No. Other than sharing a circular shape, a modern roundabout operates much differently than other traffic circles, including rotaries. A modern roundabout requires entering traffic to yield the right–of–way to traffic already in the roundabout. This keeps the traffic in the roundabout constantly moving and prevents much of the gridlock that plagues traffic circles and rotaries. Modern roundabouts are also much smaller than rotaries and thus operate at safer, slower speeds. The design of a modern roundabout allows capacities comparable to signals but with generally a higher degree of safety.

Roundabouts can offer a good solution to safety and capacity problems at an intersection. At intersections where roundabouts have been installed to replace existing intersections, accidents of all types have been reduced by over 35 percent, and injury accidents have been reduced by over 60 percent. Roundabouts can also offer high capacity at intersections without requiring the expense of constructing and maintaining a traffic signal.

No. GDOT evaluates each candidate intersection individually to determine which intersection type is more effective. However, roundabouts are being utilized nationally under a variety of conditions including: freeway interchange ramp terminals, high speed rural roads, “gateway” roads into lower speed municipalities, frontage roads for schools, roads with awkward geometry, and even along light rail corridors.

Not necessarily. Roundabouts might cost more to install than the actual traffic signal equipment, but if the intersection does not already include turn lanes, the construction costs for either option may be similar. The big savings on a roundabout comes with life cycle maintenance costs.

It depends on the amount of pedestrians and vehicles. In many cases, a roundabout can offer a safer environment for pedestrians than a traffic signal because the pedestrian crossing at a roundabout is reduced to two simple crossings of one–way traffic moving at slow speeds. A pedestrian crossing at a traffic signal still needs to contend with vehicles turning right or left on green, vehicles turning right on red, and vehicles running the red light.