Americans don’t like roundabouts, but they should

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March 17th, 2016

France is ahead of the curve.

The country is among the world’s leaders in circular intersections or roundabouts. Every 45th intersection in France is a roundabout, whereas the United States lags far behind with one per 1,118 intersections.

That’s a real problem because researchers say roundabouts can save lives. According to data by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or signals were previously used for traffic control.” Apart from preventing cars from crashing into each other, roundabouts also saved the lives of countless pedestrians.

Credit: Rick Noack, The Washington Post