Gainesville Traffic Circles

During the past few years, my current home town of Gainesville has fallen head-over-heels in love with the concept of traffic circles, having them inserted all over town in various types of traffic flow. There are large circles and small circles, each demonstrated here by a photograph. There is supposedly a two-fold rationale behind the "drive" for circles. One, they are supposed to enhance safety and reduce accidents. Two, they are supposed to enhance the flow of traffic and reduce stops.


As far as safety is concerned, perhaps there are statistics out there which imply that traffic circles are superior to traditional intersections in preventing accidents. But in a relatively large circle, such as the one pictured above, pedestrians and bicyclists are in a precarious position when trying to cross the street. In a traditional intersection with stop signs or a traffic light, a pedestrian can take advantage of the signs and signals to safely cross in front of stopped traffic. Not so with a circle, where they often have to walk out of their way, look very carefully, cross their fingers, and sprint across! Note the crosswalk in the photograph, a few paces away from the circle. Cars are supposed to yield to pedestrians here, but in practice they are in a relatively blind position coming out of the circle and are accelerating.

Being in a small circle has a different drawback. Cars entering circles are supposed to travel to the circle's right. This means that a driver wanting to turn left would have to go three quarters of the way around. In a large circle, this is obvious. But with a small circle, such as the one pictured below, I see as the general practice cars simply turning to the left in front of the circle. Now if there is another car entering the circle from the opposite direction, this creates the potential for a head-on collision.


Regarding the argument for enhanced and speedier traffic flow, I would agree with the use of larger circles. But one problem I have observed is that cars, instead of approaching the circle by cautiously slowing down, will often speed up to insert themselves in the circle between other cars. Not exactly safe! In those areas with small circles, traffic is usually pretty light. Here, four-way stop signs would do just as well while reducing confusion.

I understand and appreciate the efforts of those who want to improve our system of traffic with innovations, such as the traffic circle. But this innovation can often lead to confusion and leave out important considerations for pedestrian traffic.