Traffic circles are common at intersections of Vancouver’s residential streets. In theory, they’re great - keep the flow of traffic moving, rather than the start-stop stutter of 2-way/4-way stop signs. In practice, they’re terrible, and I believe it’s mostly to do with poor signage & education. The city provides a page with a nice description of how traffic should flow around them. There’s even a video (warning: WMV file. Why this isn’t just up on a City YouTube channel beats me). But based on my experience as a driver and increasingly as a cyclist, no one knows these rules.
Nearly every day I have a dangerous interaction at a traffic circle: both in my car & on my bike - because no one seems to know how to interact with them. This is made worse by the city’s well-intentioned, but ultimately poorly-thought-out “adopt a circle” project, wherein community gardeners can tend to the greenery within the circle. Sure, it makes them pretty, but it reduces visibility dangerously as the plants grow taller & thicker. Several times I’ve had a close encounter with a pedestrian or cyclist whom I simply couldn’t see through the plants growing in the circle.
What the rules are:
- Vehicles travel counter-clockwise around the circle
- Vehicles already in intersection have right-of-way
- Arriving at the same time, yield to the vehicle on your right
These seem like a pretty simple set of rules, right? If crows can keep 3 things in mind at once, surely drivers can too? Sadly, no. What drivers actually do:
- Drivers going straight assume they have right of way.
- Drivers turning left go clockwise around (the shortcut)
- Drivers turning always cede right-of-way to cars going straight
- Drivers sometimes yield to cyclists, regardless of who was there first.
- Drivers sometimes think they can go around the circle at the same time as a cyclist.
- Drivers assume pedestrians will stop for them
- Drivers yield to the car on the left instead of on the right.
- Cyclists assume they always have right-of-way.
Here’s the thing. The sign on our traffic circles are not helpful. Several people I’ve asked thought that the black shield (see photo above) was a yield sign, so they should yield left. Why not use a sign that indicates, with arrows, traffic flow & yield rules? Even the standard European round-about signs would likely better:
