Robert McGrain of Towson likes most roundabouts - but not the dreaded one in downtown Towson, where four roads come together in a two-lane mishmash.
"The Towson roundabout is unique. If you haven't experienced it, you don't know what you're missing. It probably rates as an 'engineering' success because it moves traffic more efficiently than the old intersection ever did. However, I think that the patrons at Souris' bar [which occupies the southwest end of the roundabout] still place crash bets at happy hour," he wrote.
McGrain is correct. Souris co-owner Kathy Farrell and manager Patty Invernizzi told me last week that their customers frequently ask for curbside seating so they can enjoy the traffic chaos. "An accident is a cause for a round of shots," Invernizzi said.
The State Highway Administration is planning changes next month that it hopes will promote a little more sobriety at Souris.
No, it isn't about to tear out the vintage 1998 roundabout and go back to what was arguably one of the most dangerous and dysfunctional intersections in Maryland. But the agency will make some important changes in an effort to make it simpler, more pedestrian-friendly and less entertaining for barflies.
Unlike McGrain, some Maryland motorists detest the very idea of roundabouts - an innovation that didn't take root in the state until 1993, when state highway officials built their first in Lisbon, in western Howard County.
But love them or hate them, the record is clear: They save lives, because they virtually eliminate T-bone and head-on collisions at intersections. A clueless driver who can't figure out the cardinal rule governing roundabouts - yield to traffic in the circle - might sideswipe or rear-end you, but is unlikely to kill you. The SHA has not recorded a single fatality at any intersection it has converted to a roundabout.
The Towson roundabout has been an outlier, however. There's the sheer number of entrance and exit points as York, Joppa and Dulaney Valley roads meet up with Allegheny Avenue. Then there's the shape. It's less a roundabout than an oval-about, and a visit shows that many drivers come slingshotting out of the rounded ends and treat the flat sides as launching pads to rocket up East Joppa Road or out Allegheny Avenue.
Erin S. Kuhn, the SHA's assistant district engineer, said the agency is hoping to take some of the guesswork out of navigating the circle by narrowing it to one lane at three key points - in effect reducing the driver's decision-making burden.
