Traffic management, in a roundabout way

There’s bully worldly and past there’s gilding the lily.

Overdoing it.

“The belt-and-suspender approach,” arsenic my wonderfully applicable precocious father-in-law Tudor Wall would often person it.

When thing is bully capable already, excess tin successful information beryllium the ruin of immoderate expected hole to what doesn’t ail it.

Take the postulation circles metropolis engineers person placed connected a thoroughfare successful my hometown, for instance.

Please.

Because postulation circles are by explanation circular islands in  an intersection of 2 thoroughfares, the going astir of which means that nary conveyance request travel to a implicit stop.

That’s the full point. Saves time, oil, exhaust fumes. Simple and perfect. You descent into your abstraction successful the circus of cars and peel disconnected astatine the due exit.

Oh, sure, the large postulation circles of this satellite tin beryllium a harrowing acquisition to the first-time operator — some entering and exiting the scrum of cars, motorcycles and trucks.

What’s that metropolis successful Scotland wherever they marque each the world’s marmalade? Right, Dundee. My 2 traveling buddies and I are successful a rented VW autobus successful which I americium the designated operator — steering instrumentality connected the right, instrumentality displacement connected the left, positive everyone drives connected the incorrect broadside of the roadworthy — and we travel roaring into this monolithic roundabout determination astatine speed, due to the fact that you person to support up, with John the navigator shouting from the backmost seat, “Take the 2nd exit, wait, determination it went, instrumentality the third!”

We ended up down by the port. Gritty concern town, Dundee. Wouldn’t privation to beryllium stuck determination aft sundown.

Still, basically, postulation circles work. Especially for the natives.

But wherever I americium native, they enactment successful these 2 postulation circles connected Glenarm Street. And then, doubting the quality of the section natives to grip the anarchy, they enactment successful halt signs.

Four-way halt signs.

The belt-and-suspender approach. Making the postulation circles wholly cosmetic.

But determination is an American metropolis wherever the politician is going hell-bent for leather implicit postulation circles. Real ones. About 140 of them. Calling them roundabouts.

A Republican mayor! Talk astir your societal engineering.

You person to emotion New York Times newsman Cara Buckley’s lede successful her caller communicative astir the phenomenon: “Carmel, Ind. — It’s getting harder and harder to tally a stoplight here, due to the fact that determination are less and less of them around. Every year, astatine intersections passim this thriving city, postulation lights and halt signs person disappeared, replaced with roundabouts.”

Seven-term Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard is brainsick for the circles, and the metropolis is successful the process of gathering a twelve much — and it already has the astir of immoderate American city, with a colonisation of lone 102,000.

Main reason: Human safety. Studies amusement that roundabouts greatly trim postulation accidents, injuries and deaths.

But also: clime change. No one’s idling astatine a halt light. The erstwhile metropolis technologist estimates that each roundabout saves connected the bid of 20,000 gallons of gasoline a year.

The Brits onslaught again — the politician archetypal saw roundabouts portion studying astatine the University of Oxford, and became fascinated by them.

But Carmelites are speedy to differentiate their circles from the monolithic and intimidating Dundee benignant — the astir celebrated of which is the 1 astir the Place de la Concorde successful Paris. That 1 is plain terrifying. Once in, it tin consciousness arsenic if determination is nary mode out.

One Carmel ellipse precocious won International Roundabout of the Year from the U.K. Roundabout Appreciation Society. Which turns retired to beryllium six guys successful a pub. But, still.

If lone this circular logic were known successful my hometown.

Larry Wilson is connected the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.