{"id":19229,"date":"2025-08-28T19:25:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=19229"},"modified":"2025-08-28T19:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:25:58","slug":"the-u-k-s-roundabouts-free-drivers-from-the-tyranny-of-traffic-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=19229","title":{"rendered":"The U.K.&#8217;s Roundabouts Free Drivers From the Tyranny of Traffic Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;The law demands a motorist come to a complete stop at a stop sign, no matter if any cars are coming. Traffic lights can offer an advantage: Some use magnets to detect traffic loads, but others run on timers, switching to red even if there&#8217;s no traffic going the other way. In either case, traffic lights can malfunction, turning into a de facto stop sign the same way a broken escalator becomes an expensive staircase. Besides, frequently stopping, starting, and idling wastes time, wastes gas, and puts unnecessary wear and tear on your brakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But at a roundabout, motorists keep driving through the intersection so long as it&#8217;s safe to do so. This sounds risky, but since everyone slows down a little bit and every car is constantly turning, roundabouts significantly lower the risk of high-speed impacts. &#8220;The net result of lower speeds and reduced conflicts at roundabouts is an environment where crashes that cause injury or fatality are substantially reduced,&#8221; according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further, roundabouts are perhaps the least infantilizing form of traffic control. Red lights are just crossing guards for adults, and stop signs require you to wait your turn even if you&#8217;re the only one waiting. Roundabouts are more efficient because they let drivers rely on themselves, not an inert piece of infrastructure.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/14\/swindon-united-kingdom\">https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/14\/swindon-united-kingdom<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The law demands a motorist come to a complete stop at a stop sign, no matter if any cars are coming. Traffic lights can offer an advantage: Some use magnets to detect traffic loads, but others run on timers, switching to red even if there&#8217;s no traffic going the other way. In either case, traffic lights can malfunction, turning into a de facto stop sign the same way a broken escalator becomes an expensive staircase. Besides, frequently stopping, starting, and idling wastes time, wastes gas, and puts unnecessary wear and tear on your brakes.<\/p>\n<p>But at a roundabout, motorists keep driving through the intersection so long as it&#8217;s safe to do so. This sounds risky, but since everyone slows down a little bit and every car is constantly turning, roundabouts significantly lower the risk of high-speed impacts. &#8220;The net result of lower speeds and reduced conflicts at roundabouts is an environment where crashes that cause injury or fatality are substantially reduced,&#8221; according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Further, roundabouts are perhaps the least infantilizing form of traffic control. Red lights are just crossing guards for adults, and stop signs require you to wait your turn even if you&#8217;re the only one waiting. Roundabouts are more efficient because they let drivers rely on themselves, not an inert piece of infrastructure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/14\/swindon-united-kingdom\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1092,1419,1299,1247,2005,920],"class_list":["post-19229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-cars","tag-drivers","tag-driving","tag-infrastructure","tag-roads","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19230,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19229\/revisions\/19230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}