With unique design, traffic flows (mostly) through new roundabout in Concord

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

Published: 01-17-2023 6:19 PM

The new roundabout next to Exit 17 might flummox some first-time users since it’s a design unique to Concord, but after four months of winter use driver confusion seems to be limited.

“The public feedback that I have received about the Hoit Road/Whitney Road project has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Matt Walsh, interim deputy city manager.

There’s a reason for that, says a guy who would know: “If you just follow the signs and the arrows, it’s one of the best dual roundabouts I’ve seen,” said Jack Wedemeyer, owner of Jack’s Driving School. The school has a branch in the Concord Crossing development, meaning that instructors have to pass through both of the new roundabouts every time they head out.

“Some two-lane roundabouts, you’ve got to make a lane change in the roundabout to get out, but not this one,” he said.

Concord has replaced almost a dozen stop-light intersections with roundabouts of various sizes in the past decade, making it part of a national trend. In general, such roundabouts allow traffic to flow more easily, since nobody has to wait for the light to change, and have far fewer dangerous crashes, since any collisions happen at an angle rather than T-bone or head-on.

The large roundabout on Whitney Road is unique in the city because it has two lanes on the eastbound side, headed toward Exit 17 on I-93, but only one lane on the westbound side. Most Concord roundabouts have just one lane.

The eastbound side of the new roundabout includes the turn-off to Hoit Road toward the new Merchant’s Way shopping center and carries far more traffic than the westbound side, which only has a turnoff into two small subdivisions.

The second lane requires an extra decision from drivers.

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“You have to get used to it – read the signs. That’s the key: Read. The. Signs,” Wedemeyer said. And plan ahead. “You’ve got to know where you’re going before you get in.”

Roundabouts of various types date back to 1903, when Columbus Circle opened in New York City. A few traffic circles, using a different design than common now, were built in New Hampshire from the 1940s to 1960s.

Modern roundabouts are not the large, high-speed rotaries of past decades. These tend to be smaller, which makes drivers go more slowly, and often have flat islands in the middle to keep tractor-trailers from getting stuck. And they always require entering traffic to yield.

Social media has seen some complaints from drivers confused by the Whitney Road roundabout, as well as the fact that Hoit Road has a second, smaller roundabout within a few hundred yards. That may reflect the fact that it opened to traffic before all the signs and road paint were there. “When they had the orange cones up, it was very confusing – but now it isn’t,” Wedemeyer said.

Still, he admits that roundabouts may be intimidating, partly because drivers have to pay more attention than they may be used to.

“The first time you tell any student ‘rotary’ or ‘traffic circle,’ they freeze. It’s one of the hardest things for any driver to learn, because you can’t stop and think about it,” he said. “You’ve got to think whereas with a light, there isn’t too much of a thought process there.”

“Maybe that’s why the liquor store is doing so well: They need a couple drinks after going through it!”

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