A Better Way to Get Around

Traffic Circles Gaining Ground as Safer, More Efficient Than Intersections

Montgomery County drivers, all too familiar with the back-and-forth and ins-and-outs of area traffic, might soon have to perfect another direction: round and round.

Traffic circles and roundabouts (a well-known fixture of British roadways) are becoming increasingly common in parts of Montgomery. Traffic planners say the trend is likely to continue.

"They're becoming much more popular for reasons of safety and efficiency," said Dan Burden, a Florida-based urban planner who has worked on several road projects in the region. Burden's company has suggested two roundabouts, among others, for proposed development along Glenallan Avenue, next to the Glenmont Metro station. "It's really coming. I've been predicting that within a reasonable number of years, there will one of these for every 1,000 residents."

Traffic circles allow more vehicles to pass through an intersection without stopping by directing them from all directions around a central hub, usually a concrete island. In neighborhoods, roundabouts might take the place of intersections usually marked as two- and four-way stops. On bigger streets and highways, the larger traffic circles replace traffic lights. In both cases, vehicles entering an intersection yield to those inside and making the circuit.

According to federal and insurance industry research, Burden said, properly designed roundabouts can move 30 percent more vehicles than an intersection with stop signs or lights, and cut injury-resulting crashes by up to 90 percent.

The county recently completed a multiple-lane traffic circle on Old Columbia Pike and Perrywood Drive near Burtonsville. Two others are being built on Briggs Cheney Road near Route 29 in Silver Spring, according to county planners. Others are being considered, including two at a proposed development along Route 121 near Clarksburg. They are already fixtures in such developments as Kentlands and the Rio Center in Gaithersburg.

"They are an emerging trend," said Emil Wolanin, Montgomery's chief traffic engineer.

The Maryland State Highway Administration has been advocating for additional traffic circles in recent years, particularly in less densely built areas, said Holger Serrano of the county's Department of Public Works.

In older neighborhoods, it is more difficult to convert intersections to roundabouts, he said. "I'm not sure how many we'll see retrofitted on existing roads."

In Takoma Park, city planners are doing just that. In recent years, to slow cut-through traffic in neighborhoods surrounded by busy commuter roads, the city has squeezed traffic circles into four intersections formerly governed by stop signs on Elm, Glenside and Lockney avenues. Planners recently tested two more, laying out circular test patterns with orange traffic cones and covering up the stop signs at two intersections on Circle Avenue.

"Traffic calming is a big issue in Takoma Park, and this is one of our tools," said Ilona Blanchard, the city's senior planner.

Blanchard said her department will soon begin testing another traffic circle on Kirlynn Avenue. Also, the State Highway Administration recently completed a feasibility study for a traffic circle for the intersection of two major Takoma Park thoroughfares, East-West Highway and Carroll Avenue.