I was pleased to read in today’s Strib that transportation experts are advocating roundabouts as safety, traffic calming, and traffic (Neighbors worry, but experts back roundabout for Savage). 
I was recently driving on Highway 19 through our neighboring community, New Prague, and was astonished to drive through not one, but TWO new roundabouts approaching town from the west. Traffic, including the big rig in the photo I shot at right, slowed down and proceeded smoothly through the intersections without having to stop and start.
The Strib article notes that scores of roundabouts are popping up around the state because traffic experts report that roundabouts “offer a host of advantages, including a smoother flow, slower speeds, no waits at red lights when no one else is around, and no confusion when power is cut and traffic lights go dead.”
I’ve been a big fan of roundabouts since learning how easy they are to navigate and how efficiently they allow traffic to flow while driving in England and Scotland on a family trip a few years ago. I advocated long and hard for inclusion of at least one roundabout in the Woodley Street reconstruction project design process last year (see for example, “Woodley Street: A Modest Proposal“) to no avail… yet.
I would hope that those debating and designing transportation infrastructure would give serious consideration to inclusion of roundabouts at appropriate intersections (instead of stop signs or traffic lights) on County Road 1, Highway 19 and elsewhere as the Northfield area’s transportation infrastructure evolves. Please!