Baltimore Avenue (Route 1) is not a bike friendly street (I avoid it), but they're redesigning it, with a wide 16 foot outside lane. Rethink College Park is advocating for a traffic circle at the intersection of Paint Branch Parkway, Campus Drive and Baltimore Avenue, claiming that:
Though such circles are largely foreign to Americans outside DC, the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) has shown that circles reduce the number and severity of accidents (even those involving pedestrians, bikes, and mopeds) at the traditional crossroads they replace. The FHA suspects the reduction in accidents is a result of the fact that drivers must slow down as they approach the circle. Others suspect that the relative rarity of such traffic devices forces drivers to pay closer attention.
Though the picture shows a giant M, the author offers up another item for the center of the circle - a statue of Kermit the Frog on a bicycle.
You might stand a better chance with a statue of Maryland's dumbass turtle on a bicycle.
Ken
BPA 67
Posted by: Ken | February 18, 2007 at 08:32 AM
I'd avoid it too, if the city bothered to clear the ice on the path from Cherry Hill Road to campus. That would be more beneficial to non-motorized traffic than a traffic circle, and would certainly be cheaper.
Posted by: Ted | February 19, 2007 at 03:46 PM
How is clearing the ice an alternative solution to building a traffic circle?
Posted by: Purple Eagle | February 21, 2007 at 08:29 AM