Simple Truth #8: STOPlights Steal From You !
STOPlights Steal from the Personal You & the Taxpayer You:
Fatality Cost
A traffic fatality costs society $6 million – from EMS response to property damage and productivity loss. See the Federal Highway Administration “Economic Value of a Statistical Life” March, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3br4cu7. “Fatal crashes were eliminated when the intersections were converted to roundabouts.” Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, question# 3 http://tinyurl.com/6ywv82g
Replacement Cost.
Signalization’s STOPlights and mast arm supports have a limited useful life, with high cost replacement (see MPO 2011 CMS Priorities, #s 3 through 8, @ $350,000 per intersection). The recent additions of red light video cameras to catch red light runners adds to that cost. Modern roundabouts do not have that periodic capital cost.
Operation Cost.
Signals require electricity (roundabouts don’t) as well as periodic light repair. Note: risk of a power outage during hurricane evacuation’s heavy traffic flow.
Maintenance Cost..
Signals require skilled labor and sophisticated computers/software to study and time the red/green cycles, replace bulbs, etc. Roundabout labor is landscaping maintenance.
Livability and Aesthetics Cost
Significant differences between signalization and a roundabout in apopearance (hardscape asphalt vs greenery at the centger and on approaches), traffic noise, and air pollution.
Tax Base of City of Venice and Sarasota County.
Heavyweight decision for elected officials!. How much in property tax income will be gone year after year after allowing the State to take significant private (often commercial) property from a jurisdiction’s tax base for widening Right of Way (ROW)? The Peer Review estimates that value for six lanes at $48 million. 
Recall, with no property taken between intersections and little or no ROW acquired at intersections, Carmel IN now receives more property tax income from adjacent property values that rose after the installation of roundabouts. Sales tax income: sales improve near roundabouts as drivers moving more slowly are more likely to notice a business and more easily and safely turn in – see Simple Truth # 4: Width Impacts Sales.
Recall, with no property taken between intersections and little or no ROW acquired at intersections, Carmel IN now receives more property tax income from adjacent property values that rose after the installation of roundabouts. Sales tax income: sales improve near roundabouts as drivers moving more slowly are more likely to notice a business and more easily and safely turn in – see Simple Truth # 4: Width Impacts Sales. The Personal You:
Your Time.
e.g. Venice Ave @ US41Venice Bypass, 4:34 p.m. June 7, westbound waiting, idling for Red to turn Green = 2 min 14 seconds. Travel time through a congested corridor takes longer when signals interrupt the flow - roundabouts are quicker, though speed through is slower. Counter intuitive, yes, but true. See corollary > Simple Truth #5: Timed Lights Fail When Needed Most
Your Fuel $$.
Idling, waiting for the STOPlight to change wastes on average 24,000 gallons of fuel per year compared to the replacement roundabout. “Constructing roundabouts in place of traffic signals can reduce fuel consumption by about 30 percent.” Insurance Institute of Highway Safety “Status Report #9,” http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4009.pdf and question # 7 http://tinyurl.com/6ywv82g .
Your vehicle maintenance $$.
Braking/idling/accelerating/braking/idling/accelerating to 45 mph and back to idling, over and over, increases your vehicle maintenance costs, especially for trucks and buses. Modern roundabouts significantly moderate machinery wear with lower speeds, with less delay, yielding instead of stopping.
Your Auto Insurance $
Carmel, IN, a city of 80,000 with 68 roundabouts: auto insurance rates went down in Zip codes with roundabouts. No head-on or broadside crashes or red light running. People do make mistakes but accidents more likely fender benders.
Your Health $$.
Replacing traffic signals with roundabouts reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 32 percent, nitrous oxide emissions by 34 percent, carbon dioxide emissions by 37 percent, and hydrocarbon emissions by 42 percent - Insurance Institute of Highway Safety question # 7 http://tinyurl.com/6ywv82gA gallon of fuel saved at a roundabout saves 19.4 lbs of CO2. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) http://tinyurl.com/2obo4o
Your Property $ Value
Carmel, IN: property values held steady or improved for residences adjacent to roundabouts, while residential property values declined elsewhere. Attributed to aesthetics of more intersection greenery, less air and noise pollution, and area more walkable, bikable.
Risk to Your Limb & Life.
“Converting intersections from traffic signals or stop signs to roundabouts reduced injury crashes 75 percent and 37 percent decrease in total crashes at 35 intersections that were converted from traffic signals to roundabouts.” Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, question # 3, http://tinyurl.com/6ywv82gWith fewer less severe crashes, property damage and personal injury loss decreases… red-light runners not a factor… roundabouts remove much personal and family anguish.
Your Quality of Life.
Consider what value you personally place on the above factors and their contributions to the livability of your everyday travels. That is to say "As a resident of Venice, what do you want your quality of life, the corridor livablity, to be ?
With h a reliable traffic demand forecast and a valid comparison of before and after mobility impact of four lanes vs six lanes - signals or modern roundabouts . . .
1) The MPO cost/benefit mission of safer smoother traffic flow soonest is best met, 2) Venice residents’ deserved congestion relief is best served,3) The multimodal principles of this MPO’s adopted 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan best honored. Key: An MPO selection of a proved better cost/benefit could achieve the relief sought by Venice while freeing up several million dollars for waiting US 41 mobility needs from Palmetto to the Charlotte County line
Simple Truths: Certain simple mobility truths today are widely recognized by experienced transportation engineers across the USA. These truths argue against widening an arterial corridor, such as the Venice ByPass, where traffic flow is interrupted by a series of intersections* > Simple Truth #1: Design Trumps.
> Simple Truth #6: Signals Unwind Slower
Rod Warner
Sarasota County Representative
MPO CAC
Sarasota, FL, 941 924 2400 email: thecityalliance@comcast.net OR US41SimpleTruths@comcast.net
#8 Signals Steal from You !
