Texarkana’s first roundabout located at the intersection of Gibson Lane and Pavilion opened Monday after being under construction for approximately two months.
According to the City of Texarkana, Texas the traffic circle was constructed in order to ease traffic patterns near Texarkana Pavilion and Richmond Ranch shopping centers.
Since the Monday morning opening of the new roundabout, the signage around the circle seemed to be unclear, causing drivers who made their way into the circle to be confused thus making left turns into oncoming traffic.
According to Lisa Thompson, City of Texarkana, Texas, Public Information Officer, city officials monitored the new roundabout and found problems which have been corrected.
City officials have added “one way” signs around the circle, as well as added orange cones in order to keep drivers from making a left turn when entering the circle and running into oncoming traffic.
According to the city, the arrows marked on the ground upon entering the traffic circle are marked correctly, as this is a two lane roundabout. The arrows indicate which lane you will need to remain on in order to either make a U-turn, left turn, right turn or go straight.
According to the Defensive Driving website, in order to make a U-turn or a left turn you must remain in the left lane and never switch lanes while making your way around the traffic circle.
In order to make a right turn or go straight when using the roundabout, drivers should remain in the right lane upon entering the circle and remain in that lane until they have exited the traffic circle.
According to the City of Texarkana the “left ONLY” sign shown in this image which can be seen upon entering the circle will be removed as it is confusing drivers, all other markings will remain the same.
“This is the first roundabout in Texarkana and we are making modifications to ensure traffic flows correctly,” said Thompson.
