LAKE STEVENS, Wash — Many people either love roundabouts or hate them.
The latest Send Shanté request is from our viewer Jonna about the Lake Stevens roundabout at Frontier Village.
The roundabouts near Highway 204 and Vernon Road have become a point of contention.
“There are accidents there daily. I would say sometimes there's multiple,” said Kaya Abera, who manages a coffee shop near the roundabouts. “I’ve had people asking me for like camera footage, because there's accidents so often. It looks like people just don't really know how to use it because it's kind of confusing.”
Last July, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) opened four roundabouts by Frontier Village to improve the traffic flow through the growing area.
“We were seeing traffic backups, it was very complicated to get in and out of Frontier Village,” said Amelia Scharrer, project engineer for WSDOT. “With the two big roundabouts, you have a lot more parallel travel options. So, if one route is backed up, you have a lot more options to move through that area quickly and efficiently now. What we're seeing is that people aren't getting bogged down at that signal that single light that you had before.”
“I don't really think it was that bad,” said Abera. “I grew up here. So, I’ve seen it, like 10-15 years ago. It worked fine, I thought, and then they added in like all the roundabouts. I feel like during rush hour it’s just awful.”
Scharrer says WSDOT conducted an intersection control evaluation before deciding how to move forward. She admits there was a learning curve for drivers the first few months.
“Now we are seeing the great results. People have gotten used to them. They have learned how to drive through them,” said Scharrer. “Everything I hear and see now is that traffic is moving more smoothly to that area. We can move a greater volume of traffic through without slowing anybody down or stopping anybody. And we are seeing the reduction in serious accidents that we had hoped to see.”
According to data KING 5 requested from the Lake Stevens Police Department, there were 43 crashes near the intersection in 2022. That number nearly quadrupled to 162 in 2023. The majority of the crashes happened after the roundabout opened. Through the first four months of 2024, 92 crashes have been reported. The data did not specify the severity of each crash.
“The overall pro to having a roundabout is that we reduce serious accidents. We've seen it in study after study because you don't see the T-bone in accidents and you don't see the head on accidents that you see in a traditional signal,” added Scharrer.
Roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or traffic signals were previously used for traffic control, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
“25 years in Lake Stevens and the roundabouts are nothing but a pain,” said Trent Hyldahl. “I see accidents all the time. People just get confused. They don't know which direction to go, even though they have arrows pointing in the direction, it is still really confusing for people.”
Everyone can agree: drivers seem to face confusion with how to use the two-lane roundabouts.
“It definitely takes some decision making to make it through this roundabout safely and effectively,” added Scharrer.
WSDOT has tutorials that show drivers a basic guide on how to use the roundabouts.
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