roundabouts

Traffic Circles and Roundabouts
Why they are used and how to deal with them from the City of Langford website.

A recent ICBC study shows that traffic circles are 80 per cent effective in reducing traffic accidents. Accidents in traffic circles tend to be the less severe sideswipes rather than the deadly T-bone type that occur at stop signs and signals. A similar study in the USA on roundabouts found a 39% reduction in vehicle accidents, a 76% reduction in injury accidents and a 90% reduction in accidents causing death or permanent incapacity. A traffic circle is really just a small roundabout.

There are only 8 conflict points in a traffic circle compared to 32 in a four way stop condition.

Reduced Delay: Since motorists do not always have to stop, delays and queues are usually less compared to Stop signs and traffic signals (especially signals with long cycle lengths and multiple phases). This is true under non-peak traffic conditions and especially evident at high traffic flows.

Environmental Benefits: With reduced delay, roundabouts can reduce noise, air pollution and fuel consumption. They also provide opportunities for landscaping and gateway treatments.

The first roundabout in Langford is on the Bear Mountain Parkway. The first traffic circle in Langford is on Peatt Road at Brock. Seattle has about 750 traffic circles. Seattle guarantees to remove each traffic circle if the neighbours within a block radius are 60% against it. In the last 12 years they have not removed a single traffic circle.

How do you navigate traffic circles? The signs on the approaches and on the circle itself tell you to go around the right side of the circle. Keep going around the circle till you reach your exit. Signal a left turn if you are going to drive past an exit. Signal a right turn as you approach your exit.

Who has the right of way? The circles should be treated like an uncontrolled intersection - if someone is already in the circle, they have the right of way, and if two drivers enter the circle at the same time, the person on the right has the right of way. As you approach the circle there is a yield sign. You must yield to traffic already in the circle. But the most important thing is to slow down as you approach the traffic circle, watch what the other vehicles are doing and do not make assumptions about where they are going. That vehicle entering the traffic circle opposite you may be doing a U-turn around the circle (perfectly legal and yet another advantage of the circles) so don’t assume he will leave the circle before he gets to you.