Ryan, whilst I understand your frustration with your new experience of driving in Qatar, which is common, your frustration shouldn't be with roundabouts in general.
Numerous studies have shown roundabouts to generally be far safer and better at moving traffic. Accidents at traffic lights tend to be far more serious due to the high speeds and the number of 'T-Bone' accidents. This is why roundabouts have been quickly growing in popularity across the US and Canada and are so well established in Europe. Obviously a key factor for any type of intersection is good design as there are lots of subtle details that need to be got right, along with driver behavior.
As someone who grew up in the UK but has spent the last 25 years driving and designing roads in Canada I can personally vouch for the benefits of roundabouts when well designed.
A few N. American studies regarding the above can be found below for anyone interested.
Ryan, whilst I understand your frustration with your new experience of driving in Qatar, which is common, your frustration shouldn't be with roundabouts in general.
Numerous studies have shown roundabouts to generally be far safer and better at moving traffic. Accidents at traffic lights tend to be far more serious due to the high speeds and the number of 'T-Bone' accidents. This is why roundabouts have been quickly growing in popularity across the US and Canada and are so well established in Europe. Obviously a key factor for any type of intersection is good design as there are lots of subtle details that need to be got right, along with driver behavior.
As someone who grew up in the UK but has spent the last 25 years driving and designing roads in Canada I can personally vouch for the benefits of roundabouts when well designed.
A few N. American studies regarding the above can be found below for anyone interested.
http://www.tac-atc.ca/english/resourcecentre/readingroom/conference/conf...
http://www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%202/Russell.pdf
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_572.pdf