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The traffic engineer who managed to convince authorities that this was the solution to their problems must've been very charismatic.

laumars 7y ago
They look scarier than they are in practice. What I hate more is those massive roundabouts with traffic lights on where dual carriageways meet. On those things you still have a mix of cars who don't know where they're going and lanes to be away of, but in addition you have traffic lights and cars moving at much higher speeds than on magic roundabouts.
- andybak 7y ago
  I've resigned myself to a massive detour to avoid one of those beasts. After a few incidents that were a bit scary and a few where I just went round it three times trying to figure out when to change lanes I just gave up and found a different route.
- dmitriid 7y ago
  Barcelona. It's fine to have a roundabout where several roads meet, each with multiple lanes, and the circle itself to have 6 or more lanes [1] [1] As an example https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3748215,2.1491456,232m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3748215,2.1491456,232m/data=...
  - laumars 7y ago
    That does look a busy junction but I was thinking more like when motorways cross. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stansted+CM24+8JT/@51.8715988,0.1993421,304m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d88f64abc6132b:0xe9579511ff3bb274!8m2!3d51.905225!4d0.19691 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stansted+CM24+8JT/@51.8715... This example is by no means the worse in the UK -- far from it -- but it does illustrate how cars can be going round at high speeds even when it's not really safe to. It amazes me there aren't any fatalities on these kinds of junctions because it's a horrible mix of speed, heavy traffic, lighter and heavier vehicles (eg you get plenty of lorries on there too) and clueless drivers. A real bad recipe. But it might just be my lack of faith in other drivers that makes me nervous on those junctions rather than them being inherently unsafe.
rusk 7y ago
Something of a roundabout afficionado it seems [0] ... also ex British Airforce, which given the odd way that the brits assign status, could provide alternative explanations for this madness beyond charisma .... he hadn't even 10 years experience as a working civil engineer when he came up with this. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Blackmore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Blackmore
- pjc50 7y ago
  It was the 1960s. There was a huge push for all sorts of High Modernist experimental (re)design of British towns. Ring roads, tower blocks, roundabout-only layouts like Milton Keynes, brutalist public buildings, all that kind of thing. The country is slowly recovering from this.
  - toyg 7y ago
    > The country is slowly recovering from this. The country was slowly recovering from this. All indications are that we're due for a reboot, if the brutalist-light towers popping up all over Manchester are an indication of things to come. The new government is also led by a figure notoriously thirsty for bold statements in public works (garden bridge, estuary airport, bridge to Ireland, etc).
- satori99 7y ago
  Wow. I googled him a little more, and his story was fascinating.; > Despite opposition to his concept from many in an engineering profession known for its conservatism, his roundabout designs were formally written into government design manuals in 1975. By this time his experiments had become increasingly radical. Among these were the “magic roundabout” in Swindon in 1972 and multi-ring junction in Hemel Hemp-stead in 1973. > Such junctions comprising as many as six mini-roundabouts — like a series of cogs in a piece of industrial machinery — did cause some chaos when first encountered by bewildered motorists. But Blackmore proved that the multi-roundabouts reduced speed, increased through-put and aided traffic flow. However, the idea was perhaps one step too far for an incredulous engineering profession, and it never really caught on. http://trbroundabouts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Frank-Blackmore-Times-Obit.pdf http://trbroundabouts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Frank-B...

laumars 7y ago

They look scarier than they are in practice. What I hate more is those massive roundabouts with traffic lights on where dual carriageways meet. On those things you still have a mix of cars who don't know where they're going and lanes to be away of, but in addition you have traffic lights and cars moving at much higher speeds than on magic roundabouts.

andybak 7y ago
I've resigned myself to a massive detour to avoid one of those beasts. After a few incidents that were a bit scary and a few where I just went round it three times trying to figure out when to change lanes I just gave up and found a different route.
dmitriid 7y ago
Barcelona. It's fine to have a roundabout where several roads meet, each with multiple lanes, and the circle itself to have 6 or more lanes [1] [1] As an example https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3748215,2.1491456,232m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3748215,2.1491456,232m/data=...
- laumars 7y ago
  That does look a busy junction but I was thinking more like when motorways cross. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stansted+CM24+8JT/@51.8715988,0.1993421,304m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d88f64abc6132b:0xe9579511ff3bb274!8m2!3d51.905225!4d0.19691 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stansted+CM24+8JT/@51.8715... This example is by no means the worse in the UK -- far from it -- but it does illustrate how cars can be going round at high speeds even when it's not really safe to. It amazes me there aren't any fatalities on these kinds of junctions because it's a horrible mix of speed, heavy traffic, lighter and heavier vehicles (eg you get plenty of lorries on there too) and clueless drivers. A real bad recipe. But it might just be my lack of faith in other drivers that makes me nervous on those junctions rather than them being inherently unsafe.

rusk 7y ago

Something of a roundabout afficionado it seems [0] ... also ex British Airforce, which given the odd way that the brits assign status, could provide alternative explanations for this madness beyond charisma .... he hadn't even 10 years experience as a working civil engineer when he came up with this. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Blackmore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Blackmore

pjc50 7y ago
It was the 1960s. There was a huge push for all sorts of High Modernist experimental (re)design of British towns. Ring roads, tower blocks, roundabout-only layouts like Milton Keynes, brutalist public buildings, all that kind of thing. The country is slowly recovering from this.
- toyg 7y ago
  > The country is slowly recovering from this. The country was slowly recovering from this. All indications are that we're due for a reboot, if the brutalist-light towers popping up all over Manchester are an indication of things to come. The new government is also led by a figure notoriously thirsty for bold statements in public works (garden bridge, estuary airport, bridge to Ireland, etc).
satori99 7y ago
Wow. I googled him a little more, and his story was fascinating.; > Despite opposition to his concept from many in an engineering profession known for its conservatism, his roundabout designs were formally written into government design manuals in 1975. By this time his experiments had become increasingly radical. Among these were the “magic roundabout” in Swindon in 1972 and multi-ring junction in Hemel Hemp-stead in 1973. > Such junctions comprising as many as six mini-roundabouts — like a series of cogs in a piece of industrial machinery — did cause some chaos when first encountered by bewildered motorists. But Blackmore proved that the multi-roundabouts reduced speed, increased through-put and aided traffic flow. However, the idea was perhaps one step too far for an incredulous engineering profession, and it never really caught on. http://trbroundabouts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Frank-Blackmore-Times-Obit.pdf http://trbroundabouts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Frank-B...