Rather perfect for the Friday file: here’s a roundabout that has been working for sixty years and is actually a series of seven roundabouts. You can see in the design how it makes it easy for vehicles to access and relies on lots of space and white paint. It may be helpful for vehicles to get to places, but not so much for pedestrians or bikes. There’s a whole lot of asphalt there, and you may be able to make out a few pedestrians looking very out of place in the video.
Love it or hate it, it has not changed much in design in 65 years, and even has its own wikipedia page. It has been in the top picks for the most scary junction in the country, and has been responsible for one traffic fatality.
In Swindon, with a population of 222,193 in 2019, they are mighty proud of this traffic circle which is a huge heat sink and takes up a gigantic volume of real estate.
As the YouTube clip says, this is to move vehicles and that this does very efficiently, much the same way as Vancouver’s Granville Mall is an effective transit mall because buses use it.
