Roundabout 101: Some drivers need some serious help

Drivers need to understand that the roundabout model is very popular with the Washington Department of Transportation. They are cheaper to build than signaled intersections, and they usually take much less time to build. They are not going away, and they are going to keep multiplying.

RELATED: The two golden rules of driving in roundabouts

With that said, drivers really need to figure out how to use these types of intersections.

Tanya Hughes, a 97.3 KIRO FM listener, hit me up on roundabouts recently.

“As more circular intersections pop up in Snohomish County, the public should be educated how to navigate through them,” she wrote. “Please inform the public who has the ‘right of way’ and how to drive through them.”

She was particularly concerned about the new roundabout just west of I-5 in Marysville, where the Tulalip Tribe is expanding its casino. Tanya said she was seeing a lot of confusion, and she worried about potential accidents.

I went up to that spot recently and watched drivers in action. I was shocked by what I saw.

Tanya is right to worry about safety. I personally watched drivers blowing through the yield signs and nearly hitting others. I saw drivers switching lanes inside the roundabout. And worst of all, I watched several drivers come to a dead stop in the circle and wave people in.

I am not kidding. They stopped to wave people in.

That’s not how roundabouts work. 

I talked to a construction worker who is at that site every day. That worker told me about drivers who will take a left into the roundabout, going the wrong way, to get through the intersection.

So for Tanya and everyone else, here is another roundabout 101:

• Drivers inside the roundabout always have the right of way. If you are entering, you must yield to those already in it. Wait for a gap and enter.
• Do not stop inside a roundabout. Do not wave people in. Do not change lanes inside a roundabout. If you are using a two lane roundabout, enter in the proper lane for your destination. That requires you to know where you’re going before you enter.

It’s not that difficult. It’s just different. And you need to get used to them, because they are not going away.

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