General Road and Highway Discussion

[timio]

I was looking over the proposed design for Highland Road West from Fischer Hallman to Ira Needles and noticed that they are considering roundabouts for the intersections with Westheights.

It's a bit unclear from the material online what the tipping point would be to install them.

Where did you see this?

As someone who lives nearby, I just don't see the need.  Is there really enough traffic coming off of Westheights/Eastforest/Westforest?

There's reference in the display boards to an optional roundabout at each of the intersections:  http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/gettin...-Mar13.pdf

And I some more detail (albeit not much) in the presentation on pages 16/17:   https://icreate3.esolutionsgroup.ca/2306...splays.pdf

The only real reason I could see it being helpful is that the paint job on Westheights over the past few years is terrible.  Old lines weren't fully removed before being repainted.  People still drive in the bike lanes as if they were turning/passing lanes, and the painted lines make it seem like you're supposed to drive into oncoming traffic (especially the western arm of Westheights towards Driftwood.)

At rush hour, there seems to be less traffic flowing through than on Ira Needles, so roundabouts wouldn't get backed up as much. However, there would be more pedestrian activity along here meaning it might not be as safe for pedestrians as signalized intersections.