Could I get a Reality Check on the price of intersections?
There must be something in DoT's water over at the Hill Farm building. How else to explain the string of stupid designs? From the Fort Atkinson Bypass and related deaths to the Highway 11 bypass in Janesville and related near death experiences, the DoT planners don't seem tuned into reality lately.Now comes the latest scheme -- solve the intersection problem at Hwy 14 and John Lindemann Drive by putting in a ROUNDABOUT? Is DoT subcontracting their planning department to the UW Urban Arts program? Will they pay for a three tier fountain in the middle?
Now I personally like roundabouts in many instances. For congested intersections with predominantly auto traffic, they are a creative and attractive solution for keeping the traffic moving, albeit slowly. The roundabouts at Thompson Drive and Hwy 30 in Madison are an improvement over the congestion that used to exist there - though about 30% of the traffic going through the roundabout still has no idea what the rules of the intersection are. Racine has a very attractive, useful, and large roundabout intersection on the south end of downtown that does a nice job of funneling traffic to the shore, business district, and residential area.
Heck, a roundabout in Evansville at Main and Madison would look nice and keep things moving well….if it weren't for the trucks.
And there in lies the problem. Ask a truck driver his favorite direction and I bet it will be "straight ahead." Does DoT have a clue how difficult a roundabout would make it for all of the truck traffic? Truck traffic that is driven by a truck trailer plant being 100 yards from the propose roundabout? Truck traffic that will be increasing soon with our new biodeisel plant? And then there are the farm implements - harvesters, sprayers, and wide load rigs that look like they should be battling Godzilla. Thos should make a roundabout lots of fun.
Why is it so hard to simply design some friggin' turn lanes with a little room for growth at the interesection?
posted by Walton @ 2:14 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for the thoughts. And Fred, you are right - comments to alders is always a good way to get things done.
The light at M and 14 is not necessarily flawed, the lack of lane markings is. If that intersection would define left turn lanes (or right turn lanes), it would operate so much more smoothly. Drivers aren't good at making up their own rules.
I was at a meeting when three proposals were presented for the intersection in question. The roundabout would be the least costly due to narrower lanes being required. The stoplight requires wider "holding lanes" because the traffic is stopped waiting for a light change. Operating costs are lower as well due to not having stoplights. I would assume the engineers allowed for adequate space for semis. I don't know all the facts, but my bet is that roundabouts are being pushed by DOT from a cost perspective.
The least attractive option in my opinion was one that had a right turn only out of the intersection by BP. You would have to loop around a neighborhood over to the pig if you wanted to turn towards Janesville. On the Co-op side you had to turn towards Janesville or "loop around" to turn back into Evansville. I think the city was required to submit three proposals and this wasn't really a legitimate option.
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