Re: Cambridge's Dutch roundabout damaged by hit-and-run driver
The thing is, I understand the premiss behind the roundabout which is to force vehicles to slow down a lot quicker than they normally would but unfortunately that is not how the mind of a UK driver works and it never will. There will always be exceptions to the rule but for the majority, UK drivers see themselves as the king of the road and anything that forces them to slow down is seen as an annoyance or an inconvenience regardless of the necessity to slow traffic down.
The UK is not a bicycle thinking nation. The adult mindset is, if they cannot afford a car, they will cycle to where they need to go BUT as soon as they can afford to purchase a car, in comes the car, out goes the bicycle. It's how the majority in the UK think and it will never change.
I'd been a car driver for 21 years and stopped driving due to the fact that I live too close to where I work thus no need for a car. As such, we can all remember our driving lesson days of what we are supposed to do as outline in the Highway Code and one of the things that I have noticed is very common place with drivers is that instead of pulling up to a junction and waiting for a safe place to enter the flow of traffic, drivers coast slowly to the junction, looking in all directions to see if the coast is clear or hoping for a safe spot to enter the flow of traffic, the car still coasting to the junction, they see their spot and put on more acceleration all because they do not want to stop and wait. I've seen exactly the same at traffic lights, vehicles of all types will pull up slowly towards the traffic lights, hope they go green so they can carry on moving without having to stop.
That way of thinking is in the mindset of a huge majority of drivers so a dutch style roundabout which gives priority to cyclists and pedestrians is a disaster waiting to happen. The proof is in the fact that the roundabout was not even fully open and a car smashes into one of the zebra crossing lights. Just think if that had happened if it was in full use and cyclists and pedestrians using it thinking by it mere design and nature that it is safe to use and a driver does what that crash driver did BUT hits cyclists and pedestrians instead.
No sorry but the UK is not ready for dutch style roundabouts.