Modern Roundabouts? Modern Smoundabouts? 

By this time I've heard all the local excuses way modern roundabouts won't work here in Albuquerque. Somehow they work fine in Colorado. Vail has at least half a dozen. Los Alamos has a couple. Journal Center has one. Los Poblanos Orchards has one. Who knows?

I attended the latest public meeting about the proposed roundabout at Rio Grande and Candelaria this evening. There was a public protest against the idea two days ago for TV. There was a noisy element in the packed meeting room tonight who insisted on shouting questions and demands at the speakers regardless of the stated protocol to provide respect to all the speakers of the moment.

If I had the patience, I thought of walking up to them and simply asking them politely to sit down and shut up. Channel 7 showed up late, but the heckling is never newsworthy.

Years ago, I listened to a proud doctor argue against a modern roundabout on his route to work. His complaint? He didn't want anybody telling him how fast to drive at 6 AM on his way to work. A roundabout would slow him down in his BMW from 55 MPH down to 25 MPH (maybe 30 MPH) for one minute on Rio Grande whether anyone was watching or not.

On the other side, I've listened to residents along Rio Grande who  have complained loudly ever since the street was "improved" from 2-lanes to 4-lanes between Griegos and Mountain 30 years ago. Traffic speeds doubled, along with noise - and accidents at Candelaria.

At the meeting at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, I listened to a Republican attorney appointed politician complain that the city's roundabout design engineers had committed misfeasance, cherry-picking the traffic data and ignoring allegedly conflicting information, like supposed damaging accident data from existing city roundabouts at Menaul and Indian School and 8th and Central. Essentially they lied, and the City was shoving this project down "the people's throats" - after six years of public planning and hearings of alternative design studies to slow and calm traffic on Rio Grande and reduce accidents at this intersection. But he was not wiling to accuse them to their faces.

I assume the City/APD or the MRCOG has the comparative data on accidents before and after the construction of the two roundabouts. Perhaps the UNM School of Engineering Department of Civil Engineering might have the data, also.
Another case of "not invented here" I'm afraid. Of course the simplest and most expensive solution would be more better traffic enforcement by uniformed officers. Why, the County Commission has just agreed to hire 15 more deputies to work the streets and houses outside the City! Where to start in the wealthier North half of the County? Red-light cameras and speed limit cameras work better and cheaper, too.

Alameda? North 2nd? Osuna? North Edith? North 4th? Rio Grande? Montano? Griegos? Coors? Name your over-engineered arterial or collector street across the NW quadrant of Albuquerque. Every one of those streets drives at least 5~8 MPH on average over the posted limit. BTW, name the importance of traffic enforcement over property crimes.

So the NIMBY wanna-be Tea Baggers are against everything again, and for the status quo and more of the same built by other people - wider streets, faster streets, more bridges through other people's neighborhoods, like the Nature Center (Candelaria), Tinnin Farms (Chavez/Osuna), Corrales (Roy/Meadowlark), etc. Whose big government is making what choices?

But a different publicly contracted engineering response chosen by our representatives, like a modern roundabout? That's BIG government interference in our lives! Do I smell hypochrisy? Or is it just whining, we aren't getting our way. 

FYI: see www.roundabouts.com They work everywhere else outside Albuquerque, even in Vail and Los Alamos. They even save money and lives - in other cities.