AUBURN – Bill Acritelli went around the Auburn Mall on Friday afternoon.

And around.

Acritelli and his family from Jay were bound for Auburn’s Longhorn Steakhouse for their afternoon meal. Then they got caught up in the city’s new traffic roundabout.

“We went around and just came out, and somehow we wound up by the Auburn Mall,” Acritelli said. “We didn’t really know where we were going, and we just got lost.”

Acritelli wasn’t the only one confused by the city’s latest traffic control. The city unveiled the roundabout last week in the middle of Turner Street between the Wal-Mart/Lowes parking lot on the west side and Best Buy on the east. A second roundabout is being built north of Mount Auburn Avenue, between Lamey Wellehan and the Auburn Mall.

Valerie Estabrook of Greene is sure she cut someone off when she was driving to the restaurant Friday afternoon.

“I didn’t hear him honk or anything, but I’m sure I did,” she said. “I just got confused and forgot to yield.”

Roundabouts are smaller than rotaries and require traffic entering the circle to yield to the cars that are already there. The small size is designed to slow cars to about 15-20 miles-per-hour, letting them proceed through without coming to a complete stop. There’s only one lane through the circle.

The city decided to use traffic circles at the two shopping center entrances to keep traffic flowing along Turner Street. Rather than stopping traffic and allowing it to stack up – possibly blocking the Mount Auburn Avenue intersection – the roundabout is supposed to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Community Services Director Eric Labelle said there have been no complaints to Auburn Hall since the roundabout opened.

“It actually seems to be working pretty smoothly,” he said.

That’s the impression that Amanda Moody and Lydia Meserve had. They are visiting Livermore Falls from New Hampshire and made an afternoon trip to Best Buy.

“I actually think it made it easier to find,” Moody said. The pair were told they’d be able to see the Best Buy from the JC Penney parking lot, across Mount Auburn Avenue.

“We saw it, and just started driving and the roundabout just kind of guided us right in,” Meserve said.

Shannon Tisdale of Paris had the same reaction.

“It just makes a lot of sense, and it’s not hard to use,” she said.

Pauline Flores of Poland said she’ll probably get used to it.

“But right now, they need more signs telling people what to do,” she said. She didn’t know about the roundabout and drove past the signs warning drivers that it was open.

“Maybe they need to make it bright yellow or something,” she said. “I drove right past it.”

Kealeigh Sullivan of Oxford said she’ll wait and see until this winter is past.

“It seems too narrow for snow plowing,” she said. “Where is the snow supposed to stack up? So, we’ll see how it does after the winter is over.”