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The tight layout has proven difficult to navigate. An effort to slow speeding vehicles by installing roundabouts on Fresno’s streets has been roundly mocked — as a viral clip shows a driver blowing right by the “traffic calming” measure.
At the gateway to Old Fig Garden along Wishon Avenue, the traffic circle is meant to forces motorists to slow down and loop around the raised concrete circle instead of driving straight through.
But a neighbor posted a clip on TikTok of a truck driver speeding past the small structure without so much as tapping the brakes, calling the feature “a nuisance and a complete eyesore.”
“I dread them putting one in front of my house,” the user wrote.
The traffic circle was installed last year after residents pushed for action to combat speeding along the tree-lined stretch connecting Old Fig Garden and the Tower District.
The @City of Fresno, California installed these round abouts on my block due to a neighbor house being crashed into and safe to say the do NOT work. If anything there are a nuisance and a complete eyesore. I dread them putting one in front of my house.
♬ original sound – CiscotekLocals haven’t exactly embraced the changes.
“We have not got a lot of positive reactions,” Councilman Nelson Esparza, who secured funding for the project’s design and construction, told the Fresno Bee.
The layout has proven difficult to navigate, especially for trucks and larger vehicles, and some drivers simply ignore it altogether — as seen in the viral TikTok clip.
“That’s not a roundabout. That’s a concrete circle in the middle of an intersection,” wrote one commenter on the video, which has been viewed more 1.6 million times.
“That’s a straightabout,” a second joked.
“The roundabout is a suggestion,” a third added.
The effort traces back to 2019, when Esparza first took office and encountered what he described as a flood of constituents raising concerns about speeding traffic on Wishon Avenue.
“It seems to have caused more issues for residences than anything,” he admitted.
Studies followed, but the intersection didn’t meet the requirements for stop signs under state and federal standards. Speed bumps weren’t an option either, the Fresno Bee reported.
A second circle planned for Wishon and Fountain Way remains unfinished.
Elsewhere nearby, another neighborhood took a similar approach.
In the Wilson Island Historic District, two roundabouts were added late last year along Echo Avenue at Pine and Floradora.
Residents there had also complained about speeding, particularly from drivers heading north out of the Olive Avenue commercial area toward McKinley, according to the Fresno Bee.
According to the city, the installations were incorporated into an existing repaving project and funded using leftover money after the work came in under budget.
The exact locations were selected based on neighborhood input and traffic engineering considerations.
These smaller versions mirror traditional roundabouts, which guide vehicles counterclockwise around a central island to keep traffic moving while reducing speed.
The design also requires drivers to yield when entering or exiting, improving safety for other cars, as well as bicyclists and pedestrians.
For Esparza, the mixed response underscores the challenge of responding to neighborhood demands.
After complaints surfaced, he halted plans for the second Wishon roundabout.
Now, he’s looking at how to redesign the existing circle at Wishon and Cortland to make it work better for residents.
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