More North Texans Driving In Circles

Many drivers in Southlake may soon spend a lot more time going around in circles.

The Northeast Tarrant County city already has one traffic circle at the corner of Continental Boulevard and Brumlow Avenue. Now, the city is adding three more: at Dove and Carroll Avenue, Dove Road and White Chapel Boulevard, and White Chapel Boulevard and Continental Boulevard.

"We have four-way stops at these intersections now," said City Engineer Gordon Mayer. "By going to a roundabout, we'll easily reduce the backups at these locations."

At times, 20 to 30 cars can get backed up at the intersections now. Mayer said the roundabouts should reduce that to no more than five at a time.

"This is an idea whose time has come," said Mayer. "Now I think you'll see it's something everyone is looking at."

In all, at least 11 North Texas cities now have roundabouts, with a least 19 of the traffic circles currently in use throughout North Texas. They include circles in Southlake, Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Denton, Garland, Addison, Rowlett, Richardson, Frisco and Flower Mound.

Flower Mound is thinking about adding three more roundabouts.

"If you don't use them very often it's a bit of a disorientation," said Southlake driver Bob Smullin. "If you use it a lot, things do seem to flow a lot faster."

The traffic circles aren't cheap. Just one in Southlake will cost the city more than $500,000.

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