Traffic Lights at Elephant Circle

[urleft]

Be prepared, traffic lights are being installed at the Elephant Circle. 


Not operational yet, but typically new traffic lights in Buriram just become fully operational without a burn in period (e.g. flashing yellow for a week). 

[toffo]

About time aswell.. The Dumb bastards don't even know how it's supposed to work.. Cutting across from the inside lane to turn right.. Boils my piss everyday that roundabout

[urleft]

Yes, the elephant circle is almost always a driving adventure. 

What has surprised me is that I have not seen an accident there.  I figure it must be common.

[nookiebear]

I've seen many near misses!!

[CO-CO]

I've seen many near misses!!

I caused several of them..........  by making the mistake of following the Thai highway code.


No other b4stard did !!!

[alco61]

Is this a daft Thai roundabout where the traffic on the roundabout has to stop to give way to traffic coming onto the roundabout, thus causing chaos? The one at the clock tower in Aran seems like this to me...

[nookiebear]

No-one gives way to anyone!!

[smoooth2]

An interesting decision by someone to install these lights. Generally, I think the Elephant Roundabout does pretty well.

It keeps traffic flowing in all directions, albeit a little messy in the circle, and like Urleft says, I've never seen any accident here. The only time it gets really messy is after the football finishes at i-Mobile Stadium once each week.

I do like the "left turn slip roads". I reckon they are a beaut idea, and something not often seen at Aussie roundabouts.

To get some elephant close up photos and do the "touristy thing", I once walked over the road into the middle of the roundabout. Now ... that was an experience !! It's actually an interesting statue and well maintained gardens up close.

Putting traffic lights here will no doubt make it a more controlled roundabout, so I guess a bit safer. Question is ... will the motorcy's have enough patience to sit still for 90 seconds ?

[nookiebear]

The Dolphin roundabout in Pattaya is now closed off on one side so it is no longer a 'roundabout'

[nookiebear]

An interesting decision by someone to install these lights. Generally, I think the Elephant Roundabout does pretty well.

It keeps traffic flowing in all directions, albeit a little messy in the circle, and like Urleft says, I've never seen any accident here. The only time it gets really messy is after the football finishes at i-Mobile Stadium once each week.

I do like the "left turn slip roads". I reckon they are a beaut idea, and something not often seen at Aussie roundabouts.

To get some elephant close up photos and do the "touristy thing", I once walked over the road into the middle of the roundabout. Now ... that was an experience !! It's actually an interesting statue and well maintained gardens up close.

Putting traffic lights here will no doubt make it a more controlled roundabout, so I guess a bit safer. Question is ... will the motorcy's have enough patience to sit still for 90 seconds ?

Only if the BiB are in permanent attendance!!

[urleft]

An interesting decision by someone to install these lights. Generally, I think the Elephant Roundabout does pretty well.

It keeps traffic flowing in all directions, albeit a little messy in the circle, and like Urleft says, I've never seen any accident here. The only time it gets really messy is after the football finishes at i-Mobile Stadium once each week.

I do like the "left turn slip roads". I reckon they are a beaut idea, and something not often seen at Aussie roundabouts.

To get some elephant close up photos and do the "touristy thing", I once walked over the road into the middle of the roundabout. Now ... that was an experience !! It's actually an interesting statue and well maintained gardens up close.

Putting traffic lights here will no doubt make it a more controlled roundabout, so I guess a bit safer. Question is ... will the motorcy's have enough patience to sit still for 90 seconds ?

Interesting, no one here has yet to claim to see an accident at the circle.  Kind of backs up Smooth's point that while messy, it works. 


My first thought upon seeing the lights was this will cause delays.   Just about every traffic light in Buriram is set up to control flow one at a time (which I think is kind of stupid).  The only ones that I can think of that allows traffic flow both ways are the Jira road bus station light and the recent light west of Home Pro (and that one is only Half done). 

[Starman]

An interesting decision by someone to install these lights. Generally, I think the Elephant Roundabout does pretty well.

It keeps traffic flowing in all directions, albeit a little messy in the circle, and like Urleft says, I've never seen any accident here. The only time it gets really messy is after the football finishes at i-Mobile Stadium once each week.

I do like the "left turn slip roads". I reckon they are a beaut idea, and something not often seen at Aussie roundabouts.

To get some elephant close up photos and do the "touristy thing", I once walked over the road into the middle of the roundabout. Now ... that was an experience !! It's actually an interesting statue and well maintained gardens up close.

Putting traffic lights here will no doubt make it a more controlled roundabout, so I guess a bit safer. Question is ... will the motorcy's have enough patience to sit still for 90 seconds ?

Interesting, no one here has yet to claim to see an accident at the circle.  Kind of backs up Smooth's point that while messy, it works. 


My first thought upon seeing the lights was this will cause delays.   Just about every traffic light in Buriram is set up to control flow one at a time (which I think is kind of stupid).  The only ones that I can think of that allows traffic flow both ways are the Jira road bus station light and the recent light west of Home Pro (and that one is only Half done). 

As you approach the Jira lights, with  Rajabhat University on your left, traffic on the inside lane may proceed at all times regardless of the colour of the lights.

[toffo]

Urleft.... How can a Roundabout work when nobody knows who to give way too??  It Doesn't work at all, the reason you don't see any Accidents is because every fucker blocks the oncoming Traffic who they are supposed to give way too so then it becomes one big mess.. Go play on that Rounabout for one hour then come back and comment after your blood pressure has lowered...  It's great News and badly needed that they are now putting lights on it... If you have a cam in your car then go do 30 minutes around it at about 5pm and post the video on here ;-)

[urleft]

Urleft.... How can a Roundabout work when nobody knows who to give way too??  It Doesn't work at all, the reason you don't see any Accidents is because every fucker blocks the oncoming Traffic who they are supposed to give way too so then it becomes one big mess.. Go play on that Rounabout for one hour then come back and comment after your blood pressure has lowered...  It's great News and badly needed that they are now putting lights on it... If you have a cam in your car then go do 30 minutes around it at about 5pm and post the video on here ;-)

Because I have never seen an accident there or had to wait over 30 seconds to enter. 

However, when I approach the circle I tell my TW to sit back and don't block the mirrors (she would block them if I did not say something).  I treat it as a very dangerous area.  But a Smooth said, it seems to work because most people view it as dangerous and the other are clueless that they are stupid (but being avoided by others watching out for them). 

And yes, I have a few near misses, and yell at some A$$hole at least twice a week, but I would rather it stay how it is than to add lights. 

[smoooth2]

Personally I don't care one way or the other whether traffic lights are installed at this roundabout. If the authorities have decided to put lights in .... so be it.

However messy the situation is within the circle, at least the approach roads seem to flow reasonably well, and that's the sole reason for roundabouts.

I do foresee considerable delays at these approach roads after the lights become operational.
 
This is because the roundabout is quite big.

It takes some time for a vehicle to travel right around the circle to their exit road, so there will need to be a significent delay between light changes, just to clear the circle completely of previous traffic.

When your light eventually turns green, you'd like to hope that the roundabout has no slow traffic still circulating from another entry point.

It will take some clever sequencing of the lights to make this work ok. Like all new things, it'll take some time for everybody to get used to it.

The Elephant Roundabout statue was erected in 1996. Anyone been here longer than that ? What was at this intersection prior to the roundabout ? Probably a whole lot less traffic. Maybe the ring road did not exist ?