City Cast DC Why DC Is Full of Weird Traffic Circles
Dec 8, 2025
Dan Reed, a city planner with insights into urban design, dives into the quirks of Washington, D.C.'s iconic traffic circles. He explains how these circles, stemming from L'Enfant's grand vision, confuse newcomers while being a rite of passage for locals. Reed discusses the differences between traffic circles and roundabouts, the impact of cars on their design, and contrasts successful circles like DuPont and Thomas. He sheds light on the balance between pedestrian access and vehicle movement, revealing the ongoing evolution of these urban features.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Roundabouts Are Not Just Fancy Circles
- Roundabouts and traffic circles are different in size and rules, with roundabouts requiring yield-to-traffic-in-circle behavior.
- Roundabouts reduce conflict points and can be a cheaper safety fix compared with signals or stop signs.
Circles Create Monumental Sightlines
- L'Enfant's plan used circles and radiating avenues to create monumental visual hierarchies and sightlines like European grand boulevards.
- Circles marked places for important buildings or monuments so they would be visible from many approaches.
Cars Carved Up Historic Circles
- As cars got faster and more numerous, many DC circles were carved up or given underpasses to move higher volumes of traffic.
- That altered circles from gathering places into fragmented traffic interchanges.