Editor,
Knowing that more traffic circles on state Route 503 are to be built compelled me to write. The geniuses at Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) screwed the pooch this time. Placing a 20 mph circle in the middle of a 55 mph highway is no bueno. This thing belongs in a residential neighborhood, not on a busy highway. The notice I received in the mail left out the important details of how many lanes and what the speed would be.
I grew up in a town the same population of Battle Ground in Michigan with major highway US 10 running through it. The highway was two lanes in each direction and the speed reduced to 45. It went around a nice big traffic circle, and it was not necessary to slow down to enter or exit the circle. There was a third merge lane; it worked well.
Our circle is teensy, which is puzzling because there is plenty of land there for a large one. Traffic circles use more land and in return give better traffic flow and increased safety. This circle is a single lane. It's tight. It really needs a merge lane. When you enter this circle going north you swerve to the right, then left, then turn right to enter the circle. It's a slalom course for your car that takes attention away from upcoming merges.
There are two reasons that this thing is unsafe. It's a major obstruction. This has been mitigated by electronic warning signs and rumble strips. The second is more nefarious. When someone who is going south wants to turn left onto Rock Creek and has to do a 270 around the circle, it is a big surprise with little distance and warning to the vast majority going north on 503.
In the last four or five years, I have had two close calls here. In the short period the circle has been there I have already witnessed two close calls. A truck slows everybody to a crawl, and there are a lot of them.
Other solutions were available. A blinky light would have warned through-traffic that there was a dodgy intersection coming up and would have cooled the jets of impatient drivers turning left onto 503. There was a left turn lane for cars traveling south on 503 turning left onto Rock Creek that could have been repurposed as a lane for cars turning left from Rock Creek onto 503 so drivers would only have to deal with traffic gaps coming from the left, then once in the lane could merge right into through traffic. There was already a fourth lane there, which allowed right turners coming from the church to merge onto 503 South. Since the traffic on Rock Creek is very small compared with 503, even a stop light would have been preferable. I like traffic circles, and a nice big one here with two lanes would have been the ticket. I admit the execution is pretty; it's the design I don't like.
A few dollars in the budget should have been spent on sending their designers to the Midwest or back east, where they know how to design traffic circles that are not a hazard or an impediment. Please, WSDOT, no more teensy traffic circles on 503.
Mark Schimmelman
Amboy
