Roundabouts address some of the main factors that lead to crashes.

For more than a few drivers, encountering a roundabout might lead to a quickening pulse, profuse sweating and a tightened grip on the steering wheel.

These circular intersections where vehicles keep moving or yield for traffic have become a favorite of traffic engineers, and these days it’s not unusual to come upon them in all kinds of places.

Although some drivers hate them, roundabouts needn’t be feared, according to experts.

Understanding how to navigate them and why they might replace a signalized intersection that’s more familiar might just ease a few worries.

Let’s start with a fairly standard question.

What’s the reason for having a roundabout rather than a conventional signalized intersection?

For Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County, Michigan, it’s not just one reason, it’s three primary reasons: Safety, improved traffic flow and cost-effectiveness.

Among those, safety is key.

“The safety statistics are kind of mindboggling,” he said, pointing to statistics showing a 90% reduction in traffic fatalities and 75% fewer serious injury crashes.

In terms of improving safety, it’s hard to imagine another change that could provide similar results, he said.

As for traffic flow and cost-effectiveness, a couple of things are worth considering. The traffic itself generally keeps moving rather than fully stopping. And roundabouts actually increase road capacity (30%-50%, according to Bryson).

In the past, the assumed solution to congestion was simply to widen roads, but Bryson said roundabouts can reduce the need for widening, which might require the acquisition of private property. The cost-effectiveness comes in part from not having to widen the road and reconfigure it to add signals.

How do roundabouts improve safety?

Simply put, they address some of the main factors that lead to crashes and make crashes more serious, such as speed and conflict points.

Speed is a major factor in turning crashes deadly, but Bryson noted that the road commission designs roundabouts so traffic moves at 15-25 mph within the circle.

The reduction of so-called conflict points, where vehicles might meet, is particularly key. And here, roundabouts make a major difference because drivers don’t turn left in front of oncoming traffic.

“Left-turn conflicts are especially serious. Of the 32 vehicle-to-vehicle conflict points at a conventional intersection, 12 are associated with vehicles turning left,” according to a Federal Highway Administration video called “Principles of Intersection Safety,” which noted that a single-lane roundabout reduces the number of conflict points to eight.

The way people typically die in intersections is often because of head-on and T-bone crashes, which the roundabout design addresses, Bryson said.

“You’re basically physically eliminating the possibility of either of those types of crashes unless somebody flies over the center island, which is extremely rare,” Bryson said.

Low-speed sideswipe and rear-end collisions do happen in roundabouts, but they don’t typically lead to serious injuries, Bryson said, noting that fender-benders aren't desired, but they are better than something more serious.

OK, but how does one navigate these things?

Here’s what to do, according to the road commission:

  • Slow down as you approach the roundabout
  • Pick your lane (look for lane-use signs as you approach) and stay in your lane until you exit the roundabout
  • Yield to pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles in all lanes
  • Look left and proceed if there’s no traffic coming; if there’s traffic, wait for an opening before entering the roundabout
  • Give way to large vehicles
  • Exit the roundabout if you see an emergency vehicle coming. Don’t pull over in the roundabout

Roundabouts with a single lane of traffic in each direction are fairly simple – yield to traffic in the roundabout, wait for a gap in traffic and go through, Bryson said.

Those with multiple lanes of traffic are more complicated, and Bryson said, this is where there have been more challenges, with drivers trying to change lanes in the roundabout.

What about pedestrians?

“Always yield to pedestrians,” Bryson said, noting that there’s “kind of a misperception that roundabouts are dangerous for pedestrians.”

The opposite is true, he said.

The islands that split traffic going in and out of the roundabout mean pedestrians have fewer lanes to cross at a time because the crosswalks cross those islands.

At a conventional intersection, drivers are turning left, traffic is passing in both directions and a right turn on red might include a driver who doesn’t see a pedestrian crossing with the light, Bryson said.

Still, it is worth noting that every region might not have the same outlook Oakland County officials have when it comes to pedestrian safety. On a recent trip to West Virginia, a reporter saw numerous roundabouts in relatively high traffic areas that appeared to lack infrastructure geared toward pedestrian safety.

That highlights the need for all road users to be prepared for different scenarios in unfamiliar settings.

What if I'm still concerned about navigating roundabouts?

Bryson said he understands the concern.

He recalled his first encounter with a roundabout years ago in another state and wondering “what the heck is this?”

Since then, however, Bryson has become much more familiar. In fact, he recalled the ribbon cutting for the first one in his county at Tienken, Runyon and Washington roads in 1999.

Oakland County now has the highest concentration of roundabouts in the state, with 44, although other counties continue to add them, too.

Bryson’s advice for the unnerved:

Go to a roundabout nearby if you can, early on a Saturday or Sunday, say 7 a.m., and just go through a few times. Getting used to navigating a roundabout when there’s less traffic should help you get more comfortable with doing so when there’s more traffic.

“They’re pretty intuitive once you’ve done it a couple of times. … It’s just getting familiar with them,” Bryson said.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How to navigate a roundabout

Reporting by Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press

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