Coming soon to an interchange near here.

A roundabout! A traffic circle! A rotary! Whatever you want to call it, we're getting a few, and the first opens Friday.

One of the reporters on my staff called it "The Whirlpool of Death." Given this area's tendency to have a lot of crappy drivers, he might be right. Plus, it looks like snow out there. Fun!

Calm down there, tiger

There's a local guy (probably, you have such a guy, too, or maybe a lady, who knows) who advocates for installing rotaries around town. I think his wish is going to come true soon enough at some local interchange or another.

As for me, I like rotaries and roundabouts. I like using them for their intended purpose, and also driving around them a couple of times once in a while, just for silliness or to annoy passengers. I like that with a rotary, you can have a little park-like area at an intersection instead of traffic lights. Sure, it takes up some space, but so what. (p.s. I'm experimenting here, ending my rhetorical questions with a period. I don't think I like it, but isn't that the way it goes.)

Mostly, I like rotaries and roundabouts because they usually make for smooth traffic flow. I have been stuck in traffic a couple of times approaching the roundabout near the liquor store off Interstate 95 in Portsmouth, N.H., but those incidents were not the norm, and I could usually sneak around most of the traffic at the circle just by taking the initiative.

I also like cobblestones, but maybe that's a topic for another day.