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Booming roundabouts, Toronto to build traffic circles

by ryan | September 25, 2007 at 01:33 pm

1044 views | 3 Recommendations | 1 comment

The city of Toronto has announced that it may install traffic circles, also known as roundabouts, in specific intersections.

The roundabout has many benefits:

reduces traffic accidents
reduces emissions
pretty little gardens in the middle

Sounds pretty good to me, let's get these roundabouts up.

Popular in Europe, traffic circles are worth studying to see if they would be safer and move more traffic than traditional intersections with stop signs or traffic lights, says Councillor Case Ootes.

Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth) has tabled a motion for this week's city council meeting asking transportation officials to report by January on the potential benefits and suggest ways to pick candidates for conversion.

And here are the facts:

The arguments for roundabouts are strong. There are no costly traffic lights to build or maintain. Unless something is coming round, cars need not stop, so congestion is reduced and fuel is saved. Most important is safety. About 45% of all crashes in America occur at crossroads, often because of misjudged left turns. At a roundabout, outside Britain and other countries that drive on the left, drivers can only turn right. A 2001 study by the IIHS found that roundabouts have 80% fewer crashes with injuries than ordinary intersections. Other research also points to big reductions.