In Carmel, driving around in circles isn’t a symptom of being lost; it’s a way of life. Despite its small size, the Indiana city has more roundabouts than any other burg in the U.S. [...]
The thing most people don’t know is how much money is saved by converting traffic signals into roundabouts. Our city engineer’s office has found that on average, roundabouts in Carmel have cost $250,000 less to build than signalized intersections and they are much less expensive to maintain [...].
— citylab.com
While Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard talks about "unheralded benefits" of roundabouts (and the potential impact of Trump's infrastructure plans on his city's 102 roundabouts) in the CityLab article, reader douglasss points out an often overlooked benefit of this approach to intersection design over the conventional 4x4 species in the comment section:
"An added benefit of roundabouts is that (if they are spaced close enough) they eliminate the need for center turning lanes, thus narrower roads. Instead of needing a center turning lane to make a left hand turn, you just go to the next roundabout and turn around. This also allows for mid road tree lined medians, which center turning lanes destroy."
Related stories in the Archinect news:
5 Comments
Does that 102 include traffic circles as well? 102 roundabouts seems hard to believe...
Martin, what is the difference between a roundabout and a traffic circle? You can look at Carmel on Google Maps and see all of them.
Maybe scale or the number of lanes?
Or per Wikipedia "Contrary to a roundabout, where entering traffic always yields to traffic already in the circle and merges in directly, the entrances to traffic circles are three-way intersections either controlled by stop signs, traffic signals, or not formally controlled"
Their position on "car culture" is fairly self-evident.
I wonder if the size of these roundabouts will have an impact on density and place-making in the long run, if that can even occur. To the west of the historic core, the size of those circles and right of ways seems more like separations for the individual developed communities, while facilitating easy entrance and exit to the enclaves.
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