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View Full Version : No wonder foreign types get confused



InsaneApache
10-08-2005, 10:14
This would just about make my day at rush hour.:dizzy2:

http://195.24.41.144/fun/roundabout.htm

Marcellus
10-08-2005, 11:26
I'm not a motorist (yet), but couldn't they have just made it into one big roundabout and forget all the small ones?

Big King Sanctaphrax
10-08-2005, 12:59
That is absolutely preposterous. As Marcellus says, what's the point of it? One big one would be perfectly adequate.

Also, if I'm reading this right, you drive anti-clockwise on the central section? That's a recipe for disaster.

Geoffrey S
10-08-2005, 17:44
England seems to have thing about roundabouts as it is, and Holland is steadily getting worse in that regard. But this really takes the biscuit. Quite a large number of them, in fact.

rasoforos
10-08-2005, 17:47
Seeing all those roundabouts confused me when I first came to this country...

...but this is just beyond imagination..!

Duke Malcolm
10-08-2005, 17:49
We seem to be losing roundabouts up here in Scotland. There was a hellish roundabout junction over not far from Cumbernauld, but they are doing it up and making an over-pass thingy instead, with a plethora of slip roads.

BDC
10-08-2005, 18:16
That just looks horrific. Can you imagine being a learner around there, and your test including it? Be like an automatic fail.

Ja'chyra
10-08-2005, 18:42
On my 3 mile cycle to work I have to cross 9 roundabouts, seems like someone had a brainwave one day and everyone believed him ~D

Del Arroyo
10-08-2005, 18:56
All I know about roundabouts is they've got 'em in Guadalajara in Mexico and they are a pain in the ASS to navigate on foot. Because there are no crosswalks and no clear indication of which cars are going when. You never can know when a wall of traffic is going to come around the bend and plaster you.

And it's no IF, notice, but WHEN, because like I said there are no crosswalks and the cars are always moving in some direction.

But that may more just be a Mexico thing. I hate them, though.

DA

Mikeus Caesar
10-09-2005, 00:05
Ah, that would be the so called 'magic roundabout'. Seen it before. I agree, it is a bit ott, and whoever thought of it was obviously on something at the time, and must have slipped something into the tea at the meeting that agreed to build it, but apart from that monstrosity, roundabouts are okay. You can drive round and round, so if you miss your turn off, you just go round again.

InsaneApache
10-09-2005, 00:11
Ah, that would be the so called 'magic roundabout'

Indeed it is, my tyke friend ~:cheers:

http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

Samurai Waki
10-09-2005, 11:17
I haven't driven on too many confusing roads in the US, I know where I'm at it seems roundabouts are becoming increasingly popular. But for the most part I like the traditional grid pattern with traffic lights at busy intersections~;)

Azi Tohak
10-09-2005, 17:22
:dizzy2:

There is only one roundabout in my town, used mainly for a speed break. I can't even imagine trying to deal with that thing during rush hours.

Azi

Marcellus
10-09-2005, 22:40
I quite like roundabouts, actually (sensible ones of course). As MC says, if you miss your turn-off, you just go round again (and again and again...).

solypsist
10-10-2005, 01:00
nice link!

when i saw those pics all i could was whisper, "whoa."

Kekvit Irae
10-10-2005, 01:40
I've seen a roundabout for four roads in NE Maryland (in Elkton), and all I could think was "Why couldnt they have just done a four-way intersection with stop signs?"
:blankg:

Louis VI the Fat
10-10-2005, 10:51
That magic roundabout idea is brilliant, really. It's a fantastic way of quickly handling traffic coming from five directions.

I'd probably die within seconds though. Imagine running into one of them, unsuspecting...

English assassin
10-10-2005, 13:03
Blimey. If you hadn't been warned about it in advance I bet you would come to grief the first time you say that.

Is it just me, or could you go round it either way? Eg you could go to the left, doing one mini-roundabout at a time until you got to the exit you wanted, or you could go to the right, through the magic contrarotating central roundabout of death, emerging on the mini-roundabout of your chosen exit?

thrashaholic
10-10-2005, 18:06
it seems quite logical and easy to follow to me from a bird's eye view, but I bet it's far more difficult to drive through, especially for foreigners.