What’s the Purpose of Roundabouts?

One of the on-going additions to all of the construction on Kent State University’s campus is a roundabout on one of the busiest streets on campus, Summit Street. This new development brings up several questions surrounding the reason and necessity for a roundabout in this area of campus.

With it being a high traffic area, the reason mostly looks to be for safety. But what are some of the other reasons why roundabouts are put in and what is the effect that most of them have on the communities that they are put into?  These questions can have a variety of answers and many of them depend on what the problem is that the community is seeing in a certain area.

 

“I think the two driving forces for roundabouts are safety and congestion when cities are considering a roundabout,” said David Pulay, Transportation Engineer for Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS).

 

In a survey shared with 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 classes of Kent State University, it was discovered that 97.8 percent people who participated have encountered a roundabout before.  But within that 97.8 percent only 55.2 percent said they feel safe while driving in one.

 

“I think it helps traffic,” said Kent State senior John Haas. “I just think not a lot of people know how to use it.  So it’s kind of scary.”

 

On the other side, Kent State senior Corey Patterson talks about the safer side of roundabouts and his experience and opinion on feeling safer while in a roundabout.

 

“I’m from an area that has a lot of roundabouts in them,” Patterson said. “So I am comfortable enough with them to spot people who aren’t and give them the space.  And I definitely think it will help the traffic flow.  Like with the amount of backups we get on Summit Street, it’ll help alleviate that and let it be a free-flowing street.”

 

With the data found in the survey, how is it possible for the city and university to say that a roundabout will be safer for students? In truth, they can’t know for sure that the roundabout will make the road safer.  But the roundabout will have some positive effects. Heidi Swindell of the Summit County Engineer’s Office says one of the main impacts of a roundabout affects the type of accidents seen.

 

“A roundabout will take away that direct contact,” Swindell said.  “Now you will still see accidents in roundabouts, but they are more of sideswipes and they’re not as direct.”

 

Although 97.8 percent of the students that participated in the survey say they have encountered a roundabout before, there are people who have not encountered one before.  This can pose a problem within the roundabout and cause more traffic congestion and actually make the roundabout less safe for those individuals.

 

“I think the biggest reason people aren’t comfortable going through roundabouts is that people may not even know all the rules,” Pulay said.  “In Europe, you’d probably go through more of them (roundabouts) than you would over here.”

 

In an article published on citylab.com, a website ran by The Atlantic, a graphic shows the massive difference between the United States and European countries when it comes to encountering a roundabout.  In the U.S. a driver will encounter a roundabout in 1 out of every 1,118 intersections.  Compare that to Germans, who see a roundabout 1 out of every 313 intersections, and the drivers of Great Britain who see 1 roundabout out of every 127 intersections.

 

To help deal with this issue in Kent, the University does plan to release tutorial videos and articles that will assist these newcomers to roundabouts.

 

Another issue that is arising from the construction is causing more congestion then already existed. The construction process has hindered entrance to one of the most prominent places for students to spend their time, the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.  In an article on kentwired.com Director of Communications and Special Projects Carla Wyckoff described the street closing and gave students the details as to how to get to the Recreation Center.

 

“The north end of Ted Boyd Drive remains closed while work continues on the first roundabout,” Wyckoff said, “meaning the only entrance to the Student Recreation and Wellness Center is from the south end of Ted Boyd Drive, via Campus Center Drive.”

 

When it is all said and done though, the roundabout is said to help traffic congestion on Summit Street.  Roundabouts are used to keep traffic moving at a steady pace, instead of being stuck at traffic lights.  At the same time, they help people to pay more attention to other drivers around them.  Swindell refers to roundabouts as a tool in your toolbox that can be used to help a given situation within a high-traffic area.

 

“They are a traffic-calming device,” Swindell said.  “They make people slow down.”

 

Pulay added more information about safety with some statistics from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials that talk about the likeliness of accidents in a roundabout compared to that of a normal intersection in an urban community, like Kent State.

 

“Roundabouts reduces crashes by almost half (.56 percent),” he said, “and reduces injury crashes by almost 82 percent.”

 

With all this and all the other construction projects going on around campus and the City of Kent, another main question that is being raised is how much all of this costs.  For roundabouts, the cost varies.  Many different factors contribute to how much the roundabout will actually cost.

 

“The cost of the roundabout itself usually isn’t much more than reconstructing a conventional intersection. But here’s what’s different,” Pulay said.  “A roundabout has a little bigger footprint. The one area where you would have more cost is in property accusation or right-of-way.”

 

Another factor that contributes to putting in a roundabout is time.  It takes much longer for a roundabout to be put in then it would to fix and existing intersection.  Going along with all the reasons why roundabouts are more expensive, the purchasing of more pavement, land, designs and right-of-ways can add a big chunk of time to the project.

 

Overall, roundabouts are put into communities to ensure a safer route for drivers.  One that moves quicker than a traditional stop-light intersection and helps to slow drivers down.  The facts speak for themselves and statistically, roundabouts help relieve traffic congestion and cause fewer accidents.  Although the roundabout here in Kent won’t be done for some time, the statistics and facts show that it will be beneficial to the drivers around Kent State University’s campus.

In this #JMCRPP story, find out about Summit Street's brand new addition-#Roundabouts. https://t.co/u7FIA2lCok

— Patrick Shade (@PatrickShadeJMC) October 8, 2016