Not a roundabout, but 'The Gravely Hill Multi-Level Interchange' as the
Police like to call it, 'Spaghetti Junction' to everyone else. Easy to
negotiate, most people aren't even aware they have been through it, only one
decision to make at a time, and you don't have to give way to anyone where
lanes merge as each direction in keeps its own lane.
Try these two 'magic roundabouts' in the UK, this one -
http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/magic_roundabout.htm - at Swindon and
another at Hemel Hempstead -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/panoramas/hemel_roundabout_360.sh
tml. The Swindon one used to be even more complex to negotiate, one large
area of tarmac where you could take any one of several routes to get to your
exit, meaning that other drivers were coming at you from all directions.
Now it is much the same as Hemel.
I've had American's marvelling at UK roundabouts and wondering how anyone
ever gets round them, I say the same about 4-way Stop junctions in the USA.
They would never work in the UK, there'd be too many punch-ups - "I was here
first" " Oh no you weren't" ...
Women seem never to have got to grips with mini-roundabouts in the UK, which
are just cross-roads with a blob of white paint in the middle, like the
outer roundabouts at Swindon. Most of them can only go when all the other
entry points are clear, and I've seen three women at one, each at a separate
entry, each waiting for the other two to go (I drove straight through and
left them to it).
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darren M. Jackson" <darren@duderanch.ath.cx>
To: <mgs@Autox.Team.Net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:54 PM
Subject: RE: Roundabouts
> http://www.bplphoto.co.uk/imagefiles/F21/pages/F21-045.html
|