WACO, Texas (AP) - For Wacoans, the term “traffic circle” conjures the many-tentacled beast at La Salle Avenue that sucks up 26,000 cars a day and spits them out in five directions.
Aggressive motorists accelerate and weave between lanes while others hesitate, searching for an exit. The challenge of the 83-year-old intersection is summed up by a T-shirt slogan from the old Elite Cafe: “I survived the circle.”
So why are transportation planners circling back to this century-old traffic technology?
The short answer, perhaps shocking to users of the La Salle circle: safety and efficiency.
“If they’re designed right, studies have shown they can reduce the number of crashes at an interchange, certainly the worst ones,” Chris Evilia, director of the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization, told the Waco Tribune-Herald (https://bit.ly/2dq3EnK). “When someone fails to yield, it usually results in a glancing blow, rather than a T-bone crash.”
“Design” is the key word for what are now called “modern roundabouts.” The city has a modern roundabout at Chapel Road as part of a $5 million project to widen and rebuild Ritchie Road. It has a network of pedestrian walkways, along with islands that channel traffic through the roundabout, which is less than half the width of the historic circle.
The Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization is proposing a series of six similar roundabouts to replace overpasses and traffic signals on Business 77 as part of a long-range plan to restructure that aging corridor. The Business 77 intersections include Crest Drive, Craven Ave., Behrens Circle, Waco Drive, Orchard Lane and Marlin Highway.
The MPO is seeking public input through Oct. 14 for that plan, which can be viewed at www.77corridorstudy.com.
It’s not just Waco officials who are reviving circular intersections. Most of Texas’ large cities are starting to build them again. This month, the city of Austin is building a roundabout at a congested intersection of the Interstate 35 frontage road and East 51st Street.
In Wisconsin, where traffic circles are already more plentiful, the state has announced plans to build 44 traffic circles along a stretch of State Highway 41.
And since 2008, the Federal Highway Administration official guidance is that “roundabouts are the preferred safety alternative for a wide range of intersections.
“Although they may not be appropriate in all circumstances, they should be considered as an alternative for all proposed new intersections on federally funded highway projects,” the agency states.
Modern roundabouts are smaller than old rotaries like the La Salle circle, which allow high speeds. Instead, modern roundabouts are engineered to calm traffic before it enters the intersection and keep it slow on the turn.
Roundabouts that replace two-way stop signs reduce fatal and severe injury crashes by 82 percent, with a 44 percent reduction in all crashes, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s website.
Converting a signalized intersection to a roundabout reduces severe crashes by 78 percent and overall crashes by 48 percent.
Other studies show that roundabouts can be more efficient in moving traffic than conventional signalized intersections, because no one has to wait at a light.
The state of Texas long stopped building circular intersections in the mid-20th century and until recently had no standards for how they should be built. Most historic traffic circles were abandoned by the end of the century, leaving Waco’s circle as a rare relic.
“We went for a while without even considering them in our design,” said Bobby Littlefield, the Waco district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. “There was quite a bit of effort to eliminate them around the state.”
Littlefield said the modern roundabout designs have proved effective, and now TxDOT is building them across the state.
“The big change is that decreased the radius so you’re not spread out so much and there’s not so much opportunity for weaving in and out,” Littlefield said. “They’re more channelized now. I’m a proponent of (roundabouts) myself. I think they’re a very efficient way to move traffic through an intersection without having to come to a stop and halt.”
He said roundabouts are cost-effective compared to signalized intersections and overpasses, especially when it comes to maintenance. Littlefield said he would support proposals for more roundabouts along Business 77.
Evilia, the Waco MPO director, estimated that modern roundabouts cost between $200,000 and $500,000, not counting features such as landscaping and statues.
He said roundabouts don’t belong everywhere. A single-lane roundabout tends to work well when traffic counts average less than 20,000 per day and there aren’t a large number of left turns, he said. Two-lane roundabouts are possible but more complicated.
Also, roundabouts need more space than highly developed areas such as downtown can typically afford, Evilia said. The Ritchie Road roundabout has a footprint 130 feet wide, wider than most downtown streets. It’s still significantly smaller than the La Salle circle, which is about 350 feet wide.
The city of Waco in 2009 installed “mini-roundabouts” in the existing roadway of Austin Avenue to calm traffic, using landscaped traffic islands squeezed into an existing intersection. Those roundabouts were controversial and resulted in some smashed planters but were effective in reducing cross-town traffic speeding along Austin Avenue, city officials have said.
Evilia said one reason to go slowly with the rollout of new roundabouts is the reputation of the historic La Salle circle.
“We have to admit that part of the challenge is that we have a poorly designed example that a lot of people are familiar with,” he said.
Evilia said that experience might be a factor in concerns that trucking companies along Business 77 have raised about the roundabouts in the corridor plan.
Still, the La Salle circle has survived numerous attempts on its life, thanks to business leaders in the area who have defended it.
From its construction in 1933 to the completion of I-35 in 1970, the circle was all but unavoidable for motorists driving between Dallas and Austin. It connected Valley Mills Drive; Circle Road, which was once a main route into downtown; Robinson Drive; and Highway 77, the main north-south route.
Around it sprang up hotels, garages and some iconic restaurants, including the Elite Cafe and Health Camp burgers, all of which had driveways leading into the circle.
In 1974, and several more times in the 1980s and ’90s, the state proposed to replace the circle with a standard intersection, but local sentiment prevailed against it. A few improvements in the 1990s made it safer, including the addition of yield signs in 1992.
Local transportation officials say the circle isn’t as dangerous as it is scary.
“It is a little unnerving if you’ve never encountered it, but if you look at the statistics, it does move a lot of traffic with few incidents,” Littlefield, of TxDOT, said.
He said the intersection averages about one wreck a month, and few wrecks are severe.
Evilia said his most recent numbers for the circle are from 2013, when it had 26 crashes, with five serious injuries and no fatalities. A grade-separated intersection at Franklin Avenue and Valley Mills Drive with about the same amount of traffic also had 26 crashes that year, he said.
A.J. Patel, general manager at Comfort Suites on the circle, said he has heard complaints about the circle but has seen few wrecks. Patel said the circle is both a hindrance and a draw for his hotel.
“Probably a little bit of both,” he said. “Some guests say, ’I’m not staying here again because of the circle,’ but that’s pretty rare… . Because it’s such a landmark, it’s helpful to businesses in providing awareness of the location.”
Patel said he would like to see better lane markers on the circle and more public education on who has right of way.
Joe Moore, a partner at Health Camp, said he sees no reason to change the circle where the restaurant has stood for 68 years. Moore agreed it draws business to restaurants and other firms.
“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s been here a long time, and people like to come here and watch the traffic go by. It’s kind of like watching people in the airport… . It’s a good thing for Waco to have.”
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Information from: Waco Tribune-Herald, https://www.wacotrib.com
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