St. Cloud or Hawaii
We recently visited the St. Cloud area and experienced negotiating the roundabouts constructed in that area. This reminded us of a visit to Hawaii and the many roundabouts there. Whether it be in St. Cloud or Hawaii, drivers do learn to negotiate them and traffic moves smoothly. A big plus with roundabouts is that less fuel is used than when cars sit idling waiting for traffic lights to change. After we returned from Hawaii there was a quote from a Crow Wing County commissioner that roundabouts are not American. Someone should tell the commissioner about the state of Hawaii.
Where does the sand go?
I don’t have a computer so you’re my only help for information. Can you please tell me what in the world do they do with all that sand they put in sandbags after the flood is gone? I’m really curious. Thanks.
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Comments (7)
Add commentroundabouts
Roundabouts are also in Ohio, Delaware, Rhode Island, Georgia, Maryland, Nebraska and Indiana that I know about but everyone in them states say that roundabouts are cheaper than building a new intersection that does not currently have traffic lights but is very inefficient when there is traffic lights already available but when traffic lights are available, building them is pretty much a WASTE OF MONEY.
Traffic fatalities do go down 76% with roundabouts. Well thats great, so 76% less than zero will die on college road!
Collisions will be down 35%. Great! Since I travel it nearly daily and have yet to see an accident there. But maybe I had my blinders on the last 10 years.
I have decided to start a youtube page filming every day I go from my home to work just to see what the average is for me (who travels College Road daily) to see how much idle time I have.
I have been as of October, keeping a daily tab on idle time and it averages less than one minute at the 1 stop intersection and 2 stop light intersections I go through daily on college road.
I guess the $8.47 million is worth the minute daily on average a person.
roundabouts
Roundabouts are just fine if you have your head at least part way out of your behind. St. Cloud is way to far away from home for these commisioners to visit, maybe if someone was to give them a ride down there and actually see for themselves how they work, they might change their mind.
I took the DRIVE ALIVE AFTER 55 -
...and we heard about roundabouts. They save gas, since you don't idle at a stoplight (and isn't that frustrating when NO OTHER CARS are coming from the other direction), but the big thing to me is that they eliminate T-BONE crashes, which injure many people. They take a little getting used to, but hey, we got used to the reconfigured roadwork by HOME DEPOT, so we can surely learn roundabouts.
Roundabouts
Not only are they in Hawaii, which last I knew was a United State, we have used them in a lot of western states and also in many small towns all across the United States. Easy and convenient.
So in the Police Blotter of
So in the Police Blotter of March 31 all the Baxter Police had to do is drive to Walmart and arrest this con-artist who was trying to scam the lady out of $500 but they chose to just tell her to hang up if he calls again? That is really sad. Talk about lazy.
Sandbags:
WCCO: "Can't We Reuse Old Sandbags?"
"“Well it depends,” said Doug Neville, from Minnesota’s Department of Emergency Management. “If it’s dry, the sand can be reused,” he said.
So sandbags that don’t get wet get put into machines that rip the bag off, and sort out the sand. The sand then gets used for fill for sidewalks or playgrounds.
“If the sandbag is contaminated by flood water, there’s lots of nasty stuff in that water,” said Neville.
Think about what kind of stuff ends up in flood water. It’s disgusting. So those sandbags end up in a lined landfill for hazardous material."
Modern Roundabouts
Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world. Visit www.iihs.org for safety facts. The safety comes from the ‘slow and go’ operation instead of the ‘stop or go fast’ way a stop light works (or the ‘keep going fast’ large traffic circle fantasy). The smaller size of the modern roundabout is what makes them safer. Safety is the #1 reason there are over 2,100 modern roundabouts in the US today and many more on the way. Slow and go also means less delay than a stop light, especially the other 20 hours a day people aren’t driving to or from work.