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