Seriously?!

[Beki710]

Nearly all major roundabouts in the UK have 2 lanes. Some have traffic lights on them, some have parts where you can cut through the middle, some have lanes that barely touch the roundabout but go straight off even though they're part of it. They make my brain hurt.

[Kogarashi]

Roundabout, rotary, and traffic circle, I've heard them all. The one I got used to, though, was "roundabout" to refer to them. I think it depends on which part of the US you first pick up on them.

Luckily, all the ones I've dealt with have been single-lane roundabouts with something big and in-the-way in the middle (or at least a huge swath of grass) so clueless folks can't just drive straight through, and double-luckily I have yet to run into someone so roundabout-clueless that they drive counter to traffic in them. Especially at the ones where the center obstruction actually blocks view of the opposite side of the circle.

I have yet to encounter one large enough to require two lanes or result in crazy driving.

[Hawaiian Eskimo]

We call em roundabouts over here too. I don't know anyone that calls it a traffic circle.

And people around here have absolutely NO idea how to use one. It has two lanes, but people usually just end up riding down the middle.

Haven't seen anyone brake and back up though. That's just special.

[Beki710]

Could not believe this one, happened to me yesterday.

Had to take my family to the station in the next town over as they're going away on their Summer Holiday (So unfair but i have theatre commitments) I was in a bit of a hurry to get back as I had work within the hour but I wasn't doing anything over the speed limit. Coming out of this town its 50mph, a roundabout (don't know what the equivalent is in America, traffic circle?) and then the motorway. The car in front is doing about 30 and indicated a couple of times without pulling off. I dropped back a bit figuring maybe they were lost. Thank god I did.

They speed up as we get to the roundabout doing about 45, it's quiet so we get on it straight away. At this point they are indicating right, I'm thinking as there's no right turnoff, just left and straight on. So I think maybe they missed their previous turning and are going round completely to go back on themselves (A safe presumption considering all the random indication?)

As I'm coming up to the turning onto the motorway I'm trying to build a bit of speed, doing about 50. The car in front just about gets past the turning and brakes sharply. Instead of going round the roundabout again they reverse back to the turning and pull onto it. I'm just like this Why on earth didn't they just go round again?! It would have been a nasty smash if I hadn't slammed on my brakes. I didn't even get cross at the time I was just too shocked!