Traffic circle stumps Regina residents

REGINA – While Regina residents are known to complain about traffic, one area in particular has even more people talking.

In a YouTube video called ‘How to Traffic Circle Regina Style,’ several drivers are shown ignoring the rules of a traffic circle on Robinson Street and 20th Avenue.

Instead, some of the drivers avoid following the circle and take a shortcut instead, such as a direct left turn.

Norman Kyle, roadways and transportation director for the City of Regina, said he wasn’t surprised by the video.

“It was interesting to see when it did get busy and there were a lot of vehicles there, that a lot of the drivers were following it right and it appeared when there were low traffic periods, people were, I would call it almost short-cutting the left turn,” said Kyle.

The video, which was uploaded on Dec. 1,  has since gained traction on Reddit, where the original poster explained why he recorded traffic going through the roundabout.

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Kyle said the circle is technically called a “traffic calming” measure.

“When you look at a traffic circle, they’re generally much bigger,” said Kyle. 

“They are designed differently. They are nothing like you would see nowadays, what we call a roundabout, major traffic circle that moves a lot more traffic.” 

There are three “traffic calming measures” along 20th Avenue. They were built over 20 years ago to slow traffic down before Lakeview School, located further down the street. 

In comparison to a four-way stop or other types of intersections, the city considers circles to be safer because drivers don’t have to stop. 

“The traffic flow has increased, so you can get more vehicles through in a peak period of time,” explained Kyle. “When people are entering them, they’re entering them at an angle, at a skew. You have the T-bone collisions and the speeds are reduced, so as opposed to a regular intersection, you don’t have the severity of accidents with the high speed. Typically in a roundabout, the average type of accident you’d see would be a side swipe or a rear end.“

The city does not have statistics on whether the “traffic calmers” have decreased accidents in the neighbourhood.  

“I think you can see from the video, it definitely does slow traffic down at the intersection,” said Kyle. “People were slowing down and taking their time, at least it look liked.”

After viewing the clip, Kyle also said he thinks drivers may not be used to traffic circles because there are not many around Regina. 

“Because they aren’t driving them on a regular basis, they are not necessarily sure how they should handle them,” he explained. 

According to SGI, in a roundabout the vehicle on the right must yield to the vehicle on the left. When leaving a roundabout, a driver has to use the right-turn signal when they are about to exit the circle.

If there are two lanes within a traffic circle, SGI recommends using the right lane when a driver intends to leave the circle at the first available exit. Beyond the second exit, driver’s should stay in the left lane.

City of Regina engineers are currently looking at the traffic circles on 20th Avenue to see if more signs are needed to help drivers go through the intersections correctly. The city will also look at the design of the circles. 

Kyle added in the last ten years, there have been new Canadian standards for signage at roundabouts and other traffic areas. 

“You see a lot of these roundabouts going up in subdivisions around Calgary and Lethbridge,” said Kyle. “The province is even looking at them for the bypass, I believe”