5 Intersections In Rockford That Should Be Roundabouts
There was another accident in the Auburn roundabout the other day.
I've always been astonished by the perception of the Auburn roundabout, it has many detractors. It's understandable. Not every fender bender is reported but every fender bender in the roundabout is worthy of at least a blurb on social media.
It's pretty widely accepted that roundabouts are generally safer and less congested than an intersection with stoplights. The number of serious injuries also plummet, it's just inherent in the design, you have to slow down to go through a traffic circle. So even if minor incidents do see a slight bump up, the serious accidents have almost vanished.
The main factor in making a traffic circle more dangerous is the unfamiliarity of the driver. So instead of taking the roundabout out, let's put more in around the city. Give people some practice.
I'm sure it would be the same thing if we had been using roundabouts for 100 years and someone wanted to put in traffic lights?
You mean I have to remember what color means what?
You're just going to let cars race past stationary cars AND pedestrians at 45 MPH?!?! Sure.
So, I have to make a complete stop and just stare at this magic light box until it changes, sometimes for up to 2 minutes?
You think people will just listen to a light?
I mean it writes itself.
So, let's put in some more traffic circles around the city.
I sent out some texts to the other morning show hosts to see what they thought. Here's what we came up with.
The Alpine/Broadway/Newburg/5 Points Intersection:
This submission is from Double T. Perfect example. You can rarely catch all the lights in this area to make it a smooth trip. Plus it was the site of one of the most viral vehicle accidents of the past decade.
Could a roundabout have prevented this? Absolutely not, but it's one of my favorite videos.
Harrison and Perryville:
This comes from Zim at Q98.5. I'll be honest, I rarely make it out this far south but according to Zim it <quote> $^@&$ @$$ <unquote> in the morning. I'll take her word for it. Get it roundabouted.
Mulford and Riverside
This is not the first time I've complained about this intersection. And it probably won't be my last. The double turn lane needs to be fixed already, so let's just scrap the whole thing. We don't need the extra stop when going between Alpine and Perryville.
State and Alpine
Number one with a bullet for me. This intersection is terrible. It cannot be any worse with a roundabout. I will not argue about this.
State and Wyman
This one is courtesy of MJ down at ZOK. I love it. Let's install them all over downtown and put some more planters and flowers in the middle. It would make downtown look awesome. No traffic lights, just flowers. Great trade. MJ also wanted me to include the video of the roundabout in Kentucky.
Amazing. I had not seen that before. I will say that the lanes are horribly marked, but that's pretty embarrassing. It's nice to see that we're better than Eastern Kentucky, no offense.