OpenStreetMap
The difference between a roundabout and "just a road that goes in a circle"
Posted by skquinn on 31 March 2017 in English.I’ve seen a lot of mistagged roundabouts lately in Texas (with the help of Keep Right). Please review the definition on the wiki: junction=roundabout should have at least three roads coming from it (two directions of a through street and a side street). Not everything round is a roundabout, and routing tools will give incorrect and/or confusing directions if something is mistagged as a roundabout.
Discussion
Comment from Vincent de Phily on 31 March 2017 at 11:33
I have seen a lot of roundabouts constructed “preemptively” when there isn’t yet a 3rd road connected to it. The plan is probably always to have more roads connected to it, but that might be many years away if it happens at all.
Comment from Richard on 31 March 2017 at 11:44
+1 to Vincent; very common in the UK too.
Comment from skquinn on 31 March 2017 at 22:21
A lot of these mistagged roundabouts are in places where it would be difficult if not outright impossible to add a third road. If it’s obvious the intent is to build an actual roundabout at some point, that’s another story (Keep Right will still complain until that other road is actually mapped though).