This Midwest City Is Known as the ‘Roundabout Capital of the U.S.’

Round and round the residents go in the Midwest city making its mark as the “Roundabout Capital of the United States.”

Carmel, IN, has more than 155 roundabouts—with three more coming soon. Since 1997, it has managed to turn nearly every major intersection with four-way stop signs or traffic lights into a roundabout.

“Eight signals left, with four of those to be converted to roundabouts in the next year or so,” Bradley Pease, Carmel’s director of engineering, tells Realtor.com®.

The roundabouts were introduced to Carmel by Jim Brainard, who was mayor for seven terms—from 1996 to 2024. Realtor.com went straight to the visionary to learn what inspired his roundabout proposals, which transformed a sleepy farmland community into a bustling city attracting the likes of professional athletes and politicians. (Former Vice President Mike Pence is a resident.)

“I had design authority over [the roundabouts]. I had no formal training as an engineer or in architecture,” says Brainard. “I was a history major and a lawyer, but when I was in grad school, I spent some time in England and saw them there and realized they were more efficient.”

When some of the first roundabouts were built, it didn’t really help slow traffic. So city engineers went back to the drawing board to adjust the geometry into the circular traffic patterns to make sure drivers were forced to slow down to about 10 to 15 mph.

It doesn’t come cheap—construction costs vary depending on size and the property that needs to be prepped for a roundabout, but a pair of roundabouts on the same street (116th Street) had a price tag of about $3.4 million, according to CarmelLink. About 80% of the money came from a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant.

The suburban city to the north of the state’s capital, Indianapolis, has gone from 25,000 residents in 1990 to a population of nearly 104,000 in 2024.

The city’s housing boom throughout the decades has attracted newcomers, but also a new set of traffic headaches. So, to keep cars moving, roundabouts were introduced.

“If we’re going to compete from an economic development standpoint, we’ve got to build a beautiful city, a city that works for people,” says Brainard.

“Our designs have iterated and improved,” adds Pease.

“With as many roundabouts as we have and having them for almost 30 years, our drivers have learned and improved in regard to roundabout navigation.”

Not all roundabouts are the same, and drivers were forced to figure out how to enter and exit the circular systems. Some have single lanes, others have double lanes—and there are even teardrop designs.

Safety first

Hamilton County, where Carmel is located, has a median list price of $495,000. The roundabouts have started popping up in neighboring cities, as leaders say it creates a safer city.

Pease says Carmel’s roundabout system has led to a “reduction in fatal crashes by 90%-plus, injury crashes by about 80%, and overall crashes by about 40%.”

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety did a study on Carmel’s roundabouts and found single-lane roundabouts reduced total crashes by 51% and property damage–only crashes by 50%. 

Brainard says some of the roundabouts have been landscaped in the center.

“You don’t need to see across a roundabout,” he explains. “You’re only supposed to look to the left for the gap. Sometimes people misunderstand that we can’t see across so well. That’s why we put things in the center, because you’re not supposed to look across it. It slows down the traffic flow.”

While Carmel does not have a public transportation system, residents are used to depending on their cars to get around. A strong transportation network helps people get to work and school, which, in turn, will grow the economy.