One place where I have seen traffic circles done well is southern New Jersey. They are actually a good solution for crossing highways where the terrain is flat and the water table high, making cut-and-fill construction of an interchange very expensive.
The trick is to make them really BIG in diameter and at least two lanes wide (this allows the faint of heart to stay in the inside lane while they go around and around gathering courage for the exit maneuver).
Seriously, they work well where they are appropriate but they tend to be a disaster otherwise.
When I was driving in New Zealand on business I found the wrong-side bit fairly easy to handle except for (1) right-hand turns into unoccupied side streets and (2) roundabouts -- they are very small there and going the wrong way around them is, well, interesting.
-Glenn