Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | Bring a spirit of civility to our roundabouts
Gig Harbor is a town of roundabouts. The stretch of Borgen Boulevard from Peacock Hill down to Highway 16 packs six of them into barely more than a mile, roughly half the circular intersections in town. In principle, they’re a wonderful thing: fewer hard stops, smoother flow, less idling. In practice, they only work when we all play by the same gentle rules. And too often, it seems many of us either don’t know those rules or don’t respect them.
That’s a little surprising in a community that prides itself on kindness and civility, because a roundabout, at its heart, is just an exercise in taking turns. It’s about the most neighborly thing there is.
A quick refresher, offered in good faith:
Leave a gap. The real trouble on Borgen isn’t people cutting into a circle. That’s rare. It’s the opposite. Cars pack in bumper to bumper and roll straight through all six roundabouts as though Borgen were a highway with permanent right of way. When that stream never breaks, the yield signs facing the side streets might as well be stop signs, and the drivers waiting there sit for openings that never come. A roundabout gives no one a “main road.” If you’re flowing down Borgen and see cars stacked up waiting to enter, ease off and leave them a gap. It costs you a few seconds and keeps the whole system fair.
Signal on the way out. This is the one most of us miss. Flip your right blinker on as you approach your exit. That small courtesy tells the waiting driver that their gap is coming, and it lets them merge smoothly instead of guessing. One forgotten signal can stall a whole line of cars.
Trust the person who’s doing it right. When a waiting driver finally reads a gap and eases in, that’s the system working, not someone cutting you off. Honking at them isn’t defending the right-of-way. It’s insisting on a right-of-way that a roundabout was specifically designed not to give anyone. We’re all just guests taking turns.
None of this requires new signs or engineering. It just takes the same everyday grace we already show each other at the grocery store and the farmers market. Leave a gap, signal, and give the other driver the benefit of the doubt. Do those three things, and Borgen, and every circle after it, will move the way it was designed to: calmly, fairly, and with a little less honking.
Let’s bring the Gig Harbor spirit to the roundabout, too.
Fletcher Bonds
Gig Harbor