Roundabouts
Today I want to talk about roundabouts. For those Stateside, these are big circular things in the middle of the road that traffic must drive around in order to continue along the same road, or in order to turn onto another road. Yes, they sound a bit silly, but they avoid the need for traffic lights, meaning that the traffic can keep flowing. Except for those roundabouts which have traffic lights as well, of course. No, I can't see the point of that either. There's one roundabout (a real biggie with 5 or 6 exits) on a route to an old job of mine where there were never any queues. Then they put traffic lights on it, resulting in huge queues. Very sensible.
Anyway, roundabouts. Or "islands" if you are of a northern persuasion. Different to the "islands" that we would refer to in the south, which are where you stand in the middle of the road whilst waiting to cross. Ele calls roundabouts "traffic circles", but that's because she is from a strange country. Hopefully that's the roundabout lexicon explained.
Where was I? Oh yes. On my way to work these days, I come up to a mini-roundabout and turn right. A mini-roundabout, for those Stateside, is - unsuprisingly - a small roundabout. Usually, these are just painted on the road and not an actual physical thing. There was nothing wrong with this roundabout, but the council decided to replace it. But rather than just repaint it, they have built up the entire junction with bricks, and then painted the new one on that. So now you drive up a little slope onto the brick part, go round the roundabout, and then down another little slope.
How pointless is that? It must have cost them thousands, and it actually makes for a worse junction, because bricks are slippery as hell when wet, and there are islands (of the road-crossing variety) filled with schoolkids in the mornings. So now should it be raining, and should one cross the road as I'm turning right, I'm more likely to skid and hit them. So that's clever.
And I'm sure it had nothing at all to do with a budget and stock surplus, and the fact that it was finished a few days before the financial year end. Oh no.
PS - Funny newspaper story. A bus driver refused to move the bus until a man who claimed to be disabled showed him his free-travel-because-he's-disabled pass. The man pointed out, fairly reasonably, that he was in a wheelchair and had no legs and was it really necessary for him to delve through his bags to find it? The bus driver insisted it was, as otherwise he had no proof.
Sometimes you just don't know what to say.
Anyway, roundabouts. Or "islands" if you are of a northern persuasion. Different to the "islands" that we would refer to in the south, which are where you stand in the middle of the road whilst waiting to cross. Ele calls roundabouts "traffic circles", but that's because she is from a strange country. Hopefully that's the roundabout lexicon explained.
Where was I? Oh yes. On my way to work these days, I come up to a mini-roundabout and turn right. A mini-roundabout, for those Stateside, is - unsuprisingly - a small roundabout. Usually, these are just painted on the road and not an actual physical thing. There was nothing wrong with this roundabout, but the council decided to replace it. But rather than just repaint it, they have built up the entire junction with bricks, and then painted the new one on that. So now you drive up a little slope onto the brick part, go round the roundabout, and then down another little slope.
How pointless is that? It must have cost them thousands, and it actually makes for a worse junction, because bricks are slippery as hell when wet, and there are islands (of the road-crossing variety) filled with schoolkids in the mornings. So now should it be raining, and should one cross the road as I'm turning right, I'm more likely to skid and hit them. So that's clever.
And I'm sure it had nothing at all to do with a budget and stock surplus, and the fact that it was finished a few days before the financial year end. Oh no.
PS - Funny newspaper story. A bus driver refused to move the bus until a man who claimed to be disabled showed him his free-travel-because-he's-disabled pass. The man pointed out, fairly reasonably, that he was in a wheelchair and had no legs and was it really necessary for him to delve through his bags to find it? The bus driver insisted it was, as otherwise he had no proof.
Sometimes you just don't know what to say.
posted by Nej at
1:14 pm
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