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

This is one of my favourite entries and was featured on the front page as part of my Top 5 on 26 June 2002.

Nice one IanG!

Hmmm!!!

Why have we got an entry brewing on theme parks? It seems to me the this just HAS to be the ultimate White Knuckle experience! Next to the Hammersmith Gyratory System of course. The most useful and least specific instruction I have ever had on road directions was regarding the HGS and just said 'Be Careful Here'. I'm surprised it isn't indicated on road maps with 'Here Be Dragons'.

I have to say that Hammersmith scares the hell out of me, particularly when the author of this article is driving!

Are you related/married/friends who share a car into work?

He is my other and better half. Though when he wrote this entry he wasn't. We only got together last year after being friends for about five years.

I know some would say it was biased of me to choose this entry, but it is one of my favourites because when I read it I can hear Ian's voice.

It's a great entry: I enjoyed it thoroughly, having experienced both Hammersmith and Hangar Lane (local euphemisms for Hell and High Water, no doubt).

PS: get him to write an article about this abomination while you're at it. My friend drove around it once and said it was quite an experience.
http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

Flaming Nora! What on earth was the planning department on when they came up with that?! It clearly wasn't oxygen!

Whatever it was, I *want* some.
The people who designed this are the sort of people who provide hammers in railway carriages to allow passengers to break the windows in an emergency. Then they put them behind a toughened glass screen.
They also put signs in fields bearing the single instruction "Do not throw Stones at the Sign". Its a form of bureaucratic vandalism.

My guess is they were drinking shots of that Ole Janx Spirit.

Its not just you Abi, this to is my favourite entry. Its one of the first ones I read when I discovered h2g2, and it helped to convince me that this place was worth investigating further


Oh, and the roundabout is great fun as well. Vroom Vroom!

While we're on the subject, has anybody noticed how stuffy local bureaucrats seem to be yielding to local pressure and actually giving roundabouts meaningful names? A friend of mine used to live next to Charlie Brown's Roundabout in South Woodford. This was because a pub nearby was run for a long time by a landlord called Charlie Brown. The Magic Roundabout is now so called as well, apparently.

Can anybody tell me if the Gravelly Hill Interchange is at last officially recognised by the name everyone else has called it since it was built?

FM

I too have been round the Hangar Lane Gyratory (in a car, but it nearly compared with going round Hyde Park Corner on a bicycle). However, when it comes to white knuckle rides I don't believe anyone can beat the M25 (at least, a few years ago when the traffic DID move on that road it was incredibly hairy.)

For town planning though, I believe Leicester takes the biscuit. They built an 'inner ring road' some years ago. As a newcomer i got onto the dual carriage way, into the right hand lane and over the flyover, depressing the accelerator with glee, only to slam the brakes on as I crested the brow. Some university gradauate with three years training put Traffic lights right at the bottom. I don't know the accident statistics, but it still seems the most stupid idea in the world.

I've yet to convince Abi to let me drive her round the Hangar Lane Gyratory...

As for magic roundabouts, actually the one in Hemel Hempstead outdoes the one in Swindon. I've never really understood why the Swindon one is more famous - the one in Hemel has *six* roundabouts. And the short stretches of road connecting them are considerably shorter than on the one in Swindon.

The fact that I learnt to drive in a town close to Hemel Hempstead may explain a lot about my driving...

(There's actually yet another magic roundabout in High Wycombe - it is built more along the lines of the Swindon one, with slightly longer connecting segments, but like the Hemel one it too has 6 mini roundabouts if I remember correctly.)

Here's the granddaddy of all roundabouts:
http://www.hemelhempsteadtoday.co.uk/custom_pages/CustomPage.asp?Page=263

Anybody actually managed to drive around all three unscathed yet?

And someone's been kind enough to map these automotive maelstroms:
http://www.pberry.plus.com/ukroads/magicroundabouts/index.html
Avoid like you would a roving band of double glazing salesmen.