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Comment by bfdm | Hacker News Reader

Yep. Canada suburbs here. We're starting to see roundabouts used more often for what would be higher traffic four-ways or inconvenient lights. They're great, both as a driver and as a cyclist. Lower conflict risk, simple rules to proceed.

IMO all smaller 4 way stops should become what I've described as trash can roundabouts. Small island to circle around. So much better than stop signs.

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In the UK they are called mini roundabouts, and are sometimes just painted on: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mini-roundabout.jp...

Painted roundabouts will be invisible when it snows.

People are generally driving significantly slower in snow though, so the need for a roundabout is lessened. And you can also install signage indicating a roundabout is there.

A roundabout requires signage in any case. At least in all countries I've seen one so far. Otherwise it's not a roundabout and may even have very different rules.

Do I really have to point out that you don't need road markings to drive safely when it snows?

The signs preceding a UK mini roundabout would not be.

And it rarely snows in the UK these days. And I would hope you would be driving extremely cautiously if there were snow on the ground (in the UK) as it's such a rare event.

Signage exists. Plus the vast majority of times painted ones are used in areas where almost everyone on the road knows how it works, and within minutes of it snowing a very clear outline of the path cars have taken would make it abundantly clear what the process is.

Roundabouts are engrained into UK road culture, you'd seldom find a driver in the UK that cant figure out how one works, even if they may not have great lane discipline on the larger ones.

I'm not sure what your point is as roads become invisible when it snows. Is there something unique about a mini roundabout versus any other road markings? It's almost as though you're implying that drivers will speed towards a multi-road junction when it's snowing and not bother to slow down, despite the signage.

No it is the exact opposite! There will be a snow island, snow will improve the visibility of the roundabout!

In Seattle, we have trash can roundabout (really just round traffic calming islands, we don’t consider them roundabouts) and stop signs at the same intersections.

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