A Dutch invention—a traffic circle redesigned to keep traffic moving faster—has made its debut in California, intended to put an end to a high collision rate and long delays.
Called a ‘turbo roundabout,’ it’s near the city of Gilroy, famous for its garlic festivals. It connects two highways heavily used by interregional commuters, travelers and agricultural workers. California’s transportation department, Caltrans, said the intersection has an unusually high occurrence of collisions, even when compared with similar intersections across the state.
Installing a roundabout was a natural solution, Caltrans spokesperson Jim Shivers said. “Wherever we have installed a roundabout, the number of collisions drastically decreases,” he said. “And this is pretty much true for roundabouts around the country.”
Typical multi-lane roundabouts let drivers freely shift between lanes, marked by painted lines. In a turbo roundabout, raised dividers separate the lanes so that once drivers merge onto the roundabout, they choose a lane and stay in it until they exit the roundabout.
The first turbo roundabouts were designed in the Netherlands in the 1990s. The design made its first appearance in the United States in February 2022, when a turbo roundabout opened in Jacksonville, Florida. The one at Gilroy is California’s first and the second in the U.S.
