You’re driving down the road and you come to a circular intersection. The first word that comes to your mind is roundabout. You can see the cars whirling around a center island at a speed greater than fifteen mph.
What you are seeing is not a roundabout, but a traffic circle. There is a difference, and it is major enough that you SHALL NOT USE the terms interchangeably. Please.
Now you’re looking at me with an odd expression. I shall explain. A roundabout is a circular intersection designed to slow traffic down, the internal speeds as low as fifteen mph. You yield to enter and always rotate counterclockwise (unless you’re in the UK, where you will rotate clockwise). All traffic moves the same direction.
In a traffic circle, cars move faster than fifteen mph all the time. You don’t yield to enter, and cars can go opposite to traffic flow. It’s not as safe as roundabouts, and why roundabouts have a bad name.
We want roundabouts, not traffic circles. Please do not use those terms interchangeably.
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