Description
Despite its name, the Magic Roundabout is not actually a single roundabout.
It was constructed in 1973 to reduce the congestion at the original standard layout roundabout where seven roads intersected, it was one of the first bi-directional roundabouts to be constructed in the UK. At the junction of each road with the roundabout a mini-roundabout is present and subject to the normal clockwise direction of travel for all traffic. Between these mini-roundabouts however traffic is permitted to travel clockwise or anti-clockwise around the larger roundabout, the expectation being that drivers would choose the shorter route with less stationary traffic.
The Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead was voted the UK's second-worst roundabout in a 2005 poll held by an insurance company (the winner being its Swindon counterpart).
In 2011 the roundabout was voted the best in Britain by motorists in a competition organised by a car leasing service.
Read more about this topic: Magic Roundabout (Hemel Hempstead)
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