Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Drivers going in circles - and that's good / Roundabouts slow trattic, reduce injury acclde... Page 2 on <br /> <br />alternative." <br /> <br />Since New York started its roundabout-building program in the late 1990s, it has installed them at <br />42 intersections, and the projects often meet with stiff community resistance, McCulloch said. <br /> <br />"I've seen people who are pretty levelheaded get really emotional," he said. <br /> <br />The exact number of roundabouts in New York, or nationwide, is unclear since no single state or <br />federal agency keeps track of them all. <br /> <br />Richard Retting, a transportation engineer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, <br />estimates about 1,000 have been built so far, and the pace is accelerating as 23 states from Alaska <br />to Florida have active roundabout construction programs. <br /> <br />Roundabout proposals frequently evoke strong opposition from drivers, but those opinions quickly <br />change when people become familiar with them, Retting said. <br /> <br />An institute survey in three communities where roundabouts replaced stop-sign intersections <br />found 31 percent of drivers supported the roundabouts before construction, compared with 63 <br />percent shortly after they were built. <br /> <br />McCulloch attributes much of the opposition to roundabouts to people confusing them with the <br />older traffic circles and the consternation that they can sometimes cause drivers. <br /> <br />Corrine Weeks, a teacher from Voorheesville, N.Y., who said she became quite familiar with <br />roundabouts during an eight-month sabbatical in England in the late 1980s, doesn't like driving <br />through them. <br /> <br />"I just find them very uncomfortable," she said. ''You have to constantly be looking over your <br />shoulder, and it just doesn't feel safe to me having to basically guess what the other person is going <br />to do." <br /> <br />William Hotaling, a former public works superintendent from the village ofVoorheesville, was one <br />of the most vocal opponents and led a campaign against the state's plan to put a roundabout in his <br />community. <br /> <br />Nearly five years later, Hotaling grudgingly acknowledges the roundabout works the way <br />transportation planners said it would. <br /> <br />"It's not very attractive to look at, with the signs all around it," he said. "But does it work? Yes. I <br />can't argue with that. It does slow people down." <br /> <br />That slowing and the traffic "calming" that roundabouts create are largely why they're so much <br /> <br />http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-biniarticIe.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/01/20/MNG6UFKF7.DTL&type...l /31 /2008 <br />