A History of Roundabouts

Now some of you might be rubbing your eyes at the title of this one!

Maybe you think we’ve clearly ‘lost it’ or have far too much spare time on our hands. Well, nothing’s further from the truth (we hope)!

Here’s the explanation….

As you probably know, we’ve recently had some modest inconvenience locally because of the roadworks and construction of the new roundabout in Goulburn. We’ve kept everyone informed in the monthly newsletter and we think the now finished result is a big improvement.

During the works, somebody actually asked who invented the roundabout and where. It's a simple enough question but do you know the answer? We didn’t!

So, here’s the information you’ve all been desperately waiting for.

It seems that circular traffic systems of ‘circuses’ go back to at least the 18th century and England.  They started to be used for larger traffic volumes in the earlier 20th century with arguably the first real traffic system roundabout appearing in the USA in 1907 shortly followed by one a couple of years later in the UK.

Now it’s important to note that these weren’t modern roundabouts as we know them today. They were essentially just a round traffic island and something of a free-for-all going around.

For more details, please visit - http://www.whitestractors.com.au/blog/328-a-history-of-roundabouts.html