Letter from the Editor: Roundabouts
Yes, we still need to talk about roundabouts.
Welcome to Fall, ya’ll! While we wait for some cooler weather, I want to invite you to do two things. First and always foremost, enjoy this month’s magazine and all the fun and fascinating events we are so proud to promote. Second, let’s talk about a subject well-known to anyone who keeps up with the goings-on in Columbus. Let’s talk about roundabouts.
Traffic circle. Road circle. Rotary. Whatever you want to call them, roundabouts are here and more are coming, including a $1.5 million roundabout at the River Road, Bradley Park Drive, Green Island Drive and Cascade Road intersection. This is good news. Roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections. In a study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent and fatality crashes by 90 percent. A 90 percent reduction in fatality crashes. Come at me.
If you’re not familiar with roundabouts, they can be confusing at first. Fortunately, they’re simple to navigate. As you approach, slow down. Look ahead and make a plan. Pedestrians should always have right-of-way. After pedestrians, yield to oncoming traffic. When you find a gap into which you can safely maneuver your vehicle, get in there. Stay right to exit the roundabout at any convenient egress.
That’s it. They’re safe and easy to use. So what’s with all the grousing about roundabouts?
Sure, some people, in spite of all the facts, genuinely dislike roundabouts. Those people are entitled to their wrong opinion. Bottom line is that roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections. They’re also easier on your vehicles, because they cut out a lot of stop-and-go wear and tear—they save you money. Bad weather? You’ll never see the Columbus Police Department, which is already stretched thin, manning a downed roundabout light. By every measure, roundabouts are a good, pragmatic idea.
But most of the roundabout talk in Columbus isn’t about roundabouts. Roundabouts have become a strange totem of perceived mayoral ineffectiveness. Any time Mayor Teresa Tomlinson speaks, there is an online echo chamber in which the word “roundabout” ricochets past nebulous anger and into the distance. The idea is that roundabouts are emblematic of the mayor’s failed administration. Whatever you think of the job the mayor has done, using roundabouts to signal displeasure makes no sense.
When looking for something symbolic of a person’s failure, we want a part that represents the whole. So, if we want to signal general displeasure with former-President Bill Clinton, we might start the phrase, “I did not have…” Or if we want to gibe former-President George HW Bush, we might mention flying over New Orleans. What we would not do, in either case, is mention Clinton’s budget surplus or Bush’s composure in the wake of 9/11.
Mayor Tomlinson is a public figure, and all public figures face scrutiny and ridicule. Criticism comes with the territory. But it is odd when citizens emblazon a useful public safety design on their mental images of the mayor and imagine it somehow mars her tenure in office. Roundabouts do not blemish the mayor’s record. When you use roundabouts as an indictment, you seem something like a cheerleader who’s brought her pom poms to the wrong side of the field.
Want to criticize the mayor? By all means, except the one where you attach negative connotations to an improvement in city infrastructure.
Thank you for reading,
Tom Ingram