Roundabouts: The Better Way to Get ARound

As I've been paying $50 to fill up my fuel-efficient car, I've been thinking a lot about fuel efficiency and transportation. Sure, I've thought about the BIGGER picture - that while gas is getting more expensive and more people are thinking about efficiency, most of our American communities just aren't set up for as places to survive without a car. I admire my friends who get around by bike and bus in Austin, and I use these options too when I can. But quite frankly, it's hard. And Austin is a fairly progressive city, with relatively reliable public transportation and a decent number of bike lanes. And good weather to boot. Imagine carless commuting in the rural Midwest!

Ideally, we would have high-speed rails connecting major cities in the US, and small, densely planned cities with various public transportation options. We would be like Europe, right? No. Our cities will have a very hard time meeting this model because we are geographically huge, especially in Texas. So we have to accept the fact that (for now), cars are the most convenient mode of transportation for Americans.

I've accepted this fact...which leads me to my recent internal brainstorms. We all know what we are supposed to do. Buy a hybrid. Shop locally and combine trips. Keep your car maintained and tires inflated properly. Check, check, check. We've all heard these things many times before. Recently I've been thinking about a country that is geographically comparative to the US: Australia. Australia's transportation infrastructure is very efficient. Australia makes great use of roundabouts. Not only are they fun, but they make your life easier and have heaps of other benefits that would help us as we face our current transportation crisis.

What's a roundabout? Simply, it is a replacement to a traffic light or stop sign. Here's a picture of a typical roundabout.



For those of you in Austin, those rinky dinky little things in the Bouldin neighborhood are not true roundabouts. They are not big enough to be efficient. I'm taking about putting a roundabout at 45th and Lamar or South Congress at Oltorf...intersections with substantial traffic.

So what's so great about them? Think about the ruined efficiency of stop and go, slam on the breaks, speed up through the yellow light, stop and go some more. With roundabouts, you slow to a speed of around 15 - 20mph and continue down the road - no stopping necessary. They are extremely efficient. I've been reading up, and here are some other great benefits of roundabouts:


* They reduce crashes from anywhere to 75-90% (depending on who you quote) and virtually eliminate head-on collisions because everyone drives in the same direction. Safety (yes!), less pileups from collisions (yes!), and less gas (whoo-hoo!).

* Collisions that do happen are at a speed of 15-20 miles per hour and less often lead to fatalities. Ditto on less pileups and less gas consumption.

* They allow for green space in their center, leading to better air quality and less ugliness.

* Where they replace traffic signals, they reduce fuel consumption by 30%, helping our environment and our wallets.

As new roads continue to be built and existing ones expanded, I hope that our leaders look to Australia and other countries. Roundabouts are just one (promising) strategy we should be thinking about for more efficient American cities.