A Better Way to Get Around
Traffic Circles Gaining Ground as Safer, More Efficient Than Intersections

By Steve Hendrix
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 3, 2008

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.

Blanchard said the city's interest in traffic circles stemmed largely from a 2003 analysis by Burden's company of the town's overall traffic and walkability. That study recommended roundabouts to slow traffic, make streets more pedestrian-friendly, provide places for public landscaping and reduce the amount of paved surfaces.

"We went through a whole period where everything was designed to make it easier to get places as fast as possible," Blanchard said. "Now, we're trying to put more emphasis on how to make places more livable and walkable and bikeable."

Drivers' reactions to the new traffic circles are mixed. On a recent weekday morning, Terrie Thomas of Takoma Park was watching vehicles negotiate the orange cones near her house on Garland Avenue. At first, drivers seemed confused by the new pattern and some rushed through regardless of other traffic, she said.

"But those are probably just the people who don't stop at stop signs anyway," Thomas said. "Now everyone seems to be abiding by it."

Like other recent traffic circles in Takoma Park, the proposed one on her street will be built only if two-thirds of neighborhood residents approve.

Burden said drivers are typically reluctant to embrace roundabouts but generally come to like them. Research routinely shows, he said, that 70 percent of residents oppose them before they are built and then 70 percent approve them after using them a few months.

"It's a huge switch that occurs, from a fear of change to 'My gosh, why didn't we do this a long time ago?,' " he said.

Ann Riley of Takoma Park was dubious.

"To me, a traffic circle is something that helps the flow of traffic, but it doesn't slow it down," said Riley, who was walking her dogs near the Garland Avenue roundabout.

She said she worried about pedestrian safety on the neighborhood's narrow, sidewalk-free streets. "It's almost impossible to cross the circle if traffic is flowing."

Some traffic experts share her worry that unless traffic circles are appropriately designed, they can be more dangerous for pedestrians.

"The concern is that traffic doesn't stop," said Larry Cole, a transportation expert with the Montgomery Planning Board. "When it comes to drivers yielding to pedestrians, we have pretty poor behavior around here."