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Tink,
I'll only respond to this part of the thread once as I'm guilty of taking this off topic, but Paul is correct, you're thinking of Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. It's very close to Buckingham Palace but isn't on palace grounds. More tolerance is shown to "speakers" there but the laws still apply so, e.g., if one were to try and incite violence, they'd likely be arrested. As to insulting the queen, I'm not aware of any special laws regarding that. I've said nasty things about the queen and have not (yet) ended up in the Tower of London...
Paul - that model of concorde was replaced by a model of an Emirates Airbus 380. It angered an awful lot of people, including myself.
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Thanks Tom for the clarification. I was on holiday with family as a young lad visiting London and on to Deenethorpe where my Dad was stationed during WWII. (Not THAT long ago! I was there in the early 70's, long ago enough!
Community begins with Aloha
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Another pair of ridiculous encounters this morning going up to Maku'u and back. Cautious people with no clue stopping at the yield sign when there are zero vehicles in the circle, excited drivers cutting me off while I am in the circle.
Either way, just downright dangerous behaviours. Should have just put a stoplight up and saved a lot of time!
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You know "they're" watching don't you? Going to learn a lot from the Pahoa Guinea pigs!
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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On the plus side, now all of the people taking the driving portion of their license test will need to negotiate the roundabout, during normal daytime traffic.
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If anyone is apprehensive about negotiating the roundabout my advice is to drive very fast. Same as when you are driving drunk. You want to minimize your time on the road. It's a safety thing. I can assure, as an insurance liability underwriting professional, it is a safety thing.
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[quote/]Q: What is the biggest difference between the roundabout in the European Vacation roundabout scene and why wouldn't it apply to the roundabout in Pahoa? [/quote]
A: The intersection in the famous movie was not a modern roundabout. It was a UK roundabout, what we might call a traffic circle, or rotary.
Many people confuse other and older styles of circular intersections with modern roundabouts. East coast rotaries, large multi-lane traffic circles (Arc D’Triomphe, Dupont Circle), and small neighborhood traffic circles are not modern roundabouts. If you want to see the difference between a traffic circle, a rotary (UK roundabout) and a modern roundabout (UK continental roundabout), go to
http://tinyurl.com/kstate-RAB to see pictures.
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I've avoided the roundabout for fear of tailbacks, but Beach Road is a long ride. I drove through this morning. Not bad, backed up halfway to police station. Sure enough most of the cars stopped, waited for multiple cars to pass, and then joined. Tonight was no better on the 130 shoulder from town. Everyone puts on blinkers, stops to get into extra long, slow line of traffic. Merging is not done. Do we need PSAs? Puna Service announcement: don't stop, merge,
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Eigoya - probably better to say don't stop, yield. You shouldn't merge onto a one lane roundabout. There are times you have to stop.
Scott - that was more of an advanced answer than I expected, although I was really asking Gypsy who seems to have failed the assignment. The difference I was looking for is that the roundabout in the movie had two lanes, the one in Pahoa doesn't.
Incidentally, in the UK, if you mention a rotary you'll likely be met with a blank stare. They might ask if you're talking about roasting chicken. They're all roundabouts in the UK, no matter the design. The rules for each are the same except for mini-roundabouts where you give way (yield) to traffic coming from the right, no matter if they're on the roundabout or not.
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Roundabouts are feel good solutions promoted by utopian idealists.
Nearly everybody in Puna thinks its a good idea.
The brutal truth is that drivers on Big Island cannot even use a MERGE lane properly. Coming to a complete stop in a merge lane is so stupid.
Judging by the comments, seems a roundabout is WAY too complicated.
What a boondoggle.
Liberalism thrives on the double standard.
Liberalism thrives on the double standard.