Roundabout conundrum goes to Placerville voters
By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee
An argument blisters amid the weathered storefronts of old Placerville. It boils down to this: When is a traffic circle just a circle? And when is it a conspiracy?
Voters in the town of 10,500 residents are going to the polls in November to decide on a local initiative that would ban the city from constructing anything resembling a “roundabout” or “traffic circle” or “other similar traffic features.”
Measure K would also require a public vote on any project – such as a subdivision or commercial development – if it contains a road with such potentially offensive curvature.
The local initiative has become a curious metaphor for the growth and development battles consuming El Dorado County. Ever since the city announced plans two years ago to build a downtown traffic circle that was to wrap around a 1926 monument erected by the Druids of California, many people suspected ulterior motives.
Federal studies say a traffic roundabout – a circular intersection around a center island – can increase road capacity by 30 percent to 50 percent compared with traditional intersections. They are seen as reducing pollution because vehicles can merge into traffic in the circles and exit on desired streets without idling and spewing exhaust at stop signs or lights.
They work GREAT if they’re REALLY BIG. Unfortunately, the engineers keep building them too damn small. Just creates more problems.
Don’t be afraid of them. They really work great all over Truckee. The tourists have to go slow so be patient with them, but overall they keep traffic moving.
I used to love round abouts until I had to cross through one on foot in Mexico City. At first I thought that the people in the circle might be homeless until I discovered that they were even more afraid than I to risk crossing traffic a second time. I was stuck in the circle for an eternity.
Dogula is correct. If a traffic circle is designed, as they are in Europe, to expedite traffic they work great. Unfortunately, in the US, they are designed to impede traffic because they are too small.
Where, in Placerville, is there enough space to build a good-sized, appropriately sized round-about? That’s a narrow canyon going through town. They will have to tear out a lot of structures first to build it.
They are traffic circles to MOVE traffic and NOT should NOT be intended to replace signalized intersections on major highways that have busy pedestrian crossings that include walkers and bicyclists.
The problem in P-ville is it is horse trailer country and these don’t work well for them. There is really no need for them and I could care less what Europe does, having been there in the biggest round-a-bouts in history, it is dangerous. Truckee is a total nuisance as well.