Americans Freak Out at the Sight of This Horror Roundabout in Swindon, UK

Your first thought upon seeing Swindon’s 7-in-1 roundabout will be “Man, the Brits have really lost the plot lately”. Chaotic as it may look, the magic roundabout is actually surprisingly efficient and safe.

But at first sight, getting through this roundabout seems just impossible – especially for somebody used to right-hand traffic.

In the U.S. for example, the roundabout is quite an unusual concept, so when one Reddit user decided to post a photo of one to “spook” Americans, the responses definitely came up to his expectations (see some of them below).

But roundabout isn’t just any roundabout. It’s the so-called “Magic Roundabout” in Swindon, UK. Why is it magic? Well, probably because it’s magic to get through it.

It has a main roundabout in the middle, with five mini-roundabouts around it. Traffic flow around the inner circle is anticlockwise, while around the five mini-roundabouts on the outer loop traffic flows in the usual clockwise manner.

Here’s a video to prove just how visually complicated it might seem to some (in reality, it’s actually relatively straightforward).

When user Mamoof posted a bird’s eye view of the roundabout to the Casual UK subreddit, people in the US were shocked.

“American here. This genuinely terrifies me,” one of them wrote.

Another simply asked: “What the bloody hell?”

“Waiting for Tesla full self-driving beta to arrive at this beast,” said a third.

Even some of the Brits in the comment section were uncomfortable with the roundabout. One top comment read: “People usually get anxious when approaching this roundabout but it’s incredibly easy to use. You simply turn right, right again and then leave Swindon.”

A second commenter wrote: “The only reason to be in Swindon, is to leave Swindon.”

“Always best to get the hell out of Swindon before dark,” a third one insisted.

And he’s probably right. Because what would you do if you saw this at night?

Here’s another video that actually explains how Swindon’s 7-in-1 roundabout works in practice.

It’s not that bad after all, or is it…?

Sources: 1, 2, 3