Roundabouts gaining ground in the US

But Americans not comfortable

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 19, 10.

Roundabouts are being installed in more and more American communities, despite the public’s “irrational opposition” to a safer alternative to conventional American intersections, according to the New York Times:

Traffic is going in circles. Armed with mounting data showing that roundabouts are safer, cheaper to maintain and friendlier to the environment, transportation experts around the country are persuading communities to replace traditional intersections with them.

Appearances notwithstanding, roundabouts, such as the one in Mt. Rainier, Md., are not the same thing as rotaries or traffic circles, experts say.
There’s just one problem: Americans don’t know how to navigate them.

“There’s a lot of what I call irrational opposition,” said Eugene R. Russell Sr., a civil engineering professor at Kansas State University and chairman of a national task force on roundabouts, sounding mildly exasperated in a telephone interview. “People don’t understand. They just don’t understand roundabouts.”

But many are being forced to learn, 25 years after Clark Griswold captured the public’s unease with roundabouts in “European Vacation,” spending a full day circumnavigating London’s famous Lambeth Bridge roundabout — “There’s Big Ben, kids! Parliament!” — unable to escape its inner lane.

The Department of Transportation does not keep statistics on roundabouts, but experts agree that they are proliferating rapidly. They point to Wisconsin, which has built about 100 roundabouts since 2004, and plans to build 52 more in the 2011 construction season alone. Maryland is closing in on 200. Kansas has nearly 100.

All told, there are about 2,000 roundabouts in this country, most built in the last decade, according to Edward Myers, a senior principal at Kittelson & Associates, a transportation engineering and planning firm.

The Houston area has several roundabouts, however some, like the Hermann Park Traffic Circle, do not actually function like a normal roundabout, because the yield signs are set in an unconventional manner that does not allow the safety and efficiency operational benefits that are possible. However, some, like the Washington Avenue roundabout are functioning in the normal free flowing way used across Europe.

(Image Credit: Washington on Westcott Roundabout Initiative)