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.
I have 9 traffic lights in about 3.5 miles to get to the freeway with another added for a pedestrian walk for a new mall being built (not active yet). It takes nearly 20 mins and more before getting on the on ramp where there is 1 more to contend with.
I wish someone would fix that!
A traffic circle with a inadequate radius has NOTHING to do with libertarian principles - it is poor engineering, plain and simple.
From the looks of things it appears there are at least three of them being built near where I live.
I'm livid about it. The major intersections were just done (badly) less than two years ago. Now it's all ripped up again. Roundabouts will be a nightmare. I feel like it's a big "FU" from the DOT to anyone who drives.
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