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I'm in Swindon. It is not the most picturesque
city in Britain, but what it does have it

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this: the Magic Roundabout.

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And yes, Britons, you will probably already
know about this, but Americans: I'm guessing

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you're going to find that a little bit scary.

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Five miniature roundabouts, around one central
roundabout that goes the wrong way.

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Now if you want to look into the history of
this nad how it came to be, then the Central

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British Road Database has a good run through
the history of how the Road Research Laboratory

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came to make it but what I want to talk about
is the idea of emergent behaviour.

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Because most of these drivers have no special
rules for going across this. They're not working

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out a plan in advance. They're following simple
rules:

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Avoid collisions.

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Follow the lines.

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Give way to people already on the roundabout.

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And point towards your destination.

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Like birds, a few very simple rules can create
a really complicated flocking behaviour, even

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if each of those individuals doesn't know
what's going on.

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If you want to know more about that, have
a look into "Boids", made by Craig Reynolds,

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starting in 1986. Complicated flocking behaviour,
generated in a computer, from very simple

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rules.

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Follow those rules here and you'll pretty
much safely get where you're going. You don't

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need to plan in advance, you don't need advanced
driving skills or to have done it hundreds

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of times before: you just need to follow simple
rules, the same way that flocking birds do.

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Emergent behaviour means that this very odd
roundabout here hardly ever backs up, even

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at rush hour. It's a triumph of road design,
although there will probably never be any

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built like it again. The Magic Roundabout,
here in picturesque Swindon.

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