174608439 | Milton Keynes © Mr Paul Hanley | Dreamstime.com
I live in an old town, Newport Pagnell, best know for two road transport icons: the second motorway service station in Britain, and Aston Martin.
Newport is also part of the first new city in England, Milton Keynes. MK is famous for its roundabouts, over 130 at last count.
Roundabouts are fascinating infrastructure. They take up more room than traffic lights but they are much more efficient.
They raise questions about what good infrastructure looks like. Someone had the technical idea for them well before MK, but they also require changes in people’s behaviour. They are hard to retrofit.
What is the role of technical innovation in infrastructure? What are all the other things that have to go with the introduction of a technical innovation? What changes have to be forced on people for the technology to work?
I have driven around a Dutch roundabout while they still ran with priority from cars entering, not the vehicles already on it. Totally biased, this seemed like a very bad idea to me.
I have driven on a brand new roundabout in a central Washington town that was also scary, because I knew many drivers wouldn’t understand how they work: they take getting used to, with plenty of warning signs about priority.
I’ve sat at US four way stops and admired the discipline – British drivers really struggle with them – but, as I waited, also calculated that a roundabout would be faster.
I drive on Roundabout City’s roads, where inhabitants know they do not have stop, and everyone knows how to judge gaps. Out of towners run the risk of being rear-ended.
Curiously, small roundabouts on housing estates slow the traffic down. But the main, grid roads with large roundabouts at every main junction can be driven at 60 miles per hour. And you can drive straight through this city of a third of a million people and never see a single house.
Milton Keynes people love their roundabouts – but have to be warned about how traffic light systems work.
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