Why has there been a change in the traditional 4-way stop? What ever happened to the stop signs where you sit until it's your turn to go? What happened to that good feeling of letting the person who got there after you did go ahead? You wave them on through and you get that euphoric feeling like the one you get when you let the person behind you in line at the grocery store go in front of you. You know, the person that has one item and you have 47 items. Wow...that is a good feeling. Why am I never the person with just one item? Wait, I am getting off track...anyway, back to circles in the road. Why?????
There seems to be some research that the circles or "roundabouts" are better for traffic flow. That may very well be true...but it sure isn't if you are the car behind me. I don't know when to go.
I think my first real experience with the beloved (please note, NOT beloved by me!) roundabout was in Tampa. My friend G and I were there for a concert. I had a new car and we had been out to dinner with some friends. I thought this was going to be just a normal drive back to our hotel...but NO, HELL NO!
All of the sudden, there we were, sitting at an intersection that should have had a stoplight but NO...it had a circle!! What in the world?!?! So G, being the world traveler that she is, tried to explain to me that I was supposed to be keep going and drive around this circle. When I say that G tried to "explain" to me what I was supposed to do...she basically just started screaming "GO!" every few seconds. WHAT?!?!? There were other cars driving around in this circle and they didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon.
I do understand that sometimes our first experience with anything in life is not always the best and most of the time, our next go round (see what I did there...) is much better. I have not found that to be true with this damn circle in the road. I break out in a sweat anytime I see the roundabout ahead sign. Did I do something horribly wrong in a previous life? Wait, don't answer that!
I have always enjoyed driving backroads to go anywhere...work, social events, etc. My hate of the circle in the road has changed this for me. I don't believe there is anywhere that I can go without running into one of these dreaded atrocities. The only place that I feel secure is on the interestate;, however, i am certain that at some point, there will be roundabouts on the interstate. I am sure I will just end up going back in the same direction I came from everytime. This is going to make remaining gainfully employed somewhat difficult.
I could go on and on...but then why would my rant be any different than actually driving through a roundabout. You would just be going in circles reading this. The only good thing is that if you are reading this, you are probably not acutally behind me in a dreaded circle in the road. For that, you should be very happy! Trust me! Just ask my friend G!
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