Posted on 03/06/2009 7:49:43 AM PST by SmithL
Motorists call it "suicide alley" and take 4-mile detours to avoid it. Pedestrians huddle on the sidewalk, cowering in fear. Merchants say it scares off customers.
But Berkeley has come up with a solution to the East Bay's most treacherous intersection - Gilman Street and Interstate 80, where traffic barrels through from 14 directions with no stoplights: a $10 million double roundabout.
"Roundabouts are all over Europe and Mexico. I think we'll get used to this here," said Berkeley City Councilwoman Linda Maio. "And the beauty of roundabouts is that if you don't get it the first time, you can just keep going around and around and around until you do."
The knot of cars, trucks, pedestrians and bicyclists at the Gilman interchange has been vexing and terrifying travelers for years. Stoplights are not possible because the four freeway ramps, two frontage roads and train tracks are so close together that a red light would instantly back up traffic onto the freeway and across the train tracks, creating potentially lethal gridlock.
The quagmire is intensified by the hundreds of drivers now shuttling to and from the Gilman soccer complex, which opened last fall. There are also trucks headed to Pacific Steel, kids bicycling to the waterfront or soccer fields, homeless people pushing shopping carts to the nearby recycling center, and shoppers hunting for a shortcut to Target.
In all, almost 20,000 vehicles a day pass through the intersection, and the number is expected to hit 27,000 in the next 20 years, according to a city traffic study.
After looking at numerous alternatives, Berkeley's transportation staff decided a double roundabout is the safest and most efficient answer.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
People panic and get angry when sodas change the can design.
Roundabout aren’t only cheaper to build and maintain than intersections, they move traffic quicker and eliminate head-on and t-bone collisions.
Whenever you propose improving something this way, people do their Dana Carvey “Grumpy Old Man” for a few weeks, then get used to it.
I avoid the one we have locally. It’s too small and should have been a T stop with a light.
We call them Rotarys here in MA, and we are getting RID of them.
Looking at Google Maps, those on/off ramps are screwy. Why did they do that in the first place? They could just push them back so that they meld with the service roads like normal on/off ramps. The other problem is the rail line is open, meaning no bridge. That is a big problem if that line is pretty active.
BOYCOTT BERKELEY
I was fine with the rotaries in Massachusetts. I just shut my eyes and stomped the gas.
Hey, it was a rental, and I’d bought the Collision Damage Waiver.
Starting with Sir Ted, MA drivers somehow got the idea that the ethanol fuel so beloved of your Greenies, went in the driver, not in the vehicle tank.
“Roundabouts would provide a Darwinian solution to the alcoholic driver problems in your Commonwealth.”
I go to a restaurant frequently that is on a circle and evidently to many people think it is fine driving through the center (which is a park) plowing through those cement pillars and cement retaining walls. Some were drunk others were going to fast around the circle and lost control of the car.
Head-ons, yes, but I was damn near t-boned in one last weekend. The circle is fairly small (too small, really), so, when you are in it, the drivers entering from any of the four directions have the opportunity to t-bone you as you exit 90-degrees to the right of their entry. Had they made the circle a little bigger, and made them turn to the right more as they entered, then, yes, the t-bones would become more like side-swipes.
Traffic circles are just a bit worse than that idiotic “must turn right to make a left turn” BS.
A Large Indy suburb spemt MILLIONS of tax dollars putting in Roundabouts, now they have begun ripping them out at busy intersections because the accident rate has SKYROCKETED....
Another advantage of the roundabout. It serves as a drunk-catcher.
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