Not surprisingly Mayor Meeker and the Raleigh City Council rejected the Hillsborough and Morgan Street roundabout design. The engineers decided to once again pitch the same flawed scheme even after receiving strong opposition during the first public hearing. If you’ve been keeping up with the previous roundabout article then you’re aware of the “by-pass lane” or the more appropriate term—“acceleration lane.”
Practically every member of council as well as a few citizens stated how this roundabout plan with the acceleration lane is encouraging traffic rather than acting as a traffic calmer. Council member Russ Stephenson also appropriately pointed out that pedestrians and bicyclists are secondary to traffic under this plan.
The major problem with this plan is that it is not in agreement with the goals and functionality of the Pullen and Hillsborough roundabout plans that were approved only minutes before rejecting this one—it is speeding up traffic whereas the Pullen roundabout is calming it down.
The consensus among Mr. Meeker and the council is to now look at the possibility of a T-intersection with a stop light, as well as the possibility of a roundabout without the by-pass lane. The engineers should probably stop twiddling their thumbs now.
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