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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

by 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...

by rusk 7y ago

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...