Do Americans Know What A Roundabout Is?

[Solly]

When I spent time over there last summer, there was a roundabout in the local neighbourhood. My host commented that very few people knew how to use it, and that it was one of only a few roundabouts across the entire country.

"Roundabouts are used extensively throughout Europe, and in many other places around the world, to reduce accidents, traffic delays, fuel consumption, air pollution and construction costs, while increasing capacity and enhancing intersection beauty. They have been successfully used to control traffic speeds in residential neighborhoods and are accepted as one of the safest types of intersection design."

http://www.roundaboutsusa.com/intro.html

So...Americans...would you know how to deal with one of these?

[The Mad Monk]

"Traffic circles"

[Ming]

We've had them in the Chicago area since long before I was born. Your friend obviously hasn't spent much time in the midwest...

[The Mad Monk]

Most folks I know think of them as more dangerous than 'normal' intersections.

[Solly]

He's travelled everywhere Ming.

[Solly]

There is a theory that roundabouts have a severe effect on the psychological makeup of a country depending on which side of the road the country drives on. In countries that drive on the left (such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, India, much of South-east Asia and the Falkland Islands) the left side of the brain gets squashed as a driver goes round a roundabout, which crushes the cells responsible for language and reasoning. Conversely, in countries that drive on the right (everywhere else except Thailand, where they drive in the middle) the side of the brain responsible for creativity gets crushed. Independent observers have pointed out that this explains why the English are unreasonable and incomprehensible, but make the best pop music on the planet.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Boddington's
He's travelled everywhere Ming.

Obviously not to Chicago... we have them everywhere

[Kassiopeia]

Roundabouts? Why, they are a class of smallish starships.

[Solly]

We're talking about a former manager of DuPont here..

[Ming]

Originally posted by Boddington's
We're talking about a former manager of DuPont here..

Then he is either blind, an idiot, or the only parts of Chicago he has seen are the downtown area and the airport, which is only a SMALL part of the total metropolitan area.

[Solly]

What's up Ming? Your girls being taken out by another kid in a pick-up..

[Solly]

And my host said that it was people in his neighbourhood that didn't really understand the roundabout, not himself.

Try to read posts more carefully in future.

[C0ckney]

Yeovil, which is about 15 miles from me, has more roundabouts per sq. mile than anywhere else in Britain [/useless info]

[TheStinger]

I drive in england and i hate the things.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Boddington's
Try to read posts more carefully in future.

I did... and you said that he said...

that it was one of only a few roundabouts across the entire country.

Which I responded to. He is wrong.

I have said nothing about whether I or other people don't understand how to drive in them.

So you should be the one that reads posts more carefully in the future