Hi all! This is Gary Schatz, chair of the TENC Roundabout Committee. I'm really excited about the next few days and am looking forward to great discussions and camraderie here in Atlanta.
If you get a chance, consider a self-guided tour of some local roundabouts. Special thanks to Scott Zehngraff and his team for putting together an interactive map of circular intersections in Georgia. Access it here:
http://www.dot.ga.gov/travelingingeorgia/trafficcontrol/roundabouts/Pages/default.aspx
My wife and I took time yesterday to go visit some of these and three may be of special interest. (Yes, she not only puts up with my being a traffic engineer, she enables it! :-)) When you go to these, think about three things:
1. What were the engineering "tradeoffs" that had to be made to implement the improvements?
2. What additional improvements could be made even with the acknowledged "tradeoffs"?
3. How would you approach building "community will" to support implementing any additional improvements?
- Mabry & Glenridge north of Atlanta - Good four-legged single lane roundabout in a neighborhood setting.
- Rockspring & N. Pelham east of Atlanta - Five-legged single lane roundabout. Lots of geometric challenges as there are actually six roadways converging here and one approach is significantly offset to the right.
- McClendon & Howard east of Atlanta - A three-legged single lane roundabout situated at a "flat" wye intersection. Lots of challenges here with tight right-of-way and driveways.
Our TENC RAB Committee Meeting on Monday is scheduled to last 1-1/2 hours; I know the schedule says 2:00 to 2:30, but you're not getting off that easy!
I hope to have an opportunity to visit with many of you over the next few days. Looking forward to our discussions.
Gary