Opinion : Traffic Circles

I have been driving around Massachusetts a lot this week (and likely for the rest of the summer) and I must say that I hate it (the driving, that is). About a half mile down the street from where I am living is a double traffic circle. For the uninitiated, that is two roundabouts next to each other. Now there is a lot of good reasons that pretty much every state in the union has gotten rid of the roundabout intersection. They take up a lot of real-estate, the are a danger to pedestrians (no stop signal, cross at own risk), they are a disaster during heavy traffic conditions (if you think blocking the box is bad, conside that it is not possible to avoid blocking the circle in a roundabout), and they cause people to get lost very easily. People who support them (the MASS DOT?) have good reasons as well however. It turns out that rotary intersections are a very efficient way to move traffic through intersections of more than 4 streets (common in mass because the roads are not layed parallel to each other) and make driving through suburban areas quicker because you don't have to stop at intersections. Without the electricity that would be used for stop lights and the gas used by idling vehicles, these intersections can be a very energy efficient trafic solution if implemented in the right areas. Unfortunately, it is my impression that the traffic planners in Mass have abused a good thing, often placing roundabouts where a good old fashion stoplight would be much better. The entire traffic system in parts of Mass is actually designed to minimize the need for traffic light intersections. The result is a series of complex merging areas that can (should) move traffic between roads without stopping the flow of any of them using rotaries and flyovers (see Harvard square or BU bridge). This only happens in practice if there is light traffic however (not likely in Boston) as the capacity to merge is not infinite, and right of way is hard to establish without traffic signals. Use of rotaries in high traffic areas can lead to disasters like the roundabout in front of MGH, simply the worst intersection in the history of automotive transportation. It is dangerous and difficult to drive through and always backed up. If the DOT could get rid of disasters like this and use these unique traffic moving techniques correctly, it could make the state's roads into a model for the rest of the country, as opposed to the over-crowded, stressful mess they frequently are now.