Remember no one is asking for an end to traffic calming, just TC reform. You be the judge.

From The News Observer on the Web

Saturday, October 30, 1999

Dennis Rogers: Traffic circles are lunacy

Three little words come to mind when looking at the the newest new plan to fix up Raleigh's Hillsborough Street:
Oh, my God!
I don't mean to be blasphemous, but my mild interjection is nothing compared to what you'll hear on the Wolfpack's main drag if this dog has puppies.
I predict the cussing, horn-blowing and rude gesturing will reach a crescendo long before frustrated drivers negotiate the seven -- count 'em, seven -- traffic circles from Oberlin Avenue to Faircloth Street. It is going to be ugly.
Engineers are fine folks. They are blessed with a "vision" that lets them imagine how wonderful things could be. Could be, that is, if we hard-headed humans would do things the right, i.e., their way.
Take traffic circles. What could be simpler? No stop signs or traffic lights to impede traffic, no left-turning cars hogging the lane while everybody fumes and fusses behind them.
Only thing is, they don't work as they're supposed to. Been to Pittsboro lately? Or Fayetteville? Or Newton Grove? It is terrifying fun -- sort of like watching NASCAR or rodeo-bull riding -- to see cars and trucks try to get around those circles without a massive collision or a coronary.
Traffic circles -- engineers prefer the high-toned and veddy British "roundabout" -- reward the aggressive and punish the meek. And if you're looking for a metaphor to describe the changes that have taken place in this area over the last 20 years, the circles will do.
Let's face it, Southern drivers, with the exception of King Richard Petty and those good ol' boys in their Bud-fueled pickups on Saturday nights, are rather timid drivers. We like to say we're polite down here, but the truth is, we consider it unseemly and a little intimidating to battle the adjacent Yankee for a lane on Interstate 40.
Traffic circles, to work, require the car ahead of you, and then you, to seamlessly blend into the circling traffic. He who hesitates is lost. Imagine a clock. You're coming in at 6 and want to exit at 9. Except the guy coming from your left wants to exit at 3. It is a nightmare looking for a place to happen. This is the worst traffic engineering idea since they decided to widen Wake Forest Road from two lanes to three with one swipe of a paint brush.
Hillsborough Street is not like other streets. What is going to happen on these seven traffic circles the night State wins a game and the fans take to the street? What happens when some poor soul who can barely see over the wheel of that 1982 Chevrolet panics at the circling traffic and freezes up. Traffic is going to be backed up to Zebulon.
Don't think I shudder at the thought of negotiating seven traffic circles to get from downtown to the sushi joint out of cowardice. There is that, but I have driven through through the Mother Traffic Circle from Hell in downtown Danvers, Mass.
Imagine the Tryon Hills intersection without traffic lights, stop signs or lane markers. Now imagine rush hour. In the rain. That's Danvers. Been there, done that, have the heart medication to prove it.
We Southerners are a genteel people. We haven't gotten used to those insidious four-way stop signs (Whose turn is it now?) so don't overwhelm us with these Darwinian roundabouts, OK?