Buffalo Rising Online

OK perhaps instead of fighting against circles we should fight against poor drivers. They should be first educated on the proper rules and conduct for using a circle and then ticketed for not using them properly. There are too many benefits of circles to simply call it a wash because people are ignorant of the laws.

Someone on a cell phone eating a cheese burger is just as big a problem at circles as anywhere else. The problem isn't the road it is the driver.

The circles in general are great and we should have more of them. The Conservancy does a wonderful job maintaining them.

It should be noted that the circles are technically not roundabouts which are very safe and efficient. Unfortunately, none of the circles are designed to modern roundabout design guidelines. This could account for some of the confusion by drivers.

The new roundabouts (as being constructed in the Village of Hamburg and on Harlem Road) meet the specs and will prove to be very successful.

Circles work fine. I commute via Richmond Ave and have never had a problem or seen many accidents. The drivers in this area know they are sharing the street with bicyclists, pedestrians, and dogs and usually act accordingly. Contrast this with Niagara Falls Blvd. where drivers seem hell bent on speeding from light to light rarely giving a fellow traveler a break.

Thenextmayor, what is the difference between a traffic circle, roundabout, or rotary?

Does Eileen get paid to maintain the circle?

Over at the Central Terminal, there is a group of wonderful ladies from the Buffalo Federation of Women's Clubs who, along with some neighborhood kids, have designed and maintained the Breast Cancer Awareness Garden in the Memorial Drive traffic circle for 4 years. It's completely voluntary. Most of these ladies are breast cancer survivors. The neighborhood kids call them "the Hope Ladies", because they are blown away by the fact that these ladies are doing something to make their neighborhood look pretty and they aren't getting paid for it.

It's a great story, Newell. If you interested, let me know.

I love the traffic circles. And yes, they do look beautiful.

i love these circles, they are beautiful in certain parts of the city like chapin park/bidwell park where I live. I agree that people do not know how to drive on them, they are stopping or hunking their horns because they do not know what the H* they are doing...aside from the traffic issue they cause they beautiful and a rare thing. I noticed in DC they had very similiar circles I wonder if their is a connection to Buffalo in that respect? I swear their is a circle in DC that looks exactly like gates circle ! (thats probably hard to believe)

I've learned that people simply do not know the meaning of "yield". In driving around Gates Circle to enter Chapin Pkwy., I've had drivers traveling south on Delaware fly on to the Circle right in front of me. When I have given them the horn, they look over at me as though to say, "What's your problem ?" I firmly believe that all yield signs should be removed and replaced by stop signs - not that there are not drivers who sail through stop signs but I have noticed that stop signs are more effective than yield signs. Jim is right that there is more discipline in Europe (German drivers will honk and flash lights at slow cars in the left lane but they will never pass them on the right. Unfortunately, Americans have never learned that kind of discipline.

I always admire the circles, or at least try to as to many people zip through them without stopping or slowing down. Me thinks a speed bump or two would be great!

Someday, people are going to have to understand that the automobile is not the be-all, end-all of modern transportation.

The circles themselves serves as punctuation marks for the Olmsted Park System. My personal favorites are the Symphony and the Solders Circles.

The Olmsted Park Conservancy also has several other circles planned for the existing Olmsted routes, including one for Jewett and Fillmore Avenue and one for Smith and Seneca Street. A Smith Street circle would be helpful towards completing an Olmsted link between Fillmore Avenue and McKinley Parkway.

I've also surveyed the land around FIllmore Avenue and William Street, and that would also make a fine circle.

Oh come on "heathersmiles"...so someone on a bike cut off you whiney friend. I'm sure that the cops laughed at your friends bitch ass for wasting the time for calling.