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Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

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Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#121

Post by njb311 »

I lived in Swindon for 2 years and while drivers can find different things challenging, I would venture to say that it's a lot more straightforward when you're on it than you might imagine. It separates traffic effectively at peak times according to which roads they enter/leave, and as many have mentioned it slows cars down so you aren't pressured to make snap decisions either if you aren't sure. If all else fails, you can follow the car in front of you and if you picked the correct lane at first entry the chances are you will be led to the correct exit point.

Pedestrians don't really feature from a safety perspective because there are light-controlled crossings all the way around the fringe. The problems I saw were when arrogant/impatient people (as opposed to first-timers) saw a gap that was intentionally left because of the way traffic flows from one roundabout to the next, and would speed past two or three cars then push in. But those people cause problems everywhere.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#122

Post by Ohn0 »

kerkeslager wrote: post #53

I guess what this shows is two things: 1. Scaring people into slowing down is a viable way to avoid accidents. 2. Perceived scariness of an intersection is not indicative of how dangerous it actually is.

Now imagine when "a police officer was stationed at each mini roundabout"!

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#123

Post by scoot »

andrew-v wrote: post #112
dghughes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

On a plain 2-lane roundabout when you're driving the outside lane you are not forced to leave it at the 2nd exit. Sometimes there are even no signs/arrows on the road that require you to do it. It is expected of you, but if you happen to be one of the drivers that suddenly change their minds or you don't know how to drive on roundabouts you could continue driving around in the outside lane. So a typical situation whi…

> a typical situation which makes roundabouts dangerous is when you're driving in the inside lane and you want to take the second exit

If you want to take the second exit, you should be in the outside lane to start with. In the UK, for a standard two-lane roundabout, unless indicated otherwise by road markings and/or signs the outside lane is for taking the first or second exit, and the inside lane is for taking the third and subsequent exits. You move from inside to outside as you pass the second exit.

There are also rules for indicating correctly that help smooth the traffic flow, but unfortunately many drivers seem oblivious to (or just ignore) them. Also, on smaller two-lane roundabouts more than a few drivers will cut across the inside lane (taking the shortest path) with no consideration for vehicles beside them.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#124

Post by Reason077 »

mabbo wrote: post #89
chrishannah wrote: post #18

That's not even the best "Magic Roundabout", the one in my town is much better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempst...

I'm Canadian. We had a work trip to the UK. My manager kept saying "I think I can handle driving in there, how bad could it be?". I told him we'd die. As we went through the Hemel Hempstead magic roundabout in the back of a cab, he turned to me and said "Okay... you might have been right."

Statistically, you are less likely to die compared to driving in Canada. UK roads may be confusing, but they are significantly safer than Canadian roads, as measured by fatalities per billion km driven.

(And Canada is already among the safest non-European countries, with significantly fewer fatalities compared to the USA)

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#125

Post by scoot »

For a real nightmare roundabout, the winner has to be Place Charles de Gaulle around the Arc de Triumph in Paris[0].

It is about 8 lanes across, with no lane markings, and with vehicles entering the roundabout from one of 12 junctions having right-of-way.

I'm not sure what was happening on the day the Google maps aerial photo was taken, as it unfortunately it doesn't show the chaos that normally ensues.

[0] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Arc+de+Triomphe/@48.873766...

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#126

Post by kerkeslager »

Ohn0 wrote: post #122
kerkeslager wrote: post #53

I guess what this shows is two things: 1. Scaring people into slowing down is a viable way to avoid accidents. 2. Perceived scariness of an intersection is not indicative of how dangerous it actually is.

Now imagine when "a police officer was stationed at each mini roundabout"!

I think that enforcing traffic law is one of the best ways to use police to keep the public safe. However, I suspect that having 5 cops at one intersection is a mis-allocation of resources. It would make that intersection safer, but at a pretty high salary cost, and even if the salary was available, it's likely at least some of the cops would be more useful at other intersections.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#128

Post by cmehdy »

scoot wrote: post #125

For a real nightmare roundabout, the winner has to be Place Charles de Gaulle around the Arc de Triumph in Paris[0]. It is about 8 lanes across, with no lane markings, and with vehicles entering the roundabout from one of 12 junctions having right-of-way. I'm not sure what was happening on the day the Google maps aerial photo was taken, as it unfortunately it doesn't show the chaos that normally ensues. [0] https://w…

You get the gist of it if you drop into streetview and move around. [0]

Having taken that roundabout in just about every way possible (car, scooter and yes - velib), I can only recommend to anyone on it to have fluid yet determined movement on the roundabout.. even if you don't quite know where you're going or if the next exit is the one you really want to take. A fun exercise.

[0] https://imgur.com/gYPWfv2

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#129

Post by mcv »

scoot wrote: post #123
andrew-v wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a plain 2-lane roundabout when you're driving the outside lane you are not forced to leave it at the 2nd exit. Sometimes there are even no signs/arrows on the road that require you to do it. It is expected of you, but if you happen to be one of the drivers that suddenly change their minds or you don't know how to drive on roundabouts you could continue driving around in the outside lane. So a typical situation whi…

> a typical situation which makes roundabouts dangerous is when you're driving in the inside lane and you want to take the second exit If you want to take the second exit, you should be in the outside lane to start with. In the UK, for a standard two-lane roundabout, unless indicated otherwise by road markings and/or signs the outside lane is for taking the first or second exit, and the inside lane is for taking the…

In a regular two-lane roundabout, this difference is arbitrary. Your second exit is the third exit for cars entering before you and the first exit for cars entering later. If someone is entering from your exit, you may still be in trouble when you try to move to the outside lane after the second exit. Hence the turbo roundabout.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#130

Post by tomatocracy »

bloopernova wrote: post #82
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...

Quick story time! I moved from the UK to the US in 2001. I then learned to drive in the US (Had no need to in the UK). Sometimes I dream of the UK, my dreaming brain realizes I'm on the "wrong" side of the road. So it tries to switch me over, but that means traveling to the US, so I then have to get on a plane to... drive on the right side of the road. I do it less now that I'm aware of what's going on, but it was ve…

Having the controls and seating position reversed also helps a lot in driving on the other side of the road compared to what you're 'used to' in my experience.

In particular I've found that driving on the continent in a UK car is a lot harder than driving on the continent in a local hire car, beyond the lower visibility you get when merging etc.

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