The History of Roundabouts

The first roundabout appeared in England in 1909 as a one-way gyratory built for road management. Later it spread to the Continent where it was frequently used to encircle monuments and gardens. Notably, the French were the early adaptors and even today have a high percentage of the world’s roundabouts.

Historically, Rick Greiwe noted in a TownCryer piece that our Mariemont Village Square was once a roundabout before traffic signals. In that issues, he goes on to say that a roundabout would be the most effective solution to the traffic back-up of cars on Madisonville Road during the morning rush hour and would create a beautiful gateway on the north side of Mariemont.

An article in the October 2013 issue of the Economist states that “the roundabout represents not just a clever solution to a common inconvenience, allowing vehicles to swirl rather than stop at empty crossroads, but also the triumph of co-operation over confrontation.” It is generally conceded that roundabouts do not work well in very heavily congested areas.

The statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation show that replacing crossroads with roundabouts leads to a 35 percent fall in crashes, a 76 percent fall in injuries and a 90 percent fall in deaths. And,  think of the time and fuel savings as well improving the driving experience and mitigating road rage.