Rants & Raves: Roundabouts good and evil

Readers react on our websites and Facebook pages to stories on local roundabouts:

I love the one at Sea Pines. The one in Bluffton on 46 is horrible. I avoid it if at all possible. As in most things, the design is the key. The difference between the two is night and day.

We have a few here where I live, and while I have never seen an accident in one, I have come close to being hit in one. They are a relatively new concept here, and people don’t understand yet that you have to yield to people already in the circle. I think a lot of it depends on the size of the circle. The one at Sea Pines is very large and can accommodate more cars. The ones in Bluffton are quite small.

I agree. People have problems merging in general. Especially on rotaries and getting on highways.

It’s more than that ... The one at Sea Pines is built differently.

Make them all like Hilton Head’s one right outside Sea Pines and life would be great. I don’t get the ones like the Bluffton Parkway’s one. It’s not safe.

I agree. The one on the Parkway is dangerous and confusing. I can’t figure it out.

You have to have enough of them to give more drivers confidence about them. I loved them when I visited Australia, because everybody know how they work; but here, they scare me, because people don’t know the rules and conventions well.

It keeps traffic going. They aren’t that difficult. People just don’t know how to drive and use the roundabouts correctly

First the one in Bluffton is too small for a turn signal to be effective there’s not enough reaction time. Second roundabouts are not supposed to be designed where there’s ever any conflicting traffic other than merging in and merging out. The inside lane should never have to cross over traffic from the outside lane.

I don’t know why but I feel like having thick vegetation in the middle helps with navigating roundabouts. Which is why people like the Sea Pines roundabout.

I love roundabouts! People just have to get use to them and learn how to use them. I would like to see more of them.

I like roundabouts. The Greenwood at Sea Pines - have gone around it zillions of times.

The one in Sea Pines works well because it’s large. The one in Bluffton works awfully because it’s small. Any civil engineer will tell you, roundabouts have to be large to work properly.

Pope Avenue circles are great! Bluffton Parkway is terrible. People go too fast and don’t yield to traffic already in the circle as instructed. That is why the right lane should be right turn only in a divided lane. Put those white barrier post like you have at Bluffton Pkwy and S.C. 170 eastbound turn to separate the lanes.

The Sea Pines circle is perfect. Suicide Circle at 46 is a joke!

We have one in my hometown and I’ve driven the roundabouts numerous times on HHI. The only problem I ever have is inexperienced and incompetent drivers that don’t understand the traffic pattern.

They work!

They stink.

Roundabouts are great until you add a second lane. The two-lane roundabout on Bluffton Parkway is a nightmare. People not only do not understand how they work but they can’t even manage to stay in their own lane most of the time.

This story was originally published March 20, 2016 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Rants & Raves: Roundabouts good and evil."