“I’ll be the round about
The words will make you out n’ out
I’ll spend the day your way…
Call it morning driving through the sound and
In and out the valley.”
-Jon Anderson/Steve Howe, YES.
A good friend pointed out that a new “roundabout” recently opened at the junction of North Avenue and Barker Road in Brookfield. Seems like a great topic for today because most people around here think they’re entering a black hole when they encounter one.
My experience as a kid growing up in New Jersey makes me somewhat of an expert on the subject. My parents were always driving us wonderful places: “down the shore,” meaning the beach!, “to the city,” meaning Manhattan, etc. etc. We always took local roads back then, since there were no freeways. Thus we encountered the New Jersey highway phenomenon, “the traffic circle,” Jersey’s prehistoric version of the roundabout, on every trip. And traversing one was always an adventure. There was a circle every couple of miles on most main routes anywhere. What you’ve heard about New Jerseyites, demonstrated quite well in the Sopranos, is true, we are all born with extended middle fingers. So people drove through the circles without slowing down and certainly without regard to anyone else. It was like NASCAR meets bumper cars.
Accidents began to pile up but at the same time freeways were being built, so the traffic circle in New Jersey soon became an albatross. One by one, they were eliminated. Intersections were reconfigured with traffic lights and the ubiquitous “U and all turns” ramps, mainly to protect the NJ drivers from each other. Of course the auto body shops weren’t pleased with this new trend, but it did make driving safer.
Fade to the new millennium in Milwaukee. The name has changed from the mundane “traffic circle” to the much more creative “roundabout.” Roundabouts are popping up all over the place, among them 6th and Virginia (in front of the Iron Horse, where the adventure of weaving your way through is enhanced by of a bevy of Harleys roaring into the circle after a number of hours at the bar), Moorland and I43 (where one wasn’t enough, they had to put in two, talk about some confused people), and now the aforementioned North Avenue and Barker Road in Brookfield (where if you are lucky you’ll get to yield to a screeching ambulance heading to Elmbrook Hospital).
My friend, who was initially against all roundabouts, especially this latter one since she goes through it every day, now thinks it’s working beautifully. That said, there are issues, as she points out: “I don’t trust all drivers who are going around, so I watch to see what they are going to do. It amuses me that I don’t know how or when to use my turn signals since you don’t actually ‘turn’ in a roundabout.”
The DOT in their infinite wisdom did nothing to educate us on what to do, and they can’t be thinking keeping drivers up-to-date on the status of roundabouts is too important. On the DOT website, their map of roundabouts in Wisconsin is nearly 2 years old.
So, for those who are terrified of these new traffic wonders, there are actually rules: first, whoever is already IN the roundabout HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY. So if you are just approaching the entrance to a roundabout, you must YIELD to the vehicles and bicycles already in there, weather a tractor-trailer, mini cooper or segway. Once in the roundabout, now YOU have the right of way. But that doesn’t mean you can assume the other folks know that. Bottom line is, be cautious.
My theory on this whole thing is that circles didn’t work in NJ because the drivers are way too aggressive. Roundabouts have a better chance of working here because people are more conservative for the most part and thus are by nature more cautious. But people do have to know what to do when entering one.
The DOT claims roundabouts significantly improve safety, reducing accidents because of “slower speeds, easier decision-making and fewer conflict points.” I guess they haven’t driven through the Moorland Road quagmire yet.
