The traffic circle: a pedestrian's heaven on Earth

Constantly I find myself comparing Israel to the U.S. Most individuals who move to a new place would probably also compare their new homes to their formers. Good old America definitely wins in the ‘Bigger’ category, but there is not doubt that in my mind Israel gets first place in the ‘Intersection Efficiency and Innovation’ category.

More specifically what I am talking about is traffic circles.

The irony depicted in this picture - where to begin!!! It's as if the city went to an artist and said, we want you to design a  model for the circle at XYZ intersection that gets everyone involved in the joke of the stupidity of traffic lights. And hey - let's also not neglect to mention that my finger snuck into this picture. As I said, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way here! (I took this picture myself on my run this morning in Eilat.) y

If you were not already aware, Israel, in comparison the the U.S., hardly has any traffic lights. Instead the intersections are built around traffic circles. I’ve decided that the use of traffic circles to direct the flow of traffic is a lot more sensical for three main reasons:

1 - Going, going, going. Everyone is constantly going. It's much more fair to everyone involved in the intersection. Traffic circles provide the right of the way to whoever comes first. This way, you’re not stuck at an intersection wondering how many more minutes before the light turns green. And it’s bad enough if you’re trying to make a left and you are behind a long line of cars. You may have to wait for a few different cycles of lights to make that sanctified left turn. In Israel, there’s no waiting, you just go! 

2 - Power outage? No problem! I can’t tell you just how many times the power has gone out in and around my parents’ house in Rockville, Md. Way too many to count. Most of the time a few, if not many, traffic lights go out as well. Usually this’ll happen in summer after a big thunderstorm, or perhaps in winter after a big snowstorm. Heck - it even happens in fall and summer. And since there is no electricity flowing to the lights, they don't even flash red lights to indicate to cars that they need to stop. Instead the intersection inherits imaginary stop signs and every car must stop before proceeding through the intersection. If the power goes out in Israel, no problem! The traffic circles are not affected since they do not require a single volt of electricity. Motor vehicle life can continue as normal. (And more dollars/ shekels are saved since there is no need to hire personnel to direct the flow of traffic.)

3 - Win/ win for walkers ;-) I know I said the traffic circles help cars to continue going, going and going, but… there is one exception to this: pedestrians! As a pedestrian (most of the time, anyway) in Israel myself, I LOVE traffic circles. I can go for longer runs and not have to wait, idiotically jogging in place, for the ‘WALK’ light to commence its flashing. I can just go! I feel so powerful! The cars have to stop for little old me :) It’s like I can stop traffic solely with my presence. You also don’t have to factor in wait times for crossing the street if you are in a hurry to get somewhere. You’re only obstacle to getting to your destination in time is your own pace. 

Now after nearly finishing writing this post I am remembering my long walk through Tel Aviv and how the city has MANY traffic lights. So instead of internalizing this entry in your brain as a summary of intersections in the State of Israel, you can instead internalize it as a summary of intersections in the City of Eilat.

I find the infrastructure here quite fascinating and hope to babble some more later on other road/ water/ energy - related topics. If you have any ideas or questions, let me know!