GoogleMaps roundabout mystery

I saw something a little odd in this GoogleMap:

Note the marker labeled “Roundabout” in the middle of the roundabout on the right side of the map.

Does anyone recognize the icon in that marker? It looks vaguely familiar but I’m not sure I’ve seen it before.

The location is in Madison WI. If you click on the marker, it says it’s owned by the “Department of Transportation”. When I first discovered this marker, I assumed it was added by someone at WisDOT. That is, until I discovered another, identical marker in a different location (extreme right side of the map):

That marker is in Clarington, Ontario. Ontario doesn’t have a Department of Transportation; it has a Ministry of Transportation. So obviously these two markers are not in any way official. Also obviously put up by an American. Someone’s putting them on the map for reasons unknown. It doesn’t seem like a joke; perhaps an easter egg, although I expect easter eggs to be slightly more clever than that.

So anyone have any ideas about these markers? Also, anyone seen others like them?

The following is the Google developer’s reference, including depicting and naming the different place icons.

The icon in question is defined as “Civic Building”.

That’s Google’s standard “Government” icon.

Putting in the middle of some roundabouts has to be a joke.

I hope the government built that roundabout on a public street. We’re not yet sufficiently advanced as an end-stage anarcho-capalist society that private entities can stick roundabouts in public streets.

The icon apparently means nothing more than “a feature on the map which was built by a government but doesn’t fit into one of the more specific icons in the category.”

That roundabout has a 5 star review !!

Not a terribly funny joke. I’m looking for more markers that label other roundabouts or perhaps other things that do not normally get markers.

I’m sure they did. It’s just the GoogleMaps markers that were put up by a non-governmental agency.

Actually, private entities do sometimes build roundabouts on public roads. Or at least they pay for them. But not without permission/insistence of the appropriate governmental agency.

Here’s a landmark:

You see that marker in other roundabouts like here. On the two in that link, they are labeled “Roundabout | Department of Transportation.”

I don’t think it’s a joke; it’s just roundabout → Dept of Transportation → standard government icon.

Or somebody with a Google account manually added Dept of Transportation and it got accepted that way for whatever reason.

I suspect that’s the case. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation is not going to label a roundabout with Dept of Transportation.

Anyway, there’s around 10,000 roundabouts in the US and another 1000+ in Canada. Are they going to do them all?

The symbol looks like a fairground carousel. Which, funnily enough, can be called a roundabout in the U.K.

Fitting symbol for a government building in the US.