How to Build a Better Roundabout

For starters, don’t build a roundabout at all.

“Well how will we get off the Interstate then, David?”

Sure, I know there will be those who think I belong out there looking for big foot, or visiting Roslyn, New Mexico, or even developing a working model for cold fusion. I mean, even more than normal.  But it’s really not that.

Pay attention VDOT, what is about to unfold here is a design change that will provide a difference in Colonial Heights and likely for large Interstate ingress/egress designs in the future. How you ask?

Well, if I told you that there was a way to lower the potential for accidents at the I-95 exit/entrance area by 67 percent would you be interested in changing the roundabout design to make it happen? And what if it would not impact the majority of traffic on Temple, perhaps making it even less restrictive, and likely be able to do this at a budgetary wash?

Pipe dream, you say. Balderdash, you say. Poppycock, you say.

Sure, I know it sounds crazy, and maybe after you read this you will say, there goes that moron again proposing some kind of ridiculous idea, like flubber tires. But that’s not it at all.

The whole idea of the roundabout, which by the way I think is a good idea and will work, has been an issue within the community from nearly every corner. For some, just the idea of change is enough to wad their panties, others see a new design with a sceptic’s eye, and others just throw their hands in the air and slink off in defeat with visions of the Boulevard project in their heads.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

While looking at the VDOT model for the roundabout on the city’s web page, I was sort of spacing out on the traffic flow. Yes, the model shows how traffic will run through the roundabout, starting and stopping in appropriate places and then moving as the traffic cleared up. Truly, the model, based on GPS technology is a bit of a wonder. It resembles a huge whirligig.

So as I am watching the traffic swing out of the interstate and stop and start to allow cars and trucks to pass, I noticed that all the east-bound Temple avenue traffic was going straight through the whirligig. No one was taking a left and trying to spin back up Temple, or attempting to pick up the I-95 entrance lanes. They all went straight through as if driving directly from the Boulevard to the mall.

There are three places in the current design where an accident is likely to happen. They each involve the Interstate portion of the roundabout. Two for the east bound lanes, and one for the westbound, Interstate-bound, lane. If we could eliminate the intersections on the east bound lanes, two potential accidents points would go away.

In fact, the entire roundabout would go away.

What you would have left is elevated Temple Avenue east lanes (yes a bridge), and then a left turn from the Interstate exit onto Temple west bound, and a left turn from Temple avenue west bound to enter the Interstate.  That would be the only place where roads would cross creating a need for people to merge to get into the lanes they want to go on.

It might even be possible to engineer it in such a way that the cross traffic for the west bound lanes would be eliminated. But doing that would probably end up looking like the I-95 north bound exit to the Downtown Expressway.

Take a second and go look at VDOT’s whirligig design which is intended to make us feel good about the change. Wouldn’t it be a change if the flow of traffic on Temple Avenue in either direction was unimpeded from the Boulevard all the way to Conduit Road?  Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the biggest driving hazard in the city?

Here’s why it won’t work.

It makes sense. It makes sense, and VDOT has already sold the farm on their own whirligig design. As a certified project manager, I would suggest that now is exactly the time to look into a change like this. It takes little money to do it; just a few technician-hours on an AutoCAD. And if it would have the benefit of improving traffic conditions in the city and improve safety at the same time, doesn’t that make sense?

There is some question about whether the change would increase the cost. I’m sure building a bridge there would tack on some cost, but at the same time you would be saving the cost of the roundabout itself. Also, it would make the whole project easier to build. VDOT could construct one side, say the west bound lanes and move traffic there, and then build the east bound lanes. They do this all the time, it’s just a matter of figuring it out.

And the redesign?

Well that’s pretty simple too. These designs are a made using AutoCAD computer systems.  A good engineer ought to be able to modify the model in short order. If the proposal has so many positive aspects, isn’t worth looking at?

But ha. I forget, the current design is in the works, God forbid we suggest something that may be better. And besides, I’m no engineer so I can’t have a good idea either.

Hey VDOT, take a look. It will work, it will be better, isn’t it worth taking a look at? Oh, by the way, you can have the idea free consider it a present.

If you think this idea might be a solution, consider contacting the city or VDOT. While it’s past the input time, they haven’t started building anything. The suggestion does not affect right of way and only moderately changes the design. Without actually working out the financial details since I don’t have them, it seems to me that there would not be that large a difference. And, if it would be simpler and safer wouldn’t be worth a contract mod?

Come on VDOT, after that mess you hung us with on the south end of the Boulevard don’t we citizens deserve some consideration for this kind of change? Bleh, my bet is bureaucracy will raise its head and stupidity will flourish yet again.