Nantucket

Roundabouts and Rotaries

 When is a "roundabout" not a "rotary"?

For those of you who don't ever get to make it over to Nantucket, you are missing the construction of a new "roundabout" at the intersection of Sparks Avenue, Lower Pleasant Street and Hooper Farm Road.  I wonder who it will get named after? 

This roundabout was quite a few years in the making as there appears to be  a constant tension on Nantucket, as I'm sure many of you will understand, between those who want to improve everyone's ability to get around in a car and those who think that cars should be restricted and/or the roads should be so congested that people will somehow be forced from their cars and onto alternative forms of transporation like our Nantucket Regional Transit Authority buses (aka "NER-TA"). 

Our rotaries are famous in the world of politcs

If you haven't a clue what a "roundabout"  is, think of a rotary's baby cousin or nephew or step-child or some other relative.  I think it's called a roundabout because it's a little smaller than an actual rotary.  Although I understand rotaries to be quite common in Europe and other "progressive" areas of the world (you see them all the time on "Benny Hill"), the rotary seems to be a traffic control device relegated almost exclusively to Massachusetts.   I'm not sure what the rules are for rotaries in terms of sizing but I know there are big ones and smaller ones all over Massachusetts.  When they get really small I guess they become roundabouts.

There are a couple of unique  and fun things about Nantucket's "real" rotary at the intersection of Milestone Road, Lower Orange Street, Sparks Avenue and Old South Road which, as luck would have it, is only about 200 yards away from our new roundabout.

I have to admit that one of my favorite pasttimes in the summer months, (particularly August) is sitting at our "real" rotary after a bike ride and watching our visitors from Pennsylvania, Texas, Maine, Kentucky,  California and other foreign countries approach the rotary with utter bafflement, visible unease and sometimes outright panic.  I mean, come on, it's really just a circle with a flagpole in the middle.  If you are really lucky you can see someone attempt to go around the rotary the wrong way.  This is the holy grail of rotary watching and, unfortunately, it doesn't happen very often anymore with all the traffic we have these days.  It's like looking for Nessie though - just because she hasn't been seen awhile doesn't mean you don't keep looking and hoping to see her. 

The other fun fact about our rotary is that it's where current Nantucket Selectman and former State Senate candidate Doug Bennett began his political career.  Armed only with only a smile, a  sheet of plywood, his two (apparently opposable) thumbs and an interesting collection of his uncle's old suits, Doug began his run for a seat on the Nantucket Board of Selectmen.  History shows that he won.  

Not only did Doug grace us with his presence for months at a time ( in rain, sleet and snow even) his use of the rotary as a means to campaign for political office spread like wildfire throughout the Commonwealth as he catapulted into the spotlight and began making other appearances at rotaries around Massachusetts.  I think one of his campaign promises was to visit every rotary in Massachusetts.   Ultimately the bright flame of Doug's senate hopes was unceremoniously snuffed out in the primary but Dougie's legacy lives on.  

Other candidates (or at least some of their supporters) have now acknowledged the rotary as an indispensible and virtually required tool to get out the vote.  Several times I saw bunches of people holding various  signs  for candidates around the rotary in Hyannis a-la Doug Bennett.  Not for nothing, but  I always thought this was dangerous.  Isn't it hard enough to get in and out of that damn thing without some ideological nut waving and screaming at you? Quite frankly it's distracting.  How's the Hyannis rotary look as we head into election day?