By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Roundabouts are about going - not stopping

Write to the Point

 

Last updated 4/19/2018 at 10:28am



“I’ll be the roundabout

The words will make you out ‘n’ out

I spend the day your way

Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley.”

In 1971 while touring Scotland, the English progressive rock band Yes traveled from Aberdeen to Glasgow and went through about “40 or so” roundabouts on the way. Their journey through the traffic calming devices among the mountains, influenced by a little weed, led singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe to pen their hit: “Roundabout.”

It’s a happy little ditty off their “Fragile” album.

In this country, if you mention the word “roundabout” to anybody, they’re likely going to do the exact opposite of write a joyful little song or poem. In fact, you should probably run, duck and cover, lest you become the recipient of your listener’s wrath.

Case in point, Cheney Free Press staff reporter Paul Delaney penned a short story for last week’s issue about a proposal by the Washington State Department of Transportation to build a roundabout at the State Route 902 and Craig Road intersection. The location has seen frequent accidents over the years between motorists traveling east-west to and from Medical Lake and north-south to and from Airway Heights and Fairchild Air Force Base.

I put a link to our website edition of it on our Facebook page, and within just a few minutes, received a number of comments, the majority of which weren’t favorable.

I don’t blame people. Roundabouts, while common in Europe, aren’t what we Americans like to see at our intersections. We’re confused by them, mainly because their usage isn’t engrained into our national psyche at an early age as say riding a bicycle might be.

And these things are sprouting up all over the place. You can’t look up from checking your phone without news of another traffic circle coming soon to a neighborhood street, arterial or major highway near you.

I remember one near my home in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood back in the mid 1990s. I avoided it as much as possible, even though it was small.

Roundabouts eventually followed me here to Spokane when 4-5 years ago, the city built one at the intersection of Wellesley Avenue and A Street northwest of Shadle Park. I spent months grousing and grumbling my way through it, cursing some drivers for not letting me enter, finger saluting others who entered and cut me off while I was passing through.

And then, I saw the light of roundabout salvation!

Actually, I came across the Washington Driver’s Guide entry for how to approach and navigate a roundabout when doing an “In Our Opinion” editorial a couple years ago. It’s simple: slow down on approach, yield to traffic already in the circle approaching you, enter and GO! Don’t stop until you’re through.

I was treating roundabouts with the same rules I learned for intersections — yielding the right of way. You kind of still do that, but unlike intersections which are designed to stop traffic, roundabouts are about keeping traffic moving.

Since I began doing this, I’m far less stressed about roundabouts, including the one near my new home in Liberty Lake. I’m cruisin’ like on a sunny afternoon!

I know this isn’t solace to others who negotiate these 360-degree monsters, and I’m not trying to change anybody’s minds. We’re Americans, and we like doing things our way, and with technology — like signal lights — and we aren’t about to conform to some engineer’s desire to turn us into beret-wearing, crepe-eating, Fiat-driving Europeans by using roundabouts.

Nothing against berets, crepes and Fiats.

But next time nearing a roundabout, try what the guide advises. You might just find that it will make you:

“..dance and sing

They make the children really ring

I spend the day your way

Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley.”

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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