What is Digg?96 Comments
- Blackmane, on 10/10/2007, -4/+43It doesn't, it annoys people so much that they take a different route and complete avoid the situation.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+35That's incredible. How could that improve traffic flow?
- FiP0, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24Roundabout => no red lights :)
- trghpy, on 10/10/2007, -5/+26*tune of hokey pokey*
Take a left turn here, take a right turn there, take a left turn again to get the hell out;
You do the multi-mini roundabout because you're lost;
and thats what its all about. - holygram, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18No.
- shackleton1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18I've never driven round a multi-mini roundabout but I've driven round a lot of ordinary roundabouts and afaik the principle is exactly the same - you are always giving way to your right. Whatever junction you are at, all you have to do is look to your right. Very simple :) Additionally, because of the roundness of the roundabout nothing is moving too fast (cos they have to corner) so it's really easy to blend in with the traffic and not many accidents.
- TVarmy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13There's many ways to take one route, and the drivers' confusion manages to split up the paths pretty well. Think of it like a bunch of parallel resistors in a circuit, and how that actually lowers resistance. Or, if you don't get electricity, think of it like getting more lanes on a highway. Why didn't I go with that intuitive analogy first? Oh well...
- Jambi, on 10/10/2007, -3/+14Bah, crazy English nonsense. The American solution to people or cars slowing you down is much more direct, not to mention convenient: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgV9Kp8QzOA
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Roundabouts are clearly superior to lights. I'd really have to use this to know for sure how I like it, but we really should use roundabouts more in the US of A.
- LordSkywalker, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10There's a roundabout here where I live. They're sweet and I wish America had more. You don't have to stop for no reason when nobody's around, like you do at stop signs. Plus there's not traffic light, so again, you're not sitting there waiting for the light to change when nobody is using the cross street.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8i'm sure its just because i live and drive in texas, but i can't understand how the safety record can be good in a design like that. you put one of those in at an intersection anywhere in dallas and you'll see the worst traffic record for any intersection in the state, maybe the country. people here drive to fast and too violently for something like that, everyone thinks they own the road.
- deanbag, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I lived in Swindon for a year and a half. The magic roundabout is easier to navigate than it looks, though it is intimidating the first time. It works quite well even under high traffic loads (even better than stoplights, believe it or not!)
The "tourist method" also works when commuting home, from north to south (in this picture from top left to bottom left): the road on the bottom right-hand side of the picture is quite busy with people driving home. The trick of the roundabout is that you can take the tourist method (along the outside), swiftly pass the almost-always empty northwest roundabout (upper right side of picture) and force people on the busy road to let you go first. Woo hoo! If you don't do that, you sometimes get stuck in the middle by the heavy stream of traffic from the east (bottom right). - lieutenantmudd, on 10/10/2007, -4/+9Here is why is I hate when people complain about having a picture section. Digg is a news site. Digg brings eyeballs to interesting stories. I do not see the conflict between this mission and a story where the primary interest is a picture. Who says an interesting story can't be a picture, or primarily based off a photo?
Basically, to look at the "news" or interesting stories in the one dimensional framework of whether it is text, video or photo is ridiculous. Stories should be broken up by content, not by medium. - posure, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4True..it might be the better solution, but it will never work here in America because we are too used to the current system (same thing with switching to the metric system).
- liam2317, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Here it is: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=51.562899,-1.771481&spn=0.002194,0.005021&t=k&z=18&om=1
- hassanchop13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3until someone with a H2 decides "***** it, i'm just going straight"
- thegaminglounge, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5WhiteZombie said:
"i'm sure its just because i live and drive in texas, but i can't understand how the safety record can be good in a design like that. you put one of those in at an intersection anywhere in dallas and you'll see the worst traffic record for any intersection in the state, maybe the country. people here drive to fast and too violently for something like that, everyone thinks they own the road."
Having been to Texas I agree, y'all can't even begin to understand a roundabout.
Unfortunately most Americans will never understand that a roundabout is the best solution to traffic flow. - supernovasky, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3 Thanks man.
- butwhyowhy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Drive it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrfdQIg4ap0
- noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2as far as messed up driving goes, nothing touches the absurdity of boston mass.
- Schda, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Roundabouts can have red lights... I remember seeing one in England with red lights, they were there to regulate traffic going onto the roundabout. I think it was somewhere near Birmingham, but I could be mistaken.
- paulOr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3if i came to a roundabout like that, id get out and walk.
- DeFex, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3LOL imagine if americans had to do that.
Drivers are so dumb in north America that we can not even be trusted with a "yield" sign, because most of them are so rude they will just go ahead anyways. - Nachoes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2They better patent that "multi-mini roundabout", before someone else patents it.
To the Patent Office, Batman! - Adgeman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Piece of piss that roundabout. If you can't handle this get out and walk :)
- omenmedia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Australia, and particularly Canberra the capital, is full of them (standard roundabouts that is, not crazy ones like in the linked article). They are easy to use and help keep traffic flowing, however they fail badly when traffic is heavy. The general rule is "give way (or yield) to the right" so if you're approaching the roundabout and there is traffic on the roundabout to your right, you slow down, stop if necessary until it's clear, then you go. If you approach and there is no one coming to your right, you just keep going. We have a particularly large roundabout in Canberra though that gets a lot of traffic a peak hour. What you end up with is a great deal of traffic coming from two directions, but not much from the other two. The end result? Traffic backed up for miles because you are continually waiting for traffic from the right to clear. In fact, they had to install part-time signal lights on this roundabout recently to help control the flow at peak hour.
- supernovasky, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2hey, I'll support it...
- TheSexyGeek, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This cool and all but this would NEVER work in Jamaica. During peak traffic hours, the rules of the road go out the window. That roundabout would turn into parking lot of beeping cars.
- grumpyrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2That may be true (I doubt it but the allocation is beside the point). When they pay over $6.50 per gallon, they don't buy big SUVs, period.
- TVarmy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I was in Missouri a few weeks ago. People always joke that Jersey drivers suck (I live there), but I learned a valuable lesson: High traffic density and a complex highway system with many exits, jughandles, u-turns, and so on call for good drivers. People learn accordingly, so NJ drivers are actually relatively good. It's just with so many opportunities to screw up, more people make idiots of themselves even though they usually aren't that dumb. Meanwhile, in the country, there's not usually too much to crash into. People can get away with putting the car in cruise control and reaching around the back seat for a pack of gum. And exits are few and far between. Basic acceleration and deceleration and some very rudimentary steering is all that is needed 90% of the time. But put these drivers with something complex and rare out there like a stop light or a 4-way intersection with no light, and they clearly are uncomfortable, spanning multiple lanes and making wide turns.
I kid, and I dearly love my family there. But NJ drivers have nothing on Missouri drivers when it comes to the number of dumb moves. - justinjstark, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Looks easy enough. There's an outer circle that goes clockwise and an inner circle that goes counter clockwise. So use the little roundabout to get to the inner circle and use another to get out, or just go clockwise around the outside. I like it but there's no way people in the states would be able to figure these out.
- deadnoob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2PSH.. look who just went from being a "tourist" to a "pro driver" in just seconds
- thybag, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2They do look kinda confusing but there actually really simple to navigate, there's one of them in Colchester as well.
- HautePie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The town layout is irrelevant. A roundabout replaces a traffic light or give-way junction and they work fine in grid-like "+" junctions. London is not the whole of the UK.
- rspeed, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1While I agree, people are too stupid to grasp them. All the time I see people (in the US) putting their left turn signal when getting onto a traffic circle when they're going to travel 3/4 of the circle.
- eoncire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They work well where people know how to use them. I live 45 min west of Detroit and they are going in like crazy around here. People just don't get it though. This is the wildest one i have seen yet. To get from the gas station on the corner to the shopping center, you go through 5 roundabouts. Madness...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=green+oak+twp+mi&ie=UTF8&ll=42.505847,-83.757201&spn=0.005086,0.010042&z=17&om=1 - ChildeRoland420, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Actually, a roundabout is where the entering cars have to yield. The video isn't even of a roundabout, it's a "Traffic circle" (where cars in circle yield to those entering).
Civil Engineering FTW. - MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1I wonder if Canyonero is a double entendre for both canyons and "can ya narrow?", as in, make it into a tight space?
Canyonero!! *WHIP* - Chopper3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I've been round that junction a number of times, it's easy and does easy congestion. I can appreciate how americans who don't use roundabouts much would think it odd but it works.
- pault107, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Swindon is my home town and I had to go across that roundabout during my driving test. It's scary the first few times you go across it, but it actually works very well. For Swindonians the roundabout is nothing to be scared of at all. But I can imagine it would be brown trousers time if you were suddenly presented with the Magic Roundabout and you weren't expecting it.
- rspeed, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Haha. I used to find Dupont Circle especially enjoyable when walking. You can just cross without a signal because everyone is going so slow.
- ELCad, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1We have roundabout with a light here in Columbia, MD. Locals were to stupid to deal so a light was added.
- GIMLISONOFGLOIN, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3THEY'RE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! HURRY! GET TO THE RIGHT BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!
- bloaty, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1like the time I was stuck wating for a train and the guy in his 'Hummer 2' decides that he is tough enough to try a U turn over the 3FT high divider ;D, he hurt his fender and his pride, the resulting road rage and flat tire = PRICELESS!
- FiP0, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1yeah it's true, sometimes.
- Asten77, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I lived in Swindon for a few months on an assignment for work. I traversed this a couple times. Once at night when it was deserted.. and once during rush hour. I've never been so terrified in my life.
That said, regular roundabouts are supremely awesome. I want more here in the US. But yeah, the few I've seen prove most americans aren't intelligent enough to handle this. Heck, Chicagoans don't even know how to merge. - wshs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Try the Schuylkill expressway between 476 and South Street, Philadelphia. Schneider truck drives jackknife and flip there all the time, even though there's no exits or curves where they crash. I've been to Boston. I've been all over NJ. Neither have anything on the stupidity of people who drive the Schuylkill.
- ezcheese, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The band XTC, which is from Swindon had a song about the magic roundabout called English Roundabout on the album English Settlement. http://wm02.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=XTC&sql=11:gifixqr5ldfe~T1
- Boofster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://www.efecte-d.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/picard.jpg
- ezcheese, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's only a rotary in New England. It's a roundabout in the rest of the U.S and the U.K.
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