There are many articles about roundabouts, extolling benefits of slow-moving traffic and fewer accidents. There are articles that say, “Not so!” There are articles about traffic engineers replacing existing roundabouts with traffic lights because they didn’t work. A recent news story in the Cape Gazette explained roundabouts in general, but not how they would work within the Lewes area.
This reference to existing roundabouts in the Lewes area referred to small-diameter roundabouts. There was no distinction between two-lane roads as opposed to four-lane roads and different traffic flow. There was absolutely no discussion of having five roundabouts in a one-and-a-half-mile stretch of a two-lane road, which is about 14,000 feet apart.
One has to wonder if all the following consequences have been truly considered in the immediate area: Traffic flow into and out of Cape Henlopen High School twice a day with inexperienced drivers; heavily increased traffic flow from current and future housing developments on both Gills Neck Road (six existing subdivisions) and Kings Highway/Freeman Highway with two current, two proposed and at least one under construction; and don’t leave out the traffic flow from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry and large RVs. This does not take into consideration increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
How are we, those immediately impacted daily, to respond to traffic designers from another geographic area who seem to know our daily traffic situation better than we do? Have any of their designers actually sat at any of the suggested roundabouts for any amount of time? Oh, I see, we are using some traffic cables and an inhuman monitor to judge our commuting future.
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