Pulaski

So does mine, she also cooks dinner and does most of the laundry.

MiniBrit

Yes indeed!

RICH

That is the only one I have seen in Florida, not that I get about much. I think it is there as a tourist attraction, rather than a traffic measure!

SultanOfSwing

Our new roundabout was finished yesterday, I drove through it on my way home from a gig last night.

It's very nice, though I haven't seen so many signs on an intersection before in my life! Also, some cnut ran straight through just after I entered the circle so the huge 'YIELD' signs painted on the ground are working as well as can be expected ...

Pulaski

..... per your post on the differences between America and Britain thread today (99.99% .... )

SultanOfSwing

Fair point.

This was at 2:00 am though, it will be interesting to try it at rush hour, or on a Saturday afternoon. I'm sure I'll find a need to run to Wally World over the weekend to have a go.

Lothianlad

I really can't understand why the Americans have not taken to the use of roundabouts on their highways as they definitely help to make the traffic flow much more freely without the need for trafiic lights which, of course, mean holdups.

So many Americans driving over here in the UK seem to be more wound up or at least a bit wary about roundabouts than they do about driving on the (sensible) side of the road they are not used to. Until the 18th/19th centuries everybody everywhere driving a cart or a carriage or riding a horse
kept to the left for practical reasons, except perhaps for left handed people, a minority group.

Then along came to dictators - Napolean and Hitler - and changed it all for reasons best known to them.

Why the bother about roundabouts as long as they aware of lane discipline, know theire and can follow the signs to their ultimate destinations. Easy peasy.

I'd really like to see an American driving around the metropolitan morass that is Milton Keynes - a roundabout virtually every 250m along every road and street in the city.

Here in this part of England, as in many other places, roundabouts have their own names - eg the Cherry Tree Roundabout, and most are ablaze with floral displays and shrubs of all kinds which people (most passengers of course) can admire as they negotiate the circle.

Named roubdabouts are perfect for identification purposes in respct of location finding.

Tell the Yanks to get real on this one.

Pulaski

"Walls Roundabout" .... named after the Walls Ice Cream factory in Gloucester that used to have its own access directly onto an otherwise fairly normal four road roundabout (dual carriageway ring road crossing a major arterial road.)

Nutmegger

Can't speak for the entire country, but a "highway" in these parts does not have traffic lights.

SultanOfSwing

A freeway/expressway/tollway does not but a highway can. Unless highway is used locally to you as a term for a limited access non-surface road of course.

Around here US-14's street level name is the Northwest Highway and there are many, many traffic lights on that road

Nutmegger

Around here we call the big interstates -- which don't have traffic lights -- highways. The terms you mention aren't used.

SultanOfSwing

I had thought it might have been a regional thing.

They call motorways highways here as well but they also call surface streets (would-be A-roads I guess) highways. Really rather inconsitent, I'm sure you'd agree

Nutmegger

Though I should say that there are indeed traffic lights at the end of many exit ramps, but they aren't situations where a roundabout would be an appropriate alternative.

Aren't there always regional language inconsistencies -- I mean, how many names can you think of for a foot-long sandwich!

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, you'll get the traffic light or stop sign at the diamond interchanges or just a sliproad at the cloverleaf ones. Roundabouts wouldn't work there without redoing the exits completely and we don't need that headache!

Exactly. It's like a kind of marker so everyone knows who the out-of-towners are . Even ordering a tangy, refreshing fizzy drink can give you away depending on where you are.

Interestingly (for me anyway) I think the correct term for a limited access road in the US is actually a freeway but around here that has come to be the term for an interstate that has no tolls.

Nutmegger

Of course, if you're in Joisey, it's still the turnpike, though no early weapons have been spotted there lately!