Dear Roundabouts,

It has been a long time coming for you on University Avenue, but you’re finally making your, unwanted, debut. I, and many others, have not been looking forward to you taking over numerous spots along University Avenue, but we all knew it was coming. The road construction filled with confusing street lights, random stop signs, and gravel side roads with bigger pot holes than University Ave has ever had, is starting to diminish. I simply don’t know which is better; the mess of construction or the roundabouts that give me a high level of stress? Either way, I’m glad to see progress with the road before snow has flown, because could you imagine how much of a steamy hot mess that would be? I mean granted, roundabouts in the snow is a challenge in itself, but we’re getting somewhere.

The people themselves that maneuver the roundabouts here in Iowa need to learn a few things. Once you get on the roundabout, you aren’t stopping. I repeat. Once you are on the roundabout, don’t stop. You have to yield before entering the roundabout, which means that might have to make a full stop depending on the level of traffic. So please, yield and be careful, but go balls to the wall when you’re in the roundabout.

Prayers to everyone out there encountering them because you’ll need it. I know how to use a roundabout, and you probably know how to use a roundabout, but there are many, many people out there that don’t know how to use them. Those people cause my stress level to go off the chart more than the roundabouts themselves. So be careful around those type of drivers.