Monday, January 9, 2012

CITY GOAL: BECOME A ONE TRAFFIC SIGNAL TOWN WITH 100 ROUNDABOUTS


ROUNDABOUTS IN CARMEL, IN—ONE TRAFFIC SIGNAL AND 100 ROUNDABOUTS, AND THE TIDE RISES TO THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (INDOT)

The leadership of four state and provincial transportation departments which adopted “roundabouts only” policies masks the individual town and city leadership in the U.S. roundabout revolution. (New York since 2005, Virginia, British Columbia and Alberta represent the current jurisdictions with “roundabouts only” policies.)

Two recent related news reports presents a clear picture of the interaction of local leadership resulting change at a state department of transportation. First, the Economist reports the Carmel, IN, population 79,191, emergence as U.S. roundabout capital. Second, the Indianapolis Business Journal last week documents how the Carmel innovation and experience fosters a major investment in roundabouts at INDOT.

Carmel [IN], just north of Indianapolis, has 70 of them [roundabouts]...The mayor, Jim Brainard, built the first roundabout in Carmel in 1997...It was so successful that today Carmel is the roundabout capital of America and the mayor plans to rip out all but one of his remaining 30 traffic lights.”
The Economist November 19, 2011


INDOT [Indiana Department of Transportation] has identified 31 intersections statewide for roundabout construction over the next five years, including a dozen in the [Indianapolis] metro area.

That’s less than half of Carmel’s 70-plus roundabouts—but a tenfold increase from the three roundabouts INDOT has today.
IBJ.com [Indianapolis Business Journal] January 7, 2012

A look at the Carmel “Thouroughfare Pan Map,”
http://carmel.in.gov/index.aspx?page=211 gives a picture which looks like a two-dimension tinker toy design with lots of sticks connected by those cylindrical pieces. The City also has more than a dozen freeway interchanges, including an interstate. The “one traffic signal-100 roundabouts” goal of Mayor Brainard along with the department and provincial “roundabouts only policies” brings into question why other jurisdictions continue to install and upgrade, essentially, unsafe and obsolete traffic signals. Besides, roundabouts foster a vibrant walking mode, reduce fuel use and pollution, aid public transit, reduce delay for all, beautify and enable higher density land use and constrain sprawl pressures. Finally, the facts here suggest that the traffic engineering community itself need to consider the professional ethics of continuing to recommend design new and upgraded traffic signal systems.

January 9, 2012



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