How to execute our modern roundabout

Who says Vernal is so far away from population centers that it is behind the times? Well, I may have said that myself once or twice. Actually it's not being remote from population that bothers me, it's being away from the centers. Shopping centers.

The list of things you can't buy in Vernal or anywhere else in the Basin is long and growing. I hesitate to itemize here because as soon as I do, an obscure place to buy those items will be brought to my attention. Wait. That would probably be a good thing.

But back to my original point—Vernal is definitely catching up with somewhere because we now have, right here in “River City,” a modern roundabout. And according to Wikipedia, what we have here is indeed a modern roundabout, which is not the same as circular intersections or spaghetti bowls, both of which have been around for a while.

The first modern roundabout in the U. S. was built in that model city of modernity, Summerlin, Nevada, in 1990. The world's modern roundabouts are particularly common in the United Kingdom, but over half of them are in France which has over 30,000 as of 2008. We have not only caught up with Summerlin, Nevada, but France as well. Sounds like pretty good company to me.

The modern roundabout is safer than the “what's-out” circular intersection because “steps are taken to reduce the speed of traffic, such as adding additional curves on the approaches.” (Wikipedia again.)

In case you have missed Vernal's own roundabout, it is out there in the field behind the new UBATC building. I think it serves to intersect the streets of Main and 2000 West. If you like curves, and who doesn't, you will want to try it out. Just head out south on the new road next to the college.

As you pull up to the intersection, your first visual impression will not be one of curves, but rather of road signs all over the place. Good look with figuring out which ones apply to you. After all, there have to be entrance, exit, roundabout, yield, and street signs times four, plus some speed limit signs which you will want to observe because you do have to make a tight right before you can begin to circle left.

For those of you who missed France, you just keep circling until you find the right place to get off. Of course “drivers may become confused and use roundabouts improperly, especially in areas where roundabouts are uncommon.” You can, however, go around, until you think you know where you want to get off. At some turn it becomes illegal to go round and round the roundabout. I know this because a friend of mine…

If you happen to exit onto Main when you wanted 2000 West, you are on your own. You may have to drive an additional couple of miles to get your car pointed in the right direction.

There are apparently some rules of etiquette that apply to driving in roundabouts, something about which lane to drive in if you are exiting in the first half of the roundabout which is not the same lane you want to be in if you are exiting in the last half of the roundabout.

The rules I did understand are: slow down and use your turn signal when you leave the roundabout. Or I guess it can't hurt too much to drive the way most of us from Utah usually do. Just remember—what goes around, comes around.