Editing Roundabout (section)

=== Smaller, small and mini-roundabouts ===
{{anchor|mountable apron}}
[[File:Waterloo, Ontario, mini-roundabout at Union Street East and Margaret Avenue South.jpg|thumb|A small roundabout in [[Waterloo, Ontario]], Canada]]

As the overall or external size of a roundabout (in the UK referred to as the Inscribed Circle Diameter – ICD) is reduced, the maximum practicable (and prescribed) diameter for the central island is also reduced, whilst the width of the circulatory carriageway increases (due to the greater width of the vehicle swept path at smaller turning radii). In most cases, this results in it being too easy – certainly when traffic is light relative to capacity – for drivers to traverse the roundabout at relatively high speed, with scant regard for road markings or the potential dangers to self or conflicts with other road users. To mitigate this risk, a proportion of the circulatory carriageway – an annulus around the central island – is segregated from general use by demarcation lines and differentiated from the outer annulus of the carriageway by a combination of a slightly raised surface, adverse crossfall, contrasting colours and textures and demarcating lines. The effect of this is to discourage drivers from taking a more direct path through the roundabout, their line of least resistance is more tightly curved (and therefore slower) but more bearable. The inner annulus provides for the trailing axles of longer or articulated vehicles to sweep across the inner annulus, which is therefore known as an over-run area (in UK usage), truck apron, or mountable apron.

The smaller the roundabout, the more such mitigation measures are likely to be abused – the less effective they will be. In the UK the minimum size for roundabouts with raised islands is 28 metre diameter ICD with a 4-metre diameter island. This threshold being driven primarily by vehicle geometry – which is globally relatively consistent – rather than driver behaviour, it is adopted in other jurisdictions too. Below this minimum size, the mini-roundabout prevails.