Odd Planning

This intersection near my house fascinates me. The first time we walked past it, I noticed a car had broken down in the intersection, the driver must have gone for help, and people were just driving around the stalled car. After this happened more than once, I realized it was designed this way. The purple arrow is the more ‘major’ Thoms Street, the red arrow shows where St Rognvald St. and the left turn lane from it to Thoms St. are, and the semi-circle that is indicated by the green arrow and encircled by a white curve painted on the road is a parking space. A parking space for two or three cars – and there’s no curb, just the white painted line. That car isn’t in traffic; it’s parked. And everyone just moves around it.

I’m so glad I was on foot the first few times I came by here; I’m not sure what I would have done had I been driving (probably freaked out that there was a car seemingly coming towards me on the wrong side of the street and veered into a wall or something).

Anyway, just another quirk in the British traffic system.