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Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

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Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#11

Post by laumars »

satori99 wrote: post #4

The traffic engineer who managed to convince authorities that this was the solution to their problems must've been very charismatic.

They look scarier than they are in practice. What I hate more is those massive roundabouts with traffic lights on where dual carriageways meet. On those things you still have a mix of cars who don't know where they're going and lanes to be away of, but in addition you have traffic lights and cars moving at much higher speeds than on magic roundabouts.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#12

Post by rusk »

satori99 wrote: post #4

The traffic engineer who managed to convince authorities that this was the solution to their problems must've been very charismatic.

Something of a roundabout afficionado it seems [0] ... also ex British Airforce, which given the odd way that the brits assign status, could provide alternative explanations for this madness beyond charisma .... he hadn't even 10 years experience as a working civil engineer when he came up with this.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Blackmore

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#14

Post by Sean1708 »

kaffeemitsahne wrote: post #2

Imagine coming from mainland europe and having to drive on the other side of the road (thus also taking roundabouts the other way round), and then navigating this baby...

I strongly believe that the biggest reason people struggle with the Magic Roundabout is because it's called a roundabout, when it's actually just a collection of 5 roundabouts. If you tackle it one roundabout at a time it's actually not that bad at all, it could be much much better, but it's not bad.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#15

Post by euroderf »

kaffeemitsahne wrote: post #2

Imagine coming from mainland europe and having to drive on the other side of the road (thus also taking roundabouts the other way round), and then navigating this baby...

I worked a few months in Swindon (before mapping apps) and out-of-towners on business visits always got directions that went thru the Magic Roundabout. Not to worry, tho: they got hair-raising stories to tell.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#17

Post by tomohawk »

When I was visiting the UK, I ended up driving through this intersection a couple of times. It wasn't really a big deal, even for someone not used to roundabouts or driving on the left.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#19

Post by chrisseaton »

tomohawk wrote: post #17

When I was visiting the UK, I ended up driving through this intersection a couple of times. It wasn't really a big deal, even for someone not used to roundabouts or driving on the left.

Right - people tell me they find roundabouts really confusing but I say: imagine a one way street, and you're joining it at a T-junction. If you're in the UK the one-way street is going left. If you're in Europe or America it's going right. That's literally all a roundabout is. You can forget about the fact that it's circular. There's no extra rules I believe.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#20

Post by arethuza »

dijit wrote: post #6

I grew up near a city called Birmingham in the UK which has it's share of... disturbing junctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ways,_Birmingham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravelly_Hill_Interchange They look insane on a map, they must have been hellish to navigate before GPS.

The only junctions that terrify me are some innocuous looking ones on the A9 in the Highlands (a notoriously dangerous road at the best of times) - they are perfectly OK without much traffic but are a nightmare if it is busy.
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