I grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts and as far as I knew there was only one roundabout (Massachusetts calls them rotaries) in the world. It was on Cape Code and although I never thought much about it as a child, once I started driving, approaching it always raised my stress level. I really hated it and always thought that this time I was going to get into a crash trying to maneuver through it.
As most of you know, I now live in Florida and I have discovered that roundabouts are more common than I thought. My impression is that they’re even more ubiquitous in Europe but, of course, I have no direct experience. One thing I know for sure: I don’t like them.
I am not, it appears, alone in my hatred of them. As Andy Boenau says at the link, there are few things that unite people as much as their dislike of roundabouts. Still, he says, they are the safest way of routing traffic flow through intersections. He’s got the statistics to prove it but as he says, no one wants to hear about it. They (we) are all united in our hatred of roundabouts and nothing seems able to convince us otherwise.
Traffic engineers claim that, among other things, they slow traffic down and thus make it safer than, say, intersections controlled by traffic lights. Bah! My experience has been that what actually happens is that cars speed up so that someone entering the roundabout can’t get in front of them.
None of that matters. It appears that despite near universal disapprobation, traffic engineers are intent on foisting these monstrosities on us. There is little that you or I can do to stop the madness but at least I feel better after ranting about it.