Here's a shot of the roundabout at Jetton and Griffith streets. Davidson Day is on the lower left, the Exxon station on the upper right. (Kris Krider photo)
Davidson planners helped introduce this part of North Carolina to roundabouts – those circular alternatives to traditional four-way intersections. Two circles now manage traffic on Griffith Street near Exit 30, and others are planned or envisioned at other key intersections in town.
Roundabouts have been the subject of rant and ridicule, in a pattern echoed nationwide in recent years. An article in the online magazine Slate this week describes the public outcry that follows proposals for roundabouts. But, says author Tom Vanderbilt, it turns out roundabouts actually do what the planners say they do: improve safety.
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See July 20, 2009, Slate.com, “Don’t Be So Square: American Drivers Learn to Love the Roundabout”
National Institutes of Health, 2001 study showing roundabouts help reduce crashes and injuries.
After driving the past month through thousands of roundabouts in Scandinavia, I think they probably do reduce accidents—especially the U.S’s endless red-light/stop sign running fatalities. As roundabouts become bigger, with 5-6 in/out branches, they challenge people not familiar with them. You can’t stop and think like at a stop sign/traffic light. A difficulty with Davidson’s right-a-ways is that most drivers don’t know the rules for yielding, signaling, owning the right-a-way or trusting that other drivers do either.
Also, in Scandanavia, where speed and safety were issues, especially at pedestrian crossings, they were raised 3-4 inches, a cost-effective way of slowing traffic where roundabouts were impractical. Speed bumps are cheap teaching tools for drivers who like to plow through intersections.
When drivers are well-trained in roundabout etiquette, roundabouts work. I never had anyone violate my space while I circled around, wondering which spoke was the E-18 to Hugfargenbringen. But being a foreigner, I did unintentionally violate the yield rule a few times. And other drivers appeared understanding when I did.
The roundabout space is different from the traditional US intersection, because it can have so many more options—and requires a lot of concentration. Hand-held cellphones and roundabouts do not play well together– which is a problem in NC that still sees no problem with that. Good direction signage is also important, which was lacking in some Scandanavian roundabouts, and is completely lacking in Davidson’s roundabouts (hint, hint).
Two of the proposed spots for roundabouts in Davidson make a lot of sense to me.
Davidson-Concord Rd. comes into Concord Rd. at an odd angle. When you stop, you have to look over your right shoulder for traffic coming from Kannapolis. The traffic coming from your left is almost all turning right, but you need to wait because you can’t see if the third car back, say, is signaling, so you wind up waiting for many cars that you don’t need to wait for. A roundabout would have to make things safer and speedier.
Grey Rd. also comes into Concord Rd. at an angle, and then there is Pine Street across the way at a different angle and slight offset. Often some poor soul is hoping to turn left from Pine. Turning left from Grey is no picnic either. It all happens just where eastbound traffic gets a lower speed limit.
In general, I think people navigate the roundabouts on Griffith St. better than I had expected. And I have unfond memories of all the times I sat at the light they replaced without another car anywhere in sight.
Our existing roundabouts need a facelift. There are some very nice landscaping plans that have been developed, but there is scant money to implement them. I have suggested to town officials that they might seek contributions of materials and time from the community in order to get something started, and they seem receptive. I have lived in other towns that have garden clubs that are very active in planting and maintaining public spaces, and I would hope that we could do that here absent (or even in the presence of) town government funding. The economic downturn does not mean that our western entrance must continue to be barren of plant life.
When I first saw the roundabouts, I was not sure what to expect, However, I have come to realize they do exactly what they are intended to do – they calm the traffic.
It used to be difficult to come off of I-77 and slow down to the posted speed of 25 mph traveling down Griffith Street, especially if I would get a green light at the signal. Now, as I come through the two circles, I find that my speed has been reduced and it is comfortable to drive at the posted speed into town.
Personally, I like not needing to sit a signal when no one else is approaching. The roundabout is more efficient in all situations – I get through the area much faster with regularity.
Further use of roundabouts should be considered as they provide many benefits to the community.
I feel the roundabouts are a great idea. My concern is the yield sign coming off I-77. What does yield mean…since many folks need to know what to do at the yield sign. I have had to completely stop coming out of Davidson Landing and wanting to get in the right lane of the roundabout. Who is supposed to yield to allow me to get into that lane???
Shouldn’t we be spending the town occupancy tax on landscaping on the roundabouts and median strip instead of ugly sculptures in town. The town should be planting more trees, shrubs, flowers, etc.. Also, it is time for the town planners to study making Main and Jackson streets one way. One way going North on Main and south on Jackson. You may be able to eliminate the present street lights on Main street.
One-way streets might help through traffic during rush hours, but would inconvenience those who live here 24 hrs. a day.
If you had cross streets every block, it might not be quite so bad. Depot street would need to be widened and perhaps made one-way, just to accommodate the southbound traffic coming off Concord Rd. But with no stoplights, cars would back up on Concord at busy times, so maybe not many of them would get to Depot at all. Then you could demolish a building or two to extend Chairman Blake, and of course you’d want to have a road between Summit Coffee and Ben and Jerry’s, and you’d need a light there for pedestrian traffic. If you put enough streets in, you could make them all one-way instead of tearing down the buildings on each side of Depot.
I think the planning folks made a conscious decision not to make Main St. a thoroughfare. If we turn it into one, enough traffic will come to fill it up, and then will be the need for more lanes, which will then soon fill up. It depends a lot of what sort of town we want.