Round and round - we DON'T go.

When we first moved out here to rural Milton, there was one stoplight between our house and the bottom of the off-ramp from the Gardiner Expressway to Yonge Street.

Now, there are six.

And the only one of them that makes a lick of sense is the one that was already here, because the intersection had (and has) a lot of traffic, the intersection had already been built, and there wasn’t enough room to do anything else.

The other five?

Completely stupid.

What is wrong with urban planners these days? At least, the ones working for Halton Region?

Do stoplight manufacturers have photos of these people in compromising situations?

I mean, stoplights are the least efficient, most dangerous form of traffic control ever invented, as anyone who has ever been Tee-boned or rear-ended at one will testify (and there are increasing numbers of those in the GTA, as we all know).

The most egregiously stupid stoplight of a very stupid lot is the one at the intersection of our sideroad and (the former) Highway 25. You’ve got a rural highway, with reasonably but not insanely heavy traffic, and a sideroad which, while designated a “regional” road and hence is intended to carry more traffic than municipally-maintained roads, is still not all that busy.

At least it wouldn’t be all that busy if the cops would keep the gravel trucks off it, as they are supposed to do.

But traffic on that rural highway has to come to a complete stop for a couple of minutes, just to let one lousy car cross that highway?

Even if you just turn right on Highway 25, as I typically do several times daily, you may trigger the sensors which initiate a light change.

For no reason whatsoever.

And while that traffic is stopped, it is exposed to the risk of those self-same gravel trucks or other vehicles barreling into them. I mean, who the heck expects a traffic light in the middle of nowhere?

Needless to say, there is an alternative, one you’ve heard from me before.

The roundabout.

Now, my intersection might not have room for one, but again, there is just no reason for any traffic control device in that spot at all.

But the other four additional stoplights?

They are all the result of the recently widened Highway, which was expanded to handle the expected additional traffic from the industrial developments just north of town; or from the expansion of the interchange with Highway 401 (which is also badly designed, but that’s a story for another time).

Absolutely no reason why roundabouts wouldn’t have been perfect in all those cases.

Roundabouts are so perfect for a number of reasons:

1. They are safe - can’t tee-bone anyone at a roundabout; about the worst that can happen is a side-swipe, which by comparison is very minor.

2. They help traffic move efficiently - you may have to slow down, but you (almost) never have to stop entirely. True, with a stoplight you may be lucky enough to catch the green, but if you do, someone else has caught the red.

3. They are environmentally friendly - stopping and idling your vehicle is by far the worst thing you can do for pollution. And of course, you don’t need electricity to run the stoplights.

4. They surely can't even be that expensive to build, given that in these cases, they were re-building the highway anyway. And properly designed, they don't take up any more room than a conventional intersection, not when you consider the right-turn-only and left-turn-only lanes you typically have in a modern stoplight-controlled intersection.

The craziest thing about the utter lack of roundabouts in Halton Region is that their (our!) highway designers don’t have to go all the way to England to understand the brilliance of the concept. They can (ahem) read my columns, or just drive west about 20 minutes, where the Waterloo Region has been installing roundabouts at a great rate in recent years.

One of their traffic planners told me recently that the results are as positive as they were predictable - crashes are down by large double-digit percentages, and the types of crashes they do have are much less severe.

True, roundabouts do take some getting used to. I did an interview with a Kitchener TV station a few months ago on the subject of these new roundabouts; they had video footage of some drivers driving straight across the roundabout.

Man, they must have thought what was some kinda speed bump.

But seriously; with proper signage and a bit of an education campaign, how hard is it to figure out a Yield sign?

And after that acclimatization period, you can join most of the civilized world in utilizing the most brilliant traffic control device ever invented.

Just not in Halton Region.

Pity.

Comments

[DjDATZ]

I would have to agree with everything said in this article completely. Stop lights are dangerous and inefficient. Roundabouts are much safer AND much more efficient. What about this is so hard to understand?

More roundabouts and less stop lights PLEASE.

That is all.

[jim kenzie]

Hi Dario:

Too bad you don't work for Halton Region.

Jim Kenzie

[John B]

I was talking to a friend from Toronto today and he tells me the traffic lights there and now deliberately un-synchronized. And we all know that new traffic lights are the result of pressure groups, not traffic engineering.

As for "roundabouts" as you like to call them (I like traffic circles, because all the roundabouts I've seen have signs saying KEEP LEFT where you enter them), I don't believe North American drivers are required to have sufficient skills to negotiate them. It's like lane discipline. In my neck of the woods (Southwestern Ontario) the mere mention of putting in a traffic circle gets people up in arms.

[Travis]

Good point. Out of curiosity, do you know how many roundabouts exist in Toronto...?? I'm scratching my head trying to think of one - perhaps I haven't driven in that area before?

[John]

Hi Jim,

Just read your post on roundabouts. Prince Edward County finally put one in at Hwy 33 and County Road 1 at the outskirts of Picton. What was a tough road to get onto (Turning right or left onto 33) is now an easy to navigate and MUCH safer intersection...without any need for lights.

My vote for more roundabouts too...and think about the electricity and maintenance savings - no equipment to deal with!

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi John:

Roundabout or traffic circle - I'll gladly accept either!

And the success of the concept in Waterloo Region and elsewhere in North America suggests that we CAN in fact handle them!

Jim

[Dario "DjDATZ" Zgrablic]

I think the biggest and best point for argument is #3. Stopping and accelerating your car is a waste of energy, and is unnecessary if it can be avoided! Also, stopping presents a high chance of being rear-ended while only slowing down to obey a yield sign is much SAFER!

My other beef with traffic lights is that they AREN'T SYNCHRONIZED. If they were, traffic could move normally, there would be less traffic jams, which results in less stop and go traffic (remember the stopping thing I JUST said?), which means people are less frustrated/stressed (better overall health in their lifetime) AND LESS ROAD RAGE because people are p***ed off that their life is wasting away in traffic!

You think the government of Ontario might let me run as Minister of Transportation? I'm down for a complete overhaul of the HTA and all driving regulations in Ontario. (Including some of the idiotic criteria in the graded licensing system like optional driving school and the tiny requirements for learning how to drive.)

Oh and as John mentioned... Roundabouts NEED NO POWER nor maintenance!!