SDOT’s Reply on Short Left Turns in Traffic Circles

[Sue]

This discussion got a bit lost with the election talk last month, so I wanted to update the reply I received.

For the original discussion on traffic circle rules and yielding here in the forum, you can see https://westseattleblog.com/blog/forum/topic.php?id=191&replies=19

I had said I would be contacting SDOT to find out the answer on enforcement of “short left turns” in traffic circles, and this was their reply:

“Thank you for your inquiry regarding the rules pertaining to left turns at neighborhood traffic circles. You are correct that the Washington Driver Guide (and the state law that the guide implements), does not distinguish between

neighborhood traffic circles and roundabouts.

Practically speaking, a left turn can be performed safely in front of a neighborhood traffic circle since they are typically located on low traffic volume and low speed residential streets, unlike roundabouts, which control traffic flow on higher volume arterials.

However, under a strict interpretation of the Driver Guide and state laws, this is not a legal left turn, and similarly to roundabouts, a driver turning left at a neighborhood traffic circle should proceed counterclockwise around the traffic circle, rather than turning left in front of the circle.

We recognize that this issue causes confusion, and the City will be working this year toward clarifying the distinction between neighborhood traffic circles and roundabouts in state law, addressing the issue in the Seattle Municipal

Code, or both.”

So I read this as yeah, you’ll probably get away with it because we usually ignore it, but it’s technically not legal to make the short left and you COULD get a ticket for it if somebody is bored and wants to write a ticket.

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[JanS]

Kudos, Sue. At least you got them to thinking, and will now make appropriate changes in the code. How often does that happen?

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[JoB]

i second JanS kudos. good job sue.

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