Is a roundabout in the future for at least one intersection in Lehigh County?
On Tuesday night, a presentation about the safety benefits of roundabouts was made by an official from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, during a joint meeting of the Lower Macungie Township commissioners and planning commission.
During the meeting, no one explained why PennDOT was talking about roundabouts to Lower Macungie officials.
After the presentation, Tom Walter, PennDOT’s district roundabout coordinator, said he is not aware of any roundabouts that are planned in the township.
But after the meeting, township engineer Alan Fornwalt said PennDOT would like a single-lane roundabout to be installed at the intersection of Sauerkraut and Willow lanes.
Fornwalt explained PennDOT wants that roundabout as part of traffic improvements for a retail/residential development planned along Route 100 just outside the borough of Macungie.
That development will include a Weis supermarket with a cafe, a gas station, two restaurants and 204 apartments behind the Allen Organ building.
“This was kind of the opening discussion — an introduction by PennDOT,” said Fornwalt. “It was to be an educational experience.”
PennDOT district traffic engineer Dennis Toomey later said it is Lower Macungie officials who have been talking about adding a roundabout at Willow and Sauerkraut.
The idea of putting a roundabout at that intersection certainly was not the focus of the PennDOT introduction-to-roundabouts presentation, but it kept coming up.
During the meeting, township commissioner Brian Higgins made it clear he does not support a roundabout near Willow Lane Elementary School because it will make the Sauerkraut/Willow Lane intersection more dangerous for children walking to school.
After the meeting, Higgins said the township had considered putting a roundabout at Willow and Sauerkraut lanes when safety improvements were being developed for children walking to the nearby Willow Lane school.
When introducing the PennDOT officials at the beginning of the meeting, township planning director Sara Pandl said: “I’m really pleased they’re here to talk to us about roundabouts, because they’re coming our way.”
At the end of the presentation, Ryan Conrad, president of the township commissioners, said it was done just to inform planners and commissioners about roundabouts —“to learn about them because they are coming this way.”
Walter said roundabouts improve safety and help the environment by reducing emissions from vehicles idling while waiting for traffic lights to change. He also said they reduce traffic congestion.
He defined a roundabout as a circular intersection that is controlled “by a yield condition on the entering traffic.”
He explained the curve of a roundabout and its approaches help reduce the speed of traffic. “Typically, the speed is 20-25 mph throughout the roundabout.”
Roundabouts have central islands, usually vegetated.
Walter called roundabouts an innovative intersection design that the Federal Highway Administration has asked departments of transportation in all states to consider whenever they make major improvements to intersections.
Roundabouts in Pennsylvania
Walter said 2,300 roundabouts exist nationwide, adding Pennsylvania has 25 and 41 more are planned.
“That number keeps increasing as the department looks at other locations to install roundabouts.
“They’re going to start becoming predominant. You’ll see a lot more of them. Once you get to use one, you’ll see how convenient they are…how much better they move traffic.”
After the presentation, Walter said no roundabouts currently exist in Lehigh or Northampton counties.
He said two are planned in Lehigh County, both in Upper Macungie Township.
One will be at the intersection of Routes 222 and 863.
Toomey said that is one of five roundabouts proposed along Route 222, adding the other four are in Berks County.
Walter said another Lehigh County roundabout is being considered along on Mill Creek Road south of Route 222.
Toomey said that one still is in the very early conceptual stages of planning.
Walter said Monroe County has one roundabout.
He said the closest existing roundabout is along Old Bethlehem Pike and Station Road just south of Quakertown, Bucks County.
Roundabouts safer
The PennDOT roundabout coordinator said they dramatically improve safety, adding national studies have shown they have an “immense” impact on reducing traffic fatalities “by up around 90 percent.”
Walter said they also reduce accident injuries by 76 percent and reduce crashes by 35 percent.
He said the severity of accidents is reduced in roundabouts because of the slow speeds and because “an accident in a roundabout will be a sideswipe as compared to a 90-degree accident.”
The number of potential “conflict points,” where vehicles or vehicles and pedestrians can run into each other, is greatly reduced in a roundabout. Walter said a roundabout has eight conflict points, while a traditional signalized intersection has 32.
Pedestrians in roundabouts
He also said pedestrians have 16 potential conflict points with vehicles at conventional intersections, but only eight at roundabouts.
Walter argued that pedestrian crossings are safer at roundabouts because people only have to cross one lane of traffic at a time.
But at least a couple of officials at the meeting didn’t buy that argument.
Walter contended pedestrians have an easier time crossing at a roundabout, because “splitter islands” on each approach to the roundabout divide vehicular entrances into it and exits out of it.
He said marked pedestrian crossings include those splitter islands, so people don’t have to walk across two lanes of traffic at once, and added pedestrians never cross the center of an entire roundabout.
Walter said the Federal Highway Administration is looking at signalizing pedestrian crossings at roundabouts in areas where there are large volumes of pedestrians.
“That ruling hasn’t come out yet. They’re still looking at the pros and cons of it, how it would work.”
Roundabout for Willow Lane?
During the Q&A that followed the roundabout presentation, planning commission member Neill Dekker said Walter “may or may not be familiar that a roundabout is under consideration” near the Willow Lane school.
Higgins mentioned it just came up during a commissioners public works committee meeting last month.
Conrad brought up the fact that a roundabout had been considered at Willow Lane Elementary, saying many parents were very concerned about it.
Conrad said there is a perception in the community that roundabouts are much more dangerous, because they have no stop signs or traffic lights.
Conrad said Walter’s presentation addressed that perception but asked: “How do you overcome that?”
The PennDOT official said the solution is a combination of public education and eventually getting some roundabouts out there that people can actually see. “We all have to get to used to seeing and driving them.”
Dekker said roundabouts are designed for the continuous flow of traffic, but added traffic would have to be stopped in all directions to safely cross children at a roundabout near a school.
Walter suggested crossing guards could be used at a roundabout, just as they are at intersections.
“That would be more of a challenge for crossing guards,” said Commissioner James Lancsek.
Higgins does not think a roundabout is a good idea for the Sauerkraut/Willow Lane intersection because vehicles using it won’t stop for school children who cross there.
Higgins said it’s almost like those children will be playing Frogger so they don’t get “wiped out” by vehicles: “Let’s cross this one lane and hop to the center and stand in the middle and then wait and hop to the next lane.”
“A traffic signal or a stop sign stops traffic, as opposed to just slowing it down,” said Higgins. “I would think that would be the ultimate goal as far as safety goes.”
Roundabouts vs. traffic signals
Walter of PennDOT said roundabouts are an alternative to signalizing intersections.
“Roundabouts don’t work everywhere,” he admitted. “You’ll still see signals being installed in some locations.”
He explained someone entering a roundabout only has to look to the left and yield to traffic already in it, rather than having to look left, right and straight ahead at a conventional intersection.
He said they also are designed so drivers remain in the same lane throughout the roundabout until they exit.
In response to questions from planning commission members, Walter said roundabouts don’t take up a lot more land than a standard intersection, especially if that intersection requires turning lanes.
He also said the cost of creating a roundabout is “fairly close” to the cost of signalizing an intersection.
“All roundabouts are not round,” said Walter. “Some have ovals, some have tear drops, some are called turbos, some look like dumbbells.”
New Jersey traffic circles
Walter explained roundabouts are distinct “from older rotary intersections” — commonly known as traffic circles —because roundabouts are smaller and designed to slow traffic.
“We all have the notion of the New Jersey circles, how rotten they were,” he said. “People would go through them fairly quickly because they were so large.”
He said people entering such traffic circles do not have to yield, but those driving in a circle must do so.
He said Pennsylvania’s roundabouts operate differently, which makes them safer.
“The two that I use a lot in Jersey are kind of scary,” said Lancsek. “I cringe when I get there.”
Lancsek said an advantage of stopping at an intersection is drivers have a chance to see where they are and where they want to go.
In traffic circles, said the commissioner, people may not know exactly where they are going but constantly are moving.
He mentioned the movie scene where the Griswold family gets stuck in a traffic circle and can’t get out of it in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation.”
“I’m worried about the elderly,” said Lancsek. “There are a lot of elderly in the township. I think they’re gonna freak out on these things, especially on a dual lane.”
Higgins said people living in this area have trouble with four-way stop signs —“who goes when. And now you’re going to introduce a completely different kind of traffic pattern.”
Higgins also said traffic circles in New Jersey generally are in spots where there is no pedestrian traffic — “at larger intersections of major highways.”
Commissioner Ron Beitler said New Jersey has only four roundabouts, but 110 traffic circles.
Beitler indicated he wished he had a nickel for every time somebody said: “Why are you considering a roundabout when New Jersey is getting rid of them?”
He said New Jersey actually is getting rid of its 110 traffic circles, not those four roundabouts. “They are installing more roundabouts, pretty much as every state is.”
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