Roundabout?

[Person012345]

Place de l'Étoile is indeed not a roundabout but a very old circus dating back to the 18th century.

Nowadays, trafic on Place de l'Étoile doesn't work exactly like the one of a roundabout and that's a good thing considering its excessive complexity. Among the 12 avenues joining there, two are major axis concentrating most of the traffic (counting in dozens of thousands of cars per day): the Champs-Élysées eastbound and the avenue de la Grande Armée westbound. As such, traffic inside the circle has to stop in order to allow the flow of cars from those two major avenues to get in, otherwise trafic would be completely stuck. I know it doesn't look optimal from outside but it seriously is. As a matter of fact, it couldn't work better.

This being said, Place de l'Étoile is a very unique intersection. We have thousands of roundabouts in France and they just works like normal roundabouts.

Fair enough. Maybe it's just that I'm used to regular roundabouts so us pulling out in front of someone coming around just felt intimidating I guess. That kind of intersection is why we have traffic-lighted roundabouts. It has the same effect except people are still able to go reasonably fast and not have to break too hard when someone pulls out (since the traffic lights give them plenty of warning).

 

[Metropolitan]

Fair enough. Maybe it's just that I'm used to regular roundabouts so us pulling out in front of someone coming around just felt intimidating I guess. That kind of intersection is why we have traffic-lighted roundabouts. It has the same effect except people are still able to go reasonably fast and not have to break too hard when someone pulls out (since the traffic lights give them plenty of warning).

Well obviously people are really interested about place de l'Étoile in this thread but it's quite amusing as, once you know it for real, it's actually one of our major intesections which works the best in the city. Porte Maillot which is further west crossing the Périphérique, and Place de la Concorde which is further East, are two major intersections generating much more traffic jams than Place de l'Étoile does.

But anyway, the reason why there is no traffic lights within the circle is because the "vehicle on the right way gets priority" rule just works better. Indeed, only the vehicles continuing their road in the circle have to stop. So if you would want to put traffic lights, you would need to separate on the right side the traffic turning right and flowing to the Champs-Elysées, and stop on the left side the traffic continuing within the circle. The problem is that you have 12 avenues joining there, so you have just not enough room to operate this properly. If it was so, the traffic from the avenue Marceau, which is immediately at the left of avenue des Champs-Elysées, would be totally stuck by the vehicles turning right at the Champs-Elysées. Vehicles would need to cross each others at a 90° degree angle, the outcome would be necessarily worse.

But the thing to understand is that it actually works perfectly well. I know that from the outside, watching traffic from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, it looks impressively chaotic but you only need to experience it once by car to realize it couldn't be better organized. As I've just told, Porte Maillot and Place de la Concorde are both much more worrying congestion spots than is Place de l'Étoile.

 

[WilfriedWebber]

But anyway, the reason why there is no traffic lights within the circle is because the "vehicle on the right way gets priority" rule just works better.

Yes, it is even implemented on some highways, like the Boulevard Phériphérique, Paris' 4- to 10-lane inner ring road.

 

[Miwi]

However, traffic-lighted roundabouts are common enough in Britain at least and cars do have to stop on them.

In Britain it is also common to drive on the wrong side

 

[Person012345]

In Britain it is also common to drive on the wrong side

Britain and Japan both drive on the left which is enough for me to conclude that it's the rest of the world that is doinitrong and not us.

 

[WilfriedWebber]

Actually, there is some evidence that our brains are naturally more suited to driving on the left, at least with right-handed people, who are the vast majority.

Ancient cultures, like the Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, drove and rode on the left; bicyclists, horse riders, and motorcyclists typically mount from the left.

 

[lemonsquid]

Actually, there is some evidence that our brains are naturally more suited to driving on the left, at least with right-handed people, who are the vast majority.

Ancient cultures, like the Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, drove and rode on the left; bicyclists, horse riders, and motorcyclists typically mount from the left.

thats because if the majority were superior on the right side physically, then physically getting on bikes, horses, and motorcycles is a lot easier. I really dont think people are naturally suited to driving in a left lane versus a right lane because that has no impact on our genetics or growing/learning stages. Only when we actually learn how to drive do we do so efficiently. You may have a study supporting this, but that dosnt make it true

 

[co_martsu]

Hi guys,

It seems some clarification with the roundabouts is in order

Yes, you can make round (circle) roundabouts with the roads at your disposal. You might want to make a couple of different sizes in the asset editor so you can quickly place them to your city when needed. Using the one way road for the circle you can avoid traffic lights and get, you know, the basic small roundabout type of thing as a result. Though you can use even highway for those if you wish a bigger roundabout.

 

[Person012345]

Hi guys,

It seems some clarification with the roundabouts is in order

Yes, you can make round (circle) roundabouts with the roads at your disposal. You might want to make a couple of different sizes in the asset editor so you can quickly place them to your city when needed. Using the one way road for the circle you can avoid traffic lights and get, you know, the basic small roundabout type of thing as a result. Though you can use even highway for those if you wish a bigger roundabout.

Will traffic flow on them be modelled accurately? IE. won't be rigid starting and stopping as if there are invisible traffic lights?