic lights at all the entrances/crosswalks but none controlling the circle itself.
I have not been there in several years.
RIP the Drum Hill rotary. It's now a 4 lane wide square with 4 sets of lights.
What used to take 2 minutes now takes 7 even without traffic.
that rotary was insane but I'm not sure the lights are much better
I hate those lights.
VFW Parkway rotary in West Roxbury has one too. We were in the car and it was red and we had to stop IN the rotary. It felt wrong. Like we were exposed. I’m like who the hell did this. It’s so stupid.
I live near there and from what I can tell it’s completely optional to stop in the rotary unless there’s a state police cruiser literally sitting in the rotary
Wellington circle gang rise up
BU Bridge rotary be like
The BU bridge and the rotary right next to it have easily taken 10+ years off my life. I’m so grateful I don’t have to go that way anymore
Don't ever go to Ireland and rent a car at Dublin Airport. The first thing you encounter leaving the airport is a big ass roundabout with traffic lights. You just got off a flight that landed at 5AM, you're in a rental car, sitting in the drivers seat on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road.
I can handle it. Im from there. But I pity the poor average US tourist that has no clue.
I think Ireland invented traffic lights on roundabouts. They are everywhere and they suck.
I remember the first time I was confronted with stoplights at a rotary, it was in Guadalajara, Mexico. I thought to myself that of course you had to put stoplights in there to make them fucking work, since for some reason that state just decided the person merging the rotary had the right of way and that made no fucking sense.
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That place is such a clusterfuck now.
obligatory "Look Kids, Big Ben!"
^parliament
Parliament...
I once had an uber driver stop on a highway because he missed the exit.
i once had an uber stop while merging onto the highway 😭 (there wasn't traffic to cause that)
I drive by Logan every day and you wouldn't believe the amount of people I've seen stop and back up because they missed the exit. I know it's easy to miss consider there's 89374278923 signs with arrows and warnings that the airport is on the right.
Since we’re talking rotaries… why don’t they include exit signs??? It’d be extremely helpful to know which street each exit goes to, instead of counting for the fourth exit based on my GPS.
New England in general has a moral opposition to road signage.
Love when the only indication what each lane does at an intersection is painted on the road which is covered by the cars sitting in the lane and also probably snow and slush some of the year
Paint, long since faded, as a way to separate those who are from here (here being those who use the road every day) from those who aren't (people who don't use the road every day).
Its an extra local fuck you
Who lets paint on the road tell them what to do anyway
And was last painted in 1997
This. Every other part of the country uses overhead signs for lane indicators, but we stubbornly stick with worn out paint on slush-covered roads.
Especially good road signage
Oh sorry, you wanted it to be there and good?
Wow entitled
It's not as strong as our opposition to adequate road lighting though. Seriously, fuck getting lazed in the dilated pupils by LED headlights on tall SUVs at night.
All public lighting really, I feel blind as a bat as soon as the sun sets in this city. It makes winters a nightmare.
One thing that blew my mind in the days before GPS is that a lot of towns in New England don’t have street signs that tell you what street you’re currently on, just the street you’re crossing.
Not that it matters anyway. I found out the hard way that Tremont street in Mission Hill doesn’t in fact lead you back to the back bay, it randomly hooks turns left at Roxbury Crossing with no signage.
Also, I’ve lived on 2 completely unconnected Tremont Streets in Boston.
Don’t get me started on south street in Roslindale
Oh man the pre-GPS days were a challenge. Good luck finding a street where Elm and Bolton are on the left, followed by Oak on the right. Especially when you were so lost you didn't know what town you were in.
Yo Jimmie got his tree up, turn left there.
My gripe is the people who drive in the innner lane of the rotary and then try to exit while there's people driving in the outer lane.
My gripe is when people in the outer lane don’t exit when they’re supposed to and keep going around preventing those in the inner lane from exiting. Outer lane are supposed to exit at the first or second exit and the inner lane at the second and beyond. The inner lane should never have to cross any cars in the outer lane if you drive correctly.
And furthermore: you’re allowed to enter a multi lane roundabout with traffic coming in next to you because of the above. But when entering, you have to yield to ALL traffic already in ANY lane of the roundabout. You may not enter next to someone who’s coming around in the inner lane even if you’re entering in the outer. That’s because your entering may interfere with that person’s exiting if they want to exit before you do
To be fair, a lot of rotaries are made very small these days. To the point where by the time you get into the inner lane you’re probably passed your turn so there’s no point ever getting into the inner lane which defeats the whole point.
That's why I like the Wakefield rotary. The lanes spiral outwards, so it's impossible to camp in the outer lane.
Well, the inner lane will still have to cross the outer lane cars that joined <= 2 exits ago, as cars join the rotary at every exit. Maybe I'm very stupid, but I've never seen a rotary that could work like this idealized explanation (which I've heard before) proposes.
Read the other reply about yielding
I'm talking about the case of me being in the outer lane, having just joined, passing exit #1 (according to your theory, it's okay if I'm here and want to leave in the second exit). But an inner car wants to leave at the exit I'm passing but I'm in the way! Doesn't quite work.
Hence the other post about yielding. You shouldn’t have entered in the first place. If the inner lane car can’t exit that means you didn’t yield and entered right beside them on the outer lane.
Ah, nice, got it.
No one in the inner lane should need to exit. You get into the outer lane to exit.
Funkybeatzzz theory is more correct, I think. There are many, many rotaries explicitly marked contrary to your idea.
Unless the exits are also 2 lanes, it’s just not safe to exit from the inside
Edit: even then, it’s still not always safe
It’s not safe only because the outer lane people have no clue how these things work.
Yeah, this totally isn’t how roundabouts work. Do you drive much? Most multi lane roundabouts exit on at least two lane roads. They’d be single lane roundabouts if not.
Edit: also if you follow the other rules about yielding this wouldn’t be an issue. You’re clearly part of the problem.
Same with multi lane highways. Only travel in the middle lane(s). Left is for overtaking, then you move over in case someone wants to pass you, otherwise you force them to pass on the right, which itself is illegal as it disrupts the intended flow. And right is for entering/exiting, not blocking people from entering/exiting or overtaking the bags blocking the passing lane... but all this assumes people have read and will obey traffic protocol design. But given then amount of people I've seen pass their test through crying and pity the only bet is to assume everyone on Storrow screams "WHITNESS ME!!!!" as they dodge lanes...
Edit: I've been corrected and will now use the right lanes to pass! Now I can do stupid things LEGALLY!
Passing on the right is legal in MA if two or more lanes and traffic is moving in same direction (e.g. a highway).
Edit: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter89/Section2
Thank for the link, I stand corrected!
Your comment on multi-lane highway driving is 100% wrong.
From the Mass Driver’s Manual:
Stay to the right and only use the left lane for passing. On an expressway with three or more lanes in your direction, use the far right lane for slower driving, the middle lane for faster driving, and the far left lane for passing.
Also, match speed of traffic when entering the expressway, don’t stop. You’ll get people hurt or killed.
I could have sworn it was expressly prohibited when I read the manual 20 years ago. I stand corrected and will adjust my passing accordingly!
In other words: If you're getting passed on your right, you are going too slow for your lane and need to move over to the right. And if you want to pass someone, you should not undertake them (on the right) and should pass them on the left.
Mass. : match the speed of traffic while merging on the expressway.
Also Mass. : Has yield signs on entrances
My gripe are lanes in rotaries for this reason alone. Rotaries should be one lane, they work much better that way.
Rotaries should be roundabouts
And then there's the Fresh Pond rotary, which is very clearly marked to encourage exiting from both the inner and outer lane onto Alewife Brook Parkway.
My gripe is the people that just drive in the middle of both lanes
You're talking about a roundabout not a rotary
Aren't the terms synonymous?
A roundabout has marked lanes and a rotary does not. MA is in the process of phasing out rotaries and turning them into roundabouts.
I tried that move at Cleveland circle, but there's no circle at Cleveland.
A little slice of Ohio in Massachusetts
Jed is the best.
Or route 2 concord as it leads to the middlesex prison yard
I saw someone stop and backup in a 3 exit rotary. Lol
I live just off a rotary with five spokes and the shit I see every week. People stopping in the rotary, people failing to yield to people already in the rotary, people going the wrong way around...I am convinced humans are too stupid to be trusted driving cars.
There should be billboards about this. As many of them as there are in this area, you would think people knew how they worked.
This is my favorite feature of New England roads.
Sure, signage may be nonexistent and the design philosophy is fuck-you-thats-why but at least you got a fighting chance and can go around again until you figure out where the fuck you are going.
I recently moved here from the Midwest to live near family and frankly I love the driving culture here.
I laugh so hard trying to figure out where to turn. I am frequently lost but I love how some people will wave me on a left turn, let me in to traffic, allow me to budge into the lane I need, etc. I love the rotaries too. They seem like a way better idea than 4 way traffic light most of the time. People seem patient with me while I screw up. Usually a friendly wave seems to cover a lot of sins.
In the Midwest if you need to make a left - fuck you, you're just gonna sit until traffic is clear and traffic behind you will stack up for however long it takes.
This is so sweet but I think you’ve just had good luck cuz the rest of us are still waiting to turn left
If they're not from Massachusetts ... they may not.
Most of the U.S. does not use or have rotaries. :)
The rest of the country hasn't figures out circles yet? They seem kind of intuitive.
So many radians though
Relatively common in New England though
Idk what’s worse. People who don’t know how to drive around in a rotary or those who just merge and go in whenever they feel like it and not look and almost getting into an accident.
Saw this once at the Centre St/Arborway rotary years ago, the driver actually backing up made me almost lose it. It's a fun story to tell as an ice breaker for an awkward dude like me.
This could also easily be: “people who miss their turn or exit- do you realize the next one will also get you to the same destination?”
>There’s no limit to how many times they let you go around
This is bizarre. I was actually asking myself how many times would you need to keep going around the traffic circle before a cop pulls you over.
That sort of happened to me
I was doing my driver's ed in reading and got in the rotary right there on the Wakefield line. The instructor got a call at the same time so since I didn't have any further instructions I just kept going around and around. Must have gone around 9 or 10 times.
She finally got off the phone and said pull off and head to the lake before she threw up from how many times we went in circles.
Amazing.
A shitty driver never misses their turn.
Fun fact, the Richard Dreyfus movie “Once Around” has a plot device that involves driving around a rotary over and over and over again. Said rotary is one of the route 16 rotaries in Medford.
When my friends and I were young and poor, we'd sit on the steps of a building overlooking a major rotary in the city for entertainment. And entertaining it was. Never let us down.
Bro someone stopped right in the middle of the street and backed thier car
I actually saw someone stop and put the car in reverse to get back to the turn they missed.
I thought it was bad until I spent time in Florida. They can't seem to figure them out at all
I actually saw someone go in reverse at the rotary near the airport in Hyannis.
You haven’t seen hell until you’ve seen the Columbia road rotary
never stop in the circle
That's fine on rotaries that are actually just circles, but there are more than a few that have specific lanes that shunt you to places you don't want to go.
Big Ben, Parliament!
Obviously not
"look kids, it's Big Ben!"
Dude I love lobster
My mom went around a rotary a couple of times unable to get to her exit. The fourth time around she pulled over in the middle and let the RMV guy finish her drivers exam.
No, they don’t know how to drive
Ehh, so round abouts sure you can go around maybe 3 -4 times if you're captain sense of direction, though I'm not sure if forever is technically legal in MA. It might be a form of obstructing even if you're in perpetual motion 🤔, also people who stop should have to go through a more advanced driver's education.
To get a license here it's not hard at all, and that's kinda the issue. In Finland it's fairly strict our drivers licenses is maybe a permit, theirs is like having a class A here. Also 2 weeks on a skid road as their winters are just about the same horrible stuff as here. And anyone who can reach the pedals is old enough to drive. So it's taken more seriously. We could learn a thing or many from them.
MY THOUGHT EXACTLY! Miss your exit? You will have maybe 15 seconds to try again. And would you accept from the left hand lane on a highway?
Commuted Brighton to W Rox for years and almost all of the accidents on my route were people who stopped in a rotary and got rear ended
Saw a lady driving the wrong way around the hammond pond rotary once. I'll never forget her. She was in the inside lane too.
Whose not a terrible driver on the road nowadays. Everyone is looking at there phone still…
While I personally believe you are correct in your thoughts, the answer is they don’t feel they need to realize anything.
as someone who has driving anxiety...no lol. i panic and get outta there as fast as possible
No offense, but a lot of people have driving anxiety because they are scared of people doing what you just described, and then they panic and also do what you just described.
Could you just drive around and around and around a rotary for hours if you wanted? Or is there some kind rule that says no? Lol
By people, I think you mean the one person you saw do this today.
OwnResource t1_j2arlwy wrote
People who stop to try and wave you in to the rotary make me go crazy! Rotary has the right of way!