"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 02:19:54 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

Nearly all London squares have a clockwise one-way system,

Could this be because it can be seen as one large roundabout,

Exactly, but from a traffic point of view it makes no sense, bnecause a
square is just a city block that happens to have no buildings inside[1], and
there is no rule that every city block has to be one-way clockwise
(obviously). Actually, that's not entirely true, because squares are city
blocks in which all four sides have the same name, leading to drivers
circuiting the square repeatedly trying to find the building they want....
but since drivers have a much better view of buildings on the right, that's
even more reason to circuit squares anti-clockwise.

and people are used to those, whereas one
working "in reverse" may cause confusion?

The angle of the entrance road would force you in the correct direction.

Anyway, Queen Square is all clockwise except for the southeast corner, which
is two way... now *that's* confusing. And Tavistock Square is two-way all
the way around, but the ban on the right turn at the southeast corner means
you can't circuit it clockwise and often have to do a longer journey around
it in an anti-clockwise direction. So there clearly is a rule, but it is
sometimes broken.

[1] except Belsize Square, and probably others.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes