On the Road

By Kelly Hannon

BACK to BLOGS | Back to Kelly Hannon's main blog page | Kelly Hannon Archive | |

Roundabouts

Nov. 11, 2009 3:39 pm

A devoted shopper at Spotsylvania Towne Centre called me yesterday. The owner of the shopping area, Cafaro Company, has replaced a major intersection there with a roundabout as part of the mall's redevelopment.

The caller, a regular customer at Michaels, said she's stopped shopping at the arts and crafts store on State Route 3 as a result. "I don't know what to do," she said. "It's a mess."

Oh boy. I went out there today to check it out. Sure enough, there were a lot of hesitant drivers winding around the two-lane roundabout where Route 3 traffic feeds into the mall's internal road near Belk.

Signs have been posted informing drivers to yield to traffic in the circle, but there seems to be a lot of confusion. You could almost see people thinking, "Is it my turn?" "Do I go now?"

The reluctance, at least as far as I could see, is not the roundabout's fault. It is not Dupont Circle. But few of us have encountered driving roundabouts in the United States. It's going to take time to adapt.

Modern roundabouts -- the ones with low speeds, and a limited number of feeder streets -- are safer than other types of intersections, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation. Roundabouts can move traffic more efficiently and have fewer crashes.

Because of the benefits, roundabouts are making a comeback in the U.S. We'll likely see more of them in the Fredericksburg area. MediCorp Health System installed one on the Mary Washington Hospital campus. A recent government-funded study on ways to improve Lafayette Boulevard recommends installing one at the intersection with Kenmore Avenue and Prince Edward Street in Fredericksburg.

Before you make your next trip to the towne centre, I recommend visiting the extensive roundabout Web page put together by the Virginia Department of Transportation. There is a video demonstrating how to drive through a roundabout, along with a slew of other tips.

As for the towne centre roundabout, I think it has the potential to improve traffic flow once drivers are comfortable with it. Before the roundabout, making a left turn to leave the towne centre from Costco was a scary maneuver. It required drivers to monitor traffic feeding in from several directions. Now, drivers just have to monitor the roundabout.

However, the caller is correct. Michaels' shoppers have to re-learn a new way to reach the parking lot. Drivers are no longer able to make a left turn into the parking lot from the main entrance road. The median has been blocked. Drivers need to enter the main road, circle the roundabout, and proceed onto the exit side of the main entrance road, where they can turn right into the Michaels parking lot. That sounds confusing, but it should make more sense once you see it. Essentially, drivers are making a U-turn using the roundabout.

Or, drivers can proceed halfway around the roundabout and proceed as if they are headed to Sears on the mall's internal road. From there, drivers can turn left into the Michaels parking lot, as you could before.

If you would like to post a comment about this blog, please log in. You can use your FredTalk user name and password here. If you don't have one yet, REGISTER Now...

Kelly Hannon is the transportation reporter for The Free Lance-Star.

Contact
• Send an e-mail to Kelly Hannon

Kelly Hannon writes about traffic and transportation in the Fredericksburg area.