RoadWarriorFromLP

It may also be possible that transplants from the Northeast are confusing rotaries with roundabouts. They're both circles, but rotaries tend to be hazardous and are designed to encourage acceleration, unlike roundabouts that are engineered to reduce traffic speeds.

Pulaski

Well I've learned something today, that there is a difference, and that many of the "roundabouts" in the UK are actually rotaries (the difference being that rotaries have flared approach and exit roads, where vehicles join almost tangentially to the circular roadway).

kimilseung

The problem in America is the double standard, there are still small neighbourhood roundabouts were anything goes, you can go either way around them, BUT you still give way to the right. The the new fangled roundabouts were you give way to traffic already on the circle which is giving way to the left.

Most of the new roundabouts in WA that I see have signs and ground markings letting people know when to give way, which helps.

RoadWarriorFromLP

The rotary was a pre-war American invention, which was intended to keep traffic moving.

They were widely copied in Britain. But the Brits began to realize after the war that they were a lousy idea, and invented the modern roundabout.

A modern roundabout is supposed to calm traffic and reduce the number of contact points. It's difficult to T-bone a car at a roundabout, and crash speeds at roundabouts tend to be lower, which reduces both the frequency and severity of crashes. They don't work well everywhere, but they can make a lot of sense.

Uncle_Bob

When i was in the UK last month i noticed many roundabouts that i used to fly around are now decked out with multiple sets of traffic lights. So its stop start all the way around and no fun.

Hiro11

As someone already mentioned, rotaries are common in the NE, I grew up with them in New England. I think they were generally not built elsewhere because most places don't have the traffic intensity to need them and they cost a fortune to build compared to a stoplight.

The absolute worst intersections I've seen in the US are the "squares" in DC. Designed in the 1800's to look impressive, they didn't even work with horse-drawn carriages. Introduce cars and increase trafiic volume by an order of magnitude and you've got a bottleneck of epic proportions.

Pulaski

Boo!

ChocolateBabz

Yep we had a car in the middle of our roundabout a few weeks backs on a tree, yes on a tree. Can only imagine that they tried to make a left at the roundabout exit instead of going round, saw traffic coming at them and panicked.

P.S. my tom tom says it's a rotunda!

lizzyq

These are now often used where the traffic flow is very uneven as roundabouts work best when there is equal volume of traffic joining from all entry points.

WEBlue

Our Garmin calls them all "roundabouts" (New England), even when the road signs label them rotaries or circles.

The "rotaries" near me do give priority to traffic within the circle or exiting. And they mostly do slow traffic.

MiniBrit

My GPS used to call them a 'traffic circle'....

WEBlue

"Used to"??

Our Garmin is pretty old. It tells us to "enter roundabout" and "take 3rd exit at roundabout". LOL, made us feel right at home when we first arrived.

RoadWarriorFromLP

A traffic circle can be a synonym for rotary.

It can also be just a large circular intersection that isn't quite a rotary or roundabout. The circle may include some sort of monument or park in the middle of it, and there may be parking and buildings along the periphery of the circle. (For example, there is one in downtown Indianapolis that has a war memorial in the center of it, and shops and parking on the outer edges of the circle.) Those circles were designed for aesthetics, more so than for traffic management.

It can also be a generic term for any kind of round thing with traffic flying around it.

MiniBrit

Well said 'used to' because I moved state and dont live anywhere near a roundabout anymore. Also the GPS was on my previous phone so I've no idea if my new GPS would call it that or not.

No roundabouts here, so no way to tell. So sad

WEBlue

Here is Austin, TX? What a shame! Nice city otherwise though. (We've driven through it in the past.)