--- title: "This Insane 6-in-1 Roundabout Would Cause So Many Crashes in America" description: "If the idea of one roundabout gives you anxiety, you'd best avoid this intersection in England where five mini-roundabouts encircle a massive one." date: "2024-10-29" modified: "2024-10-29" authors: - name: "Ronan Glon" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ronan-glon" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-magic-roundabout-six-in-one-intersection-swindon-england" categories: - "Culture" - "News" --- # This Insane 6-in-1 Roundabout Would Cause So Many Crashes in America ![Top-down image of The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England with each of the six roundabouts highlighted for visibility.]() *\Google Maps, The Drive\* If you've ever driven in Europe, you've likely mastered how to navigate a roundabout. It's easy once you get the hang of it—too easy, if you ask England. The town of Swindon is home to a [monster of an intersection]() named "The Magic Roundabout," which consists of six individual roundabouts, five small ones swirling around a big central gyre. Built in 1972, the Magic Roundabout is located at the intersection of County Road, Queen's Drive, Fleming Way, Drove Road, and Shrivenham Road. Some of these roads are fairly large; Queen's Drive has three lanes of [traffic in both directions](), while Shrivenham Road looks tiny. We're not talking about a picturesque part of rural England with more sheep than people, either: There's a fire station, a soccer stadium, a shopping center, a school, and several residential neighborhoods in the vicinity of the Magic Roundabout. Many motorists drive through it every day. ![]() *Swindon's Magic Roundabout as of July 2021. *David Goddard/Getty Images** The center of the intersection is a rather drab-looking standard roundabout with a big light pole in the middle. So far, so good, but here's where it gets complicated: It's surrounded by *five* mini-roundabouts, one for each road that feeds into the intersection. What the hell? Why not just keep the big roundabout and call it a day? It's a question of making traffic as fluid as possible, and it sounds like a great deal of research [went into it](). Frank Blackmore of the British Transport and Road Research Laboratory gets credit (or blame) for the Magic Roundabout. Tests performed in the 1970s revealed that smaller roundabouts improved traffic flow by 25% to 35% compared to bigger roundabouts. Blackmore then experimented with two-roundabout intersections before linking three, four, and ultimately five roundabouts together. On paper, it makes sense: Drivers going from, say, Fleming Way to Queen's Drive spend less time in the intersection because their path is more direct than if they went all the way around. ![]() *An illustration presenting examples of two possible paths through the Magic Roundabout. Some actually consider it to be seven roundabouts in total, if you count the outer route around all of them. *Cmglee via Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0 license** In application, well... it's apparently not as bad as it looks if you treat each mini-roundabout like a normal roundabout. Follow the lane markings, yield to oncoming traffic, and you can drive through this carousel-like intersection without denting a bonnet or a wing. (Hey, it's England, after all). It's got to have some merit to it, having been unchanged for more than 50 years. Some drivers even argue that the Magic Roundabout is better than a conventional roundabout because it allows more cars through the intersection, but not everyone agrees. Even the Brits can't come to a consensus. In 2007, British car magazine *[Auto Express]()* named the Magic Roundabout one of the worst intersections in the world. Later that year, it was [voted]() the seventh-scariest intersection in Britain by *BBC* readers. If you're wondering what could possibly be worse, look no further than the [Hanger Lane Gyratory]() in West London. ![]() *View from the northwest corner of the Magic Roundabout. *Google Maps** *Got tips? Send ’em to [tips@thedrive.com]()* ## Author Ronan is a contributing writer for The Drive. He draws on over 15 years of experience to cover breaking industry news, cool one-off builds, and anything in between. He began writing for The Drive in 2021 and stepped into his current role in 2024. His obsession with cars started when a relative gave him a Majorette die-cast shortly after his first birthday. It hasn't flickered since. Ronan lives in France; He swapped Utah's Rocky Mountains, where he grew up, for the Alps. He's an avid hiker, mountain biker, and musician. He also restores classic European cars and mopeds, including a 1978 Citroen 2CV that he's rebuilding from the ground up. ### Author social links [Twitter]()