Posted on 08/29/2015 3:14:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Like other Wisconsinites, Rob Miller doesn’t 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 don’t know. I don’t 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 didn’t know how many.
“We know there’s a lot of interest in roundabouts, so we’re 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 don’t know,” Miller said.
It’s 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 didn’t have any information on how many roundabouts have required alterations after installation.
“I’m 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 DOT’s 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.
“It’s not just that people don’t 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.
“We’ve 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 that’s 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 it’s engineered correctly for that location,” Craig said.
“I don’t 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 shouldn’t just be made with a DOT rubber stamp,” Craig said.
Bill introduced to allow local municipalities to have say on new roundabout installations.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
A few were installed at select intersections here in Wichita, KS.
If someone knows the rules, it is fine.
Otherwise it can be frustrating as hell. People either barging in and not yielding, or people who treat it as a stop sign.
My little community successfully fought the installation of one ONLY because our little town had never given over the rights to our road to the State, despite their many attempts to seize it. Unfortunately, the state came back and installed 2 more up the road on the same road in the adjoining town.
It occurred to me that a roundabout could be confusing for another reason. It contrasts to the usual intersection rule of who yields to whom when meeting simultaneously at right angles. The occupants of the circle have the right of way and they are coming from the left, not the right.
Good point.
But it is not difficult if one simply remembers yield to the roundabout. Rather simple.
In the east, like New Jersey, they are eliminating these roundabouts because they are a major cause of traffic congestion.
Yes, the average motorist has no clue what to do in these traffic circles, either coming to a complete stop (causing accidents), not yielding (causing accidents) or not being in the correct lane to depart the traffic circle (causing accidents).
The roundabouts are fine for light traffic, but once levels rise beyond a certain point, they become nightmares.
Do they put up Yield signs at all the entrances? There ought to be a “continue” sign in the roundabout itself, but I have never seen such a thing.
There are yield signs, thats about it.
It might be almost superior if all the intersections to it were four way stops. Then everybody would know to stop and there’d be no guessing.
Ask Wisconsin State Troopers and they may just tell you roundabouts do work when/if people get used to them.
While I agree, we have way more than necessary I also anticipate we will se some of them removed at some time in the future. I’m taking a wait and see attitude to that happening.
Roundabouts also increase an intersections ability to handle traffic volume. Which can increase the volume seen on roads that feed them, as many people look for the quickest path to their destination.
If large trucks have trouble with them and avoid them as mentioned in the article, that would also tend to attract more small vehicles.
Our little town replaced a four way stop intersections with a round a bout. A few months later they put the four way stop signs back up. A lot of money wasted to get back where they were.
Traffic lights make people slow down and cost around $100,000 each, while “roundabouts” aka circles do the same thing basically costing $1,000,000 each on the low end ... Thank ex-Gov Doyle for speeding up the program while attempting to bankrupt WI.
That probably 5-10% of the driving public understand to begin with . . . .
Depends on where they live. Disregarding this for very long in places like suburbs, if not getting them tickets or accidents, gets them honked and cussed at.
Truck bypasses at roundpoints are common in Europe.
Have spent months in towns that had nothing but roundpoints and it’s always amazing: after a few weeks I realize I have no stress when driving.
Unlike the U.S., where backups at poorly managed intersections lead to constant overcrowding and extremely high stress.
(I just pass them on the shoulder).
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