How to drive a roundabout

UPDATE #2: Civil engineer Paul Kachelmyer underlined numerous reasons why roundabouts are a good idea, especially on Highway 7.

UPDATE: MnDOT plans to tweak the roundabout designs and add signage (click here). To read unhappy blog comments, scroll down.

With one of two new roundabouts on Highway 7 being completed, engineers are discovering that local drivers can become disoriented easily with roundabouts. In particular, a handful of senior citizens have been found to stop in the middle of the road. In one case, a driver went the wrong way.

The finished roundabout (sometimes called a traffic circle), which opened last month, is located at Carver County Road 10 and Highway 7. A second roundabout is under construction at Highways 25 and 7 just west of Watertown.

The intersection of Highway 25 and Highway 7 in Carver County remains closed, and work continues on construction of a roundabout at this intersection.
MnDOT officials at the Hutchinson region office would like to provide the following roundabout driving tips for motorists.

To see a second video of “How to drive a roundabout,” click here.