h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is popular in some cities to add a little extra excitement to otherwise mundane roundabouts. The examples in this case come from Nottingham in the UK.

The excitement is to take conventional lane system of a roundabout, and totally ignore it. If the roundabout entry has two lanes the lane use convention is:
Turning left, left lane
Straight on, left land, or possibly either(not both at the same time!) lanes if exit is a dual carriage way.
Turning right, right lane.

Now make this more exciting by putting lane markings down showing that both lanes can be used when turning right. The confused clueless driver(most of them) now starts rurning right in the right hand lane and then swaps to the left hand lane about halfway around. This naturally can be a little upsetting to the person who was correctly and perfectly reasonably already using the left hand lane.

Nottingham has several such roundabouts, and probably above the national average of cars with large scrape marks down one side and missing indicators.

Can I just add that, like there are no lakes in Scotland (only lochs); there are no roundabouts in Nottingham, they are called "Islands". This beggers the question of what a traffic island is called?!

Also don't get short changed if you want a cob in Nottingham; it's actually a bread roll not a loaf as you might expect!

I'm currently living in Trinidad (West Indies) & Port of Spain the capital is the home to the largest roundabout in the world.

Known as the Garrison Savannah it is approximately 2.5 Miles in circumference & has 3 lanes around most of it but the inside lane usually peels off at intersections reducing it to two lanes until after the junction which is usually a mini roundabout, so you can imagine 3 lanes going for the most part at breakneck speed with no real lane control makes for some interesting driving experiences.

As for road marking I'm sure there were some there originally for most of the route they have been worn out & not replaced so it is best if you know which lane you need to be in which can be a bit daunting the first time you venture onto it. If you want to know how a formula one driver feels exiting the pits & rejoing the race this is probably as close as it comes.

However it's not as bad as it sounds once you get used to it. I have to circumnavigate it once a day to & from work. in the morning it takes a couple of minutes for the halfway round I go before I leave it, but in the evening a different storey, it can take 15-20 mins to get back round the other section due to the rush hour traffic. basically it crawls round.

Trini drivers may be a bit erratic (Mad) but by & large they are probably the most courteous drivers I have come across, they will always give way to let you out of a side street, or if you want to cross lanes just indicate & the driver behind makes room for you to move over, try that in London. also it is an unwritten law that when there is a queue of traffic & another road is joining the queue you filter in turn similar to the Channel isles.

As for scrape marks & missing wing mirrors that is nothing compared to what you see on the road here, missing wings, bonnets, windcreens etc. are the order of the day, also a full set of Dunlop Kojaks are obligatory. Tyres only need changing when there is nothing left to hold the air in.