A roundabout near downtown in Carmel, which has more roundabouts than any other city in America. Photo provided by City of Carmel
KOKOMO — Kim Catt has been teaching drivers for more than a decade how to navigate roundabouts in Kokomo. The instructor at Redhot Scott’s American Driving Academy said every student is required to take a spin on the circular intersections to learn the ins and outs of driving in one.
“Most of the time the kids get it pretty easily,” she said. “I think roundabouts are more difficult for older people that haven’t experienced them or don’t know the rules.”
That training is more essential than ever. Kokomo built its first roundabout in 2006. Another opened in 2017 and two more are currently under construction.
The city is just one example of communities across the state gradually embracing roundabouts, which reduce severe and fatal crashes by about 80% and help cut carbon emissions, according to recent research.
In many ways, Indiana has become the national roundabouts leader. The state has 663 of them — fifth highest in the country behind only much larger states such as California, Texas, Florida and Washington.
Half of Indiana’s roundabouts were built in just the past decade, according to the Roundabouts Database compiled for the Transportation Research Board.
The Indiana Department of Transportation has 42 roundabouts on state roads. Thirty-six more are in design for future construction, according to Natalie Garrett, the agency’s strategic communications director.
Darcy Bullock, the director of Purdue University’s Joint Transportation Research Program, said roundabouts weren’t even part of the civil engineering curriculum 20 years ago.
“Now, in my introductory-level class, we always cover roundabouts as one of those tools in your portfolio that you should be looking at when you’re doing an intersection modernization,” he said.
It all begs the question: How did Indiana come to embrace an intersection once loathed and feared by many Hoosier drivers?
It traces to Carmel.
THE ROUNDABOUT KINGS
When former Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard took office in 1996, he had recently returned from traveling in Europe, where he was inspired by the walkable communities he visited. That led him to propose something virtually unheard of at the time: building roundabouts to improve traffic flow and conditions for pedestrians.
Today Carmel has 150 roundabouts — the most of any city in America. Half a dozen more are planned for construction this year, according to city engineer Jeremy Kashman.
Carmel has become a kind of roundabout beacon for cities and communities across the United States. City officials often get calls asking for advice, and out-of-state groups frequently visit to tour the wide variety of intersection styles.
The city has been profiled in the last few years by the New York Times, Washington Post and CBS News for its innovate approach.
“We’re more than happy to share our experiences.,” said Kashman, who has been involved in building about 60 of Carmel’s roundabouts. “At the end of the day, if we can take the safety benefits that we’ve seen and start transplanting them in different national locations, that’s huge.”
With the city aggressively building roundabouts for nearly three decades, Carmel has become the nation’s first real laboratory demonstrating that the intersections live up to the hype.
In fact, many of the federal design standards for building roundabouts are based on early studies done in Carmel, explained Purdue’s Bullock.
Since 1996, Carmel’s population has surged from 30,000 to more than 100,000, but the number of serious crashes is lower today despite much more traffic on city streets, Kashman noted.
Roundabouts have also saved drivers 272 tanker trucks of fuel annually due to less idling while sitting at traffic lights, he said, noting the city has fewer than 10 stoplight signals left.
“We kind of joke here we worked so hard to be more than just a one-stoplight town,” Kashman said. “Now, we’re working really hard to become a one-stoplight town again.”
Like with any new interchange design, the initial push to build roundabouts in Carmel came with resistance from some residents, he explained. Now that everyone is used to them, most couldn’t do without.
“Every once in a while we hear about someone who moved away for four or five years that comes back and is like, ‘I forgot how much I love the roundabouts,’” Kashman said.
MAKING THE CASE
There’s little doubt that Carmel’s enthusiastic embrace of roundabouts has made them more acceptable in other parts of the state, said INDOT’s Garrett.
Proposals to build roundabouts sometimes still get pushback, but that’s mostly from apprehensive drivers in areas that don’t have any, she noted.
“Overall, the fact that the City of Carmel and other communities have embraced roundabouts and experienced significant improvements in crash outcomes is a benefit to making the case for roundabouts in cities and towns across the state,” Garrett said in an email.
Martinsville built its five roundabouts in 2021 as part of the I-69 corridor expansion. The city of Franklin added seven roundabouts in just six years. Even some small towns have joined the circle. North Vernon, with just 6,500 residents, had two built along U.S. 50.
Bullock with Purdue said it’s something of a snowball effect. The more roundabouts there are, the more people get used to them. That leads to more being built every year.
“I think we’re going to continue to see them, particularly in the suburban-type environments,” he said. “They are a very appropriate intersection tool that should be evaluated when doing roadway modernization or design.”
Catt, the driving instructor from Kokomo, said she’s fine with more roundabouts popping up around the state. She knows not everyone loves them, but she’s a fan.
“I just think they’re easier to navigate,” she said.
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