To be in absolute awe of roundabout designers / planners

[Witchofzog]

I passed my driving test relatively recently and am still slightly nervous on really big roundabouts with numerous lanes. But because I have been thinking about them and navigating them I am in awe at how hard it must be to get all the lanes to start and end in the right place and how difficult it must be to coordinate the traffic lights to ensure good flow of traffic and no accidents. I mean you start off in the right lane and then end up in the left lane after a while. It's amazing.

Maybe I have just had too much sun today though

I like them personally if they're suitable for the place

Yes and is it elephant and castle the has a billion exits and everyone goes round at lease twice to get in the right lane?

Herefortheduration if it's the throughabout I'm thinking of, it's been there at least 7 years. Is it really going???

I've never understood roundabouts and lights together. Do one on the other, but stopping before every exit drives me barmy on my route to work.

Try playing the game cities skylines if you want a go yourself!

@RainOrSun
You've made me look it up and it actually opened in 2008! It still feels really new to me fgs! Lol. Anyway work starts next month to remove it.

Try a Dutch roundabout. You chose the wrong lane, you are stuck! The lanes are separated by very low walls so you can't switch once on, you have to follow its path.

Motorway junctions in Germany are items of beauty. They look beautiful on a map. There are many I would not do without my lovely Day Nav giving me directions.

Go to the Isle of Mull. There's only one roundabout and no traffic lights.

If you lived in Cornwall you wouldn't be in awe of what County Highways are doing down here, they really are mad!!

We had a new roundabout built on a road here recently and pretty much everyone that saw the plan for what they were going to do said there would be severe tailbacks and it would also cause accidents. Highways wouldn't hear of it, they knew best!

I don't need to tell you what's happening now. This is just one of several "improvements" that really don't work down here.

Just joining in to say please don’t blame planners for roundabouts, they are designed by highways engineers!

DP was telling me about a major roundabout in outer London where they discovered only a couple of days before it was due to open that someone had misread the plans. It was far too late to do anything about it, so they just left it, and that roundabout has been a traffic problem area ever since. Apparently the person responsible took a perverse pride in it, and when he heard traffic reports about queues and traffic jams in that area he would proudly proclaim that it was all down to him.

Thanks, Herefortheduration.
I'll not go to Darlo til next year then!

I learnt to drive in Milton Keynes... you get used to them pretty quickly there!