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  • See also: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon. One of the only? roundabouts in the UK that goes anticlockwise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)
    by nateguchi
  • Oof that looks brutal
    by anotherboffin
  • My first encounter with this was on a foggy November morning, and I had no idea what was going on.

    There's another very similar but smaller one at Heathrow, next to the Hatton Cross tube station. That one has the added attraction of London taxis and Ubers traversing it at high speed.

    by julian_t
  • The Hemel one is more “complicated” but honestly it’s easy, you just do one roundabout at a time

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempst...

    by yuumei
  • I'm sure you know this, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen it before: it does not go anticlockwise. The"roundabout" in the middle is an illusion generated by the 5 normal roundabouts in a circle. There are no special rules.

    It has a bad rep, but if you're used to British mini roundabouts, driving on it is a non-event. The regularity actually means it's simpler than other, smaller, but more arbitrary aggregations of mini-roundabouts.

    by ajb
  • Here's the road in street view:

    https://maps.app.goo.gl/7KQLmedYzCjdg5FA7

    by qingcharles
  • Not a “road” as such, but it’s also quite common in multi storey car parks as well where a ramp is shared by traffic going both up and down to stop unnecessary crossovers at each level.
    by petercooper
  • I've come across a road like this in Singapore, although with a road barrier

    https://maps.app.goo.gl/bEEvRkgGQPhfM7198

    by merek
  • There's also a part of the US where one must drive on the left: The US Virgin Islands. Driving there is more difficult than "normal" left-side driving (such as in the UK or Japan) because the cars in the USVI are standard US cars with the steering wheel on the left.
    by dreamcompiler
  • Bit of a stretch... It's a dead-end private road, also sometimes called a driveway, where the owner has their own rules for how it should be used.
    by OJFord
  • London will switch sides when America goes metric - i.e. never.
    by 1970-01-01
  • The imperial system America uses is better optimized for quantities people expect to use in real life frequently without requiring awkward decimals or larger numbers etc. better ergonomics.

    metric is only for science.

    by deadbabe
  • Once all manufacturing is controlled by China, they could refuse to make cars with steering on the right or use Standard measurements, increasing pressure and eventually forcing the UK and US to switch.
    by timbit42
  • It would be way more annoying for LHT countries to change to RHT than to switch from US units to metric, have to change literally every road sign, street light, road markings etc in the entire country.

    Plus everyone would then be driving cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side for decades until the whole fleet got eventually replaced.

    Countries have done it before, but I think there's a reason not many countries have done it since the mid 20th century when roads and cars were a lot simpler and there were fewer of them.

    Switching to metric could be done gradually - replacing existing signs with metric ones only when they wear out, building new systems in metric while still using US units for the old ones.

    There's no way to gradually switch from LHT to RHT, you have to somehow do a switchover in a day

    by ifwinterco
  • The US is on the metric system: The official definitions of US customary units are in metric.

    For example: https://www.regulations.gov/document/NIST-2019-0003-0001

    > After December 31, 2022, any data derived from or published as a result of surveying, mapping, or any other activity within the U.S. that is expressed in terms of feet shall only be based on the “foot” equal to 0.3048 meter (exactly), formerly known as the “international foot” in the 1959 Federal Register notice.

    by gwbas1c
  • So near the savoy is a semi circle road https://www.google.com/maps/search/bush+house/@51.5128306,-0... which feels like a round about and and you are forced to enter it from the wrong way.

    In fact driving in central london is a unique skill that I unwittingly mastered as I learnt to drive in zone one.

    This means that I can out manoeuvrer a pissed off white van man in a hurry. Its like chess but more angry and slightly slower.

    by KaiserPro
  • There are some spots in the US where you drive on the left, albeit for a short distance and the road is divided. Still messes with my brain. E.g., here in the northern suburbs of Detroit (W. Big Beaver going under I-75): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5620634,-83.1581674,18z
    by garciansmith
  • Also the whole of the Virgin Islands!
    by evanb
  • It's called a Diverging Diamond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverging_diamond_interchange
    by tmiahm
  • I watched a Waymo try to take this on last night. It drove on the left.
    by Oarch
  • > There's only one spot in London where you'll have to drive like much of the rest of the world

    That makes it sound like Britain is the only place with left side traffic. 35% of the world population live in countries where they drive on the left side.

    by jemmyw
  • Using total population is a bad metric considering India itself has about 2 out of 7 billion people.
    by parthdesai
  • In my country, Malta, we drive on the left too, but I drive a LHD car, so everyone can tell me I'm on the wrong side somehow.
    by vrighter
  • No it makes it sound like much of the rest of the world drives on the right.
    by mastax
  • It’s nearby London’s last sewer powered gas lamp.

    https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/F...

    by yzydserd