EnglishLady
Veteran Expediter
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News, Carmel, Indiana
A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.
A few moments after entering Carmel, it's clear why the city has been described as the Milton Keynes of the US.
As the sat-nav loudly and regularly points out, there's often a roundabout up ahead.
But unlike in the English town famous for them, driving into this pretty city on the outskirts of Indianapolis also involves passing several more under construction.
The city is at the forefront of a dizzying expansion, across several American states, of the circular traffic intersection redesigned in 1960s Britain and then exported globally. About 3,000 have been built in the US in the last 20 years
The Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, has become America's evangelist-in-chief on the matter, demolishing 78 sets of traffic lights and replacing them with those round islands so familiar to drivers in the UK. Four more will be finished in the coming months.
"We have more than any other city in the US," he says, standing proudly in front of one. "It's a trend now in the United States. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly the safety."
He quotes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which suggests there is on average a 40% decrease in all accidents and a 90% drop in fatal ones when a traffic intersection is replaced by a roundabout.
The long-term financial saving is about £150,000, he says, due to reduced maintenance costs, and there are also fuel savings.
"Not just the cars that aren't idling at traffic lights, but starting from a dead stop takes up more fuel also, so we are saving thousands of gallons of fuel per roundabout per year," says the Republican mayor.
"And aesthetically, we think they're much nicer. If one is looking out their living room window, would you prefer to see a blinking traffic light all night or a beautifully landscaped roundabout with a fountain and flowers?"
The mayor's unlikely passion began while studying in the UK, and his strong Anglophile credentials are in evidence from a glance around his office - a book by Prince Charles entitled Vision of Britain lies on the coffee table.
"I remembered those roundabouts in England and it raised the question in my mind - why don't we do this? I remembered they worked better than traffic lights so I started to do a bit of research and convinced my traffic engineers to try some."
There was scepticism at first, he says, but public education is critical and there was a newsletter and video campaign to tell people about the safety and environmental advantages.
Before every roundabout, there are squiggly lines on the road and on roadside signs to warn drivers which lane they need to be in.
The mayor's ambition is to replace the city's remaining 43 traffic lights too, apart from one. The traffic lights on the corner of Main Street and Range Line Street will survive - not because a plaque at the spot claims the country's first automatic traffic signals were installed here in 1923, but the street's just too narrow to fit a roundabout
more
BBC News - Is the British roundabout conquering the US?
BBC News, Carmel, Indiana
A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.
A few moments after entering Carmel, it's clear why the city has been described as the Milton Keynes of the US.
As the sat-nav loudly and regularly points out, there's often a roundabout up ahead.
But unlike in the English town famous for them, driving into this pretty city on the outskirts of Indianapolis also involves passing several more under construction.
The city is at the forefront of a dizzying expansion, across several American states, of the circular traffic intersection redesigned in 1960s Britain and then exported globally. About 3,000 have been built in the US in the last 20 years
The Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, has become America's evangelist-in-chief on the matter, demolishing 78 sets of traffic lights and replacing them with those round islands so familiar to drivers in the UK. Four more will be finished in the coming months.
"We have more than any other city in the US," he says, standing proudly in front of one. "It's a trend now in the United States. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly the safety."
He quotes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which suggests there is on average a 40% decrease in all accidents and a 90% drop in fatal ones when a traffic intersection is replaced by a roundabout.
The long-term financial saving is about £150,000, he says, due to reduced maintenance costs, and there are also fuel savings.
"Not just the cars that aren't idling at traffic lights, but starting from a dead stop takes up more fuel also, so we are saving thousands of gallons of fuel per roundabout per year," says the Republican mayor.
"And aesthetically, we think they're much nicer. If one is looking out their living room window, would you prefer to see a blinking traffic light all night or a beautifully landscaped roundabout with a fountain and flowers?"
The mayor's unlikely passion began while studying in the UK, and his strong Anglophile credentials are in evidence from a glance around his office - a book by Prince Charles entitled Vision of Britain lies on the coffee table.
"I remembered those roundabouts in England and it raised the question in my mind - why don't we do this? I remembered they worked better than traffic lights so I started to do a bit of research and convinced my traffic engineers to try some."
There was scepticism at first, he says, but public education is critical and there was a newsletter and video campaign to tell people about the safety and environmental advantages.
Before every roundabout, there are squiggly lines on the road and on roadside signs to warn drivers which lane they need to be in.
The mayor's ambition is to replace the city's remaining 43 traffic lights too, apart from one. The traffic lights on the corner of Main Street and Range Line Street will survive - not because a plaque at the spot claims the country's first automatic traffic signals were installed here in 1923, but the street's just too narrow to fit a roundabout
more
BBC News - Is the British roundabout conquering the US?
