CEDAR FALLS | While driving through the streets of Carmel, Ind., one evening earlier this month, a group of visiting Cedar Falls city officials stopped at an intersection.
The group was on a fact-finding mission about roundabouts. Carmel has more than 60 roundabouts and counting, more than any other city in the United States.
But this intersection was not one of them.
“As we sat there, I heard a siren,” City Councilman Frank Darrah said. “This ambulance was coming through but apparently the woman coming across didn’t hear it.”
The two vehicles collided right in front of them.
“The very first thought all nine of us had was, ‘If that had been a roundabout that wouldn’t have happened,’” Darrah said.
Carmel has been slowly replacing its intersections with roundabouts since the 1990s, and boasts sharp decreases in vehicular accidents as a result. The city has become a Mecca for city officials from around the country looking to learn more about these transportation hubs.
People are also reading…
“They view (roundabouts) not as expenses but as investments,” Darrah said of Carmel. “They talk about everything they do as an investment in the future of their community. To look where they are now, they’ve done some pretty wise investing if you ask me.”
The Cedar Falls City Council has debated the merits of roundabouts for years, most recently in relation to the proposed redesign of University Avenue. Two already exist -- one at Cedar Heights and East Viking roads and another at West Ridgeway Avenue and Chancellor Drive.
With one roundabout also planned for the yet-to-be constructed intersection of Greenhill Road and University Avenue, city staff are looking to Carmel as a model for planning future roundabouts.
One telling detail, in Darrah’s eyes, is since that city began installing roundabouts in the 1990s, Carmel’s population has ballooned 200 percent, adding nearly 50,000 new residents.
While Carmel is not home to a university, it is located only 30 minutes north of the Indianapolis metropolitan area, which Darrah and Cedar Falls Director of Developmental Services Ron Gaines agree significantly contributed to Carmel’s growth. As they see it, the roundabouts are one of Carmel’s most winning features.
“It’s grown quickly,” Darrah said. “And my question is: Is it the chicken or the egg? Has it grown because of the way the community is planned? I personally believe that has a lot to do with it.”
After driving through 30 roundabouts in Carmel, Darrah said they seem quieter, more aesthetically pleasing, cheaper, and above all, safer than traditional signalized intersections.
According to the Carmel Police Department, roundabouts have reduced injury accidents by 78 percent. That roughly matches figures from the Institute of Highway Safety.
Drivers burn an estimated 24,000 fewer gallons of gas per roundabout in Carmel. And when considering how best to improve one intersection, Carmel city officials discovered the construction and maintenance of a signalized intersection would cost $939,468. A roundabout would cost $577,535.
According to Gaines, city officials in Cedar Falls have begun reaching out to homeowners and businesses along University Avenue for feedback on how the redesign of University Avenue would affect them. Whether roundabouts will be included there or in other parts of town remains to be seen.
Darrah hopes the facts will sway some in the community who have traditionally opposed roundabouts.
"We can say 'what if, what if, what if,' and never get anything done," he said, adding, “Sometimes you’ve got to risk a little bit of popularity to do what’s in the best interests of the community in the long run."
