There is a roundabout between Haleiwa, Wailua and the road to Wahiawa. It is a large roundabout by normal standards . . perhaps 100 yards across. Roundabouts were used as early as Roman times and have been a staple to manage congestion. Recently, we have been using stop lights.
The French discovered in the 1980’s that the number of serious accidents at roundabouts was forty percent less than at stop-light controlled intersections. Thus there was a serious global push to implement them. This trend started in Nantes, which has thousands, and has spread gradually across the civilized world. Recently, they installed one at Lompoc, and it is a tremendous improvement over the T intersection that was there.
One of the reasons why roundabouts are so successful is that they allow traffic to continue moving if the roudabout is clear, which is most of the time. So, it was surprising that the roundabout in Haleiwa had a stop sign installed at one of the entrances. It certainly defeats the key reason for installing a roundabout.
But, then again, we are in Hawaii and are here to enjoy Hawaiian time . . speed to get anywhere is a secondary priority!