The Arkansas Department of Transportation Driver’s Manual, as of July 2023, does not mention the word roundabout despite Conway having 35 of them.
The Arkansas State Police, which administers the driving test, also produces the ARDOT Driver’s Manual.
ARDOT Communications Coordinator Holly Butler, assisted by the Head of the Communications Division Dave Parker, said in an email that they reached out to ASP “to inquire about the information contained regarding roundabouts.”
“They cited a small clause about roundabouts on page 29 of the manual but did agree there could be more information,” they said.
The clause said, “Drivers entering a traffic circle or rotary must yield to drivers already in the circle.”
“I spoke with one of our senior traffic safety analysts in our planning division, and he provided me the attached fact sheet that the department has prepared on roundabouts,” Butler and Parker’s email said.
“I have also forwarded this fact sheet to ASP, and they will use this information to improve the section on roundabouts in the manual. They will make the updates to the online version, but the printed version won’t reflect the updates until more copies are printed,” the email said.
The City of Conway’s Communications Coordinator, Bobby Kelly, said, “There’s roundabouts, and then there’s traffic-calming circles. We’ve got 35 roundabouts, but we also have a handful of traffic-calming circles.”
He said traffic-calming circles are “a prettier way to slow down traffic” and are smaller than roundabouts.
“You can literally see the roundabouts from space, you just can’t see the traffic-calming circles,” Kelly said.
He said, “You can’t move traffic through them [traffic-calming circles]. They’re specifically designed so that you have to slow down.”
Country Club Road, a long street, has a traffic circle.
“They put a traffic circle at the bottom of the hill of Country Club for the people that are coming down, and there are two speed bumps up above it, but they’re at the end, just to kind of get that final suggestion for people slow down.”
He said, “But this illustration [page 29 of the manual] makes it look like it’s a roundabout. It’s not a traffic circle.”
“In defense of ARDOT — they might not have it [a roundabout] in their manual yet — they have produced videos here in Conway, actually, of how to navigate one,” Kelly said.
One video, taken at the Hendrix roundabout on Harkrider Street, said, “A roundabout is essentially like a revolving door but for cars. It’s a circular intersection with nonstop traffic traveling counterclockwise.”
Kelly said, “As we sort of introduce more complicated roundabouts, I think having a sort of fundamental understanding of what to do, but you could apply to a variety of different layouts, would be helpful.”
“I encounter more roundabouts on a daily basis than I do a railroad crossing, and I know all the rules of a railroad crossing from driver’s ed,” he said. “… I think some people on their daily drive encounter more roundabouts than they do a railroad crossing.”
He said, “There’s some people that go out of their way to drive through roundabouts in order to eliminate the need to even sit at a traffic signal, but we’ve got plenty of traffic signal education out there.”
Kelly said roundabouts are becoming more popular around the state and “ARDOT has embraced the roundabout, too.”
He said, “I imagine that coupled with adoption rates across the state and also their willingness to build roundabouts — we’ve got several — they’ll eventually add it in there [the manual], but I don’t know if it was a conscious decision to not put it in there.”
He said the updated manual should “hammer home those fundamental principles,” such as how to navigate a roundabout when pedestrians and emergency vehicles are present or always yielding before entering.
Kelly said the city plans to build four new roundabouts on Central Landing Boulevard in front of the under-construction Conway Community Center, Caldwell Street and Donaghey Avenue, Prince Street and Country Club Road, and Hogan Lane and Highway 64.