That, my friends, is a traffic circle, a.k.a. the bane of my driving existence. For those of you who are unfamiliar with such a phenomenon, a. bless your fortunate heart and b. wikipeducate yourself. Yes, I just made up that word. Wikipeducate™!

Anyway. I first encountered these during my college years, in Loudonville, NY where I did my first year of CTY. The basic idea behind traffic circles is to control the flow of traffic at high-density intersections, so that people aren't speeding through them dangerously, or sitting in a gridlock with their turn signals and unsure if the person to their left is aware that the person to the right has the right of way. (I really hope I'm right about this rule, otherwise I'll have to cede defeat to the traffic circle gods and that does not make me happy in the least) I found them to be silly, and somewhat nerve-wracking as you drive around in circles, unsure if the person next to you will be exiting at the next ramp or if they are continuing the circular pattern.

See the futility here?

Here is another diagram so you can fully understand how ridiculous this is:

The burning question is: why are there even two lanes? Is anyone really going to use the inner lane then they are soon going to exit the circle anyway? Isn't that just there to create more of a possibility for a horrible accident?

Apparently, New Jersey is obsessed with traffic circles. I have encountered too many of them, especially the further north I've been. Tatiana and I once got horrifically lost in Northern Jersey trying to find our way back to her (short-lived) home in Berkeley Heights. What threw us off? You guessed it.

Traffic circles have thrown me off course in the following states:

New Jersey
New York
Massachusetts
VIRGINIA
New Hampshire
Connecticut

According to Wikipedia, New Jersey is famous for its traffic circles. In fact, there is even a separate page dedicated to a list of traffic circles that have ever existed in New Jersey! Please note the Brookdale Circle, which just opened in August 2007. This circle is about five miles from my house. They are encroaching upon me!! And for no good reason either... as quoted from the top of the traffic circle list page: 'For a long time, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has been eliminating circles, either cutting traffic through the middle, building overpasses to carry traffic over, or completely replacing them with interchanges or jughandles.' Why are they building new ones if they're eliminating them?!

The answer, of course, is simple: traffic circles are closing in on me, to ensure my demise. I'm sure of it.

Here I leave you with the most bizarre entry I found while Google image searching 'traffic circle.'