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Crash bars saved my leg.

4K views 29 replies 7 participants last post by  Whiskey 
#1 ·
So there's this wonderful roundabout where I live. The design of it has changed since inception. There's even some handy materials our city puts out to note lanes of travel. Last Tuesday I was riding to work in the morning and, lo and behold, someone who doesn't know how to navigate the roundabout turns right in front of me. The image below says "Proposed", but those are the current lane assignments. Suffice it to say, she was cited, she was found at fault, her insurance is taking care of me. It's just a bonehead move and I wonder how many times she's done it and almost hit someone (she ALMOST hit the car in front of me, too). It was such a nice morning to ride into work, she's super lucky I wasn't in my pickup instead. You can see the slide marks from my crash bars and highway pegs on the concrete when I step back and look back at her car. If those weren't there, I would have likely lost bits of my leg instead.







 
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#2 ·
It was hard to see the lines at the time of the accident, but later when you look back at it, it was quite clear that she crossed the line to hit you. Sorry man. Idiots are everywhere and you apparently found one.
 
#3 ·
I really wish folks would have gotten the roundabout thing out of their system before heading out west.
I keep seeing them crop up all over AZ.

Glad you're ok.

As a 4 wheeler she sucks.

But as a rider, you already knew she was a problem child.
I wouldn't have given her the chance to confirm it any further.

But....Shlt happens.
 
#7 ·
But as a rider, you already knew she was a problem child.
I wouldn't have given her the chance to confirm it any further.

I would agree with you except that she was so far forward of me that I honestly forgot about her. It wasn't until I reviewed the video that I realized it was the same car doing the same stupid stuff beforehand. I thought she'd already gone through the roundabout by the time I was there. I also thought "well I'm following vehicles in my lane, no one is stupid enough to turn at the last second into me" -- but there she was.





Most of our roundabouts are either one or two lanes. This one is in an area where there is a very high flow of traffic. It used to be a traffic light intersection with very very few accidents. Within the first two weeks of opening it as a roundabout there were 70+ -- which is why they did the redesign to the current lane structure. Even then people can't understand how the lanes work and don't pay attention to the couple of signs before the roundabout or the huge concrete markings before and in the roundabout. Her entire argument was that her lane allowed that because of the straight arrows she saw... the straight arrows that were for the entrance she'd just passed, not for her entrance.



I, honestly, would rather just wait at a light, but they've sunk so much money into this roundabout it's never going away - even with the higher than normal crash statistics.
 
#4 ·
Roundabouts are actually way better than lights, but the morons around here can't seem to figure out that their different than a 4-way stop.

I swear people in my area get their drivers licenses out of Cracker Jack boxes.
 
#8 ·
I may have posted this before, but here are some shots of the worlds stupidest roundabout.
It's about 100 miles from my home.
I think my blood pressure rises every time I encounter this bastard.
 

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#9 ·
when I as growing up they were called traffic circles the biggest problem with round abouts are they are s small and that makes them confusing, back in the days of traffic circles ,they were large and this caused everyone to enter and drive as fast as possible so as making everyone wait like they had to get on and off or in or out , it beats the hell out of the jug handles in N.J.
 
#12 ·
The problem with a 4-way stop is that if you have a high traffic road that meets up with a low traffic road you unnecessarily slow down the movement of traffic on the high traffic road just so that the occasional vehicle trying to enter from the low traffic road can get in safely.

If everyone will use a round-about properly, they really are the best way to go.
 
#13 ·
Glad it wasn't worse. I noticed that the whole time she sat there, she didn't even turn on her flashers to warn others.
Here they've exploded with roundabouts. Most cities have an ordinance that states " if a semi or other tractor- trailer combination are in a roundabout, cars must yield the right of way to them. Only seen it enforced once.
 
#14 ·
Most cities have an ordinance that states " if a semi or other tractor- trailer combination are in a roundabout, cars must yield the right of way to them.
I'm assuming this is for large multi lane roundabouts?

Most of them around here are small single lanes, and the rule for a roundabout that everyone seems to screw up is that the vehicle in the roundabout has right of way, so that rule would be a bit redundantly redundant.
 
#19 ·
Just after they passed the ordinance in one town, I was taking up my 2 lanes when a dump truck tried to pass me on the right. I had to cut it back left and come to a stop. Looked in my mirror and the trailer was about 6" from hitting the center decoration. There was a city cop that was in the roundabout, he waited on me to exit it, then hit his lights and hauled butt after the dump truck. I later learned he was hit with a $150 ticket and the cost of cleaning my tire marks off the curb.
 
#24 ·
so the weight of these mc's are definitely not heavy enough to trip any traffic lite sensor...too often I am forced to go thru a lite when an opening occurs rather than wait for a car to eventually approach from behind, which usually takes forever at certain lites and trip the sensor. Nothing related to this thread just an opportunity to b!tch about another situation we motorcyclists encounter that comes with the territory of riding, whatever that means...know what...time to go for a ride.
 
#25 ·
A lot of areas have laws that state you can run the light on a motorcycle after waiting a "reasonable amount of time." They never really define that term in my experience. We keep having it go up for vote in Cobb County, but it never seems to go through. I talked to a few cops at the gas station and they all said they usually are looking the other way when motorcycles do that. ;)
 
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