(photo courtesy of the Daily Democrat)I am not sure what University the Cal Trans engineers graduated from, but that school must think the Euro style mass transit it the cat's meow. Why else would anyone propose a traffic roundabout for the intersection of County 98 and Kentucky Ave in Woodland? This type of traffic control devise may work in a city with cars, although I have been through a few and saw one person not yield to a car coming into the circle and smack right into the drivers door. Just try adding tomato filled big rigs into that mix, you know the ones driven by folks who's just received their commercial drivers license that week. Yea, that will be great.
Anyone who has seen a driver eating a McMuffin and fiddling with their iPod looking to get past the tractor trailer in front of them, knows how this will end. They dart to the right at an intersection to get around the truck only to get smashed by the rear wheels of the trailer when the truck makes the same turn.
Oh boy, and just wait until Friday nights watching the casino patrons flying down Rd 98 and trying to navigate a roundabout with three tractor trailers at the same time. If you want to catch a good video to put up at YouTube, sitting in a lawn chair at the roundabout would be a great place to shoot it.
What is wrong with a plain old vanilla four way stop? Not exotic enough? Not very impressive to put on your Cal Trans resume? Oh well. If Cal Trans want to sell this traffic donut, then show the people of Woodland 10 traffic studies where these have worked to reduce accidents and speed up traffic flow in an area with the same traffic patters, and with the same rural agricultural trucking patterns. I could be all wet, the roundabout may be coolest thing since velcro, but I want to see the studies that show it works in a place like Woodland.
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