Several months ago, a reader alerted me to the possibility that someone important at UDOT is smoking crack cocaine.

"They're definitely on something," he said. "I just drove on a brand new street that only goes in a circle. We went round and around until my wife got sick. Is that what I'm paying taxes for?"

The guy had probably encountered a traffic roundabout for the first time. When I tried explaining the concept, how Europeans had used them for years, he hollered that he hadn't spent two years fighting Germans for that nonsense and hung up.

Roundabouts are becoming more common in Utah. There's one between work and me now. It's the crown jewel in the redesign of 18000 South in Daybreak/South Jordan.

This isn't the first roundabout I've negotiated in Utah. I am surprised, however, to see them catching on in a state where paying attention isn't considered an important part of operating a motor vehicle.

Roundabouts are intended to keep traffic moving through intersections that might otherwise be controlled with lights and stop signs. Statistically they're safer and more efficient, but-and this is important-an idiot can still screw it up.

So, for Ed the German fighter and other easily confused types, perhaps a few tips.

First, always remember that roundabouts only work one way. It's a right turn to enter a roundabout and a right turn to get out of it. You'll be circling left, but right is the direction you'll be leaving from. Watch for your street.

Don't worry if you miss your street and get stuck going in a complete circle, and or pity's sake don't stop in the middle of it.

If you can't make up your mind, gradually increase your speed and lean to the right. At some point centrifugal force will spit you out onto a feeder street. If it's the wrong one, try again.

Keep in mind that a roundabout is not the traffic equivalent of a hamster wheel. You can't just drive endlessly around in them because you're bored.

One of the nice things about roundabouts is that you don't automatically have to stop when turning into them. Since few Utahns bother to come to a complete stop when turning right through stop signs anyway, this part should be easy.

You still have to yield to oncoming traffic though. Unless it's Ed or someone like him, said traffic will always be coming from your left. Watch for pedestrians.

Roundabouts come in different sizes. Here in Utah they're still small. I think the biggest one is on Deer Valley Drive in Park City. Bicycles and cars seem to share it just fine.

In Europe and larger U.S. cities, some roundabouts are the size of NASCAR tracks with a corresponding behavior among motorists. I saw a roundabout in Italy where drivers automatically leaned on their horns upon entering it and didn't let up until they shot out of it, sometimes not for days.

For this reason, never cross on foot to the island center of a large roundabout unless there's a controlled way of returning to the mainland.

In Spain, my wife and I were stranded in the center of a roundabout for hours while traffic circled us like sharks.

Eventually we'll get used to roundabouts in Utah. It's just a tighter learning curve for some.