Roundabouts

[jtbo]

Say, I think in UK they have gone bit over the board with roundabouts, how in h*ck you are supposed to drive in this one?



Is it required to make few spins in those small patches of arrows in circular form, like if you pass circular arrowzone, make 1 full circle before moving on? I must say that I would be very confused from such roundabout and would probably just cause an accident, tell me it is not common type of roundabout there?

Our traffic designers can be really bad too, some don't even have license to drive So their designs are almost next to impossible to drive too and often cause accidents.

[SteveP]

Looks like the nicknamed "Magic Roundabout" in Swindon. I think it probably looks a lot more complicated than it is for UKer's atleast. I'm not sure of the benefits over one large roundabout though!?

[Chris_C]

Yup, thats the Swindon one, there is also one in Hemel that is a lot better designed. Swindons fails due to the random islands that are varying in size, and you watch people not have a clue what to do with them as they are just painted on. Hemels at least is made out of real solid things

I always liked the Hemel one, it's 2 lanes in both directions around the big roundabout, which means you can literally run rings around those who don't know where they are going Swindon has epic moments of 4 lanes into 1 mid roundabout (see top of the piccy above)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roun ... Hempstead)

[stu_16v]

i'd attemt to drift that!!! lol

[tommysb]

The Swindon one really isn't too bad! I lived there for a while, and it's really not a problem to negotiate.

[jtbo]

From air it surely looks like too much information in too short time, but I guess on ground you need only to focus few things there.

It still is gigantic

We have these:


That is under construction, but all essential parts are in, yes you can drive almost straight trough it.

Then sometimes they make those so small, that full size lorry can't fit trough and one would imagine there would be space trouble in UK, which is smaller country with lot more people in

How people generally drive in those there? Here perhaps 60-70% drives as they should, rest forgot signaling and drive wrong way etc.

[nvdw]

Ah that's the standard European type roundabout. Since the Netherlands discovered those, EVERY traditional junction has been replaced by one. I've also seen a lot of them popping up in Spain and Italy in the most retarded and deserted places imaginable - that's the benefit of being on the receiving end of European subsidies I guess

The Magic Roundabout is actually quite clever when you think of it, even if I hate the concept of mini-roundabouts, ie the ones where some bloke painted a big white dot on a T-junction and called it a day. I had some trouble negotiating British roundabouts with more than one entry lane in the past, until I discovered that the outer lane is used for left turns only. I still have to convey my sincere apologies to the drivers I inadvertently cut off

Oh, speaking of magic roundabouts, we have something called the 'turbo roundabout'. It's basically a roundabout-ish multi lane junction. Oh well try to make some sense out of it yourselves: http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.79 ... 4&t=k&z=19

[nomead]

Oh, speaking of magic roundabouts, we have something called the 'turbo roundabout'. It's basically a roundabout-ish multi lane junction. Oh well try to make some sense out of it yourselves: http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.79 ... 4&t=k&z=19

That looks a lot like the Finnish roundabout used where there's actually some traffic (as opposed to jtbo's example... ) At least here in Turku we've got a couple with two lanes inside the roundabout. You need to choose which way to go before entering the roundabout or things will be a bit hairy.

[jtbo]

Oh, speaking of magic roundabouts, we have something called the 'turbo roundabout'. It's basically a roundabout-ish multi lane junction. Oh well try to make some sense out of it yourselves: http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.79 ... 4&t=k&z=19

That looks a lot like the Finnish roundabout used where there's actually some traffic (as opposed to jtbo's example... ) At least here in Turku we've got a couple with two lanes inside the roundabout. You need to choose which way to go before entering the roundabout or things will be a bit hairy.

In Finland, we do not have any traffic, not if you compare to any UK large city

Have you been in Jyväskylä, Vaajkoski roundabout? They did make good job building 2 lane roundabout, which would help bit of that area's traffic problem, trouble was that nobody did not know how to drive in there and it was very quickly converted back to single lane roundabout. Maybe bit more planning and usage of space would of made that to work better.
There is another roundabout in there, which has huge centre area and only one lane, that is near gas station, where people choose to go to gas station or to continue driving that road, there roundabout actually makes traffic jams as if there would be separate lanes without roundabout people would not stop there.

Probably only place in Finland where I have been sitting in traffic for 5km.

They put those in really quiet places, some 200 people villages too

[Ovlov 3.6L]

Say, I think in UK they have gone bit over the board with roundabouts, how in h*ck you are supposed to drive in this one?



Is it required to make few spins in those small patches of arrows in circular form, like if you pass circular arrowzone, make 1 full circle before moving on? I must say that I would be very confused from such roundabout and would probably just cause an accident, tell me it is not common type of roundabout there?

Our traffic designers can be really bad too, some don't even have license to drive So their designs are almost next to impossible to drive too and often cause accidents.

That's a good place to give some drift-demo's

[jtbo]

They should use it indeed in some drift movie, which seem to be popular these days, maybe some film maker in UK is also working with one to get share of market (probably will not happen, attitude against 'unsafe' antisocial behaviour is perhaps too strong).

[Fuse]

From air it surely looks like too much information in too short time, but I guess on ground you need only to focus few things there.

It still is gigantic

We have these:


That is under construction, but all essential parts are in, yes you can drive almost straight trough it.

Then sometimes they make those so small, that full size lorry can't fit trough and one would imagine there would be space trouble in UK, which is smaller country with lot more people in

How people generally drive in those there? Here perhaps 60-70% drives as they should, rest forgot signaling and drive wrong way etc.

Off topic. When have you been @ Iisalmi. Our summer house is about ~10km to Sonkajärvi direction from that roundabout.

My uncle told that there has already been several crashes at that roundabout because it's probably the first one @ Iisalmi and most "drivers" don't know the rules who has to yield who when entering the roundabout...

Probably only place in Finland where I have been sitting in traffic for 5km.

If you are a masochist and want to sit in traffic, come to drive Ring 1 @ Espoo side of the Ring at any workday during 4AM traffic or during the morning traffic..

Roundabouts are useless if the traffic flow to the roundabout isn't planned properly. If the traffic flow is badly planned the roundabout usually just makes more traffic jams.

-Marko

[macplaxton]

May I add to Swindon & Hemel's roundabouts on a roundabout theme: High Wycombe. Odd a first, but dead easy to negotiate when you live(d) there.

[jtbo]

Off topic. When have you been @ Iisalmi. Our summer house is about ~10km to Sonkajärvi direction from that roundabout.

My uncle told that there has already been several crashes at that roundabout because it's probably the first one @ Iisalmi and most "drivers" don't know the rules who has to yield who when entering the roundabout...

If you are a masochist and want to sit in traffic, come to drive Ring 1 @ Espoo side of the Ring at any workday during 4AM traffic or during the morning traffic..

Roundabouts are useless if the traffic flow to the roundabout isn't planned properly. If the traffic flow is badly planned the roundabout usually just makes more traffic jams.

-Marko

I believe last time I was at Iisalmi end of spring/early summer, I actually go almost always trough there, hardly ever stopping, but I do that several times in a year, that pic was from Google

I usually try to avoid general routes if time permits that, so getting into stand still traffic is luckily quite rare incident and I plan to keep it that way

[Cutler]

how in h*ck you are supposed to drive in this one?

sideways?!