A blogger over on the Spokesman-Review's 'Huckleberries' blog complained this morning that roundabouts aren't necessary in many cases and are just the current traffic 'fad.'
He does acknowledge that some make sense and commenters on the post point out the safety aspect of roundabouts, but 'Kootenai Conservative' implies that engineers are getting carried away. What's your take on roundabouts? There are undeniable safety advantages to roundabouts but do you think there are too many and they are just a fad or is the construction of several new ones in the area warranted?
2 comments:
They are interesting, first one I saw was riding the bus in Spokane on Wellesley and A Street. They had a lot of discussions on the city council about that one. WASHDOT is planning a huge one on Wellesley in Hillyard for the on and off ramps of the NSC, and that is a route I use regularly. Looks like a few years off yet, but still much better than the narrow underpass they have there now.
That NSC one looks like it could be challenging for people who aren't used to roundabouts. It's kind of a double-roundabout, almost a figure eight, which tends to throw people off the first time they use one. I ended up in the wrong lane the first time I went through one like that in the Tri-Cities and had to go around twice in order to get out of the roundabout at the right place. Kind of embarrassing.
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