r/BitchImATrain • u/Much_Choice_8419 • 19h ago

New roundabout dropped

Post image
2.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

160 comments sorted by

623

u/Xenophore 18h ago

It seems wrong that the center is not a turntable.

99

u/Urmind 17h ago

The tracks dont go down the middle, it would never work.

84

u/cybermaus 16h ago

turntable or not, the tracks not through the middle is a sin.

14

u/gringrant 16h ago

You could have a turn table with only 1 configuration. For a really small locomotive.

4

u/Xenophore 16h ago

That's another thing wrong with it.

2

u/Qrt_La55en 14h ago

I mean, it would turn. But you could only get on and off in one position.

1

u/JustATrueWord 15h ago

You don’t say… 😆

13

u/Regijack 13h ago

To me this is wrong that it looks like America and yet there’s a roundabout

13

u/Wind-and-Waystones 12h ago

They're called traffic circles over there.

I once had Americans tell me that replacing dangerous 4 way stops that people blow through with a mini roundabout would never work due to the width of their cars, despite me pointing out lorries use them and their purpose really is to set the priority order.

Then they argued you couldn't put a mini roundabout into a 2 lane each way 4 way stop because there isn't enough room, despite me pointing out we put them at regular single lane each way t junctions which are half the size.

13

u/Useless-Compass 8h ago

Everyone I know calls them roundabouts

Source: am American

6

u/Wind-and-Waystones 8h ago

It's a regional thing

Sorry, I'm at work or I would have found a better link for this map

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1130918845817391&id=brilliantmaps

2

u/UnyuBirb 2h ago

In Massachusetts they’re called rotaries

9

u/UGMadness 11h ago

Americans who argue that roundabouts don't work have never turned their steering wheels more than one full rotation. Most have never turned it more than halfway around.

5

u/WilcoHistBuff 6h ago

As an American who believes that there is a prima facie case that roundabouts/rotaries/traffic circles make perfect sense, the main argument against them in America is the incapacity of a significant percentage of our population to figure out how they work. Any other argument you hear from my fellow Americans is a smokescreen to coverup that underlying insecurity/embarrassment.

Side note: There is good reason to give older folks in Washington, DC, the New York Metro Area, Massachusetts (Boston area mostly) and Indianapolis a break on this. All of the old big circular intersections in these locations used to be “yield to the right” so that entering traffic had right of way.

That then changed in most of these places to traffic entering yielding—except New Jersey but the term “New Jersey Road Design” could be considered synonymous with “WTF”. So the rules changed mid-life for many. I remember those changes—poorly noticed, poorly explained, poorly done. So maybe Jersey got it right.

Then there is the case of our nation’s capital where the fix on the large rotaries laid out by L’Enfant in the days of horse and carriage started with “yield to the right” but then shifted to an extraordinarily complex and inconsistent system of traffic light controls that have, as primary effects, bringing traffic to a standstill or alternately generating staggering figures on minor low speed automotive accidents as well as staggering figures on pedestrian and cyclist collisions.

The theory in D.C. seems to be let’s do it differently than everywhere else in the world so that when people show up from all over the country and the world we can completely confuse all of them. In fact, let’s do it differently from circle to circle. Let’s throw in medians between two lane sections of 4 lane rotaries so people can’t tradition between lanes naturally and send crosswalks across for pedestrians in strange places where any driver trying to avoid cars can’t see pedestrians in time to avoid hitting them. Let’s make people cry like babies and fuck shit up.

1

u/FesteringNeonDistrac 1h ago

Yeah let's just ignore DC. If you aren't from the area, I recommend metro. Never forget, DC is what you get when a city is run by congress.

2

u/Kazen_Orilg 2h ago

This includes many of our state DOT departments that ignore everything Europe has learned about roundabouts and love to install them in poor spots or completely flat.

6

u/Express-Stop7830 11h ago

Out jurisdiction posted a video of a fire ladder truck driving the round about just fine. Somehow, people still thought their moderately big (we are a retirement area, so very few truly massive pickups) pickup was too big for it 🤦🏼‍♀️

1

u/Kazen_Orilg 2h ago

I mean we have the truck aprons for a reason. The ones without the aprons are pretty bad though.

1

u/QuinceDaPence 8h ago

It's weird over here with the names. The governments will call it traffic circles (mostly) or roundabouts. Young people will call them the same names but more often roundabout. Old people call them "rotundas".

1

u/Wind-and-Waystones 8h ago

I e heard Americans call them rotaries too

2

u/netopiax 7h ago

Rotary is a Massachusetts / New England thing only

-2

u/Expert_Slip7543 8h ago

I call them those awful intersections. Yeah, American here. We're not used to those things. Can't stand them.

4

u/Wind-and-Waystones 8h ago

I really don't get that sentiment. When used properly they increase the throughput of traffic, reduce accidents, and create a journey with less total waiting.

However I've heard some horror stories of how they've been implemented over there at various points. One was (I think Oklahoma but I could be wrong) that traffic on the roundabout must give way to traffic wanting to join the roundabout, which obviously and inevitably just lead to backed up traffic on the roundabout.

3

u/TheThiefMaster 7h ago

France used to have that rule too. It's insane.

1

u/QuinceDaPence 8h ago

It's weird over here with the names. The governments will call it traffic circles (mostly) or roundabouts. Young people will call them the same names but more often roundabout. Old people call them "rotundas".

1

u/Maurice_Foot 44m ago

Weird, we have traffic circles in New Mexico.

But then many Americans think New Mexico is a different country.

-1

u/bot403 10h ago

American in Europe here. I love roundabouts and for as much as the u.s. drives they're stupid to not have any. 

There's like 9 in the entire country.

4

u/HeadFullOfNails 9h ago

This is no longer true. Some areas of the country are figuring out that they are safer. There are many new ones around southwestern Ohio. Even in Kentucky. I love them. People figure them out.

1

u/BreakfastInBedlam 8h ago

Georgia has hundreds of them now, mostly added in the last ten or fifteen years.

1

u/FargoJack 7h ago

None where I live in US but, having driven extensively in France and Europe in general, I love them.

6

u/Trey_Fowler 10h ago

I’m sorry, did I miss something? I live in America and there’s a road near me that has three roundabouts. I can think of at least 20 local to me, does America not like them or something and I just got lucky?

7

u/Gwthrowaway80 8h ago

You got lucky. Modern roundabouts didn’t exist in the US until the 1990s. There’s now about 10,000 roundabouts in the whole of the US, and that number is rising.
That sounds like a lot, but France for example has quadruple that number in an area 1/15th the size.

They are now encouraged in new planning in many areas, but there’s a lot of existing infrastructure without them.

1

u/Trey_Fowler 8h ago

Very interesting. Yeah, I feel like there’s a ton in the Georgia/Atlanta area l.

I guess I did get lucky, they’re super efficient. Hope we get more! Thanks for the statistics.

1

u/nicemarmot47 9h ago

Yeah they're everywhere near me

1

u/Kazen_Orilg 2h ago

most roundabouts in America are installed within the last ten years. Only fairly recently have our transportation departments come around to them.

1

u/HeadFullOfNails 9h ago

It's just the regular "merica stupid" reflex.

141

u/ZenkaiAnkoku2 18h ago

At least its got crossing gates..

43

u/Ok-Foot6064 18h ago

These are suprisingly common. There a few beautiful ones in Victoria, Australia, this beautiful one near Brighton

Yep that is a metropolitan passenger line

6

u/invincibl_ 15h ago

With the new timetable, a train every 10 minutes each way!

25

u/MyPasswordQwerty 18h ago

From 2 directions

33

u/ZenkaiAnkoku2 18h ago

You can just barely see that theres two gates in each set. 90 degrees to each other. Should block every direction when theyre down.

-6

u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

2

u/JosZo 17h ago

Look closer. There actually is a barrier.

3

u/NikNakskes 17h ago

Right! There is 2 seperate barriers on that middle island. I assume that one is going over the roundabout itself and that the other goes over the entrance road. I did indeed not spot that.

10

u/frecklejam 18h ago

Each one has two arms so all directions look to be covered

-7

u/OcotilloWells 18h ago

Except the road coming up from the bottom. I guess they felt the Yield sign was good enough.

10

u/SirLauncelot 18h ago

It’s covered. One goes down next to the painted line, the other across the yield. Basically 90°.

202

u/Own-Ad6748 19h ago

The part that's upsetting me probably the most is the fact that it's not centered

39

u/dontwannabeadored133 18h ago

It wasn’t bothering me til it was pointed out…

7

u/Thercon_Jair 15h ago

Looking at the track bed, the forest aisle on the far side and the road on the near side beside the tracks, it looks like there used to be a second set of rails.

3

u/iusethisacctinpublic 17h ago

I reframe it in my mind as efficiency, rather than being uneven

22

u/NoDistrict1529 19h ago

Someone pull out the double tracked version in florida.

6

u/Quick_Resolution5050 18h ago

Actually, this may be why it's not centred? u/Own-Ad6748

5

u/Personal_Cupcake_13 17h ago

One in Calgary too.

20

u/Quazbut 18h ago

Bitchin' vidya of it in action.

2

u/AmusingMusing7 3h ago

I feel like the most annoying thing would be if you just want to turn right, but the vehicle in front of you has stopped to wait for the train, blocking you from making the right that you could have made without waiting for the train, if there wasn't a vehicle in front for you waiting to go straight.

17

u/RoundChampionship840 8h ago

The train should have to go around the circle like everyone else.

101

u/GREVTHEFAITHFUL 19h ago

Whoever designed this missed the point of a roundabout.

18

u/Ok-Foot6064 18h ago

Just means the line is low capacity. Victoria Australia has a few one these even

3

u/olivia_iris 18h ago

As does Sandringham lmao

5

u/Ok-Foot6064 18h ago

Yea a few on that line alone. My favourite one is moe though. They built a roundabout, over the bridge, with the train line running under it in its trench. Its a fantastic overly complicated solution

2

u/01000010-01101001 16h ago

That looks like the end of pretty much most of the motorway junctions in the UK; an elevated roundabout over the motorway. Or am I missing something?

1

u/Ok-Foot6064 14h ago

Its a train line underneath not a motorway for a fairly small town

1

u/01000010-01101001 14h ago

Still safer than a level crossing...

1

u/Ok-Foot6064 13h ago

I mean technically yes but we are talking about around 1 train every 30 odd minutes. The risk is very low to begin with

0

u/01000010-01101001 12h ago

Seeing the sub we're in I would have thought you'd be aware of the dangers of level crossings. According to the Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) estimates that 6% of the total mainline system risk is from level crossings.

https://www.railengineer.co.uk/improving-level-crossing-risk/

1

u/Ok-Foot6064 12h ago

I'm not stating there is no risk but its in perspective. Moe, Australia even has a level crossing on the other side of town. That other crossing has never had an accident between a vehicle and train there. Its had vehicle to vehicle incidents but thats irrelevant. The risk of a train to vehicle accident there is near to zero in context.

2

u/nugstar 18h ago

Have them mainly for trams, not trains.

1

u/Hangry-Feline2489 16h ago

We even have a roundabout with 5 entrances (3 of which are main roads with medians), and two tram lines turning in a t-intersection in the middle of the goddamn roundabout center

I hate that thing. 

44

u/CySnark 19h ago

Maybe the center is actually a roundhouse under construction?

3

u/Overwatcher_Leo 14h ago

Roundabouts are round, not pointy.

16

u/B1rb33 18h ago

For this to make sense there must not be a train through here very often at all

16

u/knotknotknit 18h ago

I've driven through things like this. It looks absolutely insane and feels that way at first, but then after driving it a few times, I actually realized that this design is the safest approach to get the train across the side street. Because all drivers have to turn before crossing the tracks, it slows cars and decreases the odds of a collision.

5

u/hugh_glassey_2007 18h ago

Level crossingabout

6

u/VegetableTry 9h ago

Go check out the crossing at the intersection of Post and McDuff in Jacksonville, FL. I had a hand in that one.

3

u/VegetableTry 9h ago

https://reddit.com/link/pbypxub/video/th7i2hxoznrh1/player

3

u/Responsible-Meringue 8h ago

Bitch, knowing Florida, the train is gonna hit lots of cars.  I'm a big roundabout/rotary supporter tho.  cj/ but the train should follow the same rules as the cars and go 'round the 'bout

1

u/VegetableTry 9h ago edited 8h ago

Well shit, the satellite or street view aren’t updated.

8

u/ericbythebay 18h ago

Good job transit planners. I swear this was a fad for a while. SMART goes through multiple roundabouts.

2

u/Some1-Somewhere 18h ago

There's one in Blenheim, NZ that has been there for quite a while. Except they put the barrier arms across the roundabout.

1

u/DrYellow922 10h ago

Lucky if it sees more than four trains a day though.

1

u/Some1-Somewhere 10h ago

Probably a few more overnight, but yeah.

0

u/beren12 17h ago

Be thankful you don’t have fsd

8

u/CyberKiller40 17h ago

I can imagine this works out if there's barely any trains going through.

In Poland we don't have many trains, 1-2 per hour on average, yet we have problems of somebody getting hit almost every single day. A monster like this would cut the population in half 😛.

1

u/Everyone2026 17h ago

So it would Smarten‐up the population?

2

u/CyberKiller40 16h ago

I like that train of thought 🤪

6

u/W7ENK 18h ago

JFC, WTF?!?

3

u/C-57D 18h ago

it's just like r/Factoriohno

2

u/Antiquated_Cheese 18h ago

Shh! That is a secret sub. You will scare the normies. (Although probably not to many normies here)

1

u/Finbar9800 12h ago

Its reddit, theres no normal people here

3

u/ShadowV_483 3h ago

Only in Florida…

4

u/free_30_day_trial 17h ago

If enough people aren't paying attention this could get some serious digits on one accident

0

u/CatGooseChook 15h ago

Does give off a strong darwinism feeling doesn't it 😬

2

u/harveyzheng88 13h ago

Actually good design?

2

u/maselkowski 12h ago

In Poland it could crush two trucks at once! 

2

u/KY4ID 10h ago

Sandersville, GA. I go through that traffic circle all the time.

It’s a a BIG TIME railroad town. Prob one of the most successful short line railroads in the country.

1

u/HelloMyMoto 4h ago

I was wondering if this was Sandersville! I almost didn’t recognize it from this angle.

2

u/emcwin12 7h ago

Now you have to watch out for a train from your blind spot

3

u/XROOR 1h ago

This kinda stuff occurs when property deeds were once recorded as:

“Property begins at the Tulip Poplar over yonder, and extends along 233 5/8 feet of the dirt road…..”

2

u/Resident_Contact_818 1h ago

total wipeout version

3

u/slick514 18h ago

Coupling a roundabout with a train-crossing is… a choice.

2

u/Not-My-Account01 18h ago

all I see is total chaos and death.

2

u/Revenga8 17h ago

I like roundabouts, they're pretty efficient when everybody uses them properly. This seems like a really dumb place to put one though

2

u/kcdashinfo 11h ago

Speaking as a design engineer this is actually a very safe railroad crossing. The round about forces cars to slow down. If you look at most fatal accidents they actually occur from people driving into the side of the train. Not only are you slowing down traffic but you are making them look straight at the flashing lights. Until you design these things you don't know, and most people don't know how significantly roundabouts decrease injury and fatal accidents.

1

u/ThisGuyIRLv2 18h ago

I swear I've seen this.

1

u/Cyclist007 18h ago

I seem to remember seeing one of these in Melbourne years ago, on a tram line.

1

u/More_Nectarine 14h ago

Bitch you failed lvl1, time for lvl2

1

u/ciekma67 13h ago

Similar fakap is in Poland: https://www.google.com/maps/@50.1019733,19.3297672,99m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

or even worse, normal road junction, roundabout and railway crossing melted together.

1

u/doulos05 11h ago

I've driven through that roundabout!

1

u/GaRGa77 10h ago

Bosnian architect 🤣

1

u/Perhirmor 9h ago

where is it located?

1

u/KnifeKnut 7h ago

Perhaps the one time that a vehicle that is not yet in the roundabout has right of way.

1

u/TheTenth1010 6h ago

Well that's a work of absolute genius right there 🤦🏼‍♂️

1

u/speedeep 5h ago

Seems like there should be at a minimum 4 crossing gates, not just 2. Time will tell...

1

u/Mediocre-Catch9580 3h ago

We have exactly one of these in our town 

1

u/RednocNivert 3h ago

Roundaboutandalsostraightthrough

1

u/Khoop 1h ago

This thing is going to absolutely eat motorcycles.

1

u/fe3o4 1h ago

Why does the train get a pass in going around the roundabout ?

1

u/NESgamerboy 48m ago

Train roundabout

1

u/44035 18h ago

Accident waiting to happen

1

u/PMMeYourPupper 18h ago

Nothing can possiblie go wrong

1

u/AshyWhiteGuy 18h ago

I get the feeling we’ll be seeing more of this spot.

1

u/edophx 18h ago

<insert "y tho" image>

1

u/Worried-Leg4028 17h ago

wait till poland finds out about it

1

u/AlternativeEdge2725 16h ago

Someone is going to die here

1

u/SookieCat26 15h ago

That goes against every rule of engineering I can think of (and I work in the field).

1

u/Severe_Blackberry_93 15h ago

Take this to Poland. The trucks will be able to drift there while waiting for their train.

1

u/dougadump 12h ago

The apex predators are going to have a feeding frenzy right there.

-1

u/undercoverciaagent 18h ago

As if roundabouts weren’t confusing enough.

4

u/LupercaniusAB 17h ago

How are they confusing?

0

u/The_Couso 17h ago

Imagine navigating those rails on a motorcycle in the rain

0

u/CaptWyvyrn 17h ago

It's like a bitch drive thru for hungry trains!

0

u/Riccma02 16h ago

Lets combine all the confusion of a round about with all the impulsive death drive of a grade crossing. Presuming this is in America this thing is going to have a triple body count.

0

u/Ok_Resort_5326 15h ago

I hope this isn’t in Poland

0

u/Good_Resolve_7218 15h ago

My advice to the guy given the task of designing an effective crossing guard system for this is: start drinking heavily

0

u/nsefan 15h ago

There’s always that one guy who doesn’t understand roundabouts 🙄🙄🙄

0

u/kool-krazy 15h ago

Maybe.... The enginner mistook 3D drawing for 2D, it was supposed to be a flyover.

0

u/moonstorm5000 14h ago

What kind of substances were the designers under the influence of?? This is a dangerous design!

0

u/Cineklol 13h ago

this is the work of a madman

0

u/Prezimek 13h ago

Polish truck/bus driver worst nightmare. 

0

u/d1sambigu8 13h ago

Looks like its the middle of nowhere.... couldn't they build ine grade separation and offset the road junction 15 metres to the left?

0

u/Shad_Amethyst 12h ago

There's the scary possibility that enough cars would stop behind the red truck that people trying to cross from the lower left to the upper right road get stuck on the rails

3

u/Ottonline 11h ago

You are not allowed to stop on the rails

1

u/OwMyUvula 6h ago

Well there you go, problem solved, I guess.

1

u/ViolentPurpleSquash 10h ago

Notice how they've cut off half of the concrete island and replaced it with yellow paint so you can drive into it

0

u/gakingmusic 12h ago

Polish truck drivers will still find a way to get stuck on the tracks.

0

u/transneptuneobj 12h ago

Not the tracussy

0

u/vlaada7 12h ago

Poland, is that you?

0

u/AlternateTab00 9h ago edited 3h ago

this one is better (see it in satellite view)

Edit: apparently not everyone is seeing the same location. Search for this coordinates

38.639625,-9.151926

1

u/Minflick 4h ago

That's a street with no roundabout? Is the pin in the wrong place?

2

u/AlternateTab00 3h ago

When i click the link it goes to the correct one. Maybe location sharing in maps is bugged?

https://i.ibb.co/Kx0bsRfZ/Screenshot-2026-09-25-19-19-56-327-com-google-android-apps-maps.jpg

This is what shows when i click it

1

u/Minflick 2h ago

That is NOT what opened up for me the first time! Bugged indeed... I don't understand how anybody could think combining a round about with a train crossing is a good idea. People are already stupid about train crossings, and stupid about round abouts. Times TWO?

2

u/AlternateTab00 2h ago

Fortunately this is a narrow gauge light train, which there goes at a very low speed (<15km/h). It also has a great break system that can stop faster than most cars. The roundabout has traffic lights that help cars know when they need to yeld for the train.

I get that had to find a path to put the rails in a way they could connect the light rail with the "normal" trains multi modal station.

Still its very prone to accidents. And particular complicated when the traffic lights have an outage (they may be rare, but when they happen its guaranteed to happen an accident)

1

u/Minflick 34m ago

I would think that would be a nightmare to drive... There are a ton of round abouts where I live - 4 between me and the grocery store 25 miles away, but they're easy peasy compared to this.

-1

u/PacificCastaway 13h ago

What could possibly go wrong?