It's not hard to find motorists who despise the Towson traffic circle. On an average day, 55,000 vehicles are squeezed together in a perpetual left-handed turn in the shadow of Towson Town Center. Puzzled drivers hesitate while others bully ahead; pedestrians find they often must scurry; and the rush-hour backups on York, Dulaney Valley and Joppa roads are legendary.
But if Towson's roundabout is the most problematic of its kind to be installed anywhere in the state (and experts admit it probably has been), then the traffic circle concept has been a stunning success. Although the roundabouts may annoy some, their impact on traffic safety and congestion is undeniable: Of the 70 Maryland roundabouts created over the last 16 years, not one has experienced a fatal crash.
No wonder Mayor Sheila Dixon has decided to ask Congress to authorize $22.8 million to install roundabouts at some of the city's busiest intersections, including Key and Light streets, a major gateway between downtown and South Baltimore. It's time the city caught up with the suburban counties where such traffic circles have proliferated.
Towson's traffic circle may not be perfect, but what drivers often fail to remember is how dysfunctional the intersection was prior to the roundabout's creation a decade ago. Backups were far longer because of all the traffic signal directional changes, and serious accidents were more common.
That's because in a traditional intersection, where streets cross at 90-degree angles, there's simply a far greater danger of a high-speed crash or what safety experts call a T-bone - one vehicle forcefully colliding into the side of another. Such crashes are far more likely to produce serious or even fatal injuries than the relative fender benders common to roundabouts, where cars are traveling closer to a parallel direction.
Admittedly, one of the major problems with the Towson circle and some others is that drivers are often unfamiliar with the proper way to navigate a roundabout and with who should yield to whom. But even that is a relatively minor shortcoming. With time (and a bit of public education), the comfort level inevitably improves.
In the meantime, Mayor Dixon should expect to take some heat from skeptical city residents. Much like their neighbors outside the beltway, Baltimore drivers are creatures of habit, and circles are uncommon in Charm City.
But if Washingtonians, New Yorkers and Parisians can handle driving in circles every day, Baltimoreans can, too. Look out, Arc de Triomphe and Place Charles de Gaulle. No doubt the next debate will be to decide what kind of statuary and gardens should be installed in the middle of them.
