If you call it a traffic circle in Boston, you're really in trouble, because the natives (of which I'm one) will know you're an outatowna. They are called rotaries, and they make perfect sense. For example, the person in the rotary always has the right of way over those approaching the rotary, except that those approaching the rotary tend to be moving faster and are thus more able threaten those in the rotary, so they may claim right of way if they so choose. In short, when driving in, near, in sight of, or in any way related to a rotary, just assume you have the right of way and proceed appropriately.
There is actually a part of Boston, the Back Bay, where the streets are named in alphabetical order on a grid (Arlington, Berkely, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, Hereford, Ipswich...whew!). This always causes great wonderment among Bostonians, and I think it's viewed as a mark of the heights which civilization has attained in that fair city that there's order in that little patch of it - an order utterly lacking elsewhere. One other important fact to remember in Boston - if you ever approach a one-way street (of which there are many), it will always, always be going the opposite direction of where you want to go. You could try the next one, but it probably won't work either.
But I think DC's worse. I've heard the plan it was designed on was intended to foil any armies that might attempt to invade the nation's capital - any truth to this?
