In an effort to provide more consistency, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has made some changes. The DOT changed the motorist rights-of-way in the traffic circles on Willett Avenue near the Barrington-Riverside line. 

According to DOT Spokesman Charles St. Martin, the state altered the traffic rules — specifically the motorists’ rights-of-way — on the turnarounds at the intersection of Route 103 (County Road), Washington Road, and Willett Avenue, as well as the traffic island a quarter-mile west near the intersection of Willett Avenue, Crescent View Avenue, and Metropolitan Park Drive. 

The DOT, by rotating the yield signs slightly, gave the right-of-way to motorists who are already in the turnarounds and took it away from motorists who were trying to enter the turnarounds.

For many years, the rights-of-way at those traffic circles had belonged to the motorists who were entering the turnarounds. 

St. Martin said the rule with roundabouts — and those two traffic circles are roundabouts, he added — is that the drivers in the circle have the right-of-way.

“It’s important to have norms,” St. Martin said during a recent interview. 

He said the traffic changes will establish consistency for motorists who may not be familiar with how the Willett Avenue traffic islands had functioned for decades previously. 

“You want all your roads to work the same,” St. Martin said. 

And what about the thousands of motorists who had grown familiar with the old traffic patterns in that area? 

Officials said that extensive notification of the traffic pattern change was shared… at least in East Providence. St. Martin was not sure how much notification was presented to Barrington officials. (The Barrington Times reached out to Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey and another town official to see if the Barrington was alerted to the traffic changes, but has not received a response.)

“The city (of East Providence) did a lot of notifications,” St. Martin said. 

In fact, East Providence played a role in creating the traffic pattern changes. 

“The city was out in front of this,” St. Martin said.

East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva agreed. 

“The main goal of implementing these changes was to slow drivers down and make the area safer for both pedestrians and those behind the wheel which has certainly been a success,” DaSilva said. 

“Previously, people would be picking up speed as they entered the roundabout from Crescent View Ave which had resulted in severe accidents in years past, but with these new yield signs in place it forces drivers to slow down and we have not seen any major accidents or an uptick in accidents since the implementation.”

DaSilva added: “While at times there is still confusion on who has the right of way, as long as the person who has the yield sign holds the position and waves on the other person, we are good and people will continue to get adjusted.”

St. Martin said the Willett Avenue traffic islands were atypical intersections. He said the adjustments were done with safety and consistency in mind. 

Rotary or roundabout

Are they traffic islands? Are they turnarounds? Are they rotaries? Are they roundabouts?

St. Martin said the traffic features on Willett Avenue are roundabouts, in which motorists entering the traffic circle yield to those who are already in the circle. He said the pattern is opposite for rotaries — those vehicles already in a rotary circle must yield to motorists entering the rotary. 

St. Martin said rotaries are typically larger, about 600 feet in diameter, while roundabouts are about 150- to 230-feet in diameter.

In the case of the Willett Avenue traffic circles, neither island changed its actual size, but in early July DOT officials switched the yield signs and essentially changing the traffic circles from rotaries into roundabouts. 

“Roundabouts are safer than the old style rotary,” St. Martin said. 

The RIDOT dedicates an entire webpage to rotaries and roundabouts, complete with definitions, illustrations, maps, and videos. 

“Roundabouts have proven to reduce fatalities by 90 percent, and greatly reduce injuries and the severity of crashes,” states the webpage. 

“Roundabouts aren’t the rotaries of the past. Rotaries are often much larger, sometimes using traffic signals or stop signs, with vehicles traveling at higher speeds.”

St. Martin said the switch on Willett Avenue “provides consistency with how all roundabouts and rotaries operate.”

Calming measures

The shifting yield signs were not the only traffic work completed recently on Willett Avenue. 

In the spring, DOT crews finished a project that reduced the number of traffic lanes on Willett Avenue from four — two eastbound lanes and two westbound lanes — to just one lane running in either direction. It also added bike lanes on Willett and buffer zones between the vehicle lanes and the bike lanes. 

The DOT called it a “road diet” which, officials said, is a proven traffic calming measure to reduce speed and improve safety for turning traffic and pedestrians cross the road. 

As for the change in yield signs, the DOT anticipates that it may take a little time for motorists to get used to the switch. 

“Any time there’s a traffic change, there’s a learning curve,” St. Martin said.

— With reporting from Ethan Hartley