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The Magic Roundabout - Brook Hill


Guest tsavo

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Guest tsavo

...was the idea of someone in the Ministry of Transport. Basically, you could go around the roundabout in any direction! What happened if you met someone coming the other way? You had an accident. During the few weeks of the experiment it became a favorite form of free entertainment for locals and I'm sure insurance premiums rocketed. This picture shows one of these roundabouts in action, so avoid Swindon, Wilts at all costs! Does anyone remember the date? Let us know please. Love the directions to the local Accident & Emergency unit!

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Don't recall the one in Sheffield but having driven around the one in Swindon I can confirm Sheffield is better off without its own "magic roundabout"

Approx what year was the Sheffield one in operation? 60s 70s or 80s?

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Memory seems to have just started working...

Was this in the early 1980s, maybe 80-81 the lanes were laid out using pavement edge concrete pieces and maybe old railway sleepers? As you say abandoned after a very short time?

Basically the whole area was just plain tarmac with a very temporary feel to it.

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Guest tsavo

Memory seems to have just started working...

Was this in the early 1980s, maybe 80-81 the lanes were laid out using pavement edge concrete pieces and maybe old railway sleepers? As you say abandoned after a very short time?

Basically the whole area was just plain tarmac with a very temporary feel to it.

Temporary as in "Whoops, there goes my no claims bonus!" Think the year's about right though.

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Guest mega_monty

...was the idea of someone in the Ministry of Transport. Basically, you could go around the roundabout in any direction! What happened if you met someone coming the other way? You had an accident. During the few weeks of the experiment it became a favorite form of free entertainment for locals and I'm sure insurance premiums rocketed. This picture shows one of these roundabouts in action, so avoid Swindon, Wilts at all costs! Does anyone remember the date? Let us know please. Love the directions to the local Accident & Emergency unit!

Theres also one in Hemel Hempstead thats made up of six mini roundabouts, had great fun using it, I loved driving the wrong way around it, legally of course!

I thought it was good in peak periods because it didn't matter which lane you selected.

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Is this an April Fool ?

Sounds WAY too crazy to be true !

No April Fool Admin - this was real and caused no end of amusement/annoyance depending on whether you were watching people get totally confused and causing no end of traffic jams/accidents or driving in which case, quite frankly, it was a little scary.

And how the bus drivers managed I will never know, the 95 and 52 had to negotiate it on a regular basis.

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Temporary as in "Whoops, there goes my no claims bonus!" Think the year's about right though.

I would have said it was much earlier than that - maybe mid 70s - if this is the same occasion I was thinking of. The transport reasearch establishment (I think) used the roundabout to experiment with a number of layouts - and this was one. The research staff had a double decker in the middle of the roundabout to watch what was going on.

The mini-roundabout at each entrance system can work well if drivers understand the it's just a stretch of road with mini roundabouts - the fact that it curves around and joins itself is incidental.

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Guest tsavo

I think it was like a lot of road layouts, if you're familiar with it, no problem. But if it's new to you.....! My personal hate is junction lane marking on th road surface. How are you supposed to see the lane markers if there are a dozen cars parked on top of them. Again, easy when you know.

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I would have said it was much earlier than that - maybe mid 70s -

Bit of googling - found this reference.

Marlow, M., and Blackmore, F.C., TRL Report LR-562: Experiment at Brook Hill

Roundabout, Sheffield, Yorkshire. Transport Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1973.

Evan earlier than I thought if the research was published in '73.

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Bit of googling - found this reference.

Marlow, M., and Blackmore, F.C., TRL Report LR-562: Experiment at Brook Hill

Roundabout, Sheffield, Yorkshire. Transport Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1973.

Evan earlier than I thought if the research was published in '73.

And finally:

the link to the offical report ... See post #14 for link

"this report describes an experiment carried out during october 1972 at the five-arm brook hill roundabout, sheffield"

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Are there any photos of the experiment that was tried in 1973-4 which was never seen again?I remember loads of little roundabouts but have never seen any pics of the experiment.

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Are there any photos of the experiment that was tried in 1973-4 which was never seen again?I remember loads of little roundabouts but have never seen any pics of the experiment.

Haven't got any photo's but I remember the mini islands well 5 mini islands with one large one in the middle of them. The only one I know of like it is in Hemel Hempstead, same layout and I think same number of exits.

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The most famous one of these roundabouts is the one in Swindon. Had the misfortune to encounter the Hemel Hempstead one last year: very confusing for someone meeting it for the first time.

The Brook Hill version has been discussed on here before, but no photos were forthcoming then.

The link to the report has changed: it is now http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/reports_publications/trl_reports/cat_traffic_engineering/report_experiment_at_brook_hill_roundabout_sheffield_yorkshire.htm . The full report can be yours for £20 (PDF download) or £30 (hard copy) :o

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Guest plain talker

I remember driving through Milton Keynes a bout 8 years ago, and their road layout has a grid of squares running east-west, and north south.

Each interconnection between the roads seems to have a bloomin' roundabout on it. It's shockingly confusing! (and makes you feel flipping dizzy!)

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The most famous one of these roundabouts is the one in Swindon. Had the misfortune to encounter the Hemel Hempstead one last year: very confusing for someone meeting it for the first time.

The Brook Hill version has been discussed on here before, but no photos were forthcoming then.

The link to the report has changed: it is now http://www.trl.co.uk...d_yorkshire.htm . The full report can be yours for £20 (PDF download) or £30 (hard copy) :o

That's a lot seeing as the ratepayers payed for it in the first place.

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On 23/04/2007 at 0:07 PM, Henry Pond said:

 

 

I would have said it was much earlier than that - maybe mid 70s - if this is the same occasion I was thinking of. The transport reasearch establishment (I think) used the roundabout to experiment with a number of layouts - and this was one. The research staff had a double decker in the middle of the roundabout to watch what was going on.

 

The mini-roundabout at each entrance system can work well if drivers understand the it's just a stretch of road with mini roundabouts - the fact that it curves around and joins itself is incidental.

Bus on a roundabout, 1972

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On 23/04/2007 at 8:38 AM, docmel said:

 

 

No April Fool Admin - this was real and caused no end of amusement/annoyance depending on whether you were watching people get totally confused and causing no end of traffic jams/accidents or driving in which case, quite frankly, it was a little scary.

 

And how the bus drivers managed I will never know, the 95 and 52 had to negotiate it on a regular basis.

-----------------

I was driving buses at the time, no problem , but not for the faint hearted, I wouldn't have fancied it in a bubble car.

 

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I was working between the Royal Infirmary and Hallamshire (or was it still New Teaching) Hospitals at the time so used this island quite often. I found it good to use but that may just have been familiarity, as others have said to come across it for the first time must have been daunting. I never saw any "comings together".

I too remember the monitoring bus parked in the middle

I was told that police mobile patrols had been instructed/advised to avoid it though this may just have been a popular rumour.

 

LS

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Rumour had it that Butler's became a casualty clearing station...given the number of small incidents.

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On 06/05/2016 at 15:44, lysander said:

Rumour had it that Butler's became a casualty clearing station...given the number of small incidents.

Just an excuse to get some good grub.

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