How are intersections reduced? Closing them off with concrete blocks to create dead end streets? Creating more cul-de-sacs?
I certainly don't want a world where every residential street is a windy suburban-style affair that goes nowhere. That just entrenches car culture and makes it impossible to run efficient mass transit.
Effective is stopping the cars at points but not the people - Queen Anne in Seattle has many streets that become stairs at points because it’s too steep.
You can also have portions of the road that block cars but allow transit as necessary.
Cars should be discouraged and forced to go the long way around as it doesn’t harm them much, and gives an advantage to walking.
This intersection is big enough that you can just put a big concrete half-ball or a flowerbed in the middle, put up a bunch of signs that show how to use it, maybe add some plastic lane separators that ease cars into a right turn. That's it, a roundabout.
This. I've seen a few small ones in residential areas in California and they prevent speeding because you need to slow down as you cannot go straight but still allow flow faster than stopping 5 times.
One division installed them badly as a retrofit and discovered they needed to add some really big rocks as people were just driving straight OVER the roundabout.
Maybe I need my mind opened but I can't imagine the space requirement for every side street intersection to become a traffic circle. Surely you're referring to intersections only between arterials?
American streets are very wide. You kill parking near the intersection and you can add a small “roundabout” which is basically a diamond in the street preventing straight through.
Where there's not much space, you can just paint the circle [1].
I think that one probably exists because people are going south and east (to the two main roads), so it's not clear that either direction should have priority. The junction looks more-or-less the same size as the crossroads to the north. (Which, incidentally, has no signs, just road markings to indicate which road has priority.)
For interest, move slightly south east to see the large roundabout between two main roads, then follow the A4540 north to see two more.
Drivers in the US are so bad that painting a circle will do nothing. The physical roundabout with curbs and landscaping near me gets driven straight through a couple of times a year. If it won't destroy your car, American drivers will disregard it when it is inconvenient.
Driving over a painted ("mini") roundabout could lead to a £50 fine if it's spotted by a police officer in Britain, although in many cases (when there's no other traffic) I think they'd just stop the driver and warn them not to do it again.
(Driving over one in a bus, lorry or other large vehicle that can't make a tight turn is allowed.)
Driving over a normal roundabout with curbs and landscaping is unheard of, there isn't a specific fine. The kerbs are usually tall enough that it risks damaging the vehicle. I think it would be considered fairly serious¹, as it shows either a serious lack of attention to the road, or a complete disregard for the rules.
¹ i.e. you get a fine and 3-6 penalty points on your driving licence, which increases your insurance cost. If you get 12 points you lose the licence and have to retake the driving test.
