# I think it's time you stopped driving, sir. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194 "2007-06-07T23:14:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/1 "2007-06-07T23:14:05Z")
So today I was in Windsor, at the big roundabout (the one leading off to Runnymede, the Great Park, and Ascot) and this old man (probably 80s) in his car is driving _the wrong way around the roundabout_. :eek: He had the classic confused deer-in-the-headlights look. After exitting the roundabout, I pulled over and called the police. The guy’s an accident waiting to happen. He doesn’t need arresting; just someone to take his car keys and take him home. I rather doubt the police were able to do anything; I hope the guy’s ok. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/2 "2007-06-07T23:15:32Z")
Perhaps he was simply an American. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/3 "2007-06-07T23:30:32Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn] Perhaps he was simply an American. [/QUOTE] Nah. An American would have driven away in terror before entering a roundabout in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/4 "2007-06-07T23:31:47Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Nah. An American would have driven away in terror before entering a roundabout in the first place. [/QUOTE] They do have them some places in the US - the Boston area, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/5 "2007-06-07T23:40:53Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] They do have them some places in the US - the Boston area, for instance. [/QUOTE] Roundabouts, not “traffic circles”? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/6 "2007-06-07T23:54:30Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Roundabouts, not “traffic circles”? [/QUOTE] Checking Wikipedia, it appears the difference is “small - and entering traffic **must** yield to traffic in the circle” vs “big - and yielding can go either way” - and yes. Actually, now that I think about it there’s also a true roundabout (the size of an intersection, and traffic entering must yield) in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Middle of town, 25 mph roads. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/7 "2007-06-08T00:03:19Z")
I’ve see three or four traffic circles in Ohio. One in Dublin works the sensible (Australian and British) way. The others are in old town centres, with a Civil War monument in the middle, and traffic gets stuck in the middle waiting to give way to other cars entering the circle. Fortunately, they are small towns, with fairly light traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/8 "2007-06-08T00:09:18Z")
OK, well if you’re planning a driving vacation in Britain, you’d better get used to roundabouts, because they are the usual form of sub- and non-urban intersection. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/9 "2007-06-08T00:38:25Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] I’ve see three or four traffic circles in Ohio. One in Dublin works the sensible (Australian and British) way. The others are in old town centres, with a Civil War monument in the middle, and traffic gets stuck in the middle waiting to give way to other cars entering the circle. Fortunately, they are small towns, with fairly light traffic. [/QUOTE] There is also one in Mount Vernon, Ohio, with traffic lights regulating when cars can enter, but no lights for cars actually in the circle. There’s one in Easton, Pennsylvania, too, but the less said about THAT town the better! ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/10 "2007-06-08T01:48:20Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] I’ve see three or four traffic circles in Ohio. One in Dublin works the sensible (Australian and British) way. The others are in old town centres, with a Civil War monument in the middle, and traffic gets stuck in the middle waiting to give way to other cars entering the circle. Fortunately, they are small towns, with fairly light traffic. [/QUOTE] There’s one in Gettysburg, PA. Now Gettysburg isn’t exactly a big town, but the tourist traffic makes that thing absolutely horrendous. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/11 "2007-06-08T02:23:39Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] … the Boston area, for instance. [/QUOTE] Where they have been known to instill terror. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/12 "2007-06-08T02:28:41Z")
I don’t know if the circle around our town square would be considered a roundabout. There are six streets feeding into a one-way loop around the courthouse. The loop has two lanes - the inner lane is to continue on the loop, the outer lane is to enter or exit. People who aren’t used to it sometimes get stuck going around and around and can’t get out. StG ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/13 "2007-06-08T02:57:35Z")
Yeah, that sounds more like a large roundabout rather than a circle. Six entry points is a lot, though, and there are rarely special lane rules here, apart from in fuck-off huge city-centre roundabouts from Hell. Four-way roundabouts are are absolutely ubiquitous here, even out in the middle of nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Rooh\_Afza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Rooh\_Afza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rooh_Afza)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/14 "2007-06-08T03:59:10Z")
Who: 88 year old man. What: Late model sedan over a 6" curb, on top of a 4’ deep sidewalk, and through double automatic electric-eye-operated sliding glass doors. Where: Walgreens. When: Noonish, about a month ago. Why: “A valve got stuck”. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/15 "2007-06-08T04:13:02Z")
Several of Sydney’s underground railway stations have been host to elderly drivers who have mistaken the stairs from the street for a subterranean carpark and have ended up on the ticket concourse. ---
**Author:** ![Ellef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8dc957/32.png) [@Ellef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellef)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/16 "2007-06-08T09:10:02Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Nah. An American would have driven away in terror before entering a roundabout in the first place. [/QUOTE] Hey Americans, wanna see a _real_ roundabout? [http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm](http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm) Bwahahahahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/17 "2007-06-08T09:22:44Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] fuck-off huge city-centre roundabouts from Hell. [/QUOTE] Elephant & Castle is the one place I can never ever work out which lane I’m supposed to be in. Stupid London. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/18 "2007-06-08T11:12:47Z")
Folks, there are roundabouts all over the Detroit metro area now. (You know - that little burgh across the river from Windsor? 😉 ) You can not blame it on the guy being “American”. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/19 "2007-06-08T11:30:57Z")
There are two that I know of, and probably a few more, in Annapolis. By American standards, it’s a really old town. I hate them, but I must admit that they make turning around if I’ve missed where I was going fairly easy (if traffic’s light), just go around the circle and back onto whatever road I started on. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194/20 "2007-06-08T12:06:25Z")
There are a couple traffic circles in suburban Baltimore. They’re fine if you understand how to navigate through them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-you-stopped-driving-sir/407194.md?page=2)