For those of you who haven't visited the new "city" of Milton Keynes, where have you been? you may not be aware this great "city" is famous for a host of things, honest! two being 1) Concrete Cows , those shown above are the newer arrivals who reside in the shopping centre and 2) Roundabouts.
According to the Milton Keynes Council there are currently 125 roundabouts in Milton Keynes, http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/sponsorship/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=20195 I'll have to take their word for it as I'm not going to drive round the city counting them!
Why my interest in the roundabouts? well apart from keeping the traffic flowing freely so as to reduce those really annoying rush hour jams, some time back the local council hit upon a whizzo idea for generating revenue by offering space on the roundabout signs for companies to sponsor, a great idea for a company who for example is based at Willen Lake to be able to sponsor the roundabout closest to it and proudly display their logo on the sign and be able to direct customers in via their very own landmark. Over the years the great and the good have all taken advantage of this idea and have to say from my own personal experience it was overall worth it in terms of exposure and general brand awareness.
Of the 125 roundabouts available for sponsorship in Milton Keynes, there are currently just 36 available, meaning more importantly that there are 89 occupied or to express it another way as my old maths teacher used to say, thats 71% currently occupied, not bad in these credit crunch, recessionary times eh?
Well I wondered having just driven across town at lunchtime if I could use this occupation rate as a local barometer as to the mood of business in Milton Keynes, given that one of the first cuts generally to be made during tougher times is that of advertising, so rather than worrying about watching the News at Ten to see how many jobs have been lost this week, or reading Robert Pestons blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/ which to be honest is just full of doom and gloom allow me to measure the general business feeling in Milton Keynes with the "Milton Keynes roundabout-ability measurement" (MKRM) a little like the governments preferred measurement in the CPI but different and you have to say unique eh?
Each month Ill update the measurement and hopefully in the new year i can report an increase in business optimism here in the centre of the western world, that is Milton Keynes.
I will post a photo here of one of my favourite roundabouts just as soon as I get an opportunity and the traffic flow slows to let me stand in the middle of the road and get that all important shot.
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