Public Opinion
In the United States, municipalities introducing new roundabouts often are met with some degree of public resistance before trying them, just as in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Drivers may be unfamiliar with roundabouts initially; however, surveys show that negative public opinion reverses as drivers gain experience with roundabouts. A 1998 survey of municipalities that built roundabouts found public opinion prior to construction as 68% opposed; afterwards it was 73% in favour. A 2007 survey of citizens found public support ranging from 22% to 44% prior to construction, and several years after construction was 57% to 87%.
A pedestrian group in Kinston, North Carolina in 2007 proposed roundabouts in place of traffic lights at major intersections.
Read more about this topic: Roundabout
Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public and/or opinion:
“The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Nobody seriously questions the principle that it is the function of mass culture to maintain public morale, and certainly nobody in the mass audience objects to having his morale maintained.”
—Robert Warshow (1917–1955)
“When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)