The Beauty of Roundabouts

Across the United States, the primary structure of an intersection is the streetlight. Yes, it’s a great invention. It creates order between streets, and helps protect the transportation of bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers. However, there are still disadvantages with a streetlight. Drivers can often find their selves stuck at these lights for minutes at a time, which wastes fuel. Also, the risk of a driver running a red light adds an element of danger to these streetlights.

Enter the roundabout.

From a glance, this roundabout seems unsuspecting. It takes the shape of a circle and being around 100 feet in diameter, but what could be special about it? Truth is, a lot. Studies have shown that they increase safety by a large amount, with 90% fewer fatalities than a streetlight, and 75% fewer injuries. Also, these structures increase the traffic capacity of an average intersection by 50%, which decreases waiting time. As a result, carbon emissions from waiting at a streetlight can be decreased greatly.

Cities across America have begun to implement these roundabouts. For example, the city of Carmel, Indiana has constructed 141 roundabouts from 1988 to 2022. It is evident that these structures are more beneficial than streetlights, but a complete replacement is unrealistic. Blocking off an intersection to construct a roundabout is a timely process that causes major traffic. Taking this into account, civil engineers cannot construct these structures into existing cities, but they can and should implement roundabouts into any new project that they have.