[BikeLongmont] MountainView Traffic circles

[Richard Masoner]

Thanks for the reports from those who've gone on the Mtn View circles.

Lowering the speed limit does almost nothing to slow traffic down.
Motorists travel at the speed a road is designed for, regardless of
posted signs.

City staff said they would remove the bike lanes. I had hoped the lane
removal would have occurred concurrent with circle installation.
Unfortunately, city offices are closed on Presidents Day so the
*earliest* action will be Tuesday.

I like the idea of signs indicating the bicyclists merge into the
center of the lane before entering the circles. According to safety
studies I've seen of UK roundabouts (much faster and much more traffic
than on the small traffic circles being installed here), 10% of
car-bicycle collisions in roundabouts are hit-from-behind. The much
greater risk is vehicles entering or exiting the circle across the
path of a bicyclist -- these are about 50% of roundabout accidents.

My preliminary thoughts on traffic circles in Longmont are at:

  http://www.masoner.net/bike/circles.php

I'll update that page based on the comments that Victor and Mike have
made later this week.

Richard Masoner
--


On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:48:14 -0700, Mike Dodge <mikewdodge at hotmail.com> wrote:
>   The only
> thing that the traffic circle does is use up brake linings and increase the
> chance of an accident.