Please Tell me this is a Joke

[Deuterium]

Can anyone confirm or deny this?



http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/0623a.jpg
http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/0623b.jpg
http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/0623c.jpg

[Fintin]

note to self...NEVER GO THERE....that is just fecked up in such a way things have never been fecked up before

[100_Percent_HOOAH]

Hate to see that place at rush hour :lol:

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Yes its true, I have never been on it but it seems simple enough whats the big deal?

[WolverineBlue]

Didn't Yes write a song about this place?

[McLane]

Oh Sh*t.... :cantbeli:

[Seoulstriker]

Euros... :) :lol:

[cut]

still in use today

http://www.swindonweb.com/life/magi01.jpg

http://www.swindonweb.com/life/magicsign.jpg


Until September 1972, there was only one Magic Roundabout and it was a children's television programme featuring Dougal the dog, a hippy rabbit called Dylan and the spring-loaded Zebedee.

Then a revolutionary idea (in more ways than one) which had been tested in Colchester, Essex, was also tested on Swindon's County Ground Roundabout. Until then the area had been a motorist's nightmare which routinely failed to handle the volume of traffic which converged on it from five directions.

The new roundabout (see picture) was the work of the Road Research Laboratory (RRL) and their solution was brilliantly simple. All they did was combine two roundabouts in one - the first the conventional, clockwise variety and the second, which revolved inside the first, sending traffic anti-clockwise.

PC Steve Dudley, one of the police officers involved with the introduction of the new system, recalled: "There was someone from the RRL up on a crane and officers on each of the five junctions. We would let the traffic build up and then let one lot go at a time. After a few trial runs we let the whole lot go at once. It was quite nerve-racking, but it did work."

They called it a multi-mini roundabout, but as far as Swindon folk was concerned, they now had their very own Magic Roundabout.




And magic it certainly is. Though it may confuse or amuse new visitors and baffle American tourists, the average Swindonian finds that his or her passage through one of the town's busiest junctions is actually quite fluid, even at peak times. Twenty-five years on, the Magic Roundabout still works, despite ever-increasing volumes of traffic.

Though there have been 14 serious accidents and 59 lesser ones recorded in 25 years, that rate is less than one would expect for such a busy junction. Most accidents have involved cyclists and motorcyclists and now a cycle lane running right round the outside of the roundabout, with pelican crossings, should ensure that the Magic Roundabout becomes as safe as it is efficient.


It has also inspired a pop song - English Roundabout by Swindon's world-famous band, XTC - and the only real controversy has been over its name. For years, stuffy Wiltshire County Councillors at Trowbridge insisted on calling it County Islands.

But Swindon folk recognised the magic when they saw it

[Ratamacue]

Reminds me of National Lampoon's European Vacation.

"Hey kids, look, Big Ben!"

[cut]

Euros... :) :lol:

hmmm.... (http://www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/wiltshire/magic-roundabout.gif)

[Flagg]

WTF?

Five mini-roundabouts circling one big one?

Why?

[Bombtrack]

GET INTERSECTIONS

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Pah..I can't understand all the fuss some of you folk are kicking up about this roundabout, it was and still is a simple solution to a traffic problem which any motorist in the UK who has passed their test can negotiate. :)

[DE_Six]

It may work, but it still looks awfully overcomplicated...

Why make it simple? Trouble is fun! :D

[captainfly]

It's look like it could make for an easier crossing with much more traffic control than just one big roundabout, it just appears comlicated if you know which exit you want it should be straight forward enough. It's when places have traffic lights then giveways that things go wrong, infact get rid of traffic lights and junctions roundabout everywhere, keep the traffic flowing :lol:

[cut]

It's look like it could make for an easier crossing with much more traffic control than just one big roundabout, it just appears comlicated if you know which exit you want it should be straight forward enough. It's when places have traffic lights then giveways that things go wrong, infact get rid of traffic lights and junctions roundabout everywhere, keep the traffic flowing :lol:


your worsed nightmare

http://www.electronetwork.org/assemblage/images/zone2/trafficlightsculpture.jpg
this is in canary wharf, east london

[scm77]

GET INTERSECTIONS

But that would be to logical.

I'd hate to learn to drive there. :cantbeli:

[flickme]

My head hurts just lookin at it.

[Roger Rabbit]

look a christmas tree http://www.electronetwork.org/assemblage/images/zone2/trafficlightsculpture.jpg

Roundabouts are perfectly simple, i fail to see the fuss.

[digrar]

Looks simple enough, but I come across dozens of people a day who can't drive through a normal roundabout properly let alone go through three in a row to get in, on and out of a intersection.