November 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm

Picture of the Day: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England

by twistedsifter

 

THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT IN SWINDON, ENGLAND

 

magic roundabout intersection swindon england 3 Picture of the Day: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England

Photograph via Google Earth

 

magic roundabout intersection swindon england 1 Picture of the Day: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England

Photograph via Google Earth

 

magic roundabout intersection swindon england 4 Picture of the Day: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England

Artwork by Hk kng

 

magic roundabout intersection swindon england 2 Picture of the Day: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England

Photograph by Dickbauch

 

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England was constructed in 1972 and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. It is located near the County Ground, home of Swindon Town F.C. Its name comes from the popular children’s television series The Magic Roundabout. In 2009 it was voted the fourth scariest junction in Britain, in a poll by Britannia Rescue.

Traffic flow around the smaller, inner roundabout is counter-clockwise, and traffic flows in the usual clockwise manner around the five mini-roundabouts and the outer loop.

In 2005, it was voted the worst roundabout in a survey by a UK insurance company. In September 2007, the Magic Roundabout was named as one of the World’s Worst Junctions by a UK motoring magazine. In December 2007, BBC News reported a survey identifying The Magic Roundabout as one of the “10 Scariest Junctions in the United Kingdom”. However the roundabout provides a better throughput of traffic than other designs and has an excellent safety record, since traffic moves too slowly to do serious damage in the event of a collision. [Source]

Click here to view on Google Maps

 

via Google Earth