The British swear by them. They’re all the rage in France. Studies show that they are safer to maneuver than intersections and create more public space for landscaping. Yet here in America, roundabouts and traffic circles are still more of a curious happenstance rather than an everyday circumstance to get us where we need to go.

One circular stretch of Southland roadway in particular has survived for more than 75 years through a long history of makeovers and even a bad reputation. It has settled in as a round peg in the square hole of 900-plus miles of the city’s roadway grid to become a local Long Beach landmark.

Contracted in 1930 and designed by German engineer Werner Ruchti, the Los Alamitos Traffic Circle was expedited to accommodate the expected increase of traffic due to the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, as many of the aquatic and rowing events were held here in Long Beach.

The roundabout averages 60,000 vehicles per day, all navigating their way through the multiroad junction of what is now Pacific Coast Highway, Lakewood Boulevard and Los Coyotes Diagonal.

As more and more drivers used the Traffic Circle, and disregarded safety signs posted at each entrance, its reputation changed from what was originally heralded as a safe way to control traffic to what the Press-Telegram described as “a death trap” in 1935 after four serious accidents followed the Circle’s opening.

A year later, state officials determined carelessness and excessive speed to be the reasons for most accidents. Julien D. Roussel, then Secretary of the State Highway Commission, spent hours watching traffic flow to make the harrowing observation that, in addition to speed, confused drivers were turning left to enter the Traffic Circle in a “direct violation of rules.”

Through the 1930s and 1940s, improvements came at a relatively rapid rate: warning lights were installed, signs were made of stronger reflective material, night driving was aided by three floodlights, and even a beautification plan was brought in to include a touch of flora. The roads that fed into the Circle were also improved, to reflect the rapidly growing Long Beach. In 1946, Los Coyotes Diagonal opened from the Circle to Spring St., at a cost of $29,000 to the City and was a mere 20 feet wide.

By 1948, the Circle was carrying far more traffic than planned and lighting was improved to eliminate safety hazards. Fifteen years later, a move to replace the Traffic Circle with a $4.8 million three-level structure was ruled out and the Traffic Circle itself was destined to remain.

The city eventually adopted a solution for safer circular driving from the continent that inspired its use. Following the British rule of ‘offside priority driving’, traffic entering a roundabout gives way to the circulating traffic inside. Improvements followed on Long Beach’s traffic circle as well. In 1993, Caltrans widened lanes and created devoted lanes for traffic that only travels 90 of the 360 degrees. “If you weren’t going all the way around the circle, you were getting out sooner,” says Caltrans spokesperson, Jeanne Bonfilio. After these improvements, the accident rate dropped significantly. “Stop signs were replaced with yield signs to increase traffic efficiency,” says Bonfilio “and that reduced the waiting time to enter and exit the Circle.”

And what of the rumor that the engineer who designed the Circle died in a car accident on the Circle? It’s just an urban legend, much like the idea the Traffic Circle shouldn’t be around. “Traffic circles are more efficient than intersections when more than two roadways come together,” says Bonfilio.