Fixing the Grid - Flickr
I have lived in two states and two countries that have had rotaries, traffic circles, roundabouts, or whatever you want to call them. The small city where I was born had one rotary and I never gave it a second thought as I drove through it. Maybe because there was never much traffic there.
When I lived in Boston I encountered several rotaries driving in the city, and the rest of Massachusetts and New England for that matter. Once again it was no big deal, for me or other drivers, even in rather heavy traffic.
Living in Penang, Malaysia, rotaries were part of everyday life. And the traffic there made Boston look like a cakewalk! Regardless of the constant heavy traffic, no one had a problem with the rotaries. I am sure this was partly due to the status of Malaysia as a former British colony.
After 8 years living in Penang, I moved back to the United States. In particular the Rochester area. I now live in a small village that has one rotary that people must use to travel just about anywhere in the vicinity. I travel through this rotary at least 3 times a week, on my way to the gym, grocery store, or to run miscellaneous errands. There rarely is any traffic around the area, except maybe for the holidays.
And yet more than half the time I use the rotary I see drivers who are totally confused or terrified as they attempt to enter the rotary. Some people come to a complete stop and then check their left and then their right to make sure absolutely no one is near the rotary. Some people enter the rotary and either slow down or stop as they near each exit of the rotary. And then some don't yield to traffic already in the rotary and narrowly miss the oncoming cars.
These incidents would be understandable if the drivers were from out of state or out of town, but they're not. The people who are terrorized by the rotary are people who live in the village and have lived there all their lives. And the rotary has been there ever since they were born, or before.
You might think that the people I am complaining about are old people, but you'd be wrong. They're all ages, from new teen drivers to the oldsters. It makes no sense why some drivers can maneuver the challenges of rotaries, while others are completely terrified and mystified. Let's just hope for their own safety and that of others they stay off the expressways.
