Little Question for you "Londony" folk...

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

I've been listening to LBC 97.3 on Dab Radio for a while now, especially Steve Allen in the mornings and Nick Abbot in the evenings.

Until recently, we had our own West Midlands news/traffic plus filler music which has now been dropped and we get the full London output instead.

What i want to know is how come whereas the rest of us have large traffic islands or roundabouts your's are called "gyratory systems?"

Do you have sexy dancing girls on them? I didn't see any when we stayed at the Travelodge near Hangar Lane "gyratory" lat year, so were Smalldude* and i just unlucky that weekend?

*= son of Sultan, now taller than his Dad!

[medibot]

Gyratory's are just huge multi-lane roundabout type things. It's a name for when it's all too big and confusing to be defined as a roundabout which would mislead people into thinking they won't get really confused.

Not a lot of sexy dancing girls though, there is a tube station in the middle of one though!

[ambersalamander]

Before the word "roundabout" was used to describe traffic circles, they were all referred to as "gyratory circuses." It's just a little old-fashioned, and for some of the larger ones it became part of the name by which the landmark was known. Presumably the reason for these being mainly in London is that the older ones tend to be found here. Besides, Hanger Lane (I thought it was "Hangar" until we played a match at Wembley FC recently) can't really be called a roundabout as it's more square than round.

[robotsmfc]

That explains why almost every roundabout in inner-city Birmingham is called "xyz Circus" then.