https://maps.app.goo.gl/hdU8g6mS2eAv4GgRA
It looks scary, but you just treat each mini-roundabout as a normal roundabout and you'll be fine. We had some visitors from the US who weren't very used to roundabouts and they managed the magic roundabout no problem!
When traffic is heavy (common on that roundabout in peak times) you can choose which way you go round it which is useful in avoiding congestion.
Edit: I just noticed on google maps it is rated as a tourist attraction with an average rating of one star :-)
Compared to the nearby roundabout onto the M40, which is of a much simpler design, but is covered in traffic lights, the Wycombe magic roundabout is actually much better at moving traffic around.
Fear is undervalued as a road safety measure :-)
edit: fixed a typo
Back in the 2000s most driving test routes did cross this roundabout at least once, sometimes multiple times so most people growing up there don't understand the internets confusion by it all.
Look right, drive forwards, stop at the give way lines.
(If you couldn't figure this out you admitted you probably shouldn't be driving and booked your test in Cirencester instead)
What I don't get however: is there really so much traffic there that a single big roundabout wouldn't work? I mean, it apparently works in other places (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_Charles_de_Gaulle#/media...), although that is scary as well...
I think it will predate the M4 and A417/9 build dates just, 100% predates Thamesdown drive so you didn't have good circular options around the town.
My state and surrounding counties have been on a roundabout build spree and it’s really awesome. The only one near me with 2 lanes on one side hand to go back down to single lanes because drivers couldn’t understand one lane was for going “straight” and one was for looping around to another exit.
Hey. Some of us chose Chippenham instead.
I honestly don't really understand what the fuss is with it, just keep looking right and drive forward when you're free to. It makes so much more sense than multiple stop signs where each side takes it in turn.
He finds a bunch of little known and mildly interesting things about the UK road network.
Abject horror. It’s an Eldritch monster as imagined by a civil engineer. A roundabout like that would turn me into a misanthropic agoraphobe, never to see the light of day outside the safety of my own abode ever again.
(this is tounge-in-cheek, but some people in the UK do genuinely find double mini-roundabouts terrifying)
Because preferences on the way it goes (mini roundabouts do not have roundabout preference, but you need to give preference to your right) you can break the preference and take advantage.
Which usually helps because if there is a main path of traffic, minor paths can't enter into the junction.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/seve...
The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, is a ring junction constructed in 1972 consisting of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. Located near the County Ground, home of Swindon Town F.C., its name comes from the popular children's television series The Magic Roundabout. In 2009, it was voted the fourth-scariest junction in Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempst...
For me the issue with the one in Swindon is that you can see right across it with only the signs and road markings to help you understand where you should be
You can see it here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jr39hNie4d9fennq7
Our first roundabout around here had 13 (thirteen!) signs just before you entered, including a map. Disaster. Folks just want to know, which is the left-turn lane etc.
Btw is that the right link? It looks like an ordinary roundabout with right-turn ramps.
The fact that this one-way road eventually goes full-circle and connects back onto itself is inconsequential.
ADDED: (One) problem with Route 2 is that it's an arterial highway that was never designed to be one. Especially to the west, the merges are also terrible at peak times. And (although there was one major upgrade a number of years back) it passes through some of Boston's tonier suburbs which makes major changes hard.
You can use traffic lights etc to fix this. But then the major benefit of roundabouts is extinguished: their cheap cost. Just some pavement and acres, painted lines.
Roundabouts work well when there is similar amounts of traffic coming from all directions. In Boston they built some roundabouts where arterial roads meet suburban streets (or country lanes) at odd angles and it causes congestion. There really isn't a great solution for those intersections though - lights would reduce traffic flow.
Our local traffic engineer doesn't label the exits. So people STOP and look around, wondering if this is their exit.
The simple arrows you prefer are there as well. But the overhead signs are important when there is a lot of traffic as you will see the road markings too late.
You have to look at the satellite image to see the unusual (around here) parts: Traffic lights, stopping lines inside the roundabout and the left turn lane within.
To any budding civil engineers out there, please only consider roundabouts in the following circumstances:
1. Traffic is light enough that the roundabout can be a single lane. No multi-lane roundabouts in populated areas with pedestrian crossings!
2. Traffic is remote enough that there are no pedestrians or cyclists to worry about, in which case, feel free to go crazy with your multi-lane roundabouts.
