How would you like to drive through this?

[rug]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

And on the left side of the road to boot.

[snappyturtle]

1. No thank you! Thomas Jefferson is probably rolling over

in his grave!

[petronius]

2. And they say traffic designers don't have a sense of humor...

Although if you follow the arrows it doesn't seem like it would be that bad, so long as you didn't come up to it by surprise and it wasn't backwards. I remember the first time I encountered big roundabouts in Europe (nothing like that, of course) and I was like "What-The-Fuck!!??!", but they felt normal pretty quickly...

[Downwinder]

3. In 2009 it was voted the fourth scariest junction in Britain.

I wonder about the other three.

[Wounded Bear]

4. That's not a traffic circle...

That's a crop circle rendered in pavement.

Damn You ET!!!!

[Arctic Dave]

6. LOL

Indeed.

[NV Whino]

5. The thing about roundabouts is

You can just keep going in a circle until you have the courage to break off in the direction you really want to go. Or until you run out of gas.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Clark Griswold would agree....

[BainsBane]

8. I may have

I hate roundabouts. I always get mixed up in them.

[u4ic]

9. A number of roundabouts in my city

I'm used to them. Driving on the opposite side of the road would have me confused though!

[Paulie]

10. Like this

[Wounded Bear]

11. Pretty much like playing bumper pool...

[Paulie]

12. Worse

The animation doesn't include the outer ring of clockwise traffic along with the shown inner counter clockwise.

[Initech]

13. Which way is left?

[MiddleFingerMom]

14. I've negotiated those in New Jersey where I (and every OTHER driver) would...

.
.
.
... assume a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, POINT the car and mash down
on the gas, counting in large, large LARGE part on luck.
.
.
.
I've also negotiated them in Germany, where everyone calmly and matter-of-factly
maneuvers around them as though they're driving in a parking lot (everyone, that is...
except white-knuckled me).
.
.
.

[surrealAmerican]

15. counterclockwise ...

... or, I should probably have said anticlockwise.

I'm wondering about pedestrians, though. How would a pedestrian cross to the other side when there is traffic?

[HappyMe]

16. Clutching the steering wheel

and swearing a bunch until I run out of gas or hit another car.

I would go a few miles out of the way to avoid that.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. hmmm ... surprised no one has posted these instructions

[JCMach1]

18. God I HATE HATE HATE roundabouts... worst were in the UAE before they started putting

in sensible stop lights... if this roundabout were there, it would be full of cars trying to drive 120kph