There’s an odd bit of roadway on Wishon Avenue as one enters the Old Fig Garden neighborhood in Fresno. It’s a circle of low concrete and brickwork marked by a red-and-white yield sign that leads drivers around, rather than through, the intersection.
The mini traffic circle was installed last year to help with speeding on the tree-lined street, which connects Old Fig Garden with the Tower District, and came at the behest of neighbors.
But it hasn’t exactly been a welcomed addition.
“We have not got a lot of positive reactions,” says District 7 Councilmember Nelson Esparza, who pushed to get funding for the design and construction of project.
The roundabout makes for a tight squeeze around the intersection, especially for trucks and other larger vehicles — and it’s not uncommon to see drivers ignoring the thing altogether.
“It seems to have caused more issues for residences than anything.”
The project to install the traffic circle (and a second yet-to-be-completed one at Wishon and Fountain Way) goes back to when he was first elected in 2019.
There was a “flood of constituents” complaining about cars speeding on Wishon. Traffic studies were conducted and evaluations were made. The intersection didn’t meet state and federal standards that would warrant the installation of stop signs. And the city, at the time, had a prohibition on speed bumps, though even now, the street wouldn’t qualify for speed bumps under the city’s limited-basis evaluations, Esparza says.
The roundabout was “one of the solid options to slow traffic in a visually appealing way.”
A pickup truck negotiates a roundabout along North Wishon Avenue at East Cortland Avenue on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com The Echo Avenue roundabouts
Several blocks away, in the Wilson Island Historic District, another pair of roundabouts went up late last year; and for similar reason.
“Residents were experiencing speeding traffic on Echo, generally traveling northbound from the Olive Avenue commercial district through the neighborhood towards McKinley,” the city of Fresno said, explaining the project in a message to The Bee.
The two circles (on Echo avenue at Pine and Floradora avenues) were added to a repaving project already happening in the area, based upon requests from the Wilson Island neighborhood, and with money left over when the project came in under budget.
The specific intersections were chosen based upon neighborhood input and “traffic engineering considerations,” the city said.
A pickup truck negotiates one of the two mini traffic circles installed on North Echo Avenue on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
The neighborhood roundabouts are a small-scale version of the traditional traffic circle, which improves the flow of traffic (sometimes multiple lanes worth) by guiding cars around a central island in a counterclockwise direction. Think of the Belmont Avenue circle near Roeding Park and Fresno Chaffee Zoo.
By design, this decreases speed and increases safety as entering or exiting cars must yield to other vehicles and (in the case of residential roundabouts) bicyclists and pedestrians.
Reactions to these neighborhood roundabouts point to a struggle that can happen in governance, Esparza says. Being responsive to the needs of a neighborhood can mean balancing sometimes conflicting concerns.
“Sometimes, it does not all line up exactly,” he says.
At that, Esparza put on hold the second traffic circle once he began hearing complaints. It’s now on his to-do list to figure out a way to reconstruct or redesign the circle at Wishon and Cortland avenues to make it better work for everyone.
“And then,” he says, “figure out the next one.”
Speed bumps were installed on North Echo Avenue south of McKinley Avenue. Photographed Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
A mini traffic circle is seen along North Echo Avenue south of Fresno High School at Pine Street Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
A car negotiates a roundabout on southbound North Wishon Avenue at East Cortland Avenue on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
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Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.