I realize that most of us who live in this area are getting used to the roundabouts by now. Since the opening of the one at Short Rd and Main St, I’ve not been able to figure out why the engineers, in their infinite wisdom, chose to keep the northbound lane exit into town separate from exiting onto Main from the roundabout. In the last 2 weeks I’ve encountered problems that could have been avoided by only having one way to enter Main St. I’m sure we will continue to see these in the future.
The first one is when someone is not familiar with the area and they are following a car in this inclement weather they will follow them off on the exit into town when they really wanted to continue north on 395. They quickly realize they took the wrong turn but it takes a little time to figure out where to turn around.
The second problem can become critical quickly. When exiting the roundabout onto Main you have to yield to the other traffic exiting from 395. Cars from the roundabout back up into the roundabout causing the roundabout to come to a halt in all directions until all cars at the yield are on Main St. This is a mess!!
My recommendation is to place a cement barrier on the exit from the highway into town forcing all traffic to exit off the roundabout. This should have been done in the beginning.
I do believe in roundabouts as a method of controlling traffic patterns but I still think these were not thought out well.
Barb Williams – Deer Park
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Deer Park Gazette
PO Box 1581
Deer Park, WA 99006
