Illustration of one car rear-ending another car in a roundabout

Illustration by Tabi Walters

After over a dozen years of crashes and complaints, the State and Ellsworth roundabout will be revamped in 2027.

When it was first installed in 2013, people were clearly unaccustomed to a large, multilane roundabout with such a high influx of traffic. Despite outreach and education efforts by the Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC)—including graphics, public meetings, and a PSA video at libraries, truck events, and senior homes—the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study reports 85 crashes in 2024, and 97 in 2025.

Originally a high-speed intersection, State and Ellsworth had 149 crashes in the five years before the roundabout was constructed and 650 in the five years after. Between 2018 and 2024, there were another 495 crashes.

Before the roundabout, the crashes were brutal: 50- to 70-mile-per-hour perpendicular collisions. Since then, the fender benders are far less severe—“nothing life and limb,” Robert Kellar from the City of Ann Arbor tells us.

Related: The Roundabout Drivers Hate (Sept. 2020)

The reason is that roundabouts slow cars down and change their angle, which has led to a drop in injuries from crashes at this intersection: the last incapacitating injury was in 2019. In the past five years, the annual total of minor injuries was two or fewer each year, with nothing incapacitating or fatal.

But there’s still a considerable volume of crashes, acknowledges WCRC project manager Elena Yadykina. “We had an expert analyze the roundabout’s performance using 2021–2023 crash data and propose a few changes.”

The consultant found that “failure to yield” was the prevailing issue. To address it, WCRC will reinstall overhead signage, resurface the pavement, install raised pedestrian crosswalks, add a buffer to emphasize separation between the two travel lanes, and redesignate the eastbound entrance’s left lane (currently left and through) as left-only.

The project is currently in the design stage, but Yadykina forecasts the construction, road closure, and detour will take a couple of weeks. She believes the changes, though subtle, “will guide traffic better through the intersection.”