Roads

[bellinghman]

I am amused by this BBC article on Britain's most intimidating road junctions.. Particularly this comment: Between them, Birmingham, London and Glasgow took eight of the top 10 spots.

Strangely enough, I had no difficulty in guessing what the other two junctions in the list were. Yes, the Swindon and Hemel magic roundabouts, at #4 and #9.

(As someone who negotiated the Hanger Lane gyratory (#5) twice a day for several years, I think I can cope with just about anything, though I'll concede that the Glasgow ones are a real pain.)

Comments

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

my first time in Swindon I ended up driving through the magic roundabout in the dark while there was a rain storm. I could barely see and it took quite a while after I arrived at my destination before I felt calm and stress free again!

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I remember when they were making that roundabout. It was quite possible to drive through Swindon in the morning and the evening of the same day and find the road in entirely different configurations.

My father, a nervous driver at best, refused point-blank to tackle it and my brother or I always drove if we were going through Swindon.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

A story told is of a Armoured Car squadron arriving there not long after it had been built. It is said that the commander, more used to small roads of the Wiltshire plains than these new-fangled circle things, paused for a bit while he considered what to do. Then, having made his decision, he boldly led the squadron forward.

In a straight line.

Right across the middle.

Moral: he who has armour and weaponry, wins.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I did that at Hemel Hempstead.

Came off the motorway at the wrong junction and misread the sign in darkness and torrential rain that obscured the road markings; I went across three mini-roundabouts on the wrong side of the road before the oncoming headlights tipped me off about what I was doing wrong ...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I can quite imagine that happening.

Happily for me, the first time I met it was on a nice sunny day when visiting bellinghwoman at her workplace. Since she was then working on Park Lane, which is the hill leading down to it, my initial requirement was just to do a 180 round that single element which was at the bottom of the hill. I worked up to more complicated variations on later encounters.