How America Learned to Fear the Roundabout

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  07.21.09 | 12:02 PM ET

Interesting tidbit from this Slate article calling for American city planners to embrace the roundabout. Turns out, our collective roundabout anxiety can probably be blamed on our European vacations:

Mentioning roundabouts seems to invoke some form of the famous “availability bias,” which leads people make judgments based on the memories that can be brought most easily to mind. And so, the American who may have driven as a tourist in France or Greece a number of years back will shudder with recognition, associating the roundabout with terror and near misses. But motorists with such memories often fail to consider that they were driving as tourists in unfamiliar climes, perhaps only for a few days. Roundabouts, like the language, the signage, the food, and just about everything else, were strange and novel, and so the tourist driver, already probably feeling a bit wigged out—for a roundabout in Italy is filled with Italian drivers—felt a heightened level of stress and thereafter consigned the roundabout to the dustbin of terrible ideas—or things that might be good for Europe (like socialized medicine) but don’t translate.

Tags: Global Village, Europe, North America, United States, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


4 Comments for How America Learned to Fear the Roundabout

Josh Crockett 07.21.09 | 6:23 PM ET

How many Americans actually (a) have been to Europe and (b) drove while they were there?  Not a high number. 

Maybe some people do fear the roundabout because of European driving experiences, but they likely make up an insignificant percentage of the American driving populace.

Wim Nijenberg 07.22.09 | 9:02 AM ET

Last week I was driving in Holland. I noticed how many more roundabouts there are compared to two years ago. I rented a car with standard shift. It was very tiring. Now I would recommend all foreigners in Europe to rent an automatic car. Yes, it’s more expensive but you will enjoy your vacation a lot more. And enjoyment is the most important part on any European. Pay a little more for an automatic. It’s the best investment you can make.

Jen 07.22.09 | 12:04 PM ET

We’ve had them in Massachusetts for years and they are called rotaries.

Grizzly Bear Mom 07.22.09 | 12:46 PM ET

They are called traffic circles in New Jersey.  I thought we were the only state that had them until they started building then in MD.  One time my sister and I were eating at Jersey Freeze on the Freehold taffic circle and noticed a novice driver in the circle.  They circled around 11 times to our count.  I didn’t find they particiularly difficult, there are just like any new challenge.  One must master them.

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