On the merry go ’round
By BILL DUNCAN
The Elderstatesman
Having worked in the newspaper business for 20 years in Long Beach, Calif., I am familiar with traffic circles because I had to make the rounds many times at the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard (State Route 19) and Pacific Coast Highway (then known as U.S Highway 101 Alternate.) Those days, the traffic innovation was simply called The Circle.
Today, we no longer refer to them as traffic circles. We’ve adopted the British term and we call them Roundabouts. Rightly so, since in the 1960s the Brits developed the modern day version of the old traffic circle. Roseburg is about to get its first major roundabout at the intersection of Aviation Drive and Edenbower Boulevard to accommodate anticipated increase in traffic flow once Costco opens for business down the road apiece. Construction on the roundabout will happen in the spring or summer of 2011.
Oddly enough, while I was familiar with the old traffic circle and had only seen a few roundabouts while traveling in England, I was fully introduced to roundabouts in the U.S. by former Roseburg mayor, Jeri Kimmel after she moved to Bend. That was only because when Jeri was Roseburg mayor she got the city to install more and more boulevard stops in town and I referred to her as the stop sign lady.
The city of Bend currently has 29 roundabouts in lieu of traffic signals at intersections, but Bend adds its own artistic touch to this traffic moving solution – very imaginative sculptures, life sized statues and colorful artwork. It is like driving through a museum.
Bend officials say the roundabouts move traffic and has reduced the rate of accidents. Perhaps I was just gawking, but seeing and admiring the artwork seemed to me a distraction for drivers. For example if you are making the roundabout at Franklin and 9th Street in Bend, you might be shocked to find a realistic looking Grizzly bear lurking among the pines. Or you might be startled by a flock of wild geese flying in formation overhead at Shevlin Park and NW Crossing. In the Old Mill District the driver is liable to encounter a school of Redside Trout, a native fish to the Deschutes River, swimming about with the wind.
Perhaps one of the most famous roundabout, existed long before someone called it a roundabout — the Place de l’Etoile around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The first British roundabout was built in Letchworth, England in 1909, intended partly as a traffic safety island for pedestrians. The first roundabouts in the United States were constructed in Nevada in 1990. Today there are approximately 2,000 roundabouts in the U.S., while France has some 20,000 and there are 10,000 in the United Kingdom.
Roundabouts require entering drivers to give way to all traffic within the roundabout, regardless of lane position. In some roundabouts exiting from an inner lane is permitted and exiting traffic has the right-of-way over entering traffic.
This should be interesting at that already busy Roseburg intersection that leads to restaurants, motels and two large retail lumber/hardware complexes. One saving grace is that the very nature of roundabouts requires a reduction in speed to about 15 to 25 miles an hour. In Roseburg’s mad scramble traffic flow, that remains to be seen.
Since in America we drive to the right, the circulation around the roundabout will be counter clockwise, while in those countries that drive to the left, like Great Britain, the movement is clockwise.
Bend officials are recommending that Roseburg hold training classes to prepare drivers for this new round about experience and say this was done in Bend before the roundabouts became just part of the driving experience in that city. Dublin, Ireland has a roundabout call Mad Cow. Perhaps we Roseburgians should start thinking up a proper name for the roundabout planned at Aviation Drive and Edenbower Blvd.
I expect not all suggestions would be suitable for a family newspaper.
(Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470.)