Calming via Traffic Circles

Most definitions of traffic calming focus on engineered measures to change driver behavior. These measures may compel drivers to slow down or take other routes or do both. Broader definitions may also include education and enforcement measures like community speed watch programs. All are based on the premise that traffic calming aims to make our streets safer and to enhance livability in our increasingly traffic congested world.

Traffic circles are one of the most obvious engineered traffic calming measures, especially to native Canadians for whom they are a relatively new feature of road design. While visitors from other countries including England, Ireland, and France, for example, will likely feel quite at home on the lower mainland’s steadily increasing number of ‘traffic circles,’ many lower mainlanders who encounter such a feature may be doing so for the first time in their driving lives. With the exception of Albertans, who have been incorporating traffic circles into the Calgary and Edmonton road systems for a number of years now— it’s probably fair to say that most British Columbians, indeed most Canadians, are still learning about traffic circles.

The matter of definition is also an issue with our lower mainland ‘traffic circles.’ While most of the signage and information provided refers to them as such, visitors from the above-noted countries are more likely to call them ‘roundabouts’ or more specifically ‘modern roundabouts.’ While classical traffic circles are (like roundabouts) circular intersections in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island, in the absence of signs or signal control, traffic entering the circle has the right-of-way and drivers in the circle must yield. In roundabouts, however, entering traffic must yield to traffic already in the circle. The description of how to navigate Vancouver ‘traffic circles’ provided on the City of Vancouver’s website (http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/calming/circles.htm) — a vehicle already in the intersection has the right-of-way over one entering —clearly shows that our ‘traffic circles’ are more akin to the traditional ‘roundabout’ or ‘modern mini-roundabout’.

The rules for safely navigating lower mainland ‘traffic circles’ are few and simple:

The traffic flow around the circle is counter-clockwise.
Traffic entering the circle must slow down and give the right-of-way to drivers already in the circle.
As at stop sign controlled intersections, drivers who arrive first at the circle have the right of way.
As at stop sign controlled intersections, drivers who arrive at the same time must yield to the driver to their right.
Use your turning indicator to signal when you intend to exit the circle.

The rules for multi-lane roundabouts are more complex and all Canadians who intend to drive in countries where traffic circles and roundabouts are common features of the road network should study these features and learn the rules.

Most measures of vehicle safety in traffic circles or roundabouts show a marked lowering of crash rates and of severity of damage. In future articles, Road Rules will review the special issues around pedestrian and cyclist safety at traffic circles.

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