What if We Had a Pandemic and No One Cared--No Lives Matter, in US Highway
Fatalities Pandemic
“Yes, ’n’ and how many deaths will it take’ till he [a man] knows that
too many people have died.”
—“Blowing in the Wind” 1963
The analysis that follows this introduction outlines the Burlington and Chittenden County huge proportion statewide of high crash intersections and the lack of addressing those intersections with even a single roundabout built to date. But this data takes place in a nation which itself is in a pandemic of highway fatalities. Here are some of my thoughts on the larger question followed by the high crash intersection analysis.
There is a wholesale breakdown in our US highway fatality pandemic with its 21,000 yearly excess deaths extending from from top to bottom—the fed level, state (note a few states/provinces make the roundabout the standard, NY did it in 2005), metro planning (CCRPC) and our particular Burlington Department of Public Works. (My home town, Keene, NH has five going on seven roundabouts, including one on Main Street at the Keene State College/Post Office gateway to downtown paid for with $4 million property tax monies.) When it comes to highway safety in the United States a policy of “no lives matter” mostly prevails. I have come to the conclusion a mix of factors is involved including but limited to: simple resistance to change, lack of leadership at every level, malign and benign neglect, a black hole in highway engineering education in regard to systemic safety, publicly employed traffic engineers too often diverted from any safety concerns for those who walk, lack of a "transportation safety" Fauci--all a reflection of systemic failure. We all know now what systemic failure is, we are daily living or dying with it in the form of Covid-19.
Norway seems to have broken away from #s 2, 3, and 4 nations where in 1990 we stood at #1 (and Sweden dropped to 5th in the most recent numbers). Even admitting variance in national collection data, Norway latest year, 108 highway deaths versus Vermont average of about 70 now. They did not record a single "child" death--US 15 and under highway deaths top 2,000. Norway is now putting in median treatments on two lane rural roadways to prevent head on crashes and it has gotten measurable positive results. We cannot get protected bike lanes yet much less roundabouts.
Chittenden County—26% of State Population, 42% of 111 High Crash
Vermont Intersections (Burlington Even Worse!)
Chittenden County (County) and Burlington streets and roadways hold a disproportionate number of Vermont high crash intersections.
High crash intersections are those on major roads and streets averaging at least one injury a year in the most recent Vermont Agency of Transportation tabulation of 111. A large majority of high crash intersections (all but one in the case of Burlington) are signalized, a now mostly obsolete and dangerous technology. Most concerning is the apparent lack of any effort in either Burlington or Chittenden County to replace injury prone traffic signals with “best practices” roundabouts proven in Vermont downtowns averaging about one injury a decade. Roundabouts cut serious and fatal injuries by about 90%. (See Vermont high crash locations report here: https://vtrans.vermont.gov/sites/aot/files/highway/documents/highway/Formal%202012-2016%20High%20Crash%20Location%20Report.pdf )
America itself has suffered three decade collapse of highway safety in fatalities per mile of travel, slipping from 1st to 15th among nations since 1990, the first year a roundabout was built in the US. US now records 21,000 excess deaths compared to the performance of the top four nations. This is the very definition of a “highway fatality pandemic.” Add to this the 50% increase in pedestrian fatalities over the last decade which disproportionately affects African Americans and Hispanics. US excess deaths exemplify real carnage and permanent mark on the Federal Highway Administration whose funds traditionally drive all Vermont roadway capital investments.
Applying the national numbers to Vermont, about 30 of our 70 road fatalities per year are excess stemming from lack of “systematic safety” which begins with safe infrastructure investing. Unfortunately Chittenden County and Burlington high crash intersection data show them worst of the worst. Even more disturbing is not only the lack of attention to safety in investments in the County and Burlington but the specific inattention to dealing with high crash intersections—the “BTV Crash 20” high crash intersections injuries record of 28 injuries per year represents 18% of all injuries (including one fatal) tabulated in the 2012-2016 period. And those roughly 150 injuries a year are composed of about one bicyclist/pedestrian injury weekly and two car occupants weekly.
For the County—using the 1.4 injuries per year per BTV Crash 20 intersection—the frequency of injury (66 total) at the County’s 47 high crash intersections is above one per week!
There is a systemic failure to address unsafe intersections in the City and County. As the third 3-year term—9 years—of Mayor Weinberger administration nears it end, not a single one of the BTV Crash 20 intersections is scheduled for a roundabout. In fact there are no roundabouts in the County—a “metro area” and likely one of a handful in the nation without a single roundie. While a roundabout is on the drawing board in Colchester, Mayor Weinberger was handed ready to design/build with 100% federal funds a roundabout at the “rotary” on Shelburne Street bordering Christ the King Elementary School—and after nine years could not move to construction!! This intersection, known in the neighborhood as the “intersection of death,” is desperately wanted by those who live in the area. Now the target date for that roundabout has slipped to 2022. (Note the Burlington “intersection of death” was previously in the top five statewide but was taken off the list since the project was ticketed and programmed for final design and construction back about 2010.) Just this summer a demonstration of a roundabout at a BTV Crash 20 intersection was dropped by the Department of Public Works and now will be done in 2021—the first roundabout presence at any busy public intersection in the County. The roundabout situation in the County and City brings into question what the use of the term that safety is “critical” in highway investments (Burlington Transportation Plan, 2011) means in actual practice.
Vermont was an early leaders in US roundabouts in the mid and late 1990s, then faded. The first roundabout east of Vail, CO and north of Maryland was built in Montpelier in 1995 (19th in US) followed shortly by the first Manchester Center in 1997 and first 2-lane roundabout as well as interstate interchange in the northeast in 1999 (Brattleboro Keene-Turn). But by 2005 when NY State Department of Transportation adopted the “roundabouts first” regulations a few other states undertook significant roundabout installations (over 7,000 today in North America). The New Hampshire Department of Transportation leads now in New England,
State Numbers
Overall 41 of 255 Vermont municipalities recorded at least one high crash intersection 2012-2016. But only eight municipalities recorded more than three high crash intersections: Burlington 20; Bennington 9; Brattleboro and South Burlington 7 each; Colchester 5; and Essex, Williston and Winooski 4 each.
Obviously Burlington sticks out like a sore thumb with more than twice the high crash intersections of any town in the state. And the County towns listed (plus Richmond with 3) total of 47 amounts to 42% of the State total.
Since Chittenden County is the only “metro” in Vermont and its Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) has a yearly Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) planning funds entitlement of about $550,000 (2018). It is well known that Governor Phil Scott has been supportive of roundabouts in the past, recognizing their safety aspects as a race driver. The Winooski traffic circle often is referred to as a roundabout—it is not one and about five of the Montpelier sized roundabouts would fit in what is really an old traffic circle design and still leave plenty of room! The Winooski circle is in fact about the same size—500 feet by 200 feet—as the quarter mile oval at Thunder Road in Barre Town where many of Governor Scott’s racing victories occurred. It is also noteworthy that the former CCRPC transportation policy director has for more than five years has been director of VTrans Policy and Planning Division including during the time when the VTrans secretary retained and imposed six injury generating and global heating signalized intersections on Burlington when the issue of “best practices” roundabouts came up in 2015 revisions decisions on the Champlain Parkway design.
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Finally, AAA has been a recent Paul Revere in US highway safety (see their 2017 report https://aaafoundation.org/safety-benefits-of-highway-infrastructure-investments/ ) and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety have led in providing data and sounding the alarm starting with their 2001 research showing roundabouts reduce serious and fatal injuries about 90%. And we must be thankful for the Organization for Economic and Community Development which hosts the International Transport Forum which produces an annual report enabling us to understand the American road safety plight within modern nations as we have plummeted to the lower depths. https://www.itf-oecd.org/road-safety-annual-report-2019
