Othello traffic circles influenced traffic flows, study finds

OTHELLO — Traffic circles installed at intersections in a number of Othello neighborhoods apparently have slowed down drivers in those neighborhoods. City Engineer Shawn O’Brien talked about some of the results from a year-long test project at the Othello City Council meeting Monday.

“We’re trying to accomplish three things: lower speeds, trying to reduce the amount of traffic coming through those residential areas and get them onto our collector streets, and reduce accidents,” O’Brien said.

The traffic circles – actually shaped like diamonds – were installed in fall 2021 in 20 intersections in the test area, between East Ash and Main streets, from South Seventh to South 14th avenues.

“So basically what we learned from it is we did reduce the maximum speed on all the neighborhood streets that got the traffic circles,” O’Brien said. “Every neighborhood street saw a 20% reduction in the percentage of speeders.”

In a report submitted to the council, O’Brien wrote that two of the streets in the test area experienced maximum speeds higher than 40 miles per hour. Previously 16 of the 20 locations had drivers traveling in excess of 40 mph, according to the report.

“So a lot of those streets where there were a lot of speeders before, it’s done a pretty good job of reducing the percentage of speeders going down there, in addition to (reducing) the maximum speeds,” O’Brien said. “For the most part all the streets saw an overall reduction in trips per day.”

Traffic increased on Juniper Street traveling east and west, and on 10th Street traveling north and south, he said. Traffic circles were not installed on either street.

“On those streets, the traffic volume went up, the percentage of speeders went up and the high speeds went up,” O’Brien said.

The street system was designed to funnel traffic out of the residential neighborhoods and onto Juniper Street and 10th Avenue, he said.

Othello Police Chief Phil Schenck cited the roundabout at West Bench Road and SR 24 as an example of the effect of traffic circles.

“That traffic circle that is out at Bench probably has more accidents, but we haven’t had a fatal accident there since that went in,” Schenck said. “The concept with these, there may be slightly more accidents – we don’t know yet – but we’ve got reduced speeds.”

O’Brien said accident data will come from the Washington Department of Transportation, and probably won’t be available until early 2023.

“The reduction of speeds, the reductions through (the neighborhoods) is definitely the improvements we were looking for. I think we’re going to see those in both crime reduction and injury accidents,” Schenck said.

“Are there any plans to make them permanent?” asked Council Member Corey Everett.

“That’s a question for the council,” O’Brien said.

Council members can decide to keep the existing traffic circles, to redesign them or to add more, O’Brien said.

“We did this down and dirty to see where we would be once we collected the data,” said Council Member John Lallas. “We’ve collected the data, and that has shown it’s reducing (speeds). So now in the future, we can get creative with what we want to put there.”

The ultimate design of the traffic circles, where they will be removed, if more will be added and where they will be, will be among the things council members will be asked to decide when writing the 2023 budget, O’Brien said.

“Do we want to change the design? Do we want to take these out? Do we want to put more in, and if we want to put more in, how many, and how are we going to select which intersections?” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.