Reply to Chevy chase circle.....lets learn how to drive

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[quote=Anonymous]People have inexplicable problems negotiating this circle but it is really not hard and it is also IMHO completely intuitive but that is hard for people around here because drivers, particularly from MD, are so self absorbed and impatient.

If you are exiting onto Connecticut Avenue enter onto any of the 3 lanes and stay in that lane until you exit.

If you are exiting onto Western Avenue or Grafton or Chevy Chase Parkway only enter into the right most lane and stay in that lane until you exit.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone who knows where they are going to ever change lanes in the circle.  I get that this seems harder than it is to some people because being in the right lane means crossing two lanes of the CT Ave bound traffic instead of just 1 or no lanes from an inner lane if you are entering from a secondary road but the point of the yield sign is that you yield to the cars already coming around and go around the circle behind rather than in front of the traffic.  The SB to CT traffic is usually bunched and backed up anyhow so as long as you wait for the break like you are supposed to from my experience it is rare that you get held up having to cut across the other two lanes.

If you are too stupid to figure this out then just enter into the right lane and stay in that lane until you exit - from the right lane you can exit onto all of the roadways that connect to the circle.

Also please use your turn signal if you are exiting onto one of the secondary (not CT) roads - lots of people who could enter the circle are not able to because they wait assuming that the approaching car is continuing around when it is exiting.

I actually think the circle is quite efficient and works as designed in that cars aren't held up by what can be arbitrary traffic signals that have cars queuing when there is available space in the circle - the only problem as I see it is that the nice fountain and benches in the middle have no safe access to them for pedestrians and that is a real shame.  Hopefully DDOT won't screw up something that works just fine by adding traffic signals though that might be the only way to enable pedestrian access.

A couple of other observations as a long time almost daily user of the circle - I think the circle works much better since the traffic cameras went up in Chevy Chase Village - with traffic slowed as it approaches the circle it is much more spread out which enables most cars to slow down and merge without having to come to a stop.  It used to be that cars would speed through that stretch and arrive en masse and then all queue up at the circle and have a hard time entering in part because as a bunch of cars inch out they block one anothers sight lines and then have trouble safely entering.

Also one night about 6 years ago I was behind a car headed SB on CT that went straight across all 3 lanes in the circle, completely ran over a small tree and came to a stop only after hitting the fountain.  Unsurprisingly it was a MD driver.[/quote]

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