I live close to this magnificent piece of engineering, AMA.
Does it have one of those "X days without an incident" signs next to it? :)
Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
41–50 of 199 posts
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#42I live close to this magnificent piece of engineering, AMA.
It’s not easy to understand why it is structured this way. As a local do you have any idea why it’s composed of five mini roundabouts instead of just a single one? Does it feel like it handles high levels of traffic better?
I'm not sure on the actual design decision reasonings, however you can reach many of the exit junctions with multiple routes. So if everyone drove around it sensibly, there _would_ be fewer cars stuck in traffic.
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#43A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go.
It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once you're on it. It can handle a much higher traffic flow than other kinds of roundabouts. The only potential downside is that you need to know where you want to go before you enter the roundabout. There's no possibility to keep going around until you figure out where you want to go.
[0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turborotonde (In Dutch, but with images. "Rotonde" is Dutch for roundabout.)
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#44Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#45That's not even the best "Magic Roundabout", the one in my town is much better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempst...
Has yours had "Mad Mike" drift around it? ;) https://www.redbull.com/ie-en/videos/mad-mike-whiddett-drift...
There'd probably be a crash, it's never that empty.
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#46I've navigated this thing a few times. The first time I just stayed on it for 20 minutes, trying to work it out, and yeah .. basically just confused as hell for a while.
Subsequent trips were easy. If you're intimidated, just get on it and stay on it until you feel like you get where it's going. Those crossovers are dodgy AF though, especially with irate lorry drivers who are, most likely, also pretty stressed for having to do the thing ..
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#47A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…
That's neat. How does it handle more than 4 junctions? The Magic Roundabout was devised as a means to efficiently handle the junction of 5 or more roads.
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#48I find the whole "inner ring for people who know what they're doing and outer ring for people who have no business driving in heavy traffic" concept highly attractive but the fact that the safety claims revolve around injuries and makes no mention of overall accidents (if it reduced overall accidents surely they would mention it) makes me suspect this thing is a fender bender (and therefore traffic jam) factory.
From tfa:
> In 2010, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program concluded that the roundabout reduces injurious crashes by three quarters
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#49A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…
There's one of these on the junction of the A3 at New Malden. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/A3,+New+Malden,+UK/@51.3...
Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)
#50A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…