I almost had a traffic accident yesterday.

I was traveling Eastbound and going through the intersection.

The light was green and has been green before I'd even entered the intersection.

It's not like I was stopped at the red light and it just turned green.

If that was the case, I always look left and right before moving.

If the people behind me want to honk at me for not moving fast enough when the light turns green, tough!

This pickup truck going Northbound ran the red light and came barreling down through the intersection;

I saw him and I put the pedal to the metal.

He missed my passenger's side rear quarter panel by about half a car length and he also missed the front end of the car coming up behind me in the lane next to me.

If that car was in the intersection a couple of seconds sooner, he would had been t-boned.

That truck didn't stop or brake.

I didn't hear any screeching sound of brakes being applied.

It also just kept going; it didn't stop and I wasn't able to get a license plate.

All I know is it was a white pick up truck.

Every day I see stupid drivers out there.

They are either distracted by cell phones and GPS navigation and whatever gadgets are built in a car nowadays.

Some of them are just too stupid to drive:

they don't have the brain power to operate a 3000-4000 lbs motor vehicle and make constant, split seconds decisions while doing it.

Introduce roundabouts

I've driven in England and Ireland and China and I've been through those roundabouts.

I still can't figure out how to get through those things on the very first attempt without going through it over and over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc

I think roundabouts teach basic manners in driving imo and also a hell of a lot better than lights, stop and go stop and go nonsense that can drive a driver mad (Pun intended)

http://www.2pass.co.uk/roundabout.htm#.UhX75z_9XyA

I've been "enjoying" English roundabouts since November now, and I will state that when traffic's light, they're great. Much better halting for a few seconds at most, or being able to just slow down then speed up again, than having to stop completely at an empty interchange.

Note that I said when traffic's light though. When traffic's heavy those things are baby-killers as your typical Brit appears to "forget" the rules of the road and just pulls out in front of oncoming traffic with appalling speed cause he saw a 1/2 second opening. Worse yet, if the traffic is really heavy, roundabouts are simply ignored as everyone shimmies their way in to "block" those that are already on the roundabout itself.

Problem is, traffic is very seldom "light".

Oh, and as a side-note: Could someone please introduce the concept of a "breakdown" lane to your highways? I know the large motorways have them, but I really do grow weary of spending 3 hours backed up because someone got a flat tire and has nowhere to push their vehicle to...

If you drove yesterday then that's all you needed to post.

You are kidding, right?

We don't have those here in Texas.

I've only been to England 2 times, China 1 time and Ireland 1 time.

That's not enough time to learn how to drive through one of those things.

it aint exactly rocket science, stay left if your turning off at the next turning, stay right if your going round, or is it just that a road that bends that throws you guys off?

I was in a slight fender bender (rear ender) just over a month ago because a timid female dog in an Audi stopped because there was a car on the other side of the circle. First accident in 50 years where I was at fault.

Took my eyes of the Audi to check what was in the circle and when I looked back it was stopped and no time to brake. No I wasn't tailgating.

This!

I can't see how you can get trapped in one roundabout and be forced to go around. I've never missed the exit once in 10+ years of driving.

But still, I have to agree that they're not always the best solution, though. There's some interesections where a traffic light is the only way to prevent massive traffic jams and incidents.

The main problem with roundabouts, or traffic circles/rotaries like we call them here, is people still drive like idiots in them. There's a 2-lane one on route 9 just outside Brattleboro VT and it'd be a piece of cake if some people didn't pass while in it, or come to a dead stop in the inside lane because there's too much traffic for them to get into the outside lane where their exit is. Go around another time! And how did you get in the inside lane in the first place? A rotary is only effective when traffic keeps moving, even if it's slowly.

Actually we DO have traffic circles in Texas. They used to be more prevalent, but there are still a few. They took the one out in Brownwood about 1990, but there are several in east Texas. I think Henderson is the biggest town that still has one. (It may not be Henderson, but it's in that area. It's been too many years since I was in those parts.)

We've got a few around here, a pretty new concept for us. I like them, they make sense and keep traffic going. It's easy, if someone's coming from the left (you all go around counter clockwise) DON'T GO. If there's room or no one there, GO. I used to have to go through one on my way to work, it was at the largest airport in the state. What does that mean? People going to the airport. People from all around who have never seen this thing going to the airport. Every day I had to watch people trying to figure that thing out, although there are SIGNS that say what to do. I've seen people going around stop at each road as if they had a stop sign at each one. Then there's the person who figures that instead of following traffic laws, he'll be friendly going around this thing and let people in right in front of him, confusing the hell out of EVERYONE. LOL I hate those people. JUST DRIVE! It was stupid putting that thing where it would get the most newcomers, but I otherwise like them.

There's a bit of irony to this - previously, all motorways (but not A-class roads) have "hard-shoulders", which are for breakdowns and emergency vehicles.

However, since traffic keeps increasing and the government ran out of money, time and permission to build more lanes, they've turned hard shoulders on some motorways to being variable or controlled lanes - if congestion is high, the hard shoulder turns into an active lane. When traffic is light(er), it goes back to being a hard shoulder.

Great idea, huh.

But yeah, roundabouts...

I hate roundabouts.

That's all I have to say about that.

We have these in New England too, I hate them People from MA think they have the right way entering the circle, instead of yielding the right of way to the people coming out of the circle... The one in Portsmouth is so busy they're always state police there.

When I'm with my friend, I'll always drive around once and say, Hey look, Big Ben, Parliament...

Dash cam video from a Semi-Truck daily driving in the San Francisco area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nHaAZVODURA#t=149

I'm glad I don't run over the road anymore. I thought it was bad back then; it's a LOT worse now...

I see stuff 10x worse than that almost every day, and I'm in Podunk compared to LA. Too many people just think it's all about them, that they can cross the double yellow any time they want if slowing down if the car in front is making a right turn, etc. I'm so happy I drive a big truck that will survive a hit from any car on the road. I think the only reason I haven't been hit yet is because I pay attention to the road.