This Indiana City Has the Most Roundabouts in the United States
Most of us in Indiana are no strangers to roundabout intersections. Especially those who live in the "roundabout capital" of the United States.
Over the past few decades, roundabouts have become more popular throughout the country. In case you don't know, a roundabout is a circular intersection or junction in which road traffic flows almost continuously in one direction around a central island. According to INDOT:
<p>INDOT is using roundabouts to replace traditional four-way traffic signals to reduce accidents, traffic delays, fuel consumption, air pollution and construction costs, while improving safety, increasing capacity and enhancing intersection beauty.</p><p>Roundabouts have been successfully used to reduce congestion in residential neighborhoods and are accepted as one of the safest types of intersection designs.</p>
Here's a little diagram of how a roundabout works:
That sounds like a simple concept, right? When approaching a roundabout, you must first yield and look to your left for traffic and yield to all traffic that is already circulating the roundabout. Once traffic to your left has cleared, you proceed driving in a counterclockwise motion around the roundabout until you turn on whatever your desired road is. Most of us have driven on one here in Indiana, so we already know that. I mean, INDOT says that we have nearly 300 in the state...and a lot of those can be found in one city that has been dubbed "the roundabout capital of the United States."
This Indiana City Has More Roundabouts Than Any Other US City
Carmel, Indiana is known for having more roundabouts than any other United States city. Now, if you live in or frequent that area, you're probably fully aware of that fact. However, I'd be willing to bet that most Hoosiers, like myself, had no idea that Indiana was home to the city with the most roundabouts in the entire country.
According to the city of Carmel:
Carmel is internationally known for its roundabout network. Since the late 1990’s Carmel has been building and replacing signalized intersections with roundabouts. Carmel now has more than 138 roundabouts, more than any other city in the United States.
That's a lot of roundabouts. We're talking 138 out of the nearly 300 roundabouts in the state are found in one city. Crazy, right? As it turns out, the roundabouts in Carmel have paid off, too. The city of Carmel even shares some statistics:
The number of injury accidents in Carmel have reduced by about 80 percent and the number of accidents overall by about 40 percent.
So, the next time that someone asks you something that Indiana is known for, you can throw this little fun fact at them and then enjoy the conversation that follows about roundabouts. It seems like a lot of people are pretty opinionated about them for different reasons.
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