Last time this was brought up somebody pointed out that in certain countries (Germany, I believe) it is actually illegal to drive without purpose, so endlessly circling the roundabout would be illegal. I’m so confused how this could ever be enforced though, not the roundabout thing, but generally. Not anymore, but during lockdown I would put on an audio book and just drive around the countryside for hours. The purpose was keeping me sane, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
In a lot of European countries we are now introducing “turbo” roundabouts where you can’t even go all the way around once, and they work way better and amazingly.
Interesting! Though, with the amount of confusion the roundabout in my town (California) still causes after two years in existence, I fear for my countrymen’s ability to conceptualize this two lane miracle of modern wonders. I foresee a lot of attempted lane changes in the circle from people who accidentally got in the “get out on the first turn” lane.
I’m currently visiting my SO in the US and the way roundabouts are used here is terrifying! I’ve seen people just cross straight over them and I have yet to see anyone but my SO use their turn signal on them, not to mention how long people wait to get on the roundabout defeating the point entirely.
The turbo roundabout was confusing the first or second time I was on one, but after that it made a lot of sense and was quite simple. A lot of them even have guiding arrows and signs beforehand telling you where to go, these roundabouts genuinely make it so you basically never have to stop and can just continue driving like there was never an intersection.
It’s genuinely awesome.
