Mark Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Development

Raleigh City Council Approves Oberlin/Pullen Roundabout

Hillsborough Street sucks.  That’s why the Raleigh City Council voted to approve the first step in rejuvenating Hillsborough Street: designs for two roundabouts that would work to fluidly connect Oberlin Road with Pullen Drive. 

For years, there has been excessive speculation into plans for roundabouts all up and down Hillsborough Street.  These ambitious plans have been scaled back tremendously, and now it appears, piece by piece, some of it actually might happen.  This move will create an island out of the Player’s Retreat block, isolating with it Sam & Bill’s, part of the adjacent parking lot—owned by NC State—and the old Darryl’s restaurant.  This $8 million change will drastically alter the spatial perception here: as the Bell Tower area evolves further, the intersection will solidify as a dynamic mixed-use hub, activating the northeast gateway to North Carolina State University. 

The proposal for the Morgan Street roundabout, designed by PB&J, didn’t fair so well.

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  • JZ10/03 10:22 AM

    Nice moves.  Breaks the scale up into something almost village-like.  And I think Mark is so right about it becoming more like an official gateway into campus.  It always had some sense of threshold, but now, but this will seal the deal. 

    Americans have a tough time with the concept of the roundabout and I hope a revision to the Morgan/Hillsborough roundabout allows them to prosper a bit more than the one-eyed willy: the stop light.

    New ideas in traffic engineering even more radical than the roundabout:  NO SIGNS! NO ROAD MARKINGS! OH MY!:  http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html

  • CarnifeX10/03 01:01 PM

    That looks excellent. The traffic circle will work well there, it may take some time to get used to for some people, but in the end it will be fine. It seems like the parking lot should be given up by NCSU though, that is some prime property now. Maybe PR’s can put a porch out back or something. I love it, it should serve to somewhat rejuvenate this section of hillsborough st.

  • robin10/03 10:04 PM

    If cars don’t have to stop for an intersection, do they have to stop for pedestrians?  How will this improve the situation for pedestrians and cyclists?  I think roundabouts are easy to navigate if there are only cars around, but if you have to make the decision whether to yield to a cyclist coming around the circle, or if you drive through the circle and then suddenly stop at the unexpected crosswalk, it may become hazardous.

  • robin10/03 10:16 PM

    I like that Wired article.  When the roundabout opens, I’ll walk across it backward and see what happens.

  • TransportationPlanner10/04 11:26 AM

    Remember that it’s a roundabout, not a traffic circle.  Traffic circles are obsolete.  They were designed and functioned differently, and proved unworkable. 

    This is a modern roundabout, which is safe and efficient—more so than a signalized intersection in many applications

    The difference between modern roundabouts and obsolete traffic circles is made plain at http://www.nysdot.gov/portal/page/portal/main/roundabouts/background

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