Round and round

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, May 17, 2011

MONROE — Gordon Crawford said when he drove through the roundabout near Monroe High School recently, people were honking at him.

He thought maybe he was doing something wrong. So when he heard about a chance to practice driving in a roundabout without traffic, he decided to try it.

“I

‘m going to try to learn something,” said Crawford, 75, of Bothell.

He was one of a handful of people who showed up at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds to drive through a roundabout made of road cones, barrels and sandbags.

A roundabout is a large concrete circle in the center of an intersection. Cars and trucks going in perpendicular directions are separated by driving around the circle, rather than by having to stop and take turns.

The state is planning to install a new roundabout on U.S. 2 at Rice Road in Sultan later this year. When meeting with residents on the project, officials suggested a practice “roundabout rodeo” of the type they’ve done in other parts of the state, said Meghan Pembroke, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation.

People liked the idea, she said.

The mock roundabout was set up to the specifications of the one that will be built in Sultan, with lanes 18 feet wide and an 18-foot apron around the center circle that allows trucks to drive over it if they need the room.

Road cones formed the lanes, green sandbags formed the apron and barrels indicated the center circle. Entrances and exits were set up around the circle to allow drivers several turn options.

A state traffic engineer rode with Crawford as he cautiously drove the practice roundabout Monday. Crawford said he felt comfortable.

“It kind of made sense, better than what I knew before,” he said.

The engineer, Mazen Wallaia, said he encouraged Crawford to keep his speed up and not to stop. The speed limit in roundabouts is usually only 15 or 20 mph, but Crawford was driving too slowly and traffic inside a roundabout needs to keep moving, he said.

Four state troopers also took the opportunity to practice on the roundabout. They didn’t exactly stick to the speed limit, screeching around the circle and even fishtailing at what seemed like high speed but was actually only about 25 mph, State Patrol Sgt. G.A. Erwin said.

He said the troopers went fast on purpose as practice for chasing suspects. It happened in real life recently, he said, as troopers had to chase a suspect through a couple of the new roundabouts near Granite Falls.

Other vehicles driven through the mockup on Monday included a full-size, 42-foot Monroe fire truck and an ambulance; transportation department trucks, including a 69-foot “lowboy” trailer; and a Community Transit bus.

All got through the roundabout without knocking over any cones.

Matt Chomjak, who trains drivers for Community Transit, said roundabouts work well for bus drivers because traffic keeps moving.

“The general public needs to be a little more educated on how to enter and exit properly,” he said.

The main rule of thumb is to look to the left — if someone is coming, yield; if not, go.

Davi Martin, who volunteers as a firefighter and emergency medical technician for Gold Bar Fire District 26, took a practice spin through the roundabout Monday.

She said she’s hoping the roundabout will make U.S. 2 at Rice Road safer, an intersection where there been many accidents. In February 2010, Bruce Ramsey, 47, an officer at the Monroe Correctional Complex, was killed when he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle through the intersection.

“You hear a lot of people going, ‘waaa, waaa, waaa, I hate roundabouts,’ ” Martin said. “These are people who have never driven or experienced roundabouts.

“It’s a learning process, it’s an experience process,” she said. “It’s not a big deal.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.