They have enough of Bartlesville’s roundabout constructed that you can actually see how it will look.
I took this picture this morning, and even though it conforms to “The State of the Practice”, I still think it will be hazardous, especially to pedestrians. “The State of the Practice” says that the crosswalk should go through the island about one car length away from the circle, and this crosswalk pretty much conforms. I think it is still way to close, and that a car just leaving the circle will not be expecting a pedestrian, and a tragedy will result.
I first became involved in roundabout design back in my Metroplan days in the mid 1990s in Little Rock, and even designed several. Back then, the practice was to put the crossing beyond the island, not through the middle of it. In the 2000 edition of the MUTCD, the crosswalk is shown as beyond the island.
Interestingly enough, the 2003 version of the manual showed the crosswalks going through the islands.
So, what is currently “State of the Practice” wasn’t always state of the practice, or at least not prior to 2003. In my opinion, the pre-2003 practice was the right practice. And I am not a lone voice.
The Clearwater Beach Roundabout is called “The Mother of all Florida Roundabouts” on the RoundaboutsUSA.com website. http://www.roundaboutsusa.com/ Interestingly enough, this major roundabout moved the crosswalks back away from the circle, which means that the current “State of the Practice” is flawed.
In this photo of the Clearwater Beach Roundabout, the area highlighted in red is where the crosswalk used to be. Notice how cars are stopped over the old crosswalk. Hmm. Seems like the old standard was the best standard.
So, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on this roundabout, only to have to spend tens of thousands more to “improve” it because it was dangerous to pedestrians. Perhaps a bit more thought should have been used in the original design. We are, after all, engineers, and we should be using engineering judgment, not just jumping on the bandwagon of another engineer’s judgment. Unfortunately, my fellow engineers have gotten lazy and can’t think for themselves anymore, and tend to grab onto whatever “fad” is out there instead of fully vetting the idea BEFORE spending the public dollar. But hey, it’s the public’s money, so who cares, right?
The citizens of Bartlesville have been told time and again have safe and wonderful the roundabout will be, how it will be the cure to all our woes. Shoot, it will even bathe the kids!
Bill Baranowski, the administration of the RoundaboutsUSA is an expert on the subject, and even he has given talks (I have attended some of them) and written papers expressing some skepticism. Here is an excellent paper about pedestrian safety issues-
http://www.k-state.edu/roundabouts/news/Baranowskipaperfinal.pdf
He also has some great links articles about roundabouts, both pro and con. One recent one from California–
NEW ROUNDABOUT IN SANTA CRUZ BEACH AREA DOES LITTLE TO EASE TRAFFIC
Posted: 06/02/2011 09:03:22 PM PDT
Click photo to enlarge
The new beach roundabout at Pacific Avenue and Center Street is problematic… (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)
SANTA CRUZ – The recently reconfigured beach area intersection that filters traffic to Main Beach and the Municipal Wharf was hardly the surefire solution to making the drive a breeze during the first busy weekend of the summer season.
Many motorists and nearby business owners complained that the roundabout at Center Street and Pacific Avenue was often extremely congested with cars at a standstill during Memorial Day weekend – even more jammed than the old four-way stop sign intersection that had been there.
They say the intersection was particularly bad on Sunday with motorists lined up, sometimes all the way to Laurel Street, trying to make their way to the beach.
“Cars were stopped dead in front of the store,” said Daniel Strawn, owner of Pacific Avenue Cycles. “It was pretty packed down here. No matter how fast the roundabout goes, it still backs up here.”
Santa Cruz Public Works officials completed the $1 million roundabout in front of Depot Park earlier this year, replacing the stop signs. A second roundabout is planned later this year at Beach Street in front of the wharf.
Public Works Director Mark Dettle said the roundabout “worked well,” but conceded that the intersection did become overwhelmed with heavy traffic during the weekend afternoons.
Dettle said he drove through the intersection several times during the weekend to drop off and pick up his daughter at the wharf. On Sunday afternoon, he said it took almost 10 minutes to drive from the Police Department on Center Street to the wharf, about half a mile.
“It worked fine,” Dettle said. “The whole beach area was overwhelmed. There was just way too much traffic.”
Santa Cruz police officers took video of the weekend traffic jams to share with Public Works officials so they can come up with plans to improve traffic flow for summer tourists.
Deputy Chief Steve Clark said the roundabout was packed with cars unable to move through the circular drive quickly primarily because traffic was tied up at Beach Street.
The elimination of the stop sign on Pacific Avenue in front of the Las Palmas Taco Bar made it difficult for drivers to turn off Second Street, which added to the beach area’s overall traffic headaches during the weekend, Clark said.
“Sunday was just one of those days. It’s not the roundabout’s fault,” he said. “We just get more cars than our roads can handle. It’s a blessing and a curse.”
Keith Hodgson, who has owned Electric Sierra Cycles for 12 years on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Center Street, believes the new configuration is more dangerous than before because cars don’t have to stop before turning right onto Pacific. He said cars now fly by at 20 mph, which he says poses a threat for pedestrians and cyclists.
“This intersection is going to be a disaster this summer,” Hodgson said. “The city basically turned this into a freeway. This is wrong.”
I loved the comment from the Public Works Director – “It worked fine”. Apparently, it didn’t, but who can blame him for denying the obvious? One million dollars worth of crow is a lot of crow to eat!
Here’s another one from Washington state-
WOODLAND ROAD PLAN SHOCKS BUSINESSES
Narrower pavement, approved two years ago, changes traffic
Photo by Gordon Oliver Darlene Johnson, co-owner of Woodland Truck Line, examines a Schurman Road reconstruction project that reduces the roadway’s width by six feet. Business owners in the industrial area have protested the road-narrowing project, but city officials say it’s too late to change course.
By Gordon Oliver
Columbian Staff Reporter Sunday, June 5, 2011
WOODLAND — The way Darlene Johnson sees things, narrowing a road in an industrial area and building roundabouts that are difficult for trucks to maneuver is no way to attract new businesses or keep existing ones happy.
But Johnson, co-owner with her husband of Woodland Truck Line Inc. on Schurman Way in Woodland, is irritated by the small details as well as the large. The city’s decision to narrow Schurman Way, which came as a surprise to Johnson and other business owners, also eliminates a shoulder that she and others used as a bike lane.
“It’s just crazy,” Johnson said last week, eyeing newly installed curbs that cut six feet off a roadway just off Interstate 5 that serves distribution companies. “Who would have thought something like this could happen?”
Johnson and her business neighbors on Schurman Way learned the size-shrinking details of the road project when an employee of PDM Steel Service Center asked a road construction worker about the job. Word spread quickly. A petition circulated among business owners in the Woodland Industrial Park on May 20, and a rushed meeting was set for a week later with Mayor Chuck Blum.
But already it was too late. Blum did not respond to requests for comment, but in a May 26 letter to Woodland Industrial Park business owners, he wrote that reconstructing the road at 44 feet would add $450,000 to the project’s cost, of which the city would pay an estimated $364,000. The project as it now stands will cost $1.86 million, including $622,000 for a new roundabout at Schurman Way and Dike Access Road.
Schurman Way has certainly been a wide street, covering 44 feet. Its lanes, one in each direction and a center lane, are 14 feet wide, with a 1-foot shoulder, or fog line, on each side. The reconstruction, required in part because of deteriorating pavement, reduces the roadway to 36 feet and the travel lanes to 13 feet. The reclaimed space between the old and new curbs was being filled with dirt last week.
Johnson says that the extra width now allows long trucks to enter and exit driveways without having to swing into opposite-direction lanes. The one-foot shoulder on each side also offered a measure of safety for bicyclists. Cyclists often used Schurman Way on their way from town to the Columbia River.
Then there are those roundabouts. The Washington State Department of Transportation constructed two of them on Dike Access Road to improve traffic flow between the freeway and Walmart, which opened in February. The new roundabout will be at the junction of Dike Access Road and Schurman Way.
Tough for trucks
The roundabouts are designed with a low-rise section, elevated 3 inches above the paved surface, designed to accommodate truck wheels. But Nelson Holmberg, the Port of Woodland’s executive director, says truckers complain that top-heavy loads are unstable when trucks climb the 3-inch rise, while low-lying trucks bottom out. The port was trying to recruit one tenant that would have brought an new company to the area, but “when they found out about roundabouts decided not to come here,” Holmberg said.
Chris Tams, WSDOT’s Columbia Gorge area engineer, said the agency’s regional administrator was concerned that the roundabouts are rough on truck tires and a “pretty significant bump” for truckers. The pavement around the roundabouts, installed in winter weather to accommodate Walmart’s opening, is already deteriorating and will need to be replaced at no cost to the state, Tams said. WSDOT will ask the contractor to modify the pavement to shrink the 3-inch height difference, he said. Tams said he believed the roundabouts were working well overall.
Steve Branz, Woodland’s public works director, said city officials scoped the Schurman Way project early in 2009. Woodland’s public works committee, which includes three City Council members, approved the narrowing of the street at that time as a way to trim costs, he said. “It was brought to the (city) council’s attention that this was the course we wanted to go,” he said.
The engineer still feels the project is a good one, but acknowledges that the city should have talked to the property owners.
While Johnson appreciates an acknowledgement of errors along the way, she’s irate that nothing will change as a result.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but a business goes out of business if it doesn’t correct its mistakes,” she said. “Government will leave the mistake, and we have to live with it.”
xSo, despite the facts that the businesses hate the roundabout, businesses are staying away because of the roundabout, and trucks have issues with the roundabout, the engineer still thinks the project is a good one. Another city official unwilling to admit that his idea may just be a mistake.
So, my fellow Bartians, we are not alone! I predict that when the roundabout turns out to be the disaster I think it will be, your city officials will deny the obvious and say that “it works” and that “the project was a good one.” And we will suffer the consequences!
