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Roundabouts
You know that word association game: black-white; Morecambe-Wise; Milton Keynes-roundabouts. A friend of mine supervises Geography dissertations for the University of Portsmouth. He always gives students two actual titles he has rejected: 'Rivers' (too broad) and 'The Roundabouts of Basingstoke' (too narrow)) But where did the idea for an "island", around which traffic could flow, come from? It was a Frenchman. In 1791 the architect and engineer Pierre L'Enfant proposed a number of circular intersections in Washington, D.C. Fast forward to 1905 and we have New York City's Columbus Circle, widely considered the country's first circular intersection designed for the automotive era. Known as rotaries, they certainly sped up traffic- but also the number of collisions . Then in 1966 the UK came up with a marvellous idea: this required vehicles entering a circular intersection to yield to those already on it. As to the two countries that started them, France has the highest roundabout ratio with one roundabout for every 45 intersections and the US one roundabout for every 1,118 intersections.
by Basher Eyre
Created: Sun, 31 Oct 2021, Updated: Sun, 31 Oct 2021
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