runabout rotary

Traffic Rotaries and Roundabouts are two different things

Kamil Kaluski

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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.

About

Kamil Kaluski

Kamil Kaluski

East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: 4Runner, Integra, Regal, Lada

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6 responses to “Traffic Rotaries and Roundabouts are two different things”

  1. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Find & replace ‘runabout’ with ’roundabout’

    A runabout is a type of car, like a curved-dash Olds, sometimes found on roundabouts.

    Growing up in New England, the greatest density of Rotaries and Roundabouts in the U.S. it was explained to me that in the Colonial period the standoffish New Englaners would sometimes meet going different ways on the same path. Each would stop a goodly distance from the other, and both would slowly circle around, exchanging terse cordialities, but maintaining their distance. This was how the Rotary became so popular.

    Reply
    1. Greg Kachadurian Avatar
      Greg Kachadurian

      Fixed. Poor Kamil. Maybe we can blame it on autocorrect. But I’m gonna just blame his Polishness.

      Reply
    2. nanoop Avatar
      nanoop

      “Each would stop a goodly distance from the other, and both would slowly circle around, exchanging terse cordialities, but maintaining their distance. This was how the Rotary became so popular.”
      So, the first Rotary Club? And was Felix Wankel a member?

      Reply
  2. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    Rotaries, Roudabouts, both funny names for drift circles.

    Reply
    1. OA5599 Avatar
      OA5599

      Yes.

      Reply
  3. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Sounds like the sort of arcane technicality that some government organisation spends too much money coming up with, that nobody cares about and makes no difference to anything. The diagram is very poor too.

    Reply