Public Engagement 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

Federal Highway Administration 

Location 

State of Virginia 

(Mid-Atlantic United States) 

Implementation Stage 

🗸 Planning 

🗸 Design 

🗸 Construction 

🗸 Launch 

🗸 Post-Implementation 

Roundabout Type/Setting 

One-lane and two-lane 

roundabouts in urban, suburban, 

and rural areas.* 

Target Audience 

🗸 General Public 

🗸 Elected Officials/Managers 

Strategies Employed 

🗸 15-week series of facts 

🗸 Video 

🗸 Website 

🗸 Inserts into Virginia Driver’s Manual 

🗸 Brochure entitled VDOT 

Roundabouts – VDOT Answers Your 

Questions 

🗸 Public meetings/presentations 

🗸 Articles in newspapers and 

magazines 

🗸 Inserts into VDOT’s Board of 

Supervisors Manual 

* Twenty-five percent are being installed on 

primary routes, and 75 percent installed 

on secondary routes—local streets and 

residential routes 

VDOT’s Roundabouts Review Committee 

Spearheads Internal and External 

Outreach Efforts 

Background 

In 2003, when the Virginia legislature passed a resolution encouraging the 

consideration of roundabouts as an alternative to signalized intersections where 

feasible, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) quickly realized it needed 

to accelerate its efforts on implementing roundabouts into intersection safety policies 

across the State. Because there were only a few VDOT engineers with roundabouts 

experience, leadership realized it would be necessary to create internal guidance and 

conduct educational outreach for its own staff, and it would need to begin educating 

the public about these new, unfamiliar round intersections. VDOT’s Central Office 

created a Roundabouts Review Committee to spearhead these efforts and provide 

technical reviews, subject matter expertise, and a range of public outreach efforts 

addressing issues and concerns associated with individual roundabout projects. 

Approach 

VDOT has used a variety of methods to reach out to the public and promote modern 

roundabouts. Its Roundabouts Review Committee released a 15-week series of 

roundabout facts to the public via the VDOT website. The committee also created a 

mailing list of VDOT staff interested in learning more about roundabouts who received 

the facts directly via email. These facts were presented as simple, one- to two-page 

flyers that provided information about various aspects of roundabouts. Topics ranged 

from roundabout benefits to interesting facts presented at conferences to interesting 

news stories about roundabouts, from public radio, for example. The facts themselves 

are short blurbs with photos or a story about a new roundabout in the State to increase 

readability. They were originally emailed to everyone from the governor and VDOT staff 

to local engineers. 

VDOT also submitted articles to local newspapers and magazines in areas where 

roundabouts were planned and developed a video on the “Virginia Experience 

with Roundabouts” to supplement outreach. The video, created with the help of 

Washington State DOT and the Virginia Department of Education, informed viewers 

about key design elements and operational characteristics of roundabouts, benefits of 

Figure 1: VDOT’s roundabout website highlights the 15-week roundabout FAQ series on the homepage. 

FHWA-SA-11-030 

Revised July 2020
MISCONCEPTIONS

• Roundabouts Roundabouts have been around forever

- false 

• Roundabouts unsafe t Pedestrians Roundabouts are unsafe to Pedestrians

and Bicyclists - false

The public avoids using Roundabouts -

false

• They are unsafe next to schools - false

•

-

are o

-

Th bli id i R d b t

Figure 2: Sample slide from VDOT’s public 

outreach presentation. 

Section 3: Safe Driving 

More information about driving safely through a roundabout 

is available at the Virginia Department of Transportation eb 

site at http:// .virginiadot.org/info/faq-roundabouts.asp. 

Tips for driving safely through a roundabout: 

‣ As you approach the roundabout, slo do n; look for 

the street and direction signs. This ill help you kno 

 hich exit to take. These signs should be posted along 

the roadside before you reach the roundabout. 

‣ When you arrive at the roundabout, yield the right-of-

 ay to pedestrians and bicyclists. You also must yield 

to any vehicles already in the roundabout. Sometimes 

your entry point ill be controlled by a stop or yield 

sign, or traffic signal. When the ay is clear, you may 

enter the roundabout. 

‣ While inside the roundabout, stay in your lane until you 

are ready to exit. Use your vehicle’s right turn signal to 

let drivers around you kno hat you ant to do. 

‣ Do not change lanes or take an exit before checking 

for vehicles that may be continuing through the 

roundabout in the lane next to you or behind you. 

Expect vehicles to be in blind spots you cannot see in 

your rearvie or side mirrors. Quickly glance over your 

shoulder and check for any vehicles that may be in your 

blind spot. 

16 | VIRGINIA DRIVER’S MANUAL

Figure 3: Roundabout information from Virginia’s 

DMV driver’s manual. 

Learn More 

Terry Knouse 

Section Manager–Design and Special Projects 

Virginia Department of Transportation 

804.371.2792

theron.knouse@vdot.virginia.gov 

Jeffrey Shaw 

Intersections Program Manager 

FHWA Office of Safety 

202.738.7793

jeffrey.shaw@dot.gov 

roundabouts, and how to safely navigate a roundabout. The video also provided a link 

to a brochure, titled VDOT Roundabouts – VDOT Answers Your Questions. In addition, 

VDOT updated the State’s driving manual to include driving tips for roundabouts 

and integrated a section on roundabouts into the Virginia Board of Supervisors 

Manual, which is distributed to every county in the State as a reference guide to VDOT 

responsibilities. 

Results 

VDOT considers its outreach activities to be very successful to date, and notes that 

there have been many occasions in which the Roundabouts Review Committee 

attended public outreach meetings where the community’s initial sentiment toward 

roundabouts was very negative. However, once the presentation had been given, 

questions had been answered, and misconceptions had been corrected, community 

members generally became enthusiastic supporters of roundabout construction in 

their area. 

Lessons Learned 

• Public outreach efforts should not take a “one-size-fits-all” format. Outreach efforts are most

successful when they are tailored to address specific local concerns or “hot button” issues for

the proposed roundabout location.

• Deliberate, sustained, and redundant outreach is extremely beneficial for helping audiences

absorb the information.

• Conversations with other states to understand the issues they have faced and effective

practices they have used can help an agency anticipate and resolve problems before they

arise. For example, the input provided by Washington State DOT for the VDOT video that

teaches young drivers how to navigate a modern roundabout was vital to that cost-effective

effort.

• Providing examples of existing roundabouts that closely match the location where a

proposed roundabout project is being considered is a useful practice.

Outreach Investment 

VDOT’s Roundabouts Review Committee structure and activities are very low-cost, 

involving limited investment in developing the outreach tools. Individual VDOT 

divisions around the state cost-effectively execute the majority of outreach activities 

surrounding the implementation of a roundabout using materials developed by VDOT 

through this outreach effort. 

Related Products 

Manuals 

Board of Supervisors Manual 

http://www.virginiadot.org/business/resources/local_assistance/BOS_manual.pdf 

Virginia DMV Driver’s Manual 

http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/pdf/dmv39.pdf 

General Information Website 

Roundabouts in Virginia 

http://www.virginiadot.org/info/faq-roundabouts.asp 

Roundabout Facts 

http://www.virginiadot.org/info/faq-roundabouts.asp 

are o

The public avoids using Roundabouts -