Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Jill Harry, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation press officer, speaks during a roundabout education session held Wednesday at the Allegheny Community Center in Warren.

With three-fourths of the roundabout at Market Street and Pennsylvania Avenue open to traffic, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation took some time to educate drivers how to navigate the circle.

PennDOT staff were in Warren to hold an education session Wednesday afternoon at the Allegheny Community Center.

PennDOT Press Officer Jill Harry offered three main tips. “You yield to enter the roundabout but never stop inside the roundabout,” Harry said.

Turn signals should be used to indicate where one is leaving the roundabout rather than where entering.

“You want to yield to the pedestrians,” Harry added.

Harry first explained how the roundabout came to be — whenever PennDOT undertakes a safety improvement at an intersection, roundabouts are one of the options considered. “We look at those for all our intersections” but acknowledged that they’re not a good fit everywhere.

The public reaction to this roundabout was a “pretty even split.”

The primary motivation is, indeed, safety.

“They (roundabouts) decrease severe crashes significantly,” Harry said, “like 90 percent for fatal (crashes) and around 75 for crashes involving serious injury.”

Fender-benders may occur at a slightly higher rate but Harry said “that’s almost the only type (of crash) you’ll see that don’t involve an impaired driver.”

“It’s safer,” Harry explained, “because, as you can see, (it’s) all right hand turns. You can go through faster and get through safer.”

Harry added that roundabouts also carry 30 percent more traffic than a regular, signalized intersection. “Here in Warren that was one of the major considerations,” Harry said.

Most of Wednesday’s session was dedicated to answering questions from those in attendance.

The first question raised concern about people not yielding when entering the circle. “When you’re in the roundabout, you just don’t stop,” Harry stressed. “They’ll have to yield and, trust me, they will. You have the right of way when you’re in the roundabout.”

Concern was also raised with the light at Second Ave. potentially blocking traffic all the way back to the roundabout.

“When we do the traffic studies,” Harry said, “we always look at what that will mean for the whole area.”

Someone asked if motorists should yield to trucks.

“The truck apron is not a second lane,” Harry said. “(You) shouldn’t try to be passing any vehicles inside the roundabout.”

Harry also discussed what motorists should do in emergency situations. If followed by an emergency vehicle, motorists should exit the roundabout as soon as they can and pull over once through the roundabout.

For minor crashes, Harry said motorists should “get out of the roundabout and handle it then.”

Project Manager Ted Wilson said that phase three of construction, which started Wednesday, will take about six weeks. He said people are “going to see a lot of changes happen in the coming weeks” including starting “to see the whole circle develop.”

Once that’s completed and the first layer of asphalt is down, Wilson said they will “release all the detours” prior to final paving in September.

“We’re on track to finish it this year.”