I don’t understand the popularity of roundabouts. It seems they’ve been showing up all over the place the last few years.
I understand the concept and how they should help keep traffic flowing through an intersection. The problem is too many people don’t understand how to use them. All it takes is one person to cause major problems.
I guess the Colorado Springs Park and Rec department decided that bicyclists need to be included in the trend. This year they put in a roundabout on the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail near downtown. It’s at the intersection of the Greenway Trail and the Midland Trail across from the America the Beautiful Park.
From the Greenway Trail, it was hard to see if anyone was coming from the west on the Midland Trail. The way they cut into the bank to put in the roundabout would have fixed that problem.
The city has been threatening to cut bus service and other essentials services if voters didn’t vote for tripling city property taxes. Not surprisingly voters defeated the tax increase by nearly 2-1 yesterday. We may just need the roundabout on the bike path.
– UltraRob
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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, mountain biking
I think roundabouts are a good way to avoid stop lights and stop signs, which really gum things up. It's like anything else, if there are enough of them, people will learn how to use them. People cycling in L.A. don't seem to know how to stay on the right. Some think they should bike on the left–and that accounts for one almost–crash I had! And some like to stay on the sidewalks. I think this whole cycling thing is a work in progress as more folks take to 2 wheels.
Well, I don't know about on a bike path, but I much prefer roundabouts to 4-way stops, 3-way stos, etc.