Some dude named Tom Vanderbilt think's they're peachy keen and we 'murricans oughter get used to them, by cracky.
Mr. Vanderbilt, obviously you do not live in Carmel, Indiana. Because most of the ones they built up there FUCKING SUCK.
And I say that having damn near had a heart attack trying to go west to east on 116th Street at Springmill Road last Tuesday morning at rush hour. It very nearly can't be done, because the vast majority of traffic is heading south at that time of day, and the stream of cars coming into the roundabout from the north DOES NOT HAVE AN END. The only way you can get into the stream from 116th Street is if you are lucky enough that one of the southbound cars immediately turns west on 116th. And damn few of them do.
The city of Carmel is cursed with a mayor who is going to a) bankrupt it and b) make it impossible to drive up there. I don't give his roundabouts 20 years before Carmel starts pulling them out and replacing them with traffic signals -- particularly the tiny ones like 96th and Ditch that HAVE NO REASON FOR BEING.
So, Mr. Vanderbilt, you are invited to kindly take a flying fuck at a rolling roundabout.
My mother once referred to Brainard (Brainerd? I don't care) as "The man who would be king." I've thought of him that way ever since.
Rumor has it that he's a Democrat in Republican clothing. The story is that he was a D when he lived in Ohio, and when he moved here years ago he realized he'd never amount to anything in Carmel if he didn't switch parties.
Unfortunately nobody's been able to dig up tangible proof of that.