The Lemon Fool

A million pounds for a roundabout?

First Brexit: now this!

Incidentally, until I read the material that you linked to and looked at the relevant regulations I hadn't realised it was an offence to drive across the white circle in the middle of a mini-roundabout (which I'm afraid I do regularly) but it is.

I first came across mini roundabouts on visiting Swindon about 20 years ago. I assiduously drove round them, but most locals seemed to fly straight across. Mini roundabouts have now started to appear in Scotland, and I was intending to emulate the Swindon natives, but it looks like a slight swerve is required to stay within the law.
Incidentally is the Swindon Magic Roundabout still in place - and has it been emulated anywhere else?

scotia wrote:I first came across mini roundabouts on visiting Swindon about 20 years ago. I assiduously drove round them, but most locals seemed to fly straight across. Mini roundabouts have now started to appear in Scotland, and I was intending to emulate the Swindon natives, but it looks like a slight swerve is required to stay within the law.

That might be what the law says, but around this part of wurzel Wiltshire you're asking for a whole lot of trouble if you don't at least drive close enough to the centre to clip the edge of the white disc. Some eejit behind you will decide that your leftward wiggle must mean that you're turning left - and that'll be his cue to swing out and pass you on the offside, because e'em goin arn and you'm muckin' about, inya? Whoy, 'is father and 'is grandfather and 'is grate grampy din't need no roundabouts, so whoy do you, boy? Bloody foreigners.

Incidentally is the Swindon Magic Roundabout still in place - and has it been emulated anywhere else?

I think you'll find that Treacle Bumstead (sorry, Hemel Hempstead) predated Swindon by a decade or two. The original and still the worst, not least because everything happens at twice the speed as in Swindon.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:I think you'll find that Treacle Bumstead (sorry, Hemel Hempstead) predated Swindon by a decade or two. The original and still the worst, not least because everything happens at twice the speed as in Swindon.

Whoa, looks like I stand corrected. Swindon 1972, Treacle Bumstead 1973.

Somewhere out there, the horror channels on American cable TV are probably showing live coverage of the Magic Roundabout(s) at this very moment. A nation that still finds ordinary roundabouts terrifying would be right out of its depth in these places. "OMG, and you mean I have to change gears at the same time"?

BJ

scotia wrote:Incidentally is the Swindon Magic Roundabout still in place - and has it been emulated anywhere else?

The junction of the A13 and the A120 used to be one of those as there were at least 5 roads there. Recently though the A13 on the Basildon side has been joined to the A120 north of the junction by an underpass, which shaves nearly 5 minutes off my trips to Basildon Hospital.

And Colchester has its own strange version https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.89285 ... !1e3?hl=en though they seem to have changed it a bit since I last failed to avoid it.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:And Colchester has its own strange version https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.89285 ... !1e3?hl=en though they seem to have changed it a bit since I last failed to avoid it.

Slarti

Holmes Chapel (Cheshire) must be twinned with Colchester... https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.20268 ... a=!3m1!1e3

VRD

Just in case the reference to a magic roundabout has some readers a bit confused, here is a link:-
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/des ... ircles.htm
and I'll bet you are even more confused if this is the first time you have seen it!
I never attempted any optimised route - I went safely round every peripheral roundabout until I reached my exit.

scotia wrote:Just in case the reference to a magic roundabout has some readers a bit confused, here is a link:-
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/des ... ircles.htm
and I'll bet you are even more confused if this is the first time you have seen it!

Tell you what. Let's unleash 200 self-driving cars on the Magic Roundabout, all at once, and see what ensues? It shouldn't be too disruptive - we could schedule it at three in the morning, when the surrounding roads could be closed off to twenty minutes. It should work perfectly, honestly it should. Just as long as there's nobody crossing the road with a bicycle.

BJ

"scotia wrote:
Just in case the reference to a magic roundabout has some readers a bit confused, here is a link:-
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/des ... ircles.htm
and I'll bet you are even more confused if this is the first time you have seen it!"

I notice that all the side roads to the magic roundabout are empty. Presumably everyone is stuck on the magic roundabout trying to find a way out!


Why not put a couple of bus stops on the roundabout as well - like they have at Heathfield near Newton Abbot. That way you ensure that there are lots of pedestrians on the roundabout and can cause maximum chaos.


Chris

said magic roundabout does work really well on the whyole - well, ehenver ive had to use it it has anyway

What does make me laugh is that not only does it have swindon town FC on the northern side of it all, but more amusingly on the southern entrance there is a chip shop 9all that hot fat) on the eastern side and a fire station on the western!

didds

production100 wrote:... ensure that there are lots of pedestrians on the roundabout and can cause maximum chaos.

Chris

Surprisingly, having shared space (cars, cyclists, pedestrians) is seen as a way to reduce accidents*. My understanding is that it actually reduces fatalities and serious injuries, as the car drivers (and cyclists) are taken out of their low-stimulus environment and actually have to pay attention lest they end up with a lot of hassle and paperwork!

In Holland, for example, if you are in collision with a cyclist, it's pretty much your fault - end of. As a result, drivers are much more cautious around cyclists, and they have fewer accidents.

In the UK, the motoring lobby (with help from some of our cycling idiots) have, to some extent, demonised the cyclist who now gets short shrift** from a fair percentage of drivers, being given less space and less courtesy in general.

VRD

* https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 7812000149
**Anecdotal, from me as a cyclist.