When two roads meet in William Penn's Forest, what do you do? New plans from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation say, increasingly, you build a roundabout. No fewer than forty are on the drawing board throughout the state.
Pennsylvania is yet the latest state to warm up to the once-reviled roundabout. Often criticized for being dangerous and confusing, roundabouts are experiencing a renaissance in light of new designs and new research findings that suggest that they can be safer and more efficient than conventional stoplight-governed intersections. Forty of them are on the way in Pennsylvania
"Well-designed, modern roundabouts actually offer a lot of advantages over standard intersections. In fact, new roundabouts aren't like old traffic circles or rotaries at all. With newer models the circles tend to be smaller, vehicles tend to move slower, lane changes within the roundabout are usually unnecessary (eliminating the Chevy Chase effect), and pedestrian safety is prioritized."
Cities including Philadelphia are embracing them for their potential to reduce dangers to pedestrians, as drivers are forced to slow down. Engineers in Pennsylvania are making sure of one thing: their roundabouts will be nothing like the hated specimens in neighboring New Jersey.
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