[Rebel Pirate]

1. I have noticed (this is very understandable if you've ever pulled a trailer) that contractors who pull long trailers will use the right hand lane to go 270 degrees around a circle (equivalent of making an intersection left turn) because their truck/trailer combo is very long. If they were to try the left hand (inside) lane and get crowded by people in the right (outside) line (which happens frequently) - they run the risk of dragging their trailer up, over the inside curb. I was surprised the first time one of those rigs did a 270 degree turn and cut in front of me…but I’m prepared now and have not been subjected to that surprise again. I am always EXTRA cautious around any contractor pulling a trailer in a roundabout.

2. I recently (for the first time) encountered a large U-Haul box truck (newbie alert!) already established in the roundabout who came to a full-stop to let traffic enter the circle: DANGER WILL ROBINSON! I was second in line in the left hand (southbound) lane on Buena Vista…lots of traffic…the first car in the left hand lane did not take the bait while only the lead car in the right hand lane took the offer from the U-Haul and pulled out in front of him. The rest of the right-hand-lane traffic remained stopped to encourage the U-Haul to proceed. So, it was a crowded road while we drove southbound on BV. In the next circle, I was prepared (me in the inside/left lane) and taking the second exit (continuing southbound) when the U-Haul did the old 270 degree turn from the right lane. I was unsurprised and prepared and stopped without ever creating a conflict. But then as I started up to continue southbound (after checking my rear view) I was surprised by a sedan in the right hand lane that sped by in front of me at about 30 mph through the circle. He must have entered from the west side (out of the setting sun), headed east, and was stopping for no one! Disaster narrowly averted.

3. In my early career (in a galaxy far, far away) I was a navigator both on ships and in airplanes. This was before the advent of GPS that means today’s navigators do little more turn on the electronics and program waypoints. The cardinal rule of thumb for navigators of that era was to NEVER rely on JUST ONE navigation indicator. No matter how rudimentary, one ALWAYS has more than one means of fixing a position, plotting a course/speed, etc. The corollary for roundabouts is that the signs in advance of entry to a roundabout (showing where each lane may proceed to exit) is an important - BUT NOT THE ONLY - indication. The lane markings are critical. If a vehicle crosses a dotted line, it is making a lane change. Even if the vehicle in the next lane “isn’t supposed to be - or expected to be - there”, the vehicle making the lane change has the burden to yield to traffic already established in that lane. Relying solely on the pre-roundabout signs and ignoring dotted-line lane markings is a good way to cause a collision and to receive the ticket for causing said collision.

4. And finally, for all the negative talk about the roundabouts…how many fatal collisions do we have in roundabouts? How many high-speed, fatal collisions do we have at fewer major intersections that exist within the same campus footprint?