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Save offers roundabout solution to Route 41
April 15, 2004
Patrick Glendening
Avon Grove Sun

In part of an ongoing effort to convince residents and planners of future Route 41 construction projects that roundabouts are the desired alternative to a four-lane Avondale bypass, Save enlisted international roundabout expert Barry Crown to give a presentation and traffic assessment.

Save (Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment) Chairman Lou Kaplan introduced Crown to a half-full Avon Grove High School auditorium on April 6 with strong words about Save's position over the much debated Route 41.

"Clearly the roadway needs to be fixed. There are issues of congestion and safety. We're looking for a sustainable roadway that won't contradict some of the excellent zoning along the roadway," he said.

Kaplan introduced Crown and stressed that he was there to clear up any misinformation concerning roundabouts, as opposed to traffic circles.

Crown, who has designed and built more than 1,000 roundabouts internationally for 30 years, came to AGHS on the heels of instructing California Department of Transportation traffic designers on the process of designing and installing roundabouts.

Kaplan called crown "the designer's designer."

Roundabouts on Route 41 are proposed from the Delaware State line north to the Route 926 intersection. Leaving the road as two-lane, Crown said, would create an average delay during peak traffic hours of 10 seconds. He added that roundabouts would cost one-fifth the amount of installing a four-lane highway bypass.

Crown's presentation emphasized the comparison of roundabouts to traffic circles. He said traffic circles are very large, have high entry and circulation speeds, uncontrolled lane weaving and have a low capacity to process traffic. On the other hand, he said roundabouts are small and compact, have low entry and circulation speeds, controlled traffic patterns and a high capacity to process traffic.

Through videos in his PowerPoint presentation, Crown gave a visual comparison of the two traffic control devices. He used an overhead camera angle of the Kingston Traffic Circle in New York State to illustrate his point of the high speeds automobiles travel through the large circles. "You can see, due to the size of the circle, that cars don't have to slow down a bit to enter. That's very dangerous," said Crown.

Mike Herron, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Chester County, attended the presentation at AGHS and said that it was a fine presentation that made him more open to the idea of a roundabout. "I had a negative feeling about [roundabouts] when I walked in the door, but when I left I had a more positive one," he said.

Nevertheless, Herron said if he had to vote today in favor of a four-lane bypass or a roundabout he would vote for the bypass. "I am very strongly in favor of a four-lane bypass," said Herron. "Maybe [roundabouts] would work. I don't know. I'm not an engineer," he added.

Crown said he was called in by the New York State Department of Transportation to assess the continued traffic problems at the Kingston Traffic Circle. As a result, a roundabout is being constructed on the inside of the circle, one that will process more traffic, safely, said Crown.

Using animated cars in his presentation, Crown showed how cars in a traffic circle have trouble changing lanes and why there are more crashes. "The cars are traveling so fast and with no set right of way on the two lanes of the circle they can't get where they want to be," said Crown.

Herron, who used to live in Southern New Jersey and traveled the traffic circles daily with much dissatisfaction, said they weren't much bigger than the 165-foot diameter of Crown's proposed roundabouts.

Roundabouts on Route 41 are proposed from the Delaware line north to the Route 926 intersection.

Some of the added attractions of the roundabouts were the ease of performing a U-turn, getting to gas stations on either side of the intersection and the slower, safer speeds at intersections, said Crown.

However, travel time on a roadway that has roundabouts installed would take a little longer during off-peak hours, said Crown.

Crown said the United Kingdom, where he lives, has spent the last 40 years removing traffic signals and putting in roundabouts. He added that "95 percent of freeway interchanges in the U.K. use roundabouts."

©Avon Grove Sun 2004