With the growth and development progressing from Acme, east toward Kalkaska, the MDOT has elected to redesign M-72 to include roundabouts. While MDOT proclaims roundabouts will decrease accidents and improve safety, a closer reading of its own exhaustive study reveals that the facts are not necessarily conclusive. In fact, to quote directly from its study, MDOT cautions readers to keep in “mind that these results do not account for regression-to-the-mean, traffic volumes or the decreasing time trend in crashes in Michigan so these results should not be used to make conclusions about the effectiveness of roundabouts in Michigan.” Further, lack of lane discipline, speeding and unfamiliarity with location were all contributing factors that resulted in roundabout crashes. Needless to say, the jury is still out on whether roundabouts improve the safety of the general public. As its core, however, — as always — is driver behavior which is paramount for the safety of us all.
Authored by L. Page Graves
