New subject: Opinion letter (response to June 14th letter)

20 Jun 2012

      Pedestrian advocates and colleagues on the bicycle board-
The following is a letter I've composed in response to a June 14th letter to the editor I've pasted at the very bottom of this message...facts, not anecdotes should rule the day...I removed text from my letter about NJ residents not being allowed to pump their own gas or being required to turn right to go left ("jughandle" intersections). Too much haterade in recent DP letters unfortunately.
Best to all,
Christiaan
Walk more, safely

Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board
Christiaan Abildso, Chair
Bill Reger-Nash, Vice Chair
http://www.morgantown.com/ped-safety-board.htm
----- Forwarded Message -----
...
From: Christiaan Abildso cabildso@yahoo.com
To: "opinion@dominionpost.com" opinion@dominionpost.com 
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 9:42 PM
Subject: Opinion letter (response to June 14th letter)
Title: "Facts About Modern Roundabouts"
Unfortunately, a letter was published on June 14th that contained no evidence about modern roundabouts (or "circles" as the author called them), only second-hand anecdotes from an anonymous New Jersey resident. I suggest readers learn more facts about modern roundabouts at the Federal Highways Administration website: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/roundabouts/ before they accept the unsubstantiated claims of one person.
Recent independent
research findings about the safety, performance, and cost of roundabouts to consider: 1) they typically reduce the number of crashes at an intersection by roughly 35%; 2) they typically reduce injury crashes by about 75%; 3) they reduce traffic delays; and 4) they are less costly to maintain than intersections with traffic signals. (Source: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/roundabouts/fhwasa10006/ppt/)
...
I'm glad the author of the letter mentioned pedestrians. Modern roundabouts can actually improve conditions for pedestrians in multiple ways. When compared to signalized intersections between two, 2-lane roads, the number of potential pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are reduced from 24 locations with the traffic signals to 8 locations with roundabouts. Roundabouts decrease vehicular approach speed, and provide a median to serve as refuge for pedestrians crossing the road. Even though the average speed for a road with a roundabout is lower, cars travel through the roundabouts faster because they don’t have to stop at red lights.
One local example of how a roundabout would benefit our community would be in front of the Coliseum. The length of time you sit at the Patteson/Mon Boulevard intersection can be frustrating and many people have witnessed a collision at the right turn from Patteson onto Mon Blvd. If a roundabout were installed at that intersection it could reduce the number of traffic lanes on Mon Boulevard from 6 to 4, and there could be a dedicated right turn lane from Patteson to Mon Boulevard (eliminating the nearly daily crashes there). The roundabout could also eliminate the thousands of
jaywalkers from the CAC to Coliseum by creating a median refuge at the approach (or an underpass as is done at Western Michigan University and Ohio University) to the roundabout with warning signals that would allow pedestrians to cross 2 lanes of traffic at a time rather than 6 or 7 as is the current situation. This roundabout could still easily accommodate large truck traffic, and football, basketball, and other event day traffic without a police officer (rather than the 2 or more currently required for basketball games).
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The author's fears are common in communities without roundabouts. In multiple studies resident acceptance of roundabouts is greatly improved after they are completed and users see the benefits. Get to know roundabouts - they could be good for all of us
Christiaan Abildso
Morgantown

TEXT FROM ORIGINAL 6/14 LETTER:
Traffic circles bode
ill for intersections
...
I was talking with a neighbor who used
to live in several counties of New Jersey where there were traffic circles. She 
said that there always were accidents and bottlenecks at the traffic circles, 
with traffic coming to an unintended complete stop, so the locals avoided them 
when possible.
...
Three or four of those circles have been taken out,
because they were absolutely hated. The worst one, in Summer Point, N.J., was 
just removed. Imagine our football traffic going through a traffic circle on 
W.Va. 705. The police won’t be able to direct traffic through it unless an 
officer is placed at each entry point — not an effective use of personnel.
...
At a circle, it’s intended that everyone keeps moving, forcing you
to pull out in front of cars already in the circle, whose drivers are looking 
across the circle for their exit, rather than for new arrivals.
...
Depending on the relative caution or aggression of the two parties
involved, one of them will slow down. Now you have an uncontrolled or 
freefor-all intersection, which is a worse condition than before the traffic 
“improvement.”
...
Another point to consider: If the traffic is
constantly moving how does a pedestrian cross at a traffic circle? We can’t even 
accommodate pedestrians at conventional intersections like Boyers Avenue and 
Monongahela Boulevard, Burroughs Street and Van Voorhis Road, or Pleasant Street 
and the Westover Bridge.
...
The busiest and most dangerous intersection
in town, University Avenue and Patteson Drive, doesn’t even have a street light. 
Apparently, God’s chosen people own cars.
...
Something different isn’t
always better. If traffic circles are superior, why don’t we have more of them? 
Have you even seen one?
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Although the traffic circle proponents
insist on using a cutesy British term like “roundabout,” I think that travelers 
will make better time in getting to their proverbial point B by going on a 
“walkabout.”
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Now if they can just get across the streets ...
Dave Ornick
Morgantown

Fw: Opinion letter (response to June 14th letter)