I know here in the PNW, even though we have plenty of rain most years, it often goes for a long time in the summer without rain. When it does rain, the roads, which have accumulated a few months of oily residue that offloads from cars and trucks, become very slick for a while until the oily stuff is diluted and washed away. Lots of accidents. Add in the numerous CA transplants who don't know how to drive in the rain and it's a disaster here when the rain starts. I suspect that the residue on the roads in CA also contributes to road slickness when it finally rains.

I think France is the only country where those entering from the right get priority over those already in the roundabout- and that's changing even there. Old roundabouts (and the Arc of course) still do it that way but newer ones are sign posted to give priority to those already in the roundabout. Thank goodness. Not a great fan of roundabouts, but I've had to get used to them here in Oz.

I’m not a fan of roundabouts, either. They do seem to move the traffic more quickly, though.🙂

Alberta, seems to be getting more of them as well.

Olychick, now that you say that about the oily residue that accumulates, it makes more sense. We get so much rain/snow that nothing accumulates on the road surface here - heck, the snow plows sometimes scrape up a bit of the road.

This reminds me of a night I had gotten off from work. It was pouring snow with a lot of snow and ice already on the ground. I have two ways to get home, the parkway, big two lane divided highway or through a little town and then through the country on a two-lane narrow road, where the road starts downhill to a bridge over the Kentucky river. Then it has a fairly steep climb up the other side. I never drive the country road when the weather is bad, rain with wind is a bad idea too because there are a lot of trees lining that road that end up in the road.

So, this night I had planned to go home on the parkway, only it was blocked off by police. I just thought, "oh no". Had to be an accident on the parkway. I went through the little town and got on the country road and was so thankful to find a snow plow right in front of me. I followed it very slowly all the way to my little town.

"It is certainly unique for roundabout rules and size."

Size, yes. Rules, no. Same rule all over France and the Benelux when, as I said above, "For any encounter between two cars, in the absence of traffic control (no signal, no yield or "you have right of way" signs), the car on the right has right of way."

"I think France is the only country where those entering from the right get priority over those already in the roundabout"

Wrong. My same comment applies

By the way, my street view capture above is from April, 2021.

Elmer, I think the rules for driving in roundabouts in France are changing. My comment about being unique was that it was unique/different/? from almost every other place in the world for traffic circle rules.

“Most roundabouts are now preceded by an international-style triangular sign above a message stating that you do not have the right of way ("Vous n'avez pas la priorité"), and drivers approaching the roundabout have to yield to drivers on the roundabout.”

If you are ever driving there again, just be alert for the changes. 🙂 Pay attention to signage and you’ll be fine.

That must have been quite interesting for you and your wife watching bumper cars! I hope there were no serious injuries.

eta I can no longer see the streetview photo you posted. It was a nice picture from what I recall.

The point is really somewhat moot: most roundabouts in the Netherlands, all the newer ones in France, and all roundabouts in Belgium do in fact now have signs giving priority to those already in the roundabout.

I think we can all agree on that.

Oh, and Happy Anniversary jmm!

The fact they need signs pointing out that they don't have priority entering a roundabout shows that in the past they did. We used to have to remind ourselves of that when driving on the continent. We have had roundabouts for decades and the traffic already on them always had priority. Driving on snow is a rare skill here. Driving on wet roundabouts in rain happens all the time. And since snow is so unusual nobody has winter tires which makes life harder.

Yes, exactly floral! The accepted way of driving in roundabouts in France has changed and the new signage is there. Of course no signage would default to the old way but it sounds like that is getting less common.

Interesting story (well to me at least) 😊

The city nearest to where I live is one of the first in North America to have traffic circles all because our first urban planner was from England. Noel Dant, born in 1914, introduced Edmonton AB to traffic circles in 1949.

We’ve got them all over.

Driving on snow and ice is second nature here.

Back in the 80s France didn’t have a lot of roundabouts. I remember once asking for directions and being told to go as far as ’le truc qui tourne’ which was accompanied by circular arm waving. The guy couldn't recall the word (rond-point) for the newfangled things.

We have a few roundabouts that do help with traffic flow, but they are not multilane at multilane intersections. I would have a really long learning curve for those!

My ex and I got stuck in the inside lane of a huge double roundabout in Scotland because no one would let us over where we needed to get off and we finally just stayed in the outside land and got honked at till we could bail off. It was nerve racking. We are getting them all over here and people are clueless. Majorly the people from the main road assume they still have priority.

Roundabouts are prolific here. Anytime new roads or even subdivisions are built, roundabouts are part of it. One major stretch in town has 7 roundabouts all the way down the street. People take to it like a racetrack, not even looking, just going as quick as they can.

One was 3 lanes and there were so many accidents with people cutting in front of others to exit; pedestrians were getting hit (crosswalk through them), they narrowed it down to 2 lanes.

Overall I like them, my beef is no one signals. People signal while sitting at a stop light, but they don't signal their intent to exit a roundabout. So people wait to pull into the roundabout (those inside the roundabout have right of way) and people are exiting. A simple signal would be nice.

"Back in the 80s France didn’t have a lot of roundabouts."

Maybe not in suburban/rural settings as part of more modern traffic engineering for intersections of minor roads (non Autoroute) of higher volume, as I've encountered all over England. But they've been in cities for hundreds of years, because that's how the streets were laid out, meeting at large round or roundish "squares".

I remember my first driving encounter in Paris in the mid-70s in one of the larger traffic circles Place de something or other (don't remember which one). Before entering, I'd pulled over to put into front of mind the name of the street I wanted to exit on. Being unfamiliar with the radial flow inward and outward to get to where you wanted, I drove in, found the signs didn't indicate street names and wound up in an un-exitable position. I drove around a few times (no choice), got out, pulled over, consulted the map again, and counted which radial I'd encounter that was the exit I wanted. I think it was the third. I drove in again, immediately counted and sighted where the third radial exit was, watched the flow, and made it on my first attempt. Later experiences, hundreds of times, made the task simple. Today, GPS makes it a cinch but before, and when living there, my technique was to plan ahead with a count which exit I wanted to take and then just do it. Free flow traffic circles and priority to the right in them and in other uncontrolled intersections, which are all over, work just fine but differently from what's in North America.

My daughter was in Swindon, UK to see a Morrissey concert in 2009. Apparently, Swindon has a traffic circle that has 5 (I think) circles within one circle.😳 She said it was a real hoot. (The circle, not the concert)

The concert was a bust, as Morrissey collapsed on stage during the first song. Concert ended. Morrissey just being being Morrissey😄

Roxsol, you just blew my mind! LOL. I have no idea how to process 5 circles in a roundabout...off to google to see what I can learn about this!

They seem to becoming more popular here too. I have no particular thoughts about them. They do seem to confuse the heck out of some drivers, but in general I think (?) they do process more traffic in a more efficient fashion that a stop light does. They're being newly constructed in a beach town where I spend a lot of time (SOUTH of here! Need warm weather!) and traffic in a beach town is always fun in the summer. I'm curious to see how they perform this summer...

Driving in Britain is a sedate experience. British drivers, compared to Continental ones, drive more slowly, are not as playful, are more polite, and are not as situationally excitable and possessed of short fuses as those with some degree of Latin blood.

Comparing Britain to Italy (another place where priority to the right applies in the thousands of uncontrolled intersections), where drivers drive too fast, can be agitated and aggressive but almost always with an undertone of playfulness, gives a good representation of both ends of the difficulty spectrum. I've driven a lot in Italy and it's just a few notches more intense than France. Fun, not difficult, just different. Lots of horn honking and arm waving.

Historical enmities and generalized caricatures remain among Europeans although usually not to a serious degree. The British caricature includes elements of haughty buffoonish behavior at one end of the socio-economic scale and thuggery at the other. Cars in Europe have oval indications of nation of origin in the back and of course right-side steering wheels are an obvious giveaway too with a closer look, but I've seen many instances of when seeing an opportunity to take advantage of the expected good nature and meekness of a British driver, a Continental will create a situation to taunt the good nature of the visiting Brit behind the wheel. Always with a smile. The situations I've seen involved middle age Brit drivers in up-market cars, those with a greater likelihood of being polite victims.

I very much ike roundabouts-the single ones, have never driven a double one or, heaven forbid, the one at Swinton. There are a fair number here around DC and, of course, in France. No problems in either place.

Patriceny, here’s some homework for you https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html

In practice signage and road markings make it pretty clear what you should do.

A cool new type of highway intersection, from the brains of creative traffic engineers, is called a Diverging Diamond interchange. It allows for a higher volume flow on to and off of a highway with mostly continuous movement while eliminating cross traffic left turns.

A variation of the diverging diamond is called the double crossover, the same idea but with bridges so there's a continual flow and no stopping

I don't know how many roundabouts we have in our area but it's lots, most of them two lane. I don't have a problem with them:  it's the bigger ones I dislike, because so many drivers don't use the lanes properly.

Carmel, Indiana calls itself the traffic circle capital of the US, with 140 and more being built. It's a relatively small town of under 100K inhabitants but it's an impressive number. This configuration is very efficient in maximizing traffic flow and eliminating the need to completely bring cross traffic to alternating periods of stopping for one direction to cross the other at intersections.

What a fun discussion this is. I've learned some new stuff today. Thank you everyone!!

Apparently the UK has 25,000 roundabouts, the highest in the world in proportion to road space. It seems we even have a Roundabout Appreciation Society. Swindon’s Magic Roundabout is no. 1 on their list of 12 Greatest Roundabouts of Britain.

The 12 Greatest Roundabouts Of Britain
1. Magic Roundabout, Swindon
2. Giant Dandelion Roundabout, Nuneaton
3. Daffodil Roundabout, Leek
4. Octagon Roundabout, Solihull
5. Chamberlain Clock Roundabout, Birmingham
6. Floral Roundabout, Harrogate
7. Wallasey Village Roundabout, Wallasey
8. Wars of the Roses Roundabout, Tewkesbury
9. Pump House Roundabout, Pembroke
10. Newpark Roundabout, Livingstone
11. Gun Roundabout, Goole
12. Trafalgar Traffic Island, Truro

And we haven’t even started duscussing mini roundabouts......

I found an article with photos of many of those and I'm not sure what's so notable. Those seem to have been listed for how they've been built/landscaped/decorated, not because they're complex or large. Some are quite small. Maybe that's just what it is in your nation where so many are keen on gardening?

It’s a joke, Elmer.

floral, I just read a CBC article about the Roundabout Appreciation Society.

The president of it is the self-proclaimed Lord of The Rings. He calls the roundabouts an ’an oasis on a sea of asphalt’

Very funny! I like stuff like that.🙂

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/england-roundabouts-fredericton-embrace-1.5361048

"It’s a joke, Elmer."

Fine. What about your contribution suggested that was the case?

Written words give no visibility to facial gestures and when there are no other indications of kidding or whimsey, convey only what's black and white. Same is true with emails.

Roundabouts do serve a purpose of not needlessly sitting at a red light in the middle of the night with no traffic. And automobile crashes are reportedly minor.

I agree, Jasdip The ones I regularly drive through keep the traffic moving very smoothly day and night.

There is a diverging diamond south of me. Last month was the first time I used it. It is so weird having cars going the opposite direction on the passenger side of the car instead of the drivers side. I had to ask my daughter who drives it regularly if I'm going the right way. It feels like your going to end up on the highway traveling the wrong way.

Okie dokie then. Anyone up for a discussion on pedestrian scramble corners? :)

"The content."

We have very different perspectives about a lot of things. I'm not sure if you've spent as much time visiting Britain as I have (I suspect not). Many of the habits, pastimes and leisure activities I've learned people pursue there can, to an American's eye, appear to be incredibly peculiar. Many Monty Python skits made fun of uniquely British peculiarities whether you knew it or not.

Anyway, if trainspotting, mudlarking, spending weekends passing over fields with metal detectors, and (to not leave the Irish out) road bowling upon first encounter seemed familiar and entirely understandable, great. They don't to most people and are things even Brits laugh about. But then you won't understand my reluctance to immediately assume anything about whether ranking roundabouts was serious or not. And, frankly, it doesn't matter.

So that’s a ’no’, from Elmer, I take it? 🙂

"I'm not sure if you've spent as much time visiting Britain as I have (I suspect not)."

And I suspect you're wrong. Very wrong.

Ranking roundabouts doesn't matter. Your constant criticisms of others for not posting the way you think they should does.

I find Elmer‘s contributions very entertaining. Long may they continue. They add vastly to the fun of this forum for me. But, sadly, it seems that in all that time in Britain they never quite got the hang of the ancient art of the piss take.

floral, I think you misunderstood or misread what I said. My frequent, often annual, visits to the UK and how much time I've spent over the years with colleagues and friends alike, have impressed upon me the substantial differences that exist between the US and UK concerning so many things - cultural habits and expectations, what I'll call ethnic and engrained traditions, social and interpersonal conduct, and the rest, much more so than similarities. Because of my awareness, I never assume anything. I never assume I understand what an expression may or may not seem to mean, what a comment may or may not expressly imply, what a reaction to something is or isn't. I ask, I don't assume. It's usually the right approach because as the old saying goes, things aren't always as they appear to be. So you and others can have a good time taunting me, too bad it's you all who've missed the point.

Sarah Lyall, a woman of NY roots, was the NY Times London Correspondent for nearly 20 years. She met and married an Englishman and started her family there. In her book Anglo Files, she chronicles perplexing incident after incident, comment after comment, that she struggled to understand and many never did. Even with a husband to serve as a cultural guide and ambassador, she concluded that the differences in what I'll briefly call personal behaviors, social conduct and expectations and national attitudes were too numerous to fully grasp and know how to deal with when encountered. After discussing the book in a video visit with one of our dear English friends (the close relationship dating from back decades from when we were both living on the Continent and with whom we've always and often discussed interesting and different cultural practices as between our two worlds), I sent them a copy of the book as a gift. It was hard to find there but I did find it on the UK version of Ebay. They loved it and found it entertaining and enlightening to see how things that for them are everyday or culturally expected, some of which they too find a bit bizarre, could be so puzzling to an outsider.

Well speaking of books, and since we've gone off on a roundabout tangent anyway, when I see 'Swindon' I immediately think of Jasper Fforde's wonderful Thursday Next novels, which take place (or at least start off) there. This has been your book recommendation for the day. :-)

I feel so sophisticated! There's a 'pedestrian scramble' (aka diagonal crossing) intersection and several roundabouts in my town, and there's a 'diverging diamond interchange' (aka figure 8) an hour down the road. Huzzah for our Dept of Transportation!

As I said. Very entertaining. But it would be cruel to encourage it any longer. I’m going to have a cup of tea.

Not cruel. Perhaps foolishly and needlessly obstinate to persist.

I'd read about Carmel earlier this week. Apparently, not only do roundabouts cut down on car crashes, but because nobody's idling, waiting for a light to change, they help save fuel too.

Our local nextdoor.com is filled with grouchy people complaining about the relatively few newer roundabouts being installed here.

On a roundabout you can’t hit anyone head on as you might at an intersection. You’re all travelling in the same direction.

... all travelling in the same direction --- warning, we have some remarkably bad drivers around here. People say they've seen cars go the wrong way round, or barrel over the curbs and straight through the circles in town here. ALWAYS look both ways, even down a one-way street.

"On a roundabout you can’t hit anyone head on as you might at an intersection. You’re all travelling in the same direction."

There can be exceptions! We had a big storm in my town two weeks ago. I was coming home from early  morning hydrotherapy, and had to go around the main roundabout into town just as the worker bees were heading out to get to work. Unfortunately, a large tree had come down right across the entire inbound lane, leaving us with nowhere to go.  Solution: every few minutes one of the outbound cars would stop before the roundabout, allowing half a dozen of us to (gingerly) proceed the wrong way around the roundabout to get to the other side.  Then the inbounders would stop so the outbounders could get out. And repeat.  All very polite and decorous. (I walked past the same roundabout an hour later and the tree had been chainsawed and the logs moved off the road.)