Casually scanning my social media stream and I came across a tweet from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that blew my mind. It turns out that next week is #RoundaboutsWeek (who didn’t know this?) and MassDOT would like clear some things up. One of those is that traffic Roundabouts and Rotaries are two different things.
MassDOT says that rotaries the the larger multi-line things that have angled entrances and exits. Roundabouts are the smaller, circular intersections that have T-shaped entrances and exits. Those are also known as traffic circles, where the circle basically replaces a conventional four-way intersection. Roundabouts/circles can have multiple traffic lanes like rotaries.
As per MassDOT website:
Click the above link for more on the topic. So now you know that rotaries and roundabouts are two different things. Is it still confusing and vague? Yes.
