Cars pass through the city’s new roundabout at Futrall Drive and Northhills Boulevard on Monday.
Todd Gill, Flyer staff
The Fayetteville Government Channel recently produced a video designed to help residents understand how to use the new traffic roundabout near Washington Regional Medical Center.
The roundabout, located at the intersection of Futrall Drive and Northhills Boulevard, is in the final stages of construction. Although work isn’t quite complete, one lane of the roundabout is open to vehicular traffic.
The project eliminates a four-way stop just north of the hospital which sees heavy traffic flow during peak hours when vehicles begin entering and exiting Fulbright Expressway.
Eighty percent of the costs for the $3 million project came from a 2006 federal earmark appropriation for the Fayetteville Expressway Economic Development Corridor. The remaining 20 percent was paid using funds from the city’s Transportation Bond Program.
The roundabout is one of three planned projects designed to address traffic problems in north Fayetteville along with an in-progress flyover bridge connecting northbound College Avenue traffic to the westbound lanes of the Fulbright Expressway and an upcoming extension and widening of Van Asche Drive between Gregg and Garland avenues.
Why is this so difficult people? We’re a university town for god’s sake. Surely we’re smart enough to navigate a roundabout.
Waco is a college town as well, and everyone there seems confused by roundabouts as well.
Who watches the government channel.
I do. Besides, most of their videos that aren’t meetings you can watch on YouTube. Sometimes the meeting stuff is better than reality tv. Did you catch the January meeting of Quorum Court? Hilarious.
jmo
I think one of the challenges here is that the roundabout is located at the exit most people take to get to the hospital. A lot of elderly use it, and a lot of out-of-towners use it, too.
“Van Asche Drive between North Gregg and Hall avenues” Is this correct?
No. That was a typo. It’s Gregg to Garland. That’s been corrected. Thanks for the heads-up.
RIGHT TURNS ONLY.
Anyone who is having trouble with that is definitely NOT watching the government channel.
Instead of belittling people as stupid and making them less likely to ask for advice and assistance in using this unfamiliar traffic control device why not use this forum as a place to give useful tips and information? If drivers avoid that area because of the roundabout it defeats the purpose for putting it there and increases traffic elsewhere.
Best comment here. You deserve one of these:
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/001/732/winternet.jpg
I wish they would make one on how to stay in the right lane unless you’re passing for I-540. I swear that road could handle twice as much traffic if people would keep to the right and stop texting and driving.
Another one on how to drive faster than 15mph on N College would also be appreciated.
Why would anyone stay in the right lane on 540, which gets bogged down at all exists during rush hour when you can stay in the left lane and zoom by at 81 mph?
College is definitely texting + failure to signal. If people did less of both, we’d all have a merry Christmas.
It’s the people that sit in the left lane going 65 that are the problem. Hence my comment that drivers should stay in the right lane unless they are passing, i.e. going fast.
Here are some tips for a roundabout:
1) Slow down as you approach the roundabout
2) When entering, you yield to traffic already in the roundabout
3) Outer lanes generally are used if you are planning to take the first road out of the roundabout
4) Interior lanes are used to pass through the roundabout to secondary exits.
5) If you plan to use a secondary exit, you will move toward the outer lane. This is why it’s important to pay attention, and for those entering to yield.
6) Don’t be a dck. Slow down, yield, drive friendly.
More: Use turn signals, not horns.
These things really do improve traffic flow (which is now continuous) and have no energy requirements such as those associated with traffic lights. In time you’ll actually welcome them and want more of them. Kudos to the city for progress.
And never come to a full stop when entering if there is no traffic in the rotary, you will get rear ended by people who aren’t used to people not used to rotaries.
I am following all of these rules except #6. I’ll work on that one.
Don’t be a duck. Don’t walk like one, talk like one or quack like one.
Thank you!
Modern roundabouts don’t work the same as older rotaries or traffic circles. They are designed like modern multi-lane intersections where you enter based on where you want to end up. If you would not turn right from the left lane of a 2-lane signalized intersection, you would not for a 2-lane roundabout, unless it is a dual right turn. Lane changes inside a modern roundabout are usually necessary only because the driver made a mistake on their entry lane. For multi-lane modern roundabouts, just like signalized intersections, look for the lane use signs before entering.
The FHWA has a video about modern roundabouts that is mostly accurate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhHzly_6lWM ).
Lots of other jurisdictions have also created videos to re-familiarize motorists with the meaning of ‘Yield’ and what a solid white lane line means (no lane changes).
Properly designed modern roundabouts, like other multi-lane intersections, don’t require you to change lanes in them – you’re supposed to pick the correct lane before entering the intersection.
had to watch twice cuz the music was so good!! still don’t get it tho lol
The center apron is for large trucks and busses only, which is why it’s surrounded by a brick wall
I’m witholding judgment until it’s completed … but, am I the only one that thinks that a new traffic device that requires an instructional video may be trouble in the making?
I’ve used the roundabout several times during construction and it seems to flow really well. Only once have I encountered someone who didn’t seem to understand what to do.
It definitely increases the speed and volume of traffic that the intersection can handle.
The first time I went through, there was a mortified woman stopped in the circle, facing the wrong direction. It was hilarious and deadly. Being the gentleman that I am, I stopped and let her fix herself, unlike the a-holes who kept driving around her.
comical, perhaps, but at 15-20 mph, hardly deadly.
It is no more complicated than any other traffic situation.
Four-way stops? Left turn yields on green? They only make sense because we were taught what to do.
Glutenfree,
It is common to refer to roundabouts as ‘increasing speed’, and I understand how that perception is arrived at, but the tech nerds would say it ‘reduces delay’ since 15-20 mph is always faster than zero. But how many peope would say that the ideal design speed of 15-20 mph is ‘fast’?
I am going to set the mark for most times going around the roundabout without getting off. Any guesses?
The video says to use turn signals when exiting, but I never have and a big majority of people don’t…suppose I will start now.
Yeah, that music is tight! I had been wondering why anyone would ever want to be in the inside lane, why not just stay in the outside until your exit? But I see now that some of the exits use 2 lanes. Now I worry that someone wanting to do a 270 in the outside lane has the potential to hit someone exiting from the inside lane. Pay attention to the striping.
That aside, I think this is a great idea. I use it a few times a week in the evenings and it is nice to not have to stop on the way to Gregg.