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Each month we will be featuring an article written by one of the youth members participating on Municipal Council. This article was provided by Jack Spalding-Jamieson (published on the Municipal News page in the Lake Country Calendar newspaper publication of December 2, 2015):

Quite recently, I came across news of a minor accident in one of the roundabouts in town that occurred due to failure to properly yield. Despite the roundabouts being in town for several years now, it seems to me that people still don't know how to use them properly.

Knowing the possibility of this being a one-off incident, I decided to gather some statistics on how frequently people were following the rules of the road when it comes to traffic circles. After the school day ends at GESS, there are normally more cars going through the intersections than at any other point, making it likely the most efficient time to gather these statistics, so I did exactly that. I spent around 20 minutes sitting by the roundabout at Berry Rd. taking note.

To my surprise, every single time a yield was necessary, the cars involved seemed to be aware well before a full 100% of the time leading me to believe the aforementioned accident was only a fluke. However, a mere 27% of people followed another rule of roundabouts: using the right hand turn signal to exit the roundabout.

Signaling out of the traffic circle is important for pedestrians trying to cross the street, as well as letting other drivers waiting to enter the circle know if they have to yield to you. Although I didn't expect every single person to signal, the number that actually did signal is far lower than I would have ever expected, and it is rather disappointing.Note: See the HOW TO navigate roundabouts video link at https://youtu.be/wUaPAd4HISM