Round and Round We Go! The Performative Nature of the Roundabout

Abstract

The American roundabout is dominated by pragmatic engineering-based literature that emphasizes safety, geometry, cost, energy use, aesthetics, and the mediation of congestion. We, however, propose that the roundabout is a tool for a change in political and social practice in how it promotes a shift in users’ behavior and opens up possibilities for subverting aspects of the automobility discourse. In demonstrating how infrastructure facilitates this change in practice, our research reveals that subtle alterations to the powerful American ideals of individuality, mobility, and freedom occur inside and outside of the roundabout—an unconventional public space. Using aspects of performance theory from the work of Judith Butler, we suggest that these alterations in practice have the potential, over time, to undermine this discourse.