18 October: 10 Facts about Roundabouts

On this date in 1965 The Magic Roundabout was first shown on British TV. Here are 10 things you didn't know about roundabouts:

1. There are more than 25,000 roundabouts in the UK. That's one every 16km of road, on average. France, however, has even more – over 32,000.
2. The roundabout as we know it was first conceived by traffic engineer Frank Blackmore. It was he who came up with the rules about who has priority when entering one.
3. There were circular junctions way before that. The first UK roundabout was built in Letchworth Garden City in 1909, as a traffic island for pedestrians. Blackmore went on to invent the mini-roundabout, for use at smaller junctions.
4. Studies by the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have shown that there are 78% fewer severe accidents at roundabouts than at junctions with traffic lights and 82% less than at junctions with stop signs.
5. They're not so popular in the USA. There are only about 5,000 there. The first modern roundabout was built there in 1990, in Summerlin, Nevada. Americans tend to find them confusing, although that's probably because they lack experience of them. There's a famous scene in National Lampoon's European Vacation where the Griswold family get stuck on a roundabout in London (The Lambeth Bridge Southern Roundabout to be exact) for several hours. While Americans tend to disapprove of proposed roundabouts in their neighbourhoods before they get built, once they get used to using them the approval ratings rise significantly.
6. The FHWA launched a "National Roundabouts Week" in which roundabout lovers could share their positive experiences on social media in the hope that more local governments will be able to overcome local reluctance to this safer type of junction.
7. Motorists, it seems, either love or hate them. Some of those who love them formed a Roundabout Appreciation Society which produces books and calendars on the theme of roundabouts. It also awards a prize, Roundabout of the Year, for the one with the best display in the centre. The society was formed by Kevin Beresford, after a calendar featuring photos of 12 roundabouts in Redditch sold 100,000 copies all over the world.
8. The centres of roundabouts are often adorned with art installations, sculptures or landscaping. In 2006, a phenomenon began in Sweden where people began placing home made sculptures of Dogs on roundabouts. It started after a concrete statue of a dog, which was part of an official art installation, got vandalised and someone replaced it with a home made wooden dog statue. Someone later added a bone, and roundabout dogs (or Rondelhund in Swedish) took off from there. They've even made appearances in the UK, in Hemel Hempstead and even Piccadilly Circus.
9. Complicated roundabouts, where traffic can flow in both directions, usually because there are mini roundabouts at the exit and entry points, have come to be known, in the UK, as "Magic Roundabouts". The first one of these was built in Swindon in 1972. It was designed by the aforementioned Frank Blackmore. Since then, High Wycombe, Hemel Hempstead, Colchester and Tamworth are among the towns which followed suit. While the safety records of such roundabouts are good, they are a bit like Marmite. Some drivers will go to great lengths to avoid them.
10. Another type of roundabout is the hamburger roundabout, which derives from there being a major route running through the centre, which, on a map or road plan makes the junction resemble a Hamburger. There are usually controlled by traffic signals.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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