Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. (context US English) an intersection with a circular shape and, usually, a central island
WordNet
n. a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island; "the accident blocked all traffic at the rotary" [syn: circle, rotary, roundabout]
Wikipedia
A rotary, sometimes nicknamed a traffic circle, is a type of intersection that directs both turning and through traffic onto a one-way circular roadway, usually built for the purposes of traffic calming or aesthetics. Contrary to a roundabout, where entering traffic always yields to traffic already in the circle and merges in directly, the entrances to traffic circles are 3-way intersections either controlled by stop signs, traffic signals, or not formally controlled. Colloquially, however, roundabouts are sometimes referred to as circles.
In the United States, traffic engineers typically use the term rotary for large scale circular junctions between expressways or controlled-access highways. Rotaries typically feature high speeds inside the circle and on the approaches.
In New England, traffic circles are generally called rotaries and the traffic that is already driving in the rotary always has the right of way. For examples of where this is specified, in Massachusetts "Any operator of a vehicle entering a rotary intersection shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle already in the intersection.". In Rhode Island entering vehicles "Yield to vehicles in the roundabout."
Distinct from roundabouts, traffic circles and rotaries may also have an interior lane that requires traffic on it to change lanes in order to exit the circle.
Traffic Circle is a glacier-filled expanse 500 m high, situated south of Mount Ptolemy and medially on Antarctic Peninsula between Marguerite Bay and Mobiloil Inlet. Hub Nunatak rises from the center of the Traffic Circle. From this position, five glacial troughs radiate like the spokes of a wheel. One connects on the north with Gibbs Glacier and Neny Glacier, leading to Neny Fjord. Another connects on the west with Lammers Glacier and Windy Valley, leading to Mikkelsen Bay. A third, Cole Glacier, trends southwest along Godfrey Upland toward the Wordie Ice Shelf area. The fourth, Weyerhaeuser Glacier, trends southward toward Wakefield Highland and connects with glaciers leading westward to Wordie Ice Shelf. The fifth, Mercator Ice Piedmont, is nourished by the outflow from Weyerhaeuser, Cole and Gibbs Glaciers; it broadens as it descends eastward to the head of Mobiloil Inlet. Discovered in 1940 by members of the East Base party of the United States Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939–41, who used this system of troughs in traveling across the upland, hence the name Traffic Circle.
Category:Glaciers of Graham Land Category:Bowman Coast
Usage examples of "traffic circle".
There was a scream from a child who had never seen so much blood, and a postman raced to the comer to summon the police officer standing in the traffic circle, while another man went into a store to call an ambulance.
A main battle tank was parked about every four blocks on the main thoroughfares--and one at every traffic circle, of which there were many--supported by lighter vehicles on the side streets.
There was a scream from a child who had never seen so much blood, and a postman raced to the corner to summon the police officer standing in the traffic circle, while another man went into a store to call an ambulance.
As they rounded the traffic circle near the French racetrack they passed another jeep with its lights on.
The Plymouth rolled down Up-Mile Hill and made its way around the counter-clockwise traffic circle .
Most interesting of all was the recently built traffic circle, where tank cars were unloading something, probably diesel fuel, into what appeared to be a pipeline that PLAA engineers were working very hard to extend north.
At the center of the traffic circle, the statues Reaching for Accord cast long shadows across the lawn.
Forty minutes later he was entering the traffic circle at Portsmouth.