What can I say?  Thanks to Emory Village, I’ve got traffic circles on the brain.

An interesting stat from an ancient (read: November 2010) New York Times article about roundabouts…

Three years ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published a study titled “Long-Term Trends in Public Opinion Following Construction of Roundabouts.” After interviewing 1,802 drivers in six communities, the researchers reported that, on average, only 34 percent had supported roundabouts in their communities before construction. But shortly after the roundabouts were in place, the number rose to 57 percent. After a year or more, the number increased to 69 percent.

h/t: Alliance to Improve Emory Village

It ain’t pretty (yet!), but the Emory Village roundabout opened without fanfare on Friday.

Though the most of the brick-paver crosswalks are in, there’s still a ton of work to be done on many other elements of the roundabout plan.  However, cars are now proceeding counterclockwise through the five-way intersection.  I drove through it a couple times over the weekend, and while I’m sure it will take a while to get acclimated to it – and hopefully it will seem less chaotic when all the surrounding projects are complete – I certainly enjoyed my quick loop around from Oxford to North Decatur.

And I didn’t even have to wait 5 minutes to do it!

Hoping to hear some other initial impressions. Especially anyone who’s navigated it through rush-hour.