Roundabouts help ease traffic and reduce severe accidents

For the uninitiated driver, heading into a circular intersection -- otherwise known as a roundabout -- can be confusing, but once residents familiarize themselves with the design, vehicles flow much easier, experts say.

"The only negative aspect about them is the learning curve of a roundabout," said Lt. David Roddy, a Chattanooga police officer over special operations, which includes traffic.

Though the lieutenant didn't have exact numbers, he said traffic in formerly clogged intersections throughout the city moves a lot easier now that they have roundabouts. There are nine roundabouts inside city limits.

"I see a lot less backup and a lot less congestion (at those intersections)," Lt. Roddy said.

City Traffic Engineer John VanWinkle sees roundabouts and their smaller cousins -- traffic circles -- as easy alternatives to expensive traffic lights, which also reduce certain types of accidents at busy cross streets.

"They are safer because there is no risk of a high-speed collision. There are no left-turn or right-angle collisions," Mr. VanWinkle said.

The traffic engineer explained that roundabouts, once a rare method of managing traffic, are catching on in the Northeast, Northwest and South.

Chattanooga built the second modern roundabout in the state and the first roundabout built on a state highway in Tennessee at the Bachman Tubes where Westside Drive, East 29th Street and U.S. Highway 41 intersect.

But Mr. VanWinkle points to development plans that mark the first known roundabouts in Chattanooga at the intersection of Chickasaw Road with both Shawnee Trail and Sequoia Drive in 1927.

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