A motorist has shared footage of Swindon’s ‘magic roundabout’, made up of five mini-roundabouts in a circle, and it’s about as chaotic as it sounds, to be honest - go on, have a look:
In the clip, shared on TikTok by @garyman87 a driver can be seen getting frustrated with the unusual road layouts, frequently shouting out while his pal who is filming has a good laugh at his expense.
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The mind-bending roundabout, which has been in operation since the 1970s, consists of five small roundabouts in a circular shape.
It was designed by Frank Blackmore from the British Transport and Road Research Laboratory, and during its pilot phase had a police officer stationed at each of its five mini-roundabouts to see how motorists dealt with the unique arrangement. I bet they saw some interesting driving techniques.
Its devilish layout has earned it a place on a list of the UK’s most scary roads - Spaghetti Junction came out on top, if you’re interested.
Despite it looking pretty scary, according to roads.org, the design has an ‘excellent safety record’, most likely as vehicles are moving too slowly while using the roundabout to cause much real damage.
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For anyone wishing to give it a go, the roundabout's traffic flow around the inner circle is anticlockwise, while traffic flows in the usual clockwise manner around the five mini-roundabouts on the outer loop.
Or you can just plan an alternative route and avoid it altogether, which sounds far better to me.
The baffling design shocked motorists in the US after a birds-eye shot of it was shared on Reddit in 2020.
The image - captured by drone photographer Simon Folkard - was posted in the r/CasualUK subreddit, where one user wrote: "Noticed a lot of Americans on here recently, so thought I'd drop this to spook them."
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Commenting on the post one person said: "As an American, I am indeed frightened by this."
While another simply said: "American here - I think the f**k not." Brit here, I agree.
Someone else wrote: "You know what, you're right. I'm having a goddamn panic attack imagining driving through this thing."
However, not everyone hated it. Someone else commented: "I'm from New England.. bring it on, we got traffic circles, rotaries and roundabouts all over the place. This one looks fun!"
If your idea of fun involves screaming and crying while trying not to cause your own untimely death then I think you’re right, mate, yeah.
Claire Reid