Aruba

[froggie]

I recently got back from a weeklong vacation on Aruba.  Some road-related observations:

- Aruba has numbered routes from 1 to 7.  Two of these, 6 and 7, are unsigned.  One route appears on maps as an extension of another:  Route 5 is signed in the field, but appears on many maps as Route 7 instead.  Almost nobody refers to the roads by their route number.

- Curiously, the direction of travel on the numbered routes is suffixed, with the -A suffix for travel heading south/eastbound, and -B for the north/westbound direction.

- There is a very European flavor to both the traffic signals (vertical oval-shaped) and the signs.  Most guide signs were blue-background, though there were a few green-background signs near the national park.  All signals are posted on the near-side of the intersection and each signalhead was numbered.  Roughly 2/3 of the signals have been converted to LED lenses.

- Several junctions, especially along Routes 1 and 4, are traffic circles instead of intersections.  I say traffic circle because most have a wider radius than a normal roundabout.

- There are only 5 stretches of 4-lane road on the island, with 4 of them along Route 1 (the 5th being about 1/3mi along Avenida EJ Watty Vos as it heads away from the airport).  3 of the stretches along Route 1 only consist of the approaches to traffic circles or the airport.  The longest one is about 2.5 miles near the major resort/hotel concentration.

- There are very few streetsigns.  Many of the roads are unnamed...basically being referred to in relation to the neighborhood they're in rather than having a specific streetname like we're used to in the US.

- Highest speed limit on the island is 80 km/h (50 MPH).

- I noticed one very notable bottleneck:  along L.G. Smith Blvd along the downtown Oranjestad waterfront.  This area has a high-end hotel, several stores/mini-malls, and is also adjacent to where the cruise ships go pierside, so there are a lot of pedestrians along and across the street.  The bottleneck is worse going northbound.  This might be why Route 1 is routed to loop around downtown instead of continuing along L.G. Smith Blvd through downtown.  Aside from this bottleneck, traffic flowed reasonably well across the island although it can also be very busy getting out of downtown during evening rush hour or the "siesta rush" in the early afternoon.

[english si]

- There is a very European flavor to both the traffic signals (vertical oval-shaped) and the signs.

Well Aruba is one of the states in the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

- Several junctions, especially along Routes 1 and 4, are traffic circles instead of intersections.  I say traffic circle because most have a wider radius than a normal roundabout.

I thought that traffic circle was priority to entering traffic, as opposed to roundabouts priority to circling traffic. They look like what would be considered in Europe an average roundabout.

Thanks for this, I've wondered about Aruba's roads, and wegenwiki.nl is strangely empty on it.

[froggie]

I thought that traffic circle was priority to entering traffic, as opposed to roundabouts priority to circling traffic. They look like what would be considered in Europe an average roundabout.

Some traffic circles give priority to entering traffic, but that's not always the case.  The primary difference between a traffic circle and a roundabout is the size of the radius.  Roundabouts are smaller...traffic circles are larger.

[english si]

So actually, contrary to popular belief, the UK has tons of traffic circles and not that many roundabouts (excluding mini-roundabouts), if those Aruba ones are large enough to be traffic circles.

[realjd]

Does Aruba drive on the left or the right? I'd probably be able to guess if I knew what colonial power used to own them. I usually end up at British islands where they drive on the left when I go to the Caribbean.

[Brandon]

Does Aruba drive on the left or the right? I'd probably be able to guess if I knew what colonial power used to own them. I usually end up at British islands where they drive on the left when I go to the Caribbean.

They're Dutch, therefore, it's on the right.  Only those belonging to the UK or descended from the UK (except Belize) or the USVI (from Denmark originally - 1917) drive on the left.

[NE2]

I thought that traffic circle was priority to entering traffic, as opposed to roundabouts priority to circling traffic. They look like what would be considered in Europe an average roundabout.

Some traffic circles give priority to entering traffic, but that's not always the case.  The primary difference between a traffic circle and a roundabout is the size of the radius.  Roundabouts are smaller...traffic circles are larger.

This is a recent marketing distinction. There has historically been no difference between the two terms.

[Chris]

Thanks for this, I've wondered about Aruba's roads, and wegenwiki.nl is strangely empty on it.

Not anymore.

For most Dutch the Caribbean Netherlands is an area some people go on vacation, but most people pick Curacao. Aruba is very popular amongst Americans, but not so much amongst the Dutch themselves. Note that there are similar vacation areas in Europe (Crete, Canary Islands, Ibiza, Rhodos, Corfu, etc.) which are much closer to the Netherlands and therefore cheaper.

There is very few official information concerning roads. The Aruba government website is mostly empty on it stating "more information not yet available".

The road numbering is especially interesting. According to most Aruban maps, all routes are suffixed A and B (and not only Route 1 as displayed in Google Maps).

It appears that route 1A and B are actually separate routes near Oranjestad, with route 1A being the main through route and route 1B serving as a Oranjestad center bypass. However, routes 2 - 7 are also suffixed, but it appears this is only in one direction, for instance 2A southbound and 2B northbound as displayed on this map. I have not yet been able to identify a route 5.

The road layout, traffic signals and other traffic signs are very Dutch, though some signs are not used in the Netherlands proper anymore. The road conditions however, are subpar for the Netherlands, especially the maintenance of public spaces (exteriors of buildings, sidewalk quality, pavement quality) are significantly worse than in the Netherlands itself.

Two-lane roundabouts are not standard in the Netherlands (as they are in the United Kingdom or most other countries), the Netherlands has opted for the turbo roundabout, like this one in Aruba which are more efficiently used than two-lane, non-divided roundabouts (or traffic circles if you will). It appears that turbo roundabouts have been introduced in Aruba around 2008, and there are at least three of them according to Google Earth imagery, here, here and here

Virtually all streets do have street names, but few appear to be signed indeed. This is also a difference from the Netherlands, where every single street name is signed (though not with such large signs as in the United States). Street names are mostly Dutch, but Papiamento, English and Spanish street names appear common too. The grammar used, however, is comparable to the English or Spanish, for example the street name in Aruba would be "Kerk Straat" while in proper Dutch it would be "Kerkstraat".

[Alps]

I thought that traffic circle was priority to entering traffic, as opposed to roundabouts priority to circling traffic. They look like what would be considered in Europe an average roundabout.

Some traffic circles give priority to entering traffic, but that's not always the case.  The primary difference between a traffic circle and a roundabout is the size of the radius.  Roundabouts are smaller...traffic circles are larger.

This is a recent marketing distinction. There has historically been no difference between the two terms.

EVERYBODY has been wrong so far. Traffic circle is a catchall term for anything that's round and joins two or more roads together. There are two-way traffic circles (such as the Magic Roundabout), there are circles where entering traffic doesn't yield, there are circles where all entering traffic yields. Roundabouts are a specific subset of traffic circles with a certain size limit (150 foot diameter roughly for 1-lane roundabouts, 200 feet for 2 lanes, but another 20 feet wouldn't kill the definition) and the constant rule that all entering traffic yields.

[NE2]

As I said, roundabout meaning a specific subset of circle is a recent marketing distinction. Hence the Magic Roundabout is not a "modern roundabout".

[english si]

"modern roundabout" isn't a term in the UK and the Magic Roundabout pre-dates the term ;P. "modern roundabout" seems to me to be a snazzy highway engineering term in the States to try and make roundabouts more palatable.

UK English uses 'roundabout' like 'traffic circle' has been described (so including signalised junctions, large diameter circles, 3-/4-lane circulating carriageways, 'ring junctions' (magic roundabouts have subsequently become the universally used term), etc) and traffic circle is subset of them to describe the few junctions that are circular, and yield to entering traffic (probably only used by British roadgeeks, rather than engineers - certainly not the public who just go 'wtf?' when meeting one for the first time).

[froggie]

According to most Aruban maps, all routes are suffixed A and B

I'd mentioned this in my original post.

It appears that route 1A and B are actually separate routes near Oranjestad, with route 1A being the main through route and route 1B serving as a Oranjestad center bypass.

It's not that way in the field.  What little signage exists shows 1A and 1B co-existant around the city center.

However, routes 2 - 7 are also suffixed, but it appears this is only in one direction, for instance 2A southbound and 2B northbound as displayed on this map.

The -A suffixes for all routes are for the south/eastbound direction.  -B suffix is for west/northbound travel.

I have not yet been able to identify a route 5.

Route 5 is signed in the field along what most maps show as "Route 7" between Route 1 and Route 4.

Virtually all streets do have street names,

As I understand it from the locals, at least in the neighborhood I stayed in, most of the residential streets on the southern side of the island do not have streetnames.  Locations are identified by the neighborhood name and the house number.