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

Kaeori!
You left out the most famous one!!!!!



EROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Picadilly Circus)

'G'

It is all very well banning cars from town centres, but what about the people who aren't marathon walkers? Last year I (as previously mentioned) spent 5 months on crutches. Not eligible for a disabled sticker, I seriously struggled to do even the most basic shopping, whilst parking my car illegally on yellow lines outside the shops. There is no way I could have managed in the huge shopping centres/pedestrian areas.

Of course!

Do we count Nelson's column? In other words, is Trafalgar Square, or Parliament Square for that matter, just a big roundabout with corners?

Squareabout?

Rectangleabout?

Ovalabout?

We are really taking this to extremes now!!
Why not include any city block and be done with it???
'G'

M25?

You can't include any city block because the traffic would flow in both directions. In gyratory systems (Trafalger Sq etc) the traffic flows in one direction.
This does mean that the Swiss Cottage would then be in the middle of a roundabout

Apparently, after the Great Fire of London in 1666, they decided it was the perfect opportunity to redesign the devastated area. Before the fire it had been a mish-mash of winding roads and dark streets. It's not often you get a chance to start from scratch.

What went wrong?

City planners !!!
'G'

When I was doing Geography 'O' level, many years ago, we studied Ordnance Survey maps (the definitive maps of the UK) from various points of view. Regarding the layout of towns and cities, our teacher told us that if the streets made fancy patterns it's a sure sign that the local council planners had been at work comparatively recently (i.e., within the last 50 years or so), because that was the kind of road layout they liked back then. Experience has proved him right!

There's one near us with a big green frog (made of stone) in the middle

It seems that one of the main reasons for sticking things - like big green frogs - in the middle of roundabouts is not to brighten things up, but rather to discourage people from driving or cycling over them!

I thought everyone knew that the M25 was a car park not a roundabout

In countries where they drive on the right side of the road (i.e. the right side of the road), do they go around roundabouts anti-clockwise?

Yes

K, When did you leave the States? Or don't they have them there? This forum is so old and long, sorry, I have forgotten if Roundabouts in the States were ever mentioned.

I've not been back for pver two years, but I don't ever remember seeing a roundabout.

Though now I think about it, I kinda remember seeing something like that at an airport. Maybe my mind's playing tricks with me.

Next time you watch an American film or TV show, see if you see any roundabout. I'm sure you won't.

There were many comments on this posting a while ago about pedestrians walking out in front of cars. On the radio last week, someone asked whether pedestrians have the right to walk into the road irrespective of whether a vehicle is coming. The legal answer was that "Pedestrians owe a duty of care to other road users". They then cited the case of 'Barry v McDonald 1966', in this case, a motocyclist swerved to avoid a pedestrian who stepped out in front of him. The motorcyclist crashed and was killed. The pedestrian was subsequently sued and found liable for the death of the motorcyclist.

This therefore re-inforces my belief that pedestrians who step out into the road ignoring the on-coming cars should be hooted as they are not exercising their 'duty of care' and are taking a course of action that may result in an accident.

You don't think hooting errant pedestrians is a bit mild? Or is there an 's' missing from the beginning of that word?

Possibly, but I've yet to have my 'Bond-style' retractable, semi-automatics fitted to my car - the local VW garage says (despite being a German car) they're not an optional extra - so I'll just have to keep hooting....

Depends on the hoot. A gentle pipping is a bit mild. If somebody does something stupid when I'm driving, be it a pedestrian or another driver, I don't 'pip' my horn. I lean on the button. HARD!!! That generally lets them know how I feel! (It also relieves my frustration a little!)