On our recent drive to the South West, we were very struck by the large number of roundabouts on the roads, particularly in the Southampton/Portsmouth area. My memory is that there no roundabouts when I was a child and I think that in the south of Scotland, there definitely were not at that time.
Google tells me that the first ever roundabout was built in Letchworth Garden City in 1909, but that roundabouts as we know them have only been built since the 1960s, when the powers that be hit on the idea of giving drivers already on the roundabout the right of way. Before that, there were some “traffic circles”, which gave those entering the right of way and caused more jams than they solved! It seems that the USA has taken even longer to work that out. They didn’t grasp how roundabouts should work until the 1990s. It seems that early experiences resulted in total gridlock!
Jae used to work in Hemel Hempstead, where there was a so called “magic roundabout”. We used to quake when we saw this sign, but funnily enough, it wasn’t so bad once you got into it.
There are plenty of roundabouts in Scotland now, as four of my paternal aunts found out to their cost about ten years ago. The four used to meet up every year for a holiday in North Berwick, which is a delightful seaside town about twenty-five miles east of Edinburgh. They had all read Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” and were intrigued by the scene which takes place in Rosslyn Chapel, so decided to mount an expedition to visit it. At this time three of my aunts were well into their eighties, so they decided that the “young one”, Irené should hire a car for the occasion and drive them there: after all, she was only in her late seventies! However, what they didn’t factor in, is that Irené has spent the last forty or so years living in the USA. She said she was game for the trip, so long as it didn’t involve any roundabouts. She had never driven round one in her life and was not about to learn how to negotiate this new fangled idea.
Going by any sensible route, they could have been at the Chapel, which is south of Edinburgh, in about forty-five minutes. Irené managed to work out a route without roundabouts which turned out to take more than three hours! Her sisters did not return from the trip very happy bunnies. They had been cooped up in the hire car for more than seven hours by the time they got back, and had had to rush round the chapel when they were there, as they were anxious not to be out on the roads (too right!!!) during the Edinburgh rush hour. I am not sure that poor Irené was ever forgiven for the nightmare trip it had turned out to be – all because the USA has been slow to embrace the roundabout.
I understand that at times we will almost be walking round in circles on Kilimanjaro, though happily we will not be encountering traffic as we do so! Some of the paths meander around and we will be taking in the meanders as a way of getting gently used to the higher altitude. Often we will go up, only to drop back down again late in the day, to set camp. The reason for this is that sleeping is difficult at high altitude, and we are more likely to sleep if we have been higher in the course of the day. Also, it makes it easier to get going again in the morning, if our bodies think we have encountered the increased altitude the previous afternoon. So I won’t mind if I feel like I am walking round in a circle on the mountain: I will be in a much better place than being cooped up in a car trying to avoid going round in a circle on a roundabout!
Note from Jae: Talking of roundabouts – look at Ma and Osc on one!!