Crashes increased fivefold in the State-Ellsworth intersection after it was converted from a traffic light to a traffic circle in 2013, from an average of twenty-nine a year to an average of 145. Chris Bragg narrowly missed being in one of them.

The Freedom Township potter was riding his motorcycle last August when he entered the roundabout from the east on Ellsworth, intending “to go around and turn right on westbound Ellsworth.” Believing that once in the circle he had the right-of-way to continue indefinitely, he planned to “stay in the right lane the whole way.” But a truck in the left lane exited onto northbound State–and nearly ran him over.

Determined “to find out how it works so I can be safe and others can too,” Bragg called the Ann Arbor Police Department. He says he was told that “unless the left lane is marked with arrows to go right, the left-lane vehicle cannot cross to turn right … unless it’s striped as a through lane.”

“You gotta look down at the pavement to see [if it’s striped],” says Bragg incredulously. “No one’s looking down. They’re so busy looking for everyone who’s going to run into them!”

The intersection is on the border between the city and Pittsfield Township, so he called Pittsfield next; they referred him to the Washtenaw County Road Commission. Reading from his notes, he quotes their answer: “Right lane has right-of-way to continue in circle without exiting until it chooses to. Left lane in circle cannot cross over right lane to exit thus taking right lane’s right-of-way.”

Isn’t that a contradiction of what he’d heard from Ann Arbor?

“It is,” Bragg says triumphantly. “The Ann Arbor woman did say: ‘unless it’s striped as a through lane.’ We’ve got some kind of new animal here. Everybody else can just stop or get out of our way or get smashed because, hey, we [through drivers] own this road! … If there’re two different kinds of roundabouts and they’re not telling anybody, then nobody is safe!”

“There are the same rules for every roundabout,” says Mark McCulloch, the Washtenaw County Road Commission engineer who designed the State-Ellsworth circle. “Anyone in the roundabout has the right-of-way, and anyone entering should yield.” But that doesn’t answer Bragg’s question about who has the right-of-way while exiting.

There, it turns out, the rules really are different. If he wanted to, Bragg could circle a one-lane roundabout on his Kawasaki for hours unchallenged. But as his AAPD contact suspected, the State-Ellsworth circle gives through traffic the right-of-way in both lanes: drivers in the right lane are supposed to exit directly opposite the point where they enter–and drivers in the left lane have the option to exit there, too. Which is how Bragg found a truck bearing down on him from his left.

The experience left Bragg convinced that State-Ellsworth is the most dangerous intersection in the county. McCulloch says otherwise. “That intersection is not dangerous–relatively speaking. You can’t look solely at number of crashes. You have to look at severity of crashes. The crashes [in a roundabout] are at lower speeds, so a large majority of people involved aren’t seeking medical attention, and serious injuries are typically down 70 to 80 percent.”

That said, “We’re teaming up with the Ann Arbor and Pittsfield Township police to reduce crashes,” McCulloch says. “We’re thinking of overhead signage or signs on the side of the road or pavement markings. Also small changes in geometric deflection, the angles of entry and exit, can play a big role in the amount of crashes, and we’re looking at that too. By early 2016 we will have an idea of options available.”

Till then, be careful out there.

Calls & letters, February 2016:

Navigating roundabouts

“It seems that we misunderstood your question regarding who had the right of way,” Washtenaw County Road Commission communications coordinator Katie Parrish emailed after reading our story about drivers unsure how to safely navigate traffic circles (Up Front, January). “In a multi-lane roundabout, like State & Ellsworth, drivers should select the correct lane before entering the roundabout.” The road commission has produced a pair of instructional brochures about roundabouts that can be picked up at its office at 555 N. Zeeb Rd. or downloaded at wcroads.org/About/Brochures