Nonsensical Roundabout With Corners Causes Chaos in Australia

Motor Trend

12 hours ago

The roundabout (traffic circle to some of us Yanks) is a great idea for certain intersections. It speeds us along when traffic is light (pro tip: you don't need to stop if no one's coming from your driver's side) and it eliminates those annoying red lights where we are held for traffic that never comes. Europe, particularly the UK, has embraced them decades, and we're seeing more and more traffic circles in the States.
A new diamond-shaped roundabout in Austral, Sydney, caused confusion and chaos, with drivers struggling to navigate it. The Liverpool City Council, facing a public inquiry, is unclear about its construction and costs. The roundabout's shape and lack of signage contributed to the issues.
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But it is apparently possible to screw up a roundabout, and officials in Austral, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, have apparently mastered this dubious achievement by creating what could best be called a 'rhombusabout.'
The problem seems to have stemmed from a little overzealous action on behalf of the local council, which was urged to ease traffic on a particularly busy road. At one not-quite-perpendicular intersection, road workers created a new roundabout in the shape of a squished diamond (Rhombus! Sort of! Just let us have "rhombusabout.").
Chaos ensued almost immediately. According to news reports, some drivers didn't realize there was a new roundabout there—the traffic control device appears entirely painted on barely raised ground—and blasted straight through. The biggest problem, though, seemed to be motorists who could not figure out how to negotiate the tighter right turns (across opposing traffic, similar to our left turns, since stuff's backwards in right-hand-drive Australia) without driving right over the top of the diamond—in fact, three cars in a row were shown doing exactly that on live television as 9 News reporter Sarah Stewart looked on.
'No one knows what to do,' said Stewart. 'It's this funny shape, there's not enough room and there's not enough warning. People get on top of it and they don't know what to do.'
Cars going straight through the roundabout could not seem to jog around the diamond without clipping the corners, and the edges of the roundabout were already showing tire discoloration just hours after the ill-conceived roundabout was installed.
How did this all go so wrong? No one seems to know. Anchor Karl Stevanovic of Australia's Today show grilled Liverpool City council member Peter Ristevski, who claimed not to know how the roundabout was built, calling it an 'operational matter' and appearing to blame rogue road contractors. He also noted that the Liverpool City Council was subject to a public inquiry regarding corruption and confidence, and admitted the council had no idea what the rombusabout cost or what it would cost to rectify.
'A roundabout, by name and nature, is round,' Stevanovic drily observed. Indeed.