Inside and outside the loop, San Antonio drivers could soon be going in circles.
More roundabouts are coming to the city as the Texas Department of Transportation plans to introduce more “innovative intersections” in San Antonio District roadways.
While many are probably familiar with the roundabout at McCullough Avenue and Olmos Drive, the roundabout popular in many European cities is not very common in San Antonio.
In fact, the city is behind many other parts of the state and country in roundabout adoption, said TxDOT spokesman Jonathon Cotto.
Monday is the start of Roundabouts Week, the Federal Highway Administration’s way to raise public awareness about the merits of the circular road junction.
“The implementation of roundabouts in the San Antonio region is part of a national and international trend driven by these safety and operational benefits,” Cotto said in an emailed statement.
Two roundabouts are under construction or will be soon, he said, in San Antonio with another one in New Braunfels and in Seguin.
A classic roundabout is going in at Highway 90 and Hunt Lane and Ray Ellison Boulevard, and a “fidget spinner” roundabout is being built at Interstate Highway 10 West and Loop 1604.
In the Texas Hill Country, two funded roundabouts are also planned on Ranch-to-Market Road 32 due to the high rate of crashes in the area.
Those roundabouts are among other unique traffic interchange designs coming soon or fairly new in the district, like the diverging diamond built at Blanco Road and Loop 1604 on the far North Side.
The United States has over 11,000 roundabouts and counting. The first modern roundabout, built in 1907, is located in a San Jose, Calif., neighborhood.
California’s now also pioneering the use of turbo roundabouts, which is like a traditional roundabout, but has lane dividers that force drivers to choose an entry lane in advance according to the exit they want.
Roundabouts save lives by eliminating severe right-angles that often lead to T-bone crashes in traditional intersections, according to the highway administration, reducing fatal and injury crashes by 82%.
Roundabouts also force drivers to slow down, making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and they also reduce traffic delays.
With no signal equipment required, roundabouts cost less to power and maintain.
The roundabout is also credited with reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report by the American Society of Engineers.
Still the 1930s-era Olmos Park roundabout has seen its share of crashes, according to local reports. In 2012, the hamlet’s city council voted to remove a fountain installed at its center in 2008 after multiple incidents damaged the structure.
But roundabouts remain a potential place for public art in the city. The Blanco Road and Fulton Street circle features a metal obelisk designed by local artist Angel Rodriguez-Diaz.
There are about 30 roundabouts in the San Antonio area, with the oldest dating to 1953, and over 800 in Texas, according to the local transportation blog, Texas Highway Man, run by Brian Purcell.
The roundabout is a fairly simple concept many motorists have encountered at some point. Then there are the intersection designs with fancier names, like the “diverging diamond,” a “single-point urban interchange” and the signalized “displaced left turn,” which was installed at Bandera Road and Loop 1604 in 2019.
Diverging diamonds shift traffic to the left side of the roadway as drivers travel on Blanco Road through the interchange. The shift allows vehicles to make free-flowing left turns without crossing opposing traffic.
Another diverging diamond is coming soon to Southeast Military Drive and Interstate 37. Construction began earlier in September and an official groundbreaking will be announced later this month.
A single-point urban interchange, in which two intersections typically formed by access roads are instead compressed into a single intersection between the access roads, is in operation at Austin Highway and Harry Wurzbach Road.
Construction on the flyovers at Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 also will result in what’s called a “fidget spinner” below the far Northwest Side interchange.
Named for a toy with three spinning circles, the fidget spinner consists of four partial roundabouts. It will be the first in San Antonio.
