[Times file photo]
This aerial view of the Clearwater Beach roundabout shows how it appeared in March, soon after changes were made in its design -- changes that were intended to make it more obvious to drivers how to use it safely. The top of the photograph shows the western side of the roundabout.

CLEARWATER -- The large Clearwater Beach roundabout has been the site of many accidents, the focus of much outrage and the brunt of many jokes.

But now the city may be about to come full circle, so to speak, and finally calm the controversy over one of the country's most infamous roundabouts.

Accidents in the headline-prone roundabout have been reduced by nearly a third, even though traffic was heavier during this year's spring break season than last year's, according to city reports released last week.

The City Commission is hailing those results as a hopeful sign that $200,000 in alterations to the roundabout that were completed just before spring break will be successful in preventing accidents.

The changes are supposed to make it more obvious how to drive the roundabout.

"I've been out there recently and my personal experience is that it seems far more intuitive," Commissioner Bill Jonson said. "I haven't seen quite the degree of uncertainty that was there before."

Jonson added that he recently spent a day riding a Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus on the beach and the driver insisted the roundabout is now much easier to navigate.

"I've been on it more than a few times recently, and I've noticed that it's a lot easier to get on and off," Mayor Brian Aungst said. "I think that as soon as we can tear the fountain down, it could improve a little bit more."

According to the Clearwater Police Department, there were 45 accidents reported between Feb. 25 and May 5, 2001. The number dropped to 31 during the same period this year, when the beach was packed with spring-breakers.

At the same time, traffic figures show that the number of vehicles entering the roundabout daily increased by about 12 percent this year over last year, rising to a daily average of about 46,000 cars during this year's spring break crush.

Much of the confusion in the roundabout was caused by the way the circle was designed so that two lanes of cars could exit the roundabout to Coronado Drive and south beach, according to city staff. The two-lane exit was required because so much traffic flows south.

But many accidents have occurred when drivers in the circle tried to stay in the outer lane at the Coronado intersection and continue around the roundabout. The outside-lane drivers collided with drivers from the inside lane who were attempting to exit onto Coronado.

To try to clear up the confusion, construction crews recently altered the shape of several of the roundabout's entrances and exits. Some of the changes make it more obvious how cars can exit side by side onto Coronado.

Curbs have also been moved back to give vehicles more space to make turns in and out of the circle. The roundabout work will be complete when the circle is resurfaced and restriped this summer, City Engineer Mike Quillen said.

Clearwater Beach Association president David MacNamee said he thinks the roundabout is better now, although it's still confusing with people cutting out of the inside lane of the roundabout to head to south beach.

"It certainly could be better, but I couldn't tell anybody how to make it better," MacNamee said. "I think it has definitely been improved by the changes."

Carl Wagenfohr, a resident who also served on the city's Roundabout Advisory Committee, also has a more favorable impression of the roundabout now.

"The curvature of the road makes more sense," he said. "The design of a roundabout is an art, not a science, in terms of constructing a roadway that is intuitive for someone to use."

Bruce Littler, another roundabout committee member who runs the Olde Nautical Shoppe at the Marina, said he was glad the committee reduced the city's original budget for roundabout work and still approved changes that have made a difference.

"The biggest problem I see now is just driver problems, just inconsiderate people who are driving too fast and who are rude," said Littler, who observes driver behavior from his shop. "If people used their signals, more accidents would go away."

The roundabout has definitely been a sore point with residents. According to a recent city survey, about 8 percent of residents still think the large beach roundabout is a major problem facing the city in the next five years. About 21 percent stated the city could do a better job of resolving problems with the roundabout.

The furor over the roundabout's construction dates to early 2000. Back then, the complaints grew intense as city officials insisted there were no major problems with the roundabout and that it only needed some minor "tweaking."

Later that year, they decided to be more frank that there was a problem and began discussing how to fix it. Meanwhile, the roundabout's soaring accident rate was ridiculed by media outlets as far away as Great Britain.

Accidents now number in excess of 550 since police began tracking wrecks in the traffic circle in December 1999, records show, although most have been minor fender-benders.

Accidents have gradually declined since the initial year, even before the recent changes, a factor that city officials attribute to people becoming more familiar with the circle.

Some officials say accidents can be reduced further by the removal of the roundabout's central $2.1-million fountain -- a boondoggle that residents criticized for wasting drinking water, costing more than $200,000 a year to maintain and distracting drivers with sprays of water.

Commissioners have already reached a consensus to demolish the fountain, which is expected to cost about $200,000, but they haven't decided what to put in the roundabout's center after the fountain is removed this fall.

Commissioners experienced sticker shock earlier this year, when they were presented with a proposal to install a $375,000 metal sculpture of wading shorebirds in the roundabout's center.

The city already tabulates the beach entryway's cost at about $9.3-million, plus about $2-million to pay to borrow the money that was used to build it. So commissioners don't want to dish out much more money on art.

"I'm not at all prepared at this time to spend any more money on the roundabout," said Commissioner Frank Hibbard. "We have other priorities that we have to be concerned about."

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