Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2019, Blaðsíða 54

54 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2019
WAR OF THE NERDS
Even The
Robots Are
Confused
The odd battle of the roundabouts
Words: Valur Grettisson Photo: Art Bicnick
Let’s just be honest about it:
roundabouts are nightmarish
and confusing structures. It’s
like a saddening metaphor for
the pointless circulation of life—
if you lose focus, some idiot will
ram into your side and possibly
kill you.
The Icelandic way
But in Iceland, roundabouts are
even more confusing. Icelanders
have this odd rule, one that is in
no way legalised—it's more of a
traditional mess—that the driver
in the inner lane has the right-of-
way to exit the roundabout. Yes,
this is crazy, but it was not really
a concern until early this decade,
mostly because we have gone from
100.000 tourists up to 2 million
annually in just ten years, and no-
body bothers to inform tourists
about this rule.
Ridiculous statistic
The consequences are quite dev-
astating. From 2011 to 2015, 22%
of those involved in accidents re-
lated to roundabouts were foreign
tourists. And this number grows
significantly at roundabouts near
tourist attractions.
This has sparked an interesting
debate in Iceland about whether
we should stop entirely with this
silly, special right-of-way rule and
adapt to the rest of the world, or
if we should just force the rest of
the world to adapt to our eccentric
way of life.
Specialists have also pointed
out that self-driving cars are right
around the corner—literally—
and this has been a problem for
those cars as well. So, it seems,
even the robots are confused.
No, you’re doing it
wrong!
But Icelanders are very indepen-
dent and stubborn people when
it comes to defending their ways
and traditions, so not everyone is
happy about changing the round-
about rule. Some have stated that
we should simply go back to driv-
ing on the left side of the road like
in the 60s, so that this rule would
make any sense at all. Or—and we
love this—we could even educate
the rest of the world about our
unique solution and force them
to adopt it. Either way, it’s a re-
ally nerdy war. Who other than
Icelanders would get into a heated
debate about roundabouts?
CITY SHOT by Art Bicnick
WELL, YOU ASKED
Let’s Rant
About Meat
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo: Art Bicnick
How best to deal with meat guilt? I
feel bad 4 eating it.
It sounds to me like you want to be a
vegan but have no self-control. We’d
recommend taking a hallucinogen while
sitting in front of a steak. Relax, trip,
and talk to it. You’ll either find out that
it’s fundamentally imperative that you
become vegan to save your new steak
friend Steve, or become so disillusioned
to the plight of the animal world that
you no longer have meat guilt and can
start eating whale. Success!
Was it really that important that
Icelanders jai led the ban kers
and crowd sourced their new
constitution? They still had a prime
minister in the Panama papers and
the British 1% is buying up all the
good land, so it can't have been that
important.
Woah. It sounds like you’ve got the
basis of a sure-to-be-viral opinion piece
going on. Please email us at grapevine@
grapevine.is with your continued
thoughts. We’d love the advertising
money those clicks will make us—so
will our bankers.
I've been watching Netflix’s flat-
Earth documentary "Behind The
Curve." I've lost faith in humanity.
Please help.
Well, we never thought we’d be
saying this, but you should check out
Logan Paul’s mockumentary, “FLAT
EARTH: To The Edge And Back.” It’s a
satirical take on the issue, and proves
that, apparently, Logan Paul, the
guy who filmed a dead body, is more
reasonable than flat earthers. We
truly do live in the darkest timeline.
Send your unsolvable (UNTIL NOW )
problems to editor@grapevine.is or
tweet us at @rvkgrapevine.
The soulcrushing roundabout
Teenagers, not on Instagram
ICEWEAR STORES
REYKJAVÍK • KÓPAVOGUR
AKUREYRI • VÍK Í MÝRDAL
VESTMANNAEYJAR
WEBSTORE ICEWEAR.IS
sjavargillid.is
SKÓLAVÖRÐUSTÍG 14 | 101 REYKJAVÍK | +354 571 1100 | SJAVARGRILLID.IS