Choosing the cover picture for a calendar illustrating Britain`s most picturesque spots is obviously a tricky task, but the Roundabout Appreciation Society has done it. Holgate Windmill, a working windmill on a traffic island near York, is the star of the society`s tenth calendar, a publication that grew out of the surprise success of a glossy coffee-table book depicting the best-looking roundabouts in the town of Redditch in the county of Hereford&Worcester. So the scene is set for a repeat of the runaway success of the nude (but tasteful) calendar produced in 1999 by a group of Yorkshire women to raise money for Lukaemia Research, Britain`s leading blood cancer charity; the project has subsequently been adapted into a film and a stage play and has to date raised over $3 million. It has to be admitted that Holgate was only selected after heated debate, the difficulty being that no one agreed on exactly what makes a roundabout beautiful - and many Gainesville residents would no doubt interject "if indeed there is anything that could make a roundabout beautiful". For despite the fact that modern roundabouts generally improve traffic flow and reduce crashes compared with other kinds of intersection, and are now popular in many countries around the world, they still face opposition from drivers who are initially confused at how to deal with them. (My approach to the problem is to suggest that roundabouts provide a metaphor for the charming British etiquette of giving way. My wife Linda`s comment is that the Brits are incapable of tackling anything directly and can only proceed in a circuitous or roundabout manner!) Simply put, a roundabout is a road junction where road traffic must curve around a central island and, essentially, where vehicles entering the roundabout are required to yield to vehicles already within the circle. Research has confirmed that this device generally reduces delays at intersections compared with either traffic signals or two-way/four-way stops and is also substantially safer - one major US study, for example, reports 40 per cent fewer crashes at modern roundabouts, and 90 per cent less serious injuries and fatalities, as compared with the junctions they replaced. Experience with roundabouts is still somewhat scarce in Florida, however, despite a claim that the first modern roundabout in the US was constructed in Gainesville in 1992 (although Summerlin, Nevada may in fact be a contender here). The City has since opened a series of roundabouts, including those along SW2nd Avenue, and Cedar Key residents will be aware of the plans for SW91st Street through Haile Plantation, but it is clear that they can still be the major source of dismay previously captured in the movie European Vacation and the TV series The Simpsons. I can only think that the provision of roundabouts really represents an un-American activity which, like driving on the right-hand side of the road, was legislated for by the founding fathers as they rebelled against their colonial past. My theory is that there is a secret amendment to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States (the one giving Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce) that mandates a change in the ancient rules of the road - note that a series of laws were passed after Independence eliminating English driving customs and requiring traffic to shift to driving on the right, eg in Pennsylvania in 1792, New York in 1804, and New Jersey in 1813. (Interestingly, the American auto manufacturers didn`t get the message at first, and Ford only changed to left-hand drive, the best arrangement for driving on the right-hand side of the road, in 1908.) There would no doubt be some degree of public resistance in Florida to a return to the southpaw routine of keeping to the left, but please remember that it is always possible to change our habits. Sweden, for example, changed its driving rules from left to right at 5am on Sunday morning September 3 1967 and the conversion went very smoothly (83 per cent of the population had in fact voted against the change in an earlier referendum - so much for democracy!). An apocryphal story records that a similar move in Ireland was not nearly so successful, largely because drivers were given one initial week in which they could operate in either the old or the new way. Perhaps a solution would be to copy the drivers in Malta who do not drive on the right, or the left, of the road - they just drive in the shade! (And then there is Nairobi, where it is much less dangerous to speed through a red light than to stop and risk a car-jacking ---). So on your next trip to Gainesville, don`t just stay on Archer Road but be brave, turn left before you get to the "Cedar Key Publix " and enjoy the gentle circulation of the roundabouts as you head into town. They are there to help you; all you need to remember is that traffic passes counter-clockwise round the central island and that entering traffic must always yield to vehicles already in the circle. A pity then that there doesn`t appear to be too much scope for the award-winning roundabout in Cedar Key that would help our image to soar to even greater heights. |
