Is that so? Let us follow what happens when we go through the Galactic Longitudes:

at l=20° we see that the radial velocities of gas in the Plane have a wide span, from -30 to +80 km/s. Gas with positive velocities is located in the inner disk, i.e. within the sun's orbit around the Galactic Centre, as can be seen from the Radial Velocity Tool.

at l=40° there is strong emission at +30 km/s, from an arm of the inner disk. But also, there is emission at about -40 km/s, already slightly above the Plane, which belongs to an exterior spiral arm.

at l=60° the strongest emission is at +10 km/s, from an arm of the inner disk. At high latitudes, radial velocities approach 0 km/s, thus this is local gas which shows some motion away from us, like an expanding shell. The exterior arm is now found at -60 km/s.

at l=80° the strongest emission is at +5 km/s in the Plane. The arm of the inner disk is no longer visible. Instead, there is emission from two exterior spiral arms, at -30 and -70 km/s, resembling the map of l=90°. Both arms are above the Plane, at about +2° latitude.

at l=120° the three arms are still visible, as is the warping. The outermost one is fairly faint.

at l=150° there is strong emission at -30 km/s from the exterior arm.

in the direction of the anti-centre the spread of radial velocities is rather narrow, about +/-20 km/s. Since motion in purely circular orbits would produce zero radial velocities for all spiral arms, this fact mainly indicates that the motion of the gas clouds indeed is close to circular orbits. Note the asymmetry at high latitudes: far above the Plane there seems little gas, but far below there is an appreciable amount of gas, with slightly positive velocity. The interpretation would be that in the solar vicinity there is little neutral hydrogen in the northern hemisphere, but expanding gas in the southern part.

at l=210° strong emission is seen at +10 km/s, which might be the local expanding gas, also seen at high southern latitudes. There is also quite a strong feature at +45 km/s, which would be an external spiral arm in the Plane.

already at l=220° the picture has changed appreciably: strong emission is seen at +15 km/s, perhaps local gas or perhaps an outer arm, but a prominent outer arm is found at +60 km/s.

at l=230° the structure has become more complex, with three or even four features that can be distinguished: two outer arms at +75 and +50 km/s, a strong component at +20 km/s which could be another external arm and which extends below the Plane, and weaker emission high above the Plane with +5 km/s. Most interestingly, the two outer arms form almost a mirror image of the structures seen at l=90°: the +75 km/s arm lies below the Plane and below the +50 km/s feature.

It thus seems that near l=90° the outer disk is bent up a bit, and it seems possible that at the opposite side it is bent down ... unfortunately, the positions around l=270° are not observable from Europe, but the data for l=230 are already highly suggestive!