[Goose]

I was skeptical of the traffic circles on Campus Drive, but I actually think they have worked out pretty well. I'm curious about others' experiences.

I drive through Campus pretty regularly, so I have seen a cross-section of conditions. The traffic circles work perfectly when there are no pedestrians and fairly light traffic. They are in those conditions a significant improvement over stop signs, as you usually don't even need to slow down, let alone stop. Since this is a common situation, it is a big plus.

 As traffic density increases the probability of having to wait to enter the traffic circle increases. This leads to a somewhat chaotic situation which is greatly exacerbated by the fact most drivers don't really know how roundabouts are supposed to work and don't enter the roundabout when they easily could and also people in the roundabout stopping for "cross traffic" because they think they are supposed to do so. At this point, the roundabout becomes equal to the old stop signs (at best). If people could actually use them correctly, they would perhaps be better that the old system, but given that you can't rely on that, they aren't.

When there are pedestrians present, even not many pedestrians, things often go sideways. If the "popular" exit for the roundabout is blocked by a pedestrian, the whole roundabout can back up and nobody can proceed. With stop signs, only one direction is affected. Thus the OPs "gridlock" comment. Given that this is a known problem with roundabouts, it surprises me that Stanford adopted them so universally in places where there are LOTS of pedestrians.

 IMO the roundabout at Campus Dr. and Santa Teresa St is a definite improvement over a stop sign. Campus Dr. and Bowdoin is (most of the time) also pretty good. The others IMO are not obviously a benefit and are sometimes much worse than stop signs.

[Goose]

I was skeptical of the traffic circles on Campus Drive, but I actually think they have worked out pretty well. I'm curious about others' experiences.

I drive through Campus pretty regularly, so I have seen a cross-section of conditions. The traffic circles work perfectly when there are no pedestrians and fairly light traffic. They are in those conditions a significant improvement over stop signs, as you usually don't even need to slow down, let alone stop. Since this is a common situation, it is a big plus.

 As traffic density increases the probability of having to wait to enter the traffic circle increases. This leads to a somewhat chaotic situation which is greatly exacerbated by the fact most drivers don't really know how roundabouts are supposed to work and don't enter the roundabout when they easily could and also people in the roundabout stopping for "cross traffic" because they think they are supposed to do so. At this point, the roundabout becomes equal to the old stop signs (at best). If people could actually use them correctly, they would perhaps be better that the old system, but given that you can't rely on that, they aren't.

When there are pedestrians present, even not many pedestrians, things often go sideways. If the "popular" exit for the roundabout is blocked by a pedestrian, the whole roundabout can back up and nobody can proceed. With stop signs, only one direction is affected. Thus the OPs "gridlock" comment. Given that this is a known problem with roundabouts, it surprises me that Stanford adopted them so universally in places where there are LOTS of pedestrians.

 IMO the roundabout at Campus Dr. and Santa Teresa St is a definite improvement over a stop sign. Campus Dr. and Bowdoin is (most of the time) also pretty good. The others IMO are not obviously a benefit and are sometimes much worse than stop signs.