Everybody around Summit surely has been checking out the new stuff, and last week I did some investigative reporting of my own by driving through the still-under-construction roundabouts at the town’s Interstate 55 exit.
I used them four times on trips that sent me to the Summit area. On one visit, I got curious and made a complete drive around the whole thing just to see what it was like.
A too-early assessment, since construction isn’t finished, directional signs aren’t up and dozens of orange barrels are a definite distraction: This is going to take some getting used to.
The lanes of the two roundabouts are narrower than what drivers usually use. And there are a couple of spots for merging traffic where drivers simply will have to slow down or sometimes stop.
Based on the steady rainstorm of criticism that the Mississippi Department of Transportation has received since it announced its plans for Exit 20, it’s easy to predict that when the Highway 98 roundabouts are completed and opened, there will be more public objections.
The roundabouts definitely are different. If you thought making a big circle on one of the exits at Summit required slow driving, rest assured that the roundabouts will permit, at best, only half the speed of their cloverleaf predecessors. This means about 15 mph.
MDOT said from the start this was intentional. One benefit of a roundabout is there are no signals or stop signs to delay drivers for long periods. Everyone keeps moving. But you have to slow down. Some drivers are more tolerant of that concept than others.
Last Monday, after taking some tornado damage pictures at Southwest Mississippi Community College, I was curious to cross the interstate to I-55 south and drive back to McComb.
Emphasizing again that the directional traffic signs were not up, I hesitated on the approach to the western roundabout. After a second, I saw which lane would get me to the southbound on-ramp, and things went fine.
Returning to Summit on Wednesday afternoon for another visit to the college, arriving from the northbound exit ramp, I decided to make a full loop around the whole thing. I was just curious.
I drove through the east roundabout and headed across the interstate, where I did the same thing on that side and headed back east toward the traffic signal at Highway 51.
Generally, it was OK. The multiple lines of orange barrels on the overpass caused more visual confusion than the roundabouts did.
The main thing, honestly, is that it’s hard to slow down to 15 mph. I’m accustomed to driving 35-ish on Delaware Avenue, and a lot of times that’s slower than most other vehicles are traveling. Or 70 mph on an interstate.
People who use the Summit exit daily may have to rewire their brains to get used to the slower roundabout speed.
Say you’re coming to Summit from Highway 98 west. You slow down to go around the first roundabout, then you can speed up a bit to cross the interstate overpass. And then you have to slow down again at the second roundabout.
I used the roundabouts twice more last week — a second time Wednesday to deliver a paper to a nice subscriber on Elmo Young Road, and then again Thursday for a trip to the Summit post office.
By that last run, I had the routine down fairly well and felt comfortable with it. The most interesting thing was when a large flatbed truck approached one of the roundabouts. I slowed down to watch the driver. He made the circle slowly but safely.
This is a big change, and there will be criticism of it. It wouldn’t be a surprise if a few collisions occur as drivers adjust to this new pattern.
If that happens, people will say, “Told ya so.” But the roundabouts are here, and drivers must learn to live with them.
