Episode 84
Roundabouts And Changing Habits
Episode Summary: Roundabouts have proven benefits but are not widely used globally
Leekei and Olabanji are wondering why the usage of roundabouts around the world remains relatively limited despite the proven benefits they offer in terms of reducing carbon emissions, facilitating smoother traffic flow, and minimizing energy usage during commuting.
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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Olabanji Stephen and Leekei Tang
Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.
Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Ima.
Speaker:I live in Scotland.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen and I'm from Canada.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Ola Vanji and I'm from Nigeria.
Speaker:Hello, I'm Leaky and I live in Paris.
Speaker:Hey, I'm Rod.
Speaker:I'm from Peru.
Speaker:Welcome to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with carbon conversations for every day
Speaker:with everyone from everywhere in the.
Speaker:In our conversations, we share ideas, perspectives, questions, and things we
Speaker:can actually do to make a difference.
Speaker:So don't be shy enjoying our carbon sessions because it's not too late.
Speaker:Hi, I, I'm leaky.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Ola.
Speaker:You say that you want to talk about roundabouts today, and do you know
Speaker:which country in the world has the most roundabouts per capita?
Speaker:Have a guess.
Speaker:Uh, well, I didn't know like that there was a competition for roundabouts.
Speaker:I wonder why.
Speaker:Uh, but, but I'm not sure.
Speaker:You tell me.
Speaker:It's a country in Europe and actually it's in France.
Speaker:The front and spins have the most roundabouts.
Speaker:I think the front's the one that has the most roundabouts and actually roundabout.
Speaker:Everywhere in France.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:You know, one of the landmark site in Paris is, it's like, you know,
Speaker:this big old right in Paris and um, usually you see pictures with lots
Speaker:of cars driving around and, um, and so, and there are 12 big avenues
Speaker:around this roundabout, and it's huge.
Speaker:It's probably one of the most difficult driving sites in Paris.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I mean, I see a picture of it now.
Speaker:Someone has given me a book of a girl who's flying around
Speaker:the world in the balloon.
Speaker:So I was very little, okay.
Speaker:Nobody flies around the world in the balloon, but in this book, she
Speaker:was flying around the world in the balloon and, uh, she was above Paris.
Speaker:And I remember that, uh, I remember this.
Speaker:And, uh, I was amazed by this roundabout and I counted the number of avenues.
Speaker:So , on the book there was, there were 12 avenues.
Speaker:I don't know if it's really 12 avenues, but this is something I really
Speaker:remember from when I was a child.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And, and actually roundabouts are everywhere in France.
Speaker:When you drive around in France, there's everywhere.
Speaker:And I think the, the roundabouts are in the carbon oar, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, they are.
Speaker:And in the, the carbon OAC states that roundabouts actually
Speaker:help us lower carbon emissions.
Speaker:In the most interesting way, and it probably has the most
Speaker:mind-blowing statistics.
Speaker:I mean, I couldn't have imagined that, that the roundabouts are that effective.
Speaker:Ooh, tell us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:so I mean, based on the study done in Virginia, um, Mike McBride, the former
Speaker:city engineer of, of Carmel, Indiana, he estimates that one roundabout in his city.
Speaker:Uh, in a city of about a hundred thousand people saves seven to
Speaker:5,708 liters of gas annually.
Speaker:that's, that's a lot.
Speaker:How much is that?
Speaker:That is a lot.
Speaker:Uh, and, and I mean, think about it, they, they say that there's a
Speaker:study that was also done in 2005.
Speaker:Roundabouts would actually save about 981 million hours.
Speaker:Of driving and fuel consumption by over 2 billion liters.
Speaker:If all, wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If just 10% of the intersections in the United States with, with
Speaker:traffic lights were converted to roundabouts, that's the amount of
Speaker:energy and time that will be saved.
Speaker:About 2 billion liters of gas.
Speaker:And so how, how so why roundabouts are so effective in saving.
Speaker:Traffic time and uh, and fuel consumption.
Speaker:I don't drive, so I don't.
Speaker:Uh, well, yeah, I, I think, I think a number of things.
Speaker:I think first of all, um, rather than being idle in the car, waiting
Speaker:for the light to turn from red to green, there is really no stopping.
Speaker:And so, um, first of all, there is a smooth flow of traffic and
Speaker:it just saves time so people can drive around rather than waiting.
Speaker:On a single, in a single spot for, for a long time.
Speaker:And, you know, traffic lights can build up traffic very, very fast.
Speaker:And that happens in Nigeria.
Speaker:Um, and, and I know that it, it definitely happens in other
Speaker:parts of the world for sure.
Speaker:You mean traffic jam?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so there's, there's traffic jam and.
Speaker:And that's just, that just goes away with, with roundabouts.
Speaker:And I think the other part is there's no need for electricity.
Speaker:I mean, there's no red, red light green lights, so no,
Speaker:there's no need for electricity.
Speaker:And the, the coolest part is we can have trees inside the roundabouts
Speaker:and we can have really nice.
Speaker:Plants.
Speaker:Oh, can, can you have trees?
Speaker:Because you need to see what's, uh, do you need to see what's on the other
Speaker:end of the, I mean, on the other, when as you go around, you don't actually,
Speaker:you don't need to see what's, um, um, what's on the other direction.
Speaker:Do you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, maybe for some roundabouts you might have to, but I doubt if that's, if y.
Speaker:That has to happen in all roundabouts.
Speaker:Cause I mean, I see, I see a lot of pictures since I started looking up
Speaker:roundabouts and I see some beautiful trees in some parts of the world,
Speaker:and some even have like, it's almost like, uh, I wouldn't say forest,
Speaker:but it's, it's like a few is needed together and just, just being.
Speaker:If, if that word applies.
Speaker:So, so that's great because it, it makes the traffic smoother.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So safe time and also driving time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, does not require electricity and maintenance.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, not maintenance while the, the light bulb.
Speaker:The track lights.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, And, uh, are they more effective in terms of accident?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Uh, I don't know as well.
Speaker:Um, but personally I don't hear of too many accidents that happen, um,
Speaker:roundabouts, at least not, not around where, I mean, I see accidents a
Speaker:number of times, but hardly ever.
Speaker:I don't think I've even seen one happen, um, at a roundabout.
Speaker:I don't know if that might be a factor.
Speaker:Um, I don't know if it's generally safer or maybe there's no difference yet,
Speaker:but, um, but I don't, I don't think so.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And so what are the disadvantages of roundabouts?
Speaker:Because if it's so good, if you should have them everywhere.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I, I, I'm, I'm not sure if there are too many disadvantages of roundabouts.
Speaker:I think, um, I think it, it's up space for sure.
Speaker:That's one thing.
Speaker:Cause you know, oh yeah, that's some land you have to give away
Speaker:to, , um, to build a roundabout.
Speaker:And so traffic lights generally don't require so much space.
Speaker:Um, they're literally just.
Speaker:Um, but, but roundabouts would require some space, um, and maybe
Speaker:more maintenance, um, as well.
Speaker:I think the other thing to it is, If, I mean, most drivers are used to traffic
Speaker:lights, especially if that's a lot more in the places that they drive.
Speaker:And so getting used to the fact that maybe there's no traffic light here anymore,
Speaker:there's no roundabout, might take a while.
Speaker:Um, but I don't think that's a hard thing to adjust to generally.
Speaker:So, yeah, I don't know that many disadvantages that, that roundabouts
Speaker:have accept the land that they take up.
Speaker:I'm, I'm reading on the Carbon Al.
Speaker:That also drivers are initially opposed to change.
Speaker:I think this is the one of our biggest problem, it's not so much
Speaker:about the runabout, but it's change.
Speaker:It's humans.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, I, I totally agree.
Speaker:, we're, we're a bit opposed to change as humans, but if.
Speaker:I mean, if there's a decision to build a roundabout and the roundabout is there,
Speaker:you, you're gonna have to drive around it.
Speaker:I don't know how supposed to change you are, but if you wanna get to
Speaker:where you're going, you around it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, well, actually, what I'm trying to say is that, you know,
Speaker:Humans are animals of habits.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if they have been, they have been used to do something in a certain way mm-hmm.
Speaker:When they are asked or requested to do things differently.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They, the first reaction say, oh no, I don't, I oppose, yeah.
Speaker:I don't want this, I reject this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think this is the, one of the men barrier.
Speaker:To, uh, energy transition.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Because, um, yeah.
Speaker:And a lot of things are very convenient and, um, and we are asked to do things
Speaker:differently, and I think that's, that's why it's, it's so difficult.
Speaker:It's taking so long.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I totally agree with that.
Speaker:Um, and that's a humanity thing and it happens in all areas regardless.
Speaker:Um, and, and you know, just like you said, that's happening with power as well.
Speaker:It's like, well, you get better, would would have a safer planet
Speaker:if you move to green energy?
Speaker:Like, no, I don't know how that works.
Speaker:Just the thought of change.
Speaker:Can be terrifying.
Speaker:It's like, well, I have not tried it before.
Speaker:I don't know how it works or how it might work.
Speaker:What if it doesn't work?
Speaker:What if it breaks down?
Speaker:Nobody else around me is using this or doing this.
Speaker:I don't see that much of it around.
Speaker:I, you know, and those kinds of thoughts are generally barriers to change.
Speaker:Um, so I totally agree with you on that end.
Speaker:I think that's a big deal.
Speaker:It's a big.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and, um, yo um, these days, actually this, this summer we probably will have
Speaker:lots of from, in terms of water in France.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:In Europe in general, but in France, because, um, because the
Speaker:winter has been very, very dry.
Speaker:And so it is, there's a forecast of water shortage in France.
Speaker:Probably not in Paris, but, uh, we have to be careful because, uh, we,
Speaker:we live on December sources and, um, I've been thinking of, you know, how
Speaker:difficult it would be for me to change my water consumption because it's,
Speaker:you know, I just open the tap and then, uh, hold That's plenty water
Speaker:coming, running through the tap.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so it's like, it's, it's like, it costs money, but it doesn't cost so much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so, And I'm not forced to think of it differently.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And um when I try to think of, okay, how can I do, I, of course, uh, we know
Speaker:that individual actions don't have a big impact, but it's good to have them.
Speaker:So I'm trying to think to consider how, , how I could do better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the other day I had a.
Speaker:Problem in my building because of, there's some, um,
Speaker:sewage from in my building.
Speaker:And so the water was cut and I know was not cut.
Speaker:There was, um, there was planning to have a water cut and so, uh, for a whole day.
Speaker:And it forced me to think of how I could use work differently.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And, um, so maybe, you know, the way of making us humans change
Speaker:is, You know, to say, okay, you have no choice, but, consider the
Speaker:change and, uh, leave the change because you have no other solutions.
Speaker:, uh, yeah, that's, um, I mean, I, I totally agree with that.
Speaker:Um, But I hope that this is something that we start to consider.
Speaker:Um, I think roundabouts are, I mean, maybe think about it this way,
Speaker:roundabouts are a lot more fun than waiting for, I mean, time is precious,
Speaker:so maybe, maybe it's not that bad.
Speaker:Um, as far as roundabouts go, it's like well have fun driving
Speaker:around and you know, it's better.
Speaker:Boring light waiting for it to turn.
Speaker:It's like time, just time just increases in value.
Speaker:It's like, oh my God, I've been here for 20 minutes.
Speaker:You wouldn't be that angry if you were eating dinner for 20 minutes or
Speaker:doing something else for 20 minutes.
Speaker:It's like, well, here's an opportunity to not have to literally count the second.
Speaker:Um, waiting for, I mean, and I can be like that sometimes.
Speaker:I'm like, oh, it's the red light's going to be there for
Speaker:30 seconds, so stop, watch.
Speaker:Uh, but the thing is that when you wait times in longer, that's, that's
Speaker:another issue when you have to wait.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You have to be patient.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know if you noticed that.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:I wonder mm-hmm.
Speaker:I wonder if there.
Speaker:Any roundabouts in Bhutan?
Speaker:Remember we had this conversation about b Bhutan.
Speaker:Yeah, we did.
Speaker:And one thing I read is that there's no traffic light, or there was no
Speaker:traffic light in Bhutan because there are not many people driving cars.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:So I wonder if they have roundabouts there, man, I have no idea.
Speaker:But that'll be an interesting thing to, to learn.
Speaker:Um, that'll be, that'll be really great.
Speaker:And, and thinking about it, that's probably the only
Speaker:substitute for traffic lights.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So, That's probably a question that I would like to ask our Bhutanese
Speaker:listeners if there's anybody listening to this podcast from Bhutan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Please tell us if there are roundabouts in Bhutan.
Speaker:Yeah, let us know if you have any roundabouts and if
Speaker:you have all roundabouts.
Speaker:Um, and, and maybe.
Speaker:You know, we should plan a visit to Bhutan, although they don't like visitors,
Speaker:but you know, maybe they'll let us in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, but I, who knows there might be people listening
Speaker:to our podcast from Bhutan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, and it'll be fun to, to really.
Speaker:Hear from you guys if you're listening.
Speaker:So send us a voice message, um, carbon.com/podcast and you'd be
Speaker:able to record your voice and tell us what's it like in Bhutan.
Speaker:A message you have.
Speaker:Yeah, a voice message.
Speaker:Yeah, just record a voice message.
Speaker:If you have roundabouts, we'd be happy to know and probably bring
Speaker:you on to talk a bit more about it.
Speaker:So take the chance and let's have some fun while we solve the climate crisis.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Thank you for this conversation.
Speaker:Aura, Angie.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:It's been an interesting one, and see you next time.
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