Home Forums Chat Forum Roundabouts Vs Islands

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  • Roundabouts Vs Islands
  • doris5000
    Free Member

    What do you call them, and where are you from?

    I’m from Shropshire and I call them Islands, as do my parents and other family. Pretty much everywhere else I’ve been, people say ’roundabout’ (as does MrsDoris who seems to think it makes me some kind of straw-chewing yokel) – but I’ve seen a couple of people on here say island too.

    So it piqued my curiosity. Is it a regional thing?

    safi
    Full Member

    Probably, personally I have lived in various parts of Scotland and have always heard them referred to as roundabouts.

    jimw
    Free Member

    Born and brought up in Hampshire, always used roundabout in our family- parents brought up on West Sussex/Surrey border

    donald
    Free Member

    Wikipedia says : In certain areas of the United Kingdom, particularly in The Midlands, the term island is often used as a synonym for roundabout.

    wikipedia

    darthpunk
    Free Member

    Probably, personally I have lived in various parts of Scotland and have always heard them referred to as roundabouts.

    It’s pronounced “Roondaboot”

    example: “aye, take the 3rd turning aff the roondaboot…..naw, ya missed it ya fanny”

    qwerty
    Free Member

    In Ireland is there an island with a roundabout on it?

    aP
    Free Member

    Coming from the Midlands I tend to call big ones islands and smaller ones roundabouts.

    GolfChick
    Free Member

    IT’S A ROUNDABOUT!!!! I do think it’s a regional thing, in the West Midlands area they call them islands and my fella who has now moved with me to Cumbria says islands, I’ve tried to explain to him that if he wants to be a ‘local’ he must change to calling them roundabouts. Check the highway code, it’s called a roundabout! Yes an island is a component of the roundabout but we have islands all over the place on the roads, centrally placed traffic lights often sit on very small islands for example. We’ve had this debate many times, can you tell!?

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Coming from the Midlands I tend to call big ones islands and smaller ones roundabouts.

    This. Noticed it when we moved here, road reports refer to “Priory island”

    mjsmke
    Full Member

    South of London and we have both Roundabouts and Islands. Roundabouts are the round things you drive clockwise round. Islands are the pedestrian crossings that alow people to cross halfway while waiting for traffic.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    Roundabout, from West Yorkshire and now live in Cheshire. Same name in both places. Never actually heard them described as Islands before.

    doris5000
    Free Member

    Blimey Golfchick, sounds like it gets pretty heated round your way!! 😀

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Roundabout, from West Yorkshire and now live in Cheshire. Same name in both places.

    +1 on all counts, almost – S Yorks not W Yorks, though historically West Riding.

    ducatimonster
    Free Member

    They’re referred to as islands here in South Staffordshire.

    Phil_H
    Full Member

    In Dundee they’re called circles.

    paton
    Free Member
    StirlingCrispin
    Full Member

    Roundabouts.
    Big and wee.

    A traffic island is an object in a road that channels traffic (those things that sit as the lane filters onto a big roundabout, or at a crossing point).

    doris5000
    Free Member

    In Dundee they’re called circles

    That is brilliantly literal!

    Reminds me of the time I heard a Dublin local refer to The Dublin Spire as “the big lamppost”…

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    mjsmke

    Roundabouts are the round things you drive clockwise round. Islands are the pedestrian crossings that alow people to cross halfway while waiting for traffic.

    Sums it up beautifully 👍😃

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    It’s pronounced “Roondaboot”

    example: “aye, take the 3rd turning aff the roondaboot…..naw, ya missed it ya fanny”

    I presume the D is silent? 🙄

    paton
    Free Member

    “clockwise” ?

    Arc de Triomphe roundabout?

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    W. Midlander… islands/roundabouts, interchangeable to me, why get so worked up?

    Now Dinner vs tea.. ffs tea time at 11am, dinner at dinner time! (which is 6pm-ish)

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Now Dinner vs tea.. ffs tea time at 11am, dinner at dinner time! (which is 6pm-ish)

    11am is brunch, you savage!

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    roon the roonaboot.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    In Stafford there’s a roundabout on Newport Road. I call it Newport Road Island but American friends think I’m talking about New England, USA.

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    An island is something different and raised bit inbetween 2 roads going in opposite directions. Sometimes has a pedestrian crossing of some sort, sometimes not.

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    darthpunk
    Free Member
    Probably, personally I have lived in various parts of Scotland and have always heard them referred to as roundabouts.

    It’s pronounced “Roondaboot”

    example: “aye, take the 3rd turning aff the roondaboot…..naw, ya missed it ya fanny”

    Prounoucin the D, posh guy, eh? 😆

    Aidy
    Free Member

    Roundabouts are the round things you drive clockwise round. Islands are the pedestrian crossings that alow people to cross halfway while waiting for traffic.

    That’s how I refer to them too.

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard roundabouts called islands before.

    onewheelgood
    Full Member

    Grew up in London and Sussex, always called them roundabouts. Moved to Warwickshire and found everyone called them islands – and all directions were given relative to ‘The Stonebridge Island’. Brummie or Black Country is ‘oiland’, obvs.

    fasthaggis
    Full Member

    Circles Roundabouts

    Roundabout

    Roundabout

    Islands
    Island

    Island

    maloney19710776
    Free Member

    YamYam here, they’re interchangeable but usually islands is my go-to.

    Burchy1
    Free Member

    Exeter, but from the Black Country and they’re islands. Nobody in Devon calls them islands.

    martymac
    Full Member

    It’s roundabout.
    Or, circle, if you’re from dundee, as noted above.
    I think in german it literally translates as ‘circle junction’
    This is according to some german students i met recently. They mentioned it when i told them about ’circle’, as they were travelling to dundee.
    A traffic island is quite different.

    didnthurt
    Full Member

    I’m a Brummie and call them islands, now live in Scotland where they’re called roundabouts 🤷‍♂️

    didnthurt
    Full Member

    A lot of traffic ’roundabouts’ were pretty big around where I grew up in Brum with a fair bit of foliage on them, making them look like ‘islands’

    Makes you think 🤔

    wheelsonfire1
    Full Member

    Donut in Chezvegas… Ooh you have to be careful round there of an evening..

    CountZero
    Full Member

    As far as I’m concerned, a roundabout is something you negotiate when going from one road to another at a junction where two or more roads join. An island is a place in the centre of a wide urban road or trunk route which enables pedestrians to cross safely when traffic is busy, a safe refuge in the centre of the road, usually marked with bollards.
    The two are completely different and have different functions. Some larger roundabouts do have bushes and trees on them, but that’s not to provide some muppet with somewhere to pause while trying to walk across a roundabout, ‘cos that would be bloody stupid!
    As elegantly depicted by fasthaggis above. Despite what some might think, they’re not interchangeable.

    RoterStern
    Free Member

    I think in german it literally translates as ‘circle junction’
    The German word is Kreisverkehr which translates more to the American word traffic circle.
    I’m also originally from Shropshire and they’ve always been roundabouts for me.

    StuF
    Full Member

    Was about to say that my wife’s sat nav refers to them as ‘traffic circles’, but the correct answer is roundabout

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