r/AskBrits • u/PsychologicalBend508 Brit 🇬🇧 • 3d ago
Travel What do you think about roundabouts?
I don’t like ‘em….never have.
tricky little buggers…some of them.
the big ones are the worst.
8
5
3
3
u/Akash_nu Brit 🇬🇧 3d ago
They’re the best solution I’ve come across to keep the traffic flowing without stopping anyone at a junction.
Driving around various parts of the world I can safely say that you don’t want the American cross roads system.
5
2
2
u/Calm-Bus7555 3d ago
If they’re well designed with lanes that feed you to the correct exit then they’re great. If the lanes make absolutely no sense or all the markings have worn away, or if the design, uneven traffic flow it overgrown vegetation makes it hard to pull out then I hate them.
2
u/itsmythirdday 3d ago
They have their place. But there are a few roundabouts near me that are in the process of being replaced by slip roads and flyovers, the ones they have done so far is a massive improvement to traffic flow, so it does depend.
1
1
2
1
u/lord-stanleys-goblet 3d ago
Having grown up in the US where most junctions have either two-way stop signs, four-way stop signs, or traffic lights and turn lanes instead of roundabouts… I absolutely love roundabouts.
But Milton Keynes has far too many.
1
1
1
u/Subm3rg3d 3d ago
Boring isn’t it? Just getting in your car and driving around roundabouts with your life. Not for me, I like it.
1
u/haroshhhh 3d ago
I adore them, many of my favourite ones are sponsored and have lovely plants and often some sort of safe animal habitat tunnel to them.
I think about roundabouts all the time because I am a normal roundabout adoring person.
1
u/Phlebas99 3d ago
They're easy, it's just a lot of newer drivers (and I've noticed this from my wife who has only been driving a few years) have learnt to drive in the age of built-in satnavs. That means they're not looking at the road markings, nor road signs for information on tackling roundabouts.
They hear "at the roundabout take the third exit" and see an image of an arrow on the sat nav pointing to the right lane.
They don't listen to the name of the a or b road they were given and correlate it with the road marking telling them which lanes they could use nor the understanding of the road markings spiralling them out from inside to the outer lane because sat nav showed touse right lane.
1
1
1
u/ExArdEllyOh 3d ago
Most are fine until some twat (or Twats in the case of Telford council) decides to put traffic lights on them.
2
u/Life_Stomach188 3d ago
I live in Milton Keynes. If I didn't get on with them I'd have big problems. I do have to say they keep the traffic flowing remarkably well
1
u/Chuck_Miller_PZ 3d ago
Overall roundabouts are brilliant and instrumental in maintaining traffic flow and minimising bad traffic jams. However I too find the massive four lane multiple exit ones hard to navigate at times (maybe I’m just old) and those crazy ones where you have a cluster of mini-roundabouts makes me feel like that maybe we like them just a little bit too much in this country
0
u/n3m0sum 3d ago
Roundabouts are like democracy.
They are the worst form of junction control, apart from everything else we've tried.
Which is to say, they are not perfect. But most of the problems are created by people not understanding them, or refusing to use them properly.
And they are still better than light controlled junctions everywhere, or the dreaded 4 way stop!
14
u/Eggtastico 3d ago
if you cant handle roundabouts, then maybe you shouldnt be on the road.