The Magic Roundabout - Neatorama

America doesn't have many roundabouts because even if you understand how one works, you have to worry about other drivers who don't. But they are a fact of life in Britain. The ultimate roundabout is this one in Swindon that is actually a cluster of roundabouts in one intersection.

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, constructed in 1972, is the most brilliant and at the same time, the most confusing roundabout ever built. The roundabout, named after the popular children's television series by the same name, is located near the County Ground and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. At first sight, it might appear to confuse or amuse new visitors and certainly baffle tourists but once you understand how the roundabout works you will realize how revolutionary the idea is.

Other pictures and diagrams at Amusing Planet may help you parse out what is supposed to happen. Keep in mind that driving on the left side of the road is the correct thing to do in this location. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Google Earth)

Look, kids! Big Ben, Parliament!

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Roundabouts are the best thing since sliced bread... traffic lights are a waste, letting cars cross lanes of traffic to turn is dangerous... just go up to the next orbital and pull a 'U'. Amazing that in the good old USA, where we have lots of room, we still put up with stop signs and lights everywhere, but in GB/Europe, where land is at a premium, they 'waste' the space to put them in. Roundabouts work, no doubt about it.

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The big problems that stem from putting roundabouts in the States is that the things aren't typically taught in driver's ed classes nor the driver's test (most places), likely because they're a rarity. Those two things create a lot of confusion when people here are confronted with them.
A city near me put a roundabout in a few years ago and the uproar it caused was tremendous.
They do make sense, WHEN people know how to use them.

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I don't know about the rest of the country, but in the last few years my Pacific NW town has installed roundabouts in several places. Mostly seem to work OK, though a logging truck recently managed to dump its load trying to drive through one.

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I've come across one roundabout, but apparently it didn't work well, because there are now stop signs controlling two directions of the four, but they didn't remove the roundabout, so it seems to be a way to slow traffic through the intersection.

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