You see, YG wrote about what could possibly be the smallest roundabout in Singapore here. While I do not dispute his claim, I think I could have found the smallest roundabout in the world:
The above photo was taken when I was holidaying in Taiwan in November last year. It shows the entrance to a carpark near Pacific Sogo in downtown Taipei where land price is at a premium. Hence the approach road and the entrance to this car park is exceptionally narrow. They are so narrow that there is not enough space for a car to turn right normally into the carpark. So how did they manage to solve the problem? By using a powered roundabout or rather, I should say a turntable. The driver manoeuvres the car onto it; the operator presses a button to rotate it slowly 90 degrees to the right and voila, the car is facing the entrance directly within a few seconds. When the car exits the carpark, the process is reversed, with the turntable turning in the opposite direction.
Well okay, I admit that the yellow circle appears bigger than the roundabout in YG's article but if you could imagine and compare the turning motions of the cars in the 2 circles, you will realise that the car in my example is actually turning on its own axis, i.e. it is turning in a much tighter circle. So could this be the smallest roundabout in the world?
Note: I think that the man in the photo is the carpark operator. The driver is seated in the car on the lefthand side as cars in Taipei are lefthand-drive.
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8 comments:
I've come across another 'mini' roundabout in Penang. Location wise, I'm not too sure as I was 'lost' while driving there and it could be somewhere near a police station. It is so small that I drove over the roundabout which is like a little 'hump' on the road.
it seems more like a twister than a roundabout; you know the round exercise disc which you stand on and twist from side to side.
Wa, if the carpark operator strong enough to twist from side to side, the occupants inside puke ah.
Very interesting. But like YG's 'roundabout', yours is more accurately a 'turnaround' and not roundabout. A proper roundabout is a round junction where two or more roads converge. I know there's one rather small, and old one at Queen Astrid Park.
GD, now i finally saw a pic from ur taiwan trip! haha..
^^
I'd think the smallest (and flattest) roundabout is at Downtown East. Happen to chance across it, outside the Escape theme park.
Image link at http://s4.tinypic.com/30crgiq.jpg
Alex - Haha, well okay. I shall leave it to the readers to take a vote. :)
GNE - I have many other Taiwan photos but I am too lazy to upload them. :p
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