On Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 11:14:20 PM UTC-4, Mayayana wrote:
| I've driven in CA all my life and have never seen a roundabout
| ....until about 10 yrs ago. Whatta nightmare! I saw a 3 lane
| roundabout in Boston about 35 yrs ago and it was a complete
| clusterf*ck.

They've always existed in New England. Here it's
called a rotary. Roundabout is the British term. They
may take some getting used to, but they keep traffic
moving at intersections of major roads where lights
would cause massive backups. It's very simple: People
in the rotary have right of way. People entering must
wait for a clearing. The result is like lights or stop signs
but with no wasted time. No one ever waits if it's
clear to go.

There is one problem now, though: With the epidemic
of phone addicts who don't signal, we end up with
rotary traffic where many or most of the drivers are not
signalling their intention to leave the rotary. Fortunately,
in VT/NH handheld devices are now banned. It's being
talked about in MA but so far there's no limitation on
out-to-lunch phone addicts. Not paying attention in
the middle of a rotary, and doing things like exiting
from the inside lane, do make it a risky scenario.

The Google Map app on my smartphone (and my town) calls them Traffic
Circles.

I forget what my Garmin GPS used to call them because I edited some of
the terms that it speaks. They are now called "the thing that goes around
in a circle", as in:

"At the thing that goes around in a circle take the 2nd exit"

"Recalculating" is heard as "Damn! Lost again."

Instead of saying "Make a U-Turn", it channels Mr. T and says "Turn around, fool!"

My ego is reinforced every time I reach my destination when I hear:

"Ya da man...You made it to..."