We have always called it the Magic Roundabout. Never heard the word Plough used before. Also called it the Kodak roundabout. My driving instructor sent me round it one day. Once you pretend it's normal it's straightforward. Only when you describe it does it seem wtf!

I think drivers from Europe who bring their own vehicles probably have a problem with them on top of having to drive on the left side with left hand steering. If they ever managed to survive the traffic circle around the Arc de Triumph however any other kind of roundabout would be a pushover

I nearly got killed by an old lady in an antique Austin 10 who entered the roundabout on the wrong side. I was on a motorcycle and I took a spill. The old dear never even noticed and just kept on driving, luckily there was no other traffic around.

We also have idiots here who try to get onto freeways using exits ramps.

We have giant signs telling us not to do that. We even have one at the end of our road but I have no idea how someone could even if they wanted to.

Same signs here at freeway exits. In nearly all cases drunk drivers or on drugs. It wouldn't be a bad idea if they installed those metal strips at the end of the exits that flatten tires if you drive over them the wrong way

Not sure why you think that is the "convention".

Left lane for left and right lane for right are normal, but any other exits are variable depending on the particular design and number of approach lanes.

Maybe because I traversed the country of England far too much and this is what I found?

For two lanes going into a roundabout this is definitely the majority of roundabouts that I came across.

What? You only need to know one exit, the one you are taking. Not to mention that most major UK roundabouts have at least two advance warning signs and each exit is clearly marked with the road number and control city(ies) as you go around. In the case of 3+ lane roundabouts, usually each approach lane is also marked with the number of the road you need. It's really no different than a UK motorway exit and I have a hard time believing you'd be able to apply your argument to those.

It couldn't be easier.

It was in the 70's near the uni. I thought it was constricted to be a permanent layout but I could be wrong. Anyway it didn't last very long.

Right, I remember my father talking about it, and I think he took me down that way at least once to see it (I have no idea if it was actually on our way to where we were going ), and I have a vague memory of seeing it. And I agree, I don't think it was around long, probably not much longer than a year or so, and I don't think it ever became a permanent layout that was anywhere near as interesting.

From what I remember it was constructed to be permanent...but it was so confusing it had a short shelf life. What a waste of money...anyone with 2 brain cells would have known it was doomed for failure.

I think it looked something like this...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magi...ester)#/search

Yes, I believe the Sheffield example had a central roundabout with satellites. I only remember the white tyre version, so maybe it became "permanent" after we left Sheffield?

While that design should, in theory, work well, the practical problem is that traffic inevitably has to flow the opposite direction around the central roundabout from the direction for normal roundabouts in the same country, so it causes people to get confused, or at least apprensive, about using such a strange junction.

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, dates from 1972, so around the same time as the Sheffield experiment.

As in all things it's easy when you're used to it. I knew an airline pilot back in the 1970s who worked for British Caledonian who did the Gatwick-L.A run several times a week yet when on stop overs in L,A adamantly refused to drive on the freeways. He told me quite frankly that he just didn't like em !!

Somewhere around that time a story told to me by a friend who worked at Gatwick was of a couple of American women who on arriving at the airport took out a rental car to drive up to the City. They got confused and entered an off ramp and hit a truck dead on and both were killed instantly. Perhaps, but who really knows, they may have momentarily overlooked the fact that British traffic drives to the left. These things happen all the time. I don't necessarily believe that it's stupidity. I never even owned a car in England let alone ever used a motorway and I left there a long time ago.

I'd like to see a tourist from another country on a first time visit to LA feel at ease and instantly familiarize him/herself driving a rental car in the metropolitan area in the middle of the day in the middle of the week but now that GPS is with us that probably helps a lot.

We weren't talking about city driving, downtown in rush hour traffic though.

Motorway driving is designed to be easy, with plenty of advanced signage for each junction. If those junctions are in the form of a roundabout, as a great many in the UK are, the rounabout exits and often lanes are clearly signposted as well. Approaches to most major roundabouts from surface roads are also clearly signed with route numbers and control cities. You don't need to memorize every exit, just the one you need to take, and how long does it take to travel a half mile anyway? No more than a minute on any major UK road, allowing for free flowing traffic.

I wont be doing any driving in the UK when I'm over there next visit. I love their public transportation system and for a burned out veteran of LA freeways of many years just being able to sit on a train or a bus to go anywhere is part of the pleasure of being there. We still have miles to go here to catch up with any other major city in the world when it comes to a public transportation system that can work for everybody which is why 6 out of 10 people still need cars to get around in

I've been here so long that every time I go to enter a car as a passenger in the UK I instinctively try to get in the right side. Gets me some odd looks from the drivers which shows just how F.Ud I am

I won't argue with you about public transport, but thankfully here, at least I can get a train into Chicago with relative ease, since I'm less than a mile away from a Metra station with trains running at least once and hour during the day. Buses, though, are shite outside of the city. Even in the relatively little town I grew up in there was a few 'Town Service' bus routes that would drop you at various points around town that you may need to go. I walked everywhere, but it was there.

I will be driving in the UK when we're there in the summer, but driving in Northern Ireland is a piece of piss anyway. It's like riding a bike, really and I still know the way around everywhere I need to go each time I do get into a car. Even driving a manual transmission comes back to me pretty quickly. I drove my mate's manual in Canada and it was like I'd never driven an automatic.