Posted on 08/29/2015 3:14:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Like other Wisconsinites, Rob Miller doesnt know how many traffic roundabouts the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has installed on state highways since DOT started replacing selected intersections with roundabouts 15 years ago.
Unlike other Wisconsinites, Rob Miller is a DOT spokesperson.
I dont know. I dont have those numbers, Miller replied when asked how many roundabouts DOT has installed since 2000.
In 1999, there were two traffic roundabouts in the entire state. Two years ago, the number was 268. At the time it was reported DOT had plans for more than 100 additional roundabouts.
Miller acknowledged DOT has more roundabouts in various stages of planning but didnt know how many.
We know theres a lot of interest in roundabouts, so were gathering all the numbers and facts and putting them into a report. It should have the answers to all your questions, Miller told Wisconsin Watchdog.
When will that report be released?
I dont know, Miller said.
Its that sort of vagueness that inspired State Rep. David Craig, R-Vernon, to draft a bill that gives local municipalities the power to reject any DOT plan for a roundabout.
I started thinking about this after attending a DOT public hearing in 2012, regarding a proposed roundabout on Highway 20 in East Troy, Craig explained. I asked the DOT engineers if they had taken into consideration what had just happened in Waukesha County with a roundabout that had to be reengineered and what that might mean for the one they were now proposing. They said they had not heard about the problem even though it was right up the road from East Troy.
In 2012, a roundabout in Waukesha County at the intersection of Highways 59 and 83 had to be expanded less than a year after DOT installed it because the department had misjudged the traffic flow of the intersection. That expansion cost taxpayers $165,000.
Miller didnt have any information on how many roundabouts have required alterations after installation.
Im concerned they are not being deliberative enough when it comes to deciding where to place these roundabouts, Craig said.
His bill would allow the governing board of a municipality to veto DOTs decision to replace a local intersection with a roundabout.
Craig introduced a similar bill during the past legislative session, but that bill never made it out of committee. DOT strongly opposed the bill.
Its not just that people dont like roundabouts and finding them stressful to drive through, they also affect local businesses. In the hearing last session we heard from businesses who said their trucks had to alter their routes and drive miles out their way to avoid roundabouts, because they are difficult for large trucks to use, Craig told Wisconsin Watchdog.
Weve also heard since then from beverage companies who say that because of the way the roundabouts are engineered in our state, the loads on their delivery trucks will shift and that can cause thousands of dollars in breakage.
Traffic roundabouts started becoming more common in the United States in the mid-1990s when the U.S. Department of Transportation began pushing state transportation agencies to install them.
Traffic engineers favor roundabouts as a way of decreasing both the number and severity of accidents. Roundabouts force motorists to slow down and since all traffic flows in the same direction, the opportunity for head-on or T-bone collisions is eliminated.
Studies in Wisconsin show a 9 percent drop in accidents after an intersection is replaced with a roundabout.
I agree that roundabouts can have an impact on improving safety. They make people slow down. And thats what I want DOT to do, too. Slow down, be more deliberative, gather more input from local officials, local residents and local businesses. Make sure a roundabout is really appropriate for a location and that its engineered correctly for that location, Craig said.
I dont think local officials will just automatically oppose new roundabouts. But I think giving them the power this bill does will lead to a better give-and-take between local officials and DOT, and make local input more impactful.
From what I can tell, DOT is going to be continue to be aggressive on constructing these things. But the final decision shouldnt just be made with a DOT rubber stamp, Craig said.
Watch (if you can) a driver slow down, maintain a distance and never stop moving, even in (almost) stalled traffic
We NEVER want to shift nor interrupt our favorite radio station
We sit high enough we can see ahead to provide a huge hole for the big truck wanting to merge in ... and never break momentum
THAT'S the mentality of using a rotary .... KNOW what it is .... WHERE you're going, PREPARE in advance your line of attack and just DO it.
easy peasy and Go 'head, gran'maw ... you can get in ....
maybe that is why the state song is “on Wisconsin.” they’d forget and sit stopped forever otherwise?
I was just in the Detroit area for a week of training and heard that many roundabouts are being installed there. What I’m hearing is they are good once people get used to them, but there is a real learning curve.
I suspect we’ll be fine with them as they become more common, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to them. It’s one area I’ll be fine with letting automated cars taking over for me and saving me the stress of dealing with it. ;-)
Americans have been SO intimidated and terrorized by SO MANY things in life, (did that food be processed with peanuts?) ... they WANT to be stopped, given a time out, before THEY ARE ALLOWED (red, MAY I?) to continue
red lights and stop signs are for discourteous people that don't know how to drive.
Kansas has the same issue.
There’s also the mentality of “THIS IS MY LANE! I REFUSE TO BE COURTEOUS AND MOVE!” It makes merging hell.
I found it more stress free driving in Los Angeles than Wichita.
Kansas City is a whole different matter.
Speed limit: 60; Construction Zone, Speed limit: 40. I’m doing 70 and being passed like I’m standing still.
They make sense in traffic flow sometimes. Stop, start, stop, start can be wearing on time, fuel, brakes, and patience.
You park your car and find yourself whistling
Hi chief ..... Naaahhhh ... piece o'cake
Does anybody care about visual clutter? Each roundabout in the little town adjacent to us has between 13 and 15 warning signs facing each direction (times 4) while a normal stoplight has 4 (maximum 8) warning signs. 60 warning signs protruding up in the air on a rural road is a little excessive. And the speed limit sign for the roundabout? It’s really small and can be easily missed.
I’m not thanking ex-Gov. Doyle for anything!
Wisconsin has many, many tractor-trailers and much farm machinery on the roads. Roundabouts DON’T work well with those.
It is a solution that drivers do not request, and do not like after the fact.
That kind of defeats the purpose of driving, no?
They ought to be finding ways of increasing the speed of travel, not decreasing it.
Very true. What is not taken into consideration with traffic models, is these kind of decisions that people make.
Traffic Circle navigation is a matter of balancing courtesy with aggressiveness. There are 3 traffic circles in Flemington, NJ... 2 of which have been screwed around with because nitwits don’t know how to drive.
The 2 circles on RT 22 in Alpha have both been destroyed and turned into actively signalled intersections (now featuring red light cameras).
The Somerville Circle on 202 exists as as a shell of itself with a massive flyover bridge and signals.
The goal shoukd be is to flow traffic naturally without the need for millions of Dollars worth of traffic signals that require mandatory monthly testing and repair.
Or like the idiots here that stop in the roundabout to let other people in.
The end result, a population of drivers who are all weather, all terrain, and all conditions of visibility trained, knowledgeable, and capable. There is a reason why the country that invented the motorcar, really invented the superhighway, manages it all so well even with unlimited speed limits in places.
The fault ain't in the roundabouts.
As opposed to here in SW Pennsylvania where we have what looks like four or three way stop signs where one direction doesn't have to yield, including sometimes where even those making the left has right of way? They seem to work fine for us locals familiar with the particular intersection, but I recall how frustrating they were when I first moved here. To be safe, you'd have to stop at every such intersection and figure out the signage from every direction from the shape of the back of the signs before proceeding.
We are getting our first roundabouts installed in the next couple of years . . . so we're going to have to learn the rules.
I've noticed two places in the country have a lot of roundabouts-- New England, which I suppose is a heritage thing, and cities near I-15 in the Rocky Mountain states. I'm not sure who to blame for the later. Maybe the Mormon pioneers who came from New England?
And here I thought that was a SW Pennsylvania thing.
No wonder our people cheer for the Green Bay Packers once the Steelers are out of the playoffs.
I learned all about the conservation of linear momentum in my dad's diesel '82 VW Rabbit. 52 screamin' ponies of RAW naturally aspirated diesel power! Do NOT take your foot off the throttle... NEVER touch the brake... and you'll be good.
I’ve been driving since 1963.
I still haven’t learned to like these circles.
see my #24
In my experience, when you are on the Interstate 78 just east of Far Hills, NJ and the Yenta in her Lexus SUV won't let you merge, I find what works best is driving a fully depreciated vehicle and just merging anyways.
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