Traffic Circles: Yield and don't stop

It’s getting more apparent to me that there are more and more vehicles on our roads. However, most drivers drive with little rules of the road knowledge or common sense.

Traffic circles were instituted to help alleviate the traffic congestion by eliminating the stop light and stop sign, thus allowing traffic to move more smoothly. However, this isn’t always the case.

People, when approaching a traffic circle, the sign says “YIELD” not “STOP”. It means yield to oncoming traffic and merge in the next available space. Not stopping to see what a car entering on the far side of the circle is going to do. When exiting, I always use my turn signal to indicate to the driver entering the circle, my intention so they can proceed without stopping, into the circle. The majority of drivers never look at traffic in the circle until they get to the yield sign, then stop to wait and see what cars on the other side are going to do. View the traffic ahead of time, viewing circle traffic, so you can safely merge into the flow, just like entering the freeway. Sure, the traffic is faster, but the concept is the same. You get to freeway speed and merge in, not stopping until all traffic passes.

I understand there are times when circle traffic is high, and you need to stop. Otherwise approach, yield if you must, merge in smoothly, don’t stop.

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Traffic Circles: Yield and don't stop."