Roundabouts are smart and green

Editor, Index-Tribune:

It is great to see the progress being made on the long-needed roundabout being installed at the intersection of Agua Caliente Road and Arnold Drive. This intersection has long been a bottleneck along an otherwise good alternate corridor through our Valley.  In my experience with roundabouts, since first encountering them in Europe in the early 1970s, I have always found them to be user friendly and efficient.

They are smart, in that they seamlessly adapt to the ever-changing traffic flow delivered to them at different times of the day. They are green, in that they eliminate a lot of needless starting and stopping all through the day and night. Keeping traffic moving saves fuel, reduces emissions and brake pad waste and greatly reduces the noise of coming to a complete stop and then accelerating back up to speed.

Roundabouts are less expensive to install than a signal system and less expensive to maintain.  I’m very happy to see more roundabouts being installed here in the states and I’m hopeful that once people become more familiar with them they will become accepted and appreciated for all the benefits they offer.

Ritch Foster

Glen Ellen