First, let me be upfront with you: I'm a big fan of roundabouts, or traffic circles as they are sometimes called, and this piece is to encourage more construction in Arkansas.
Roundabouts have been around for a long time. The first roundabout in England was constructed in 1909, but in the USA, we are woefully behind, especially in Arkansas. I would guess we have 50 or so, with Conway currently having the most at 31, and Fayetteville being a close second. However, we should have several hundred.
The nearest roundabout to El Dorado is just south of Homer, Louisiana, of all places. That's right, and when Vertis and I head for Shreveport to the Superior Grill, we zip through that roundabout never stopping, just slowing down.
One of the best Arkansas roundabouts is near the entrance to the Little Rock Zoo. Not only is that roundabout a great improvement in safety and traffic flow, the center features a topnotch piece of sculpture, "Lion Pride" by Darrell Davis. Compare that roundabout with a blank four stop intersection, and you will wonder why the Highway Department and our city-county governments don't make roundabouts mandatory.
Just think, if we added a thousand roundabouts to our state and put in sculptures or landscaping, they would not only improve safety and save money, but be great visual features.
Actually, I started thinking about roundabouts in El Dorado recently when I drove down Washington Avenue to Hillsboro Street, to where the 1925-era viaduct going to be part of a four lane Highway 82 improvement. The Arkansas Highway Department is going to waste an estimated one million dollars to take down the viaduct, which was constructed in 1925 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Then they are going spend only God knows how much money to build another one.
We don't need a new multi-million dollar viaduct! El Dorado had 22 train arrivals per day in 1925, and now we have two or three, plus multiple rail crossings both north and south.
We should keep the viaduct, put in a roundabout and save mega-millions. We could do what Europeans have done to old, non-used bridges, and put restaurants, bars. and shops on the viaduct. Little Rock should do the same thing instead of taking down the Broadway Bridge.
I go way back with roundabouts to when our now-adult kids were 13 and 15 and we were on vacation in Scotland. We flew into Edinburgh to begin a two week driving vacation in northern Scotland. We ended up in Inverness in northern Scotland, and I spent a lot of driving time on one lane roads with pull-outs to let oncoming cars pass, which makes for cautious driving. Ashley and I hiked in the heather, which is something like miniature mesquite, and the family went to church and found out some folks sing 10 verses of Amazing Grace. It was a great trip, but the start proved challenging.
We picked up our rent car in downtown Edinburgh, and I drove into heavy traffic on the left side of the road. Then immediately the street intersected a roundabout. With the kids and Vertis yelling to enter the roundabout, I pulled into a stream of traffic, and immediately spotted the yield sign. Of course I yielded, and kept on yielding as we whizzed by our exit with, "That's our street!" being pounded in my ears.
In fact, I circled five times before I managed to exit. That's when I learned you yield when entering, and have the right-of-way when exiting.
Roundabouts are a safer alternative to traffic signals and stop signs. The tight circle of a roundabout forces drivers to slow down, and the most severe types of intersection crashes -- right-angle, left-turn and head-on collisions -- are unlikely. Roundabouts also improve traffic flow and are better for the environment.
Overall, studies have shown a 90% reduction in fatalities, 76% fewer injuries and a 30%-40% fall in the number of accidents involving pedestrians when roundabouts replace intersections. Studies also show that roundabouts increase road capacity by up to 50%. That means if all the four way cross exits around the University Stadium in Fayetteville were roundabouts, the traffic would move and clear out 50% faster after a game.
Researchers at Kansas State University found that average delays were reduced by 65% at roundabouts when compared to signalized intersections. Wisconsin, which with 500 "traffic circles" has the most roundabouts of any U.S. state, credits them with a "significant" reduction in road fatalities. Each roundabout is also reported to save the state around $5,000 a year in the state's electricity bill.
"We see fatalities and serious injuries almost go down to nothing in roundabouts," Andrea Bill of the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The average roundabout has only eight points of potential collision compared with 32 at a normal four-way intersection, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. It also says they are safer for pedestrians because drivers have to slow down to use them.
The UK today boasts 25,000 roundabouts, the most in the world as a proportion of road space. (France has more in total.)
Jeff Shaw, intersections program manager at the Federal Highways Agency, explains that the better safety record of roundabouts in the U.S. has meant that they are now the default option.
"We don't mandate the construction of roundabouts, but we strongly encourage and incentives it," he says.
The number of roundabouts in the United States has doubled in the last decade to around 5,000, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, up from just 18 in 2005.
"The slower speed and angle at which cars approach roundabouts has a profound impact on the severity of any collision that might occur," says Shaw, who is also convinced that roundabouts move traffic more efficiently.
"Roundabouts are quintessentially English and democratic in their etiquette," comments the president of UK Roundabout Appreciation Society, who says roundabouts promote the virtues of compromise and cooperation. The group's Best of British Roundabouts calendar is a bestseller.
"A roundabout is an oasis in tarmac. It gives city councils an opportunity to put a garden in the middle of a road junction, and all for a fraction of the cost to install traffic lights," commented the Society President.
Let's don't be 48th in roundabouts; we can do better.
Richard Mason is an author and speaker. He can be reached at [email protected].