General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Yup, and with a turbo roundabout in a residential area to boot. Real shame they aren’t taking the climate emergency seriously.

I’m a bit unclear on what is wrong with the turbo roundabout. My impression is that they are an improved design that is safer and more efficient without taking up more space. Is there a downside I’m missing?

They definitely take up more space, and they are designed to move cars faster, not safer (or at least faster without being less safe for those cars). Ultimately though they are bad for pedestrians and cyclists, if this was a smaller lower speed roundabout traffic would have to slow down more and it would be safer for everyone.

Given that it's a one lane roundabout, it is going to be orders of magnitude safer than the monstrosities that the region builds, but that doesn't change the fact that in the middle of a residential neighbourhood they build an intersection designed to facilitate high speed traffic at the expense of pedestrian and cyclist safety---this is why people drive.

Edit: It is really interesting to look at the size of roundabouts. Much like turning radii in the last 20 years, they seem to be growing constantly...I feel like this is an issue that should get raised before it becomes a more pervasive problem. Just look at Laurelwood Dr. It is a two lane road all the way along, but the roundabout at Beavercreek Dr. which is significantly older, is only 28 meters wide. Whereas the new section of Laurlwood Dr. to Westmount Rd. is over 40 meters wide. The smaller roundabout functions just fine...and it's regularly used by buses and garbage trucks which have no difficulty navigating it. So aside from just being incredibly wasteful in land and resources to pave a bigger circle, it's also less safe. Why are we building worse roads for more money?!

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4722095,-...a=!3m1!1e3

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4753387,-...a=!3m1!1e3

I cannot measure the new traffic circle because I have no Google Maps satelite photo of it yet but I'm guessing it's going to be at least as big as the new ones on Laurelwood Dr., and that's leaving aside the different geometry (what I'm calling a turbo roundabout) which enables drivers to pass through it even faster.