Cedar Rapids gets its first roundabout as traffic tool ‘explodes’ around Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS - After years of driving her daughter to school, Laura Mallicoat knows well the backups as parents, students and staff jockey into the College Community campus while competing for roadway with students and staff headed to Kirkwood Community College just north.

A traffic officer helps manage the traffic flow, but it's not a long-term solution or a good use of police resources, Mallicoat said. That could be why Cedar Rapids' first roundabout - a dirty word in some circles - on Kirkwood Boulevard SW at the school's south entrance hasn't caused a stir.

'I just think a roundabout will keep things flowing,” said Mallicoat, 39, of Shueyville. 'For people who haven't been to Mount Vernon or to Marion, it will take some learning. It will be a change, but people are getting used to these.”

Until now, Cedar Rapids had held back as the proliferation of roundabouts has - in one official's word - 'exploded” in Iowa. Not anymore. Work began this month on the Kirkwood Boulevard roundabout, and several more are on deck.

‘Realizing the benefits'

Communities are opting for the circular intersections without signals over a traffic light or stop sign to manage crash-prone or congested areas.

'The number really are exploding because these are good for safety and good for traffic flow,” said Steve Gent, director of traffic and safety for the Iowa Department of Transportation. 'People are realizing the benefits.”

Traffic officials say the roundabout is safer, curbs wasted fuel and emissions, reduces delays and are friendlier for pedestrians and bicyclists. It often takes up less room than a traditional intersection and with similar or less cost than a traffic signal, a Cedar Rapids official said.

The Iowa DOT tracked roundabouts up until 2013, reaching 59 with a third of those coming in 2012 and 2013. Although, the agency has stopped counting, the frequency of new roundabouts has only increased, Gent said.

The Iowa DOT will pay for a consultant to evaluate if a city is considering a roundabout, and roundabouts are eligible under a few Iowa DOT grant programs. A handful get money each year, he said. The College Community roundabout received a $500,000 Traffic Safety Improvement Program grant through the Iowa DOT.

‘Roundabouts are dumb'

Yet, the roundabouts have fueled the ire of motorists, perhaps nowhere more than in Marion, which has five, including one recently added in the heart of town at Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street.

'Hey! Let's have a Marion roundabout to roundabout ‘dumb-run,' ” Joe Greene posted in public Facebook group called the Marion, IA Activist. 'Not that anyone is dumb, but the roundabouts are dumb. We can use the entrance fees toward tearing up said roundabouts and restoring our home!”

Cedar Rapids had planned to install a roundabout at the intersection of Cottage Grove Avenue SE and Forest Drive SE outside of Washington High School in 2012, even accepting a $514,160 Iowa DOT clean-air grant, but shelved the plan after numerous citizen objections.

'Now is the right time,” said John Witt, a Cedar Rapids traffic engineer, noting there's been little pushback this time. 'They are becoming more accepted as people get used to them.”

How they work

The $1.2 million College Community roundabout will be what's called a single-lane roundabout. The project has Kirkwood Boulevard closed from south of 76th Avenue SW to Woodstone Lane SW and is slated to be complete by the start of school on Aug. 23.

The single-lane model consists of a one-direction, counterclockwise travel lane, which has the right of way, around a center island. Entering motorists yield to traffic from the left and merge when there's an opening. Crosswalks are at each entry and exit leg with a splitter island in between the entering and exiting traffic. Pedestrians have the right of way at the entrances and exits.

Three mini-roundabouts, which are smaller and don't have a center island, are also on the books. They are at Johnson Avenue and Wiley Boulevard NW, Johnson Avenue and Jacolyn Drive NW, and E Avenue and Stoney Point Road NW for 2018 and 2019. Several others are under consideration and roundabouts are an option for any intersection section project, Witt said.

'If an improvement needs to happen, we will look at it,” Witt said. 'Some don't make sense.”

More complex roundabouts, such as double lane roundabouts, could be on the horizon, he said. Roads with heavy traffic or a high proportion of semis likely aren't a good fit for roundabouts, he said.

Safety concerns

The Kirkwood roundabout was selected over a traffic light or four-way stop because it provides a better solution to manage congestion during peak times, and splitter islands create shorter, safer crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, Witt said, adding roundabouts are particularly popular around schools.

Vehicles slow down but generally never have to stop in a roundabout, so traffic doesn't pile up as with a stop sign or traffic light, he said.

The two Johnson Avenue roundabouts were selected because those intersections have been crash prone. There have been 25 crashes at the Wiley intersection and 22 at the Jacolyn intersection in the past five years, and about two-thirds were broadside, Witt said. The roundabout planned for E Avenue anticipates growth in that area and will be a good transition tool calming traffic between rural and urban roadways, he said.

Roundabouts reduce crashes with fatalities by 90 percent, crashes with injuries by 76 percent, and crashes overall by 35 percent, according to Transportation Research Board data.

This is for a few reasons, Witt said.

Roundabouts are one-directional so motorists have less periphery to monitor, and fewer conflict points - eight in a single-lane roundabout compared to 32 at a traditional four-legged intersection - mean fewer opportunities for crashes. The roundabout is designed with narrower entry ways to slow traffic as they enter, so slower speeds lead to fewer severe crashes, and the curved roadway virtually eliminates broadside and head-on crashes.

Case Study

Coralville can serve as a case study on the impact of roundabout. The Johnson County city had installed the most roundabouts in the state with seven as of 2013, according to the Iowa DOT's data. Since then, Coralville has installed three more with at least six more planned in the coming years, said Scott Larson, Coralville assistant city engineer.

The roundabouts have either resolved existing traffic problems, such as peak hour backups at First Avenue and Holiday Road; prevented or will prevent new traffic problems from appearing in new growth areas, such as 12th Avenue and Forevergreen Road; or held off the need for improvements by better handling increasing traffic volume, he said.

The mini-roundabout at 12th Avenue and Holiday Road, which replaced an all-way stop intersection in 2015, made a significant dent in the rush hour delays, Larson said.

'I do receive occasional complaints about our roundabouts, but I will ask people to think about how a specific intersection would be functioning today if we had added turning lanes and installed traffic signals instead of a roundabout ... or if we had left an intersection controlled by stop signs instead of a roundabout,” he said.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com

By The Numbers

l 0 - Number of existing roundabouts in Cedar Rapids.

l $1.2 million - Cost to construction the first roundabout in Cedar Rapids on Kirkwood Boulevard SW near the College Community campus.

l $500,000 - Amount of the Iowa Department of Transportation grant received to help pay for the new Cedar Rapids roundabout.

l $120,000-$200,000 - Amount of money Cedar Rapids can save over the next 20 years in maintenance costs by installing a roundabout instead of an intersection with traffic signals.

l 16,000-20,000 - Number of vehicles a single-lane roundabout can handle each day.

l 30,000-40,000 - Number of vehicles a double-lane roundabout can handle each day.

l 35 - Percent reduction in overall crashes due to roundabouts, according to the Transportation Research Board.

Source: City of Cedar Rapids