Roundabouts and a few other Worthington Related Things

I haven't taken the time yet to write about transportation very much, but a trip to the Carp Capital of the World, Třeboň, to go biking last week got me thinking about another world capital I used to visit a lot - Worthington, Minnesota, the Turkey Capital of the World (though this designation is disputed by Cuero, Texas).  

Roundabouts
They started building roundabouts about 10 years ago in this area.  There are now quite a few throughout the country.  All four of the big roads leaving town have roundabouts at the edge of the city.  As best I can tell, with new construction, they put in roundabouts.

The design is similar to what we do in the US (no doubt they copied England also).  There is a splitter island, yield on entry, circular road, truck apron (on single lane roundabouts anyway), center island.  The truck aprons have typically been cobblestone.

Their roundabout signing is pretty simple and consistent through the ones I have seen.  Here is the approach to a small roundabout in Česke Budejovice -

From Transportation

This is the first sign at approaches to roundabouts.  I like this sign.  It tells you there is a roundabout and which exit to take to reach your destination.  Note the Tesco and Baumax exits go into parking lots.

From Transportation

This photo shows the ped Xing sign and the, farther along, the circular roundabout sign set below the yield sign.  Then, in the circle itself, chevrons.  That's it.  The small roundabouts do not have destination signs at each exit, I didn't notice if big ones do.

From Transportation

If you were wondering from the previous photo what the car was doing in the center island - it's an add.  There are lots of adds in public right of way including hanging from bridges.

On Hwy. E49 on the east edge of Ceske Budejovice there is a big multi-lane roundabout.

From Transportation

To the northeast runs a four-lane divided highway.  Plans are to extend the four-lane into town on the unfinished southwest leg.  This baby has two lanes all the way through with a third between each entrance-exit pair.  The diameter of the inscribed circle is 475 feet.  There is another big one on the four-lane headed north from town that has a diameter of 350 feet - so it is not a fluke.  So we drove through it very comfortably in a mini-van at 50 km/h (30 mph).  The fellow driving said he sometimes takes it at 80+ km/h (over 50 mph).

This concept has been frowned upon in the US.  Sure, the maximum safety benefits are gained when you slow traffic to below 20 mph.  That way, there is rarely a crash and, if there is, no one usually gets hurt.  My opinion, though, is that there are those locations (most notably on four lane highways at entrances to cities) where some form of traffic control is needed.  Signals are too dangerous.  Interchanges are too expensive or take too much space.  Small roundabouts inhibit mobility too much.  A big roundabout may be a good solution.  My friend said that this one is not noted as having lots of crashes.  When I can speak enough Czech I'll see what they have for crash data.

So, how does this all relate to Worthington.  Well, at the entrance to Třeboň, there is a roundabout and this is what is inside it...

Note the carp and the five-petaled rose which is the symbol of the Rožmberk's - the powerful family that ruled the area for several hundred years and had the fish ponds dug.

I ask you, if the Carp Capital of the World can have carp, why not have a turkey in the forthcoming Oxford Street roundabout in the Turkey Capital of the World.  Imagine the shocked and awed expressions of the Cueroites when they bring Ruby Begonia up for the race with Paycheck in the Great Gobbler Gallop.  I expect there would be no more discussion of to whom belongs the title - Turkey Capital of the World.

By the way, in the Třeboň area there is this  km long ditch from one point on the river Lužnice to another point downstream.  The ditch, known as the Golden Canal, provides water to a bunch of carp production ponds.  The guy that designed it is even featured on a statue.  Frankly, it ain't much to look at.  Anyway, for all the trouble the off-take ditch in Worthington was/is, I propose that it be dubbed the Golden Off-take Ditch. 

Finally, after a nice bike ride (we got lost - those are the best) we returned to Česke Budejovice.  We traveled on the narrow two lane roads with no shoulders, two foot deep V-ditches with 2:1 (yes steeper than 1:1) slopes, and trees on the back slope.  We came to the four lane highway with narrow median utilizing a sort of plate beam center guardrail.  We went through the big roundabout.  We drove on a four-lane city street.  And we came to the biggest bottleneck in town - a railroad underpass.  This again reminded me of Worthington.  It is a bit more problematic than the Union Pacific one track line over Hwy. 60 though.  Here the road goes under the tracks right by the train station - there are five tracks on the bridge and dozens of trains a day.

Peter