Intimidating for sure! Moved here two years ago, had to change over license, insure, registration and all that crap. Then I pull up to Armdale!
After $600 dollars in fee's and extra insurance they could have at least breifed me on how it works.
Why does it have 2 lanes?

Because 3 wouldn't fit. The real beauty of the rotary is the moment when you basically close you eyes and gun it. The old MicMac Rotary back of Dartmouth was even more complex and I think it did have 3 lanes and about 7 in and off ramps.

Personally, I love roundabouts/rotaries. (I think the difference is simply a UK vs America thing, like "boot" and "trunk.") When I lived briefly in Halifax, people complained about the Armdale and MicMac rotaries, but when I drove throught them I couldn't see what the problem was. It's great that you get to go through an intersection without having to slow down!

I really cut my teeth on rotaries in the UK. I was just getting used to driving on the left (and sitting on the right), and then suddenly I was in the middle of a roundabout. No problem! Zip! Like a duck to water.

Here in the States, they're usually called "circles", though in New England they sometimes still call them rotaries. Here in New Jersey we have plenty of them...and there are no real rules other than Darwin's. The general courtesy is "...if your bumper's in front of his...you have the right of way".

God bless the information super-highway. Here is a photo of the MicMac Rotary circa 1980(?):<p><center><img src="images/2005/micmacrot.jpg" vspace="10"></center>It was restructed and is now called the Micmac "parclo" - as in <b>par</b>tial <b>clo</b>verleaf.

Ted B. wrote: "...if your bumper's in front of his...you have the right of way"

Reminds me of the old sailing rule 'mast to beam'. Maybe people should be yelling out these Motor Vehicle Act rules out their windows as they zoom in and out. 'Bumper to wheel well!' 8-)

Awesome pic of the Micmac Rotary, Al -- that's been in discussions I've had over the last few days but I'm not sure if I really remember it. I knew what parclo stood for, but a lot of people around here do not. When I first looked at the pic, I thought I knew which direction was which, now I'm sure I can't tell.

The top of the photo is the road from downtown Dartmouth so up is west, right is north, etc. I forget the name of the hotel/motel that is in the upper left but there was a guy at Kings who was a night manager there I recall. For some reason I still recall that he tied his tie without the final tuckthrough.

anyone know any info or where I could find some on the Armdale Rotary ???? like history and the future... ?

Here is a nice photo and haiku essay which pops up #1 on Google for "Armdale Rotary". Other stuff there too.

Holy cow, what a memory! I was vacationing/camping via car in Sept of 88 when we found the mic mac rotary. I think we went around twice before finding our off ramp....what a hoot! Later that day we found a shop selling T-shirts that said "I survived the mic mac rotary" Wish I had one today.
Bruce
PS Never had a better vacation than I had traveling/camping by car in Canada.