roundabout journey definition

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[ adjective round- uh - bout , round - uh -bout ; noun round - uh -bout ]

Synonyms: tortuous , rambling

• (of clothing) cut circularly at the bottom; having no tails, train, or the like.
• a short, close-fitting coat or jacket worn by men or boys, especially in the 19th century.
• British. a merry-go-round.
• a circuitous or indirect road, method, etc.
• Chiefly British. traffic circle .

/ ˈraʊndəˌbaʊt /

• a revolving circular platform provided with wooden animals, seats, etc, on which people ride for amusement; merry-go-round
• a road junction in which traffic streams circulate around a central island US and Canadian nametraffic circle
• an informal name for boring mill
• indirect or circuitous; devious

spectators standing round about

at round about 5 o'clock

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Word history and origins.

Origin of roundabout 1

Example Sentences

Drivers approaching the town must slow from 45 mph to 25 mph before entering the first roundabout on the edge of town.

The refugee took a roundabout journey across Europe from Poland to asylum.

That’s a roundabout way of saying that Joe Penna’s Stowaway—set aboard a ship that was designed for three people and, it turns out, must accommodate four—is a little boring.

Pagels, 29, tweeted that he “had to bike through a roundabout over a highway to get my Covid jab.”

A roundabout, if you don’t know, is a small, circular traffic intersection, typically with one lane.

I saw two bodies on the center island of a traffic roundabout last week—they were still there two hours later.

It would be an awfully complicated and roundabout way of garnering Heisman goodwill.

As rebel cars circled a roundabout, Shabiha gunmen opened fire.

The people in the Pearl Roundabout were not deterred by lack of international solidarity.

I have no idea what's next," said activist Nadine Wahab, as she stood in the roundabout, called the "medan.

But this is an ancient and roundabout process, and may, as it sometimes has done, terminate in failure.

Suppose we go first to the market, and then in a roundabout way to the Botanical Gardens.

"It does seem rather a roundabout way of rejoining," Terence said, with a smile.

"Well, I've agreed to stand for Harsh," said Nick with a roundabout transition.

For the moment a Sabbath calm hung over the wrecked town and over the country roundabout; all was as peaceful as a Quaker meeting.

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How Roundabouts Work

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Roundabouts — you know, those circular intersections with the round median in the middle. The very word strikes fear into the hearts of driver-education instructors, elderly motorists and basically all Americans.

In all fairness, though, they are a little counterintuitive. As drivers approach a roundabout, they first yield to any traffic already in the intersection. Then, when all is clear, they proceed counterclockwise around the center island until exiting at their chosen street. So while turning right feels fairly natural, going straight requires drivers to swerve around the central island. And going left — well, going left requires a whimsical 270-degree journey around the circle that might be fun were you not worried about darting cyclists, dark-clothed pedestrians and distracted drivers to whom a yield sign is but a mere suggestion.

Nevertheless, there are actually a lot of things to love about roundabouts. In many cases, they're safer, more efficient, more environmentally friendly, more aesthetically pleasing, and less expensive than traditional intersections controlled by traffic lights or stop signs. Perhaps that's why places like Europe and Australia have enthusiastically embraced roundabouts for more than 50 years.

Americans, on the other hand, have resisted. But this distaste for roundabouts may have more to do with drivers than the design of the intersection. That's not to say that Americans are bad drivers. No, it's just that there was that one time they drove to Florida, and they drove through five of them in heavy traffic, and it was terrifying. In other words, they're still warming up to a traffic feature that's only been a part of the country's roads since 1990 and has still failed to catch on in many states.

So, as you approach our article on roundabouts, yield to our take on their history, benefits and design, and we're confident you'll be ready to proceed — counterclockwise — into a newfound love of roundabouts.

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round·a·bout

Round•a•bout.

In British English, a roundabout is a circular area at a place where several roads meet. You drive round it until you come to the road you want.

In American English, an area like this is called a traffic circle or a rotary .

In British English, a roundabout is also a circular platform in a play park that children sit or stand on. People push the platform to make it spin round.

In American English, this is called a merry-go-round .

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How to Navigate a Roundabout

Many drivers 50 and older aren't familiar with circular intersections.

Nancy Dunham,

When you encounter a roundabout on a road, the best advice is the British adage to “keep calm and carry on."

The new versions of these circular intersections first emerged in 1966 in the United Kingdom, when English engineer Frank Blackmore, then age 50, had the idea to require vehicles entering the circle to yield to oncoming traffic. He further redesigned modern roundabouts to be much smaller than older traffic circles, such as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where a dozen streets intersect, or Columbus Circle, at the southwest corner of Central Park in New York City.

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The newer roundabouts require vehicles to negotiate sharper curves to enter and travel around them, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), based in Arlington, Virginia. You will find lower speed limits in modern roundabouts than in the bigger traffic circles, also known as rotaries, and the driving rules are different.

"Most are designed well,” says Kevin Rider, a nationally known expert witness and founder of Forensic Human Factors in Columbus, Ohio. “They are traffic-calming devices and highly efficient at lessening the number of conflict points."

Drivers tend to lower their speed in roundabouts because of the sharper curves, which lessens the number of crashes by a third to a half and their severity by as much as 80 percent. Right-angle, left-turn and head-on collisions are eliminated — unlike intersections with traffic lights — according to the IIHS.

Anxious about roundabouts?

If you dread encountering roundabouts, you're not alone. Drivers 50 and older are especially wary of this new generation of circular intersections, in part because they were introduced in the United States several years after most older drivers earned their licenses.

The first modern roundabout in the U.S. was built in 1990 in Las Vegas. Since then, almost 7,500 similar intersections nationwide have been built because they are safer, according to civil engineering firm Kittelson & Associates, in Portland, Oregon. One of the firm's principal engineers, Lee Rodegerdts, has been keeping a database on roundabouts since 1997, in part based on aerial photos.

Even with older drivers’ lack of familiarity, such traffic calming designs benefit the oldest drivers, the IIHS says. From 2014 to 2018, government data shows that more than half of drivers 75 and older involved in fatal crashes had multiple-vehicle wrecks at intersections.

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Often the problem is a failure to yield the right of way. Because all traffic flows counterclockwise through a roundabout in the U.S. and more slowly than at a traditional intersection, any collision is more likely to be minor.

The secret to seamless navigation through a roundabout is to remain focused — and yield to traffic already in the circle — experts say. Treat a roundabout like a right turn on red.

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"It's very, very easy,” says Jose Hernandez, a veteran driving instructor with Dexterity Driving School in Washington, D.C., who has been teaching there for five years. “You follow the lights. You follow the signs. Follow the arrows on the ground."

Even though his advice sounds easy, roundabouts confuse drivers for many reasons, which may prompt them to make risky maneuvers. Hands-free calling,  in-car infotainment systems  and dashboard  touch-screen technology  are among the distractions that cause disorientation, Rider says. Focus is key.

That focus needs to start when a driver approaches the intersection. Many have signs and street markings that indicate the traffic pattern ahead, Hernandez says.

"Look at the picture and memorize it before you enter,” he says. “It's usually visible from far away. It usually has a circle with all of the exits [named]. Then you know what exit you need."

Of course, some drivers are caught unawares. Rider recalled one case of a motorcyclist on an unfamiliar suburban street in South Carolina. The biker crashed over the roundabout's unlit center island and into a fountain. He was critically injured.

Yet even those who anticipate roundabouts should take extra care.

"Most drivers know what the rules are, and we expect everyone else to follow them,” Rider says. “When other drivers fail to follow the rules, we're put in the position of evaluating what's happening, what might happen, and what we need to do to  prevent something from happening . When there isn't enough time for a driver to make the best decision, unfortunate and sometimes tragic incidents occur. Safety in roundabouts comes through preparation, patience and progressing through. Don't stop unless you have to."

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Learn the roundabout rules

When you approach a roundabout, pay special attention to signs and pavement markings. Then slow down so that you can merge safely into traffic.

"The biggest mistake is the failure to yield properly,” says Kurt Gray, the Bowie, Maryland-based director of driver education at AAA Club Alliance, which covers the District of Columbia and parts of 13 states. “You always have to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks and traffic that's already in the circle. They have the right of way. I think that can be confusing to some drivers."

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Other common mistakes:

• Following another car too closely • Making sudden, last-second moves from one lane to the next • Driving beside another vehicle in a two-lane roundabout

This last one is “very dangerous because drivers’ mirrors aren't always properly aligned, and another vehicle could be in your blind spot,” Gray says. “Give yourself space so that you have adequate spacing and a margin of error.

"We know that more than 90 percent of crashes are due to driver error,” he says. “All drivers make mistakes. And you have to anticipate that other drivers will make mistakes."

If you miss your exit, don't try to change lanes quickly. Instead, go around the circle again, merge into the correct lane and then exit. No one is counting the number of times that you go around.

"It takes just [a little while] to get back where you started [in the circle],” Gray says. “Don't feel bad about having to go around again."

Nancy Dunham’'s work has appeared in People , The Washington Post , USA Today and U.S. News & World Report .

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Definition of 'roundabout'

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roundabout in British English

Roundabout in american english, examples of 'roundabout' in a sentence roundabout, cobuild collocations roundabout, trends of roundabout.

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Definition of roundabout noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• At the roundabout, take the second exit.
• When entering a roundabout, give way to any traffic already on it.
• Leave the roundabout at the second exit.
• There was a lot of traffic on the roundabout.
• carriageway
• hard shoulder

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Definition of roundabout in Essential British English Dictionary

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(Definition of roundabout from the Cambridge Essential Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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