Travis Baker blogs about the idiosyncrasies of Kitsap's highways and byways. Drivers ignoring stop signs at Fifth Street island
The in basket: An anonymous caller says the new obstacle in the center of the intersection of Fifth Street and Chester Avenue in Bremerton apparently is being regarded by some drivers as a roundabout or traffic circle and they are blowing through the stop signs on Chester.
“Is it a roundabout or just a traffic calming device,” he asked, and wondered whether the city plans to remove the stop signs. If not, more signs are needed, he said.
The out basket: It’s neither a roundabout nor a traffic circle, but a traffic calming island, says Larry Matel of the city’s street engineers and vehicles on Chester must stop at the stop signs.
“The intent of the traffic calming island is to ‘break’ the visual
impression of a street as a long, unimpeded route devoid of any inhibitions to traffic speed,” Larry said. “The residents of this neighborhood are frustrated with people using Fifth as a cut-through route by
through traffic seeking to avoid either Sixth or Burwell. “These residents
are embarking on a program to make a more pedestrian-friendly and safe
neighborhood community and to restore the amenities of urban living.
“The stop signs at this intersection will remain,” he said, “and a simple diagram will be placed on all four sides of the island within about a week,”
It was “a neighborhood-initiated project constructed with ’sweat equity’ by the residents of the area and with
approximately $5,000 in funding for materials and special contractor
assistance from the Mayor’s Neighborhood Enhancement Program,” he added.
He also passed along a distinction of which I was unaware, taken from the state Department of Transportation’s Web site on roundabouts.
“A roundabout is not the same as the older-style rotary traffic circle
like those found in some East Coast and European cities,” it says.
”The main difference between older style traffic circles and roundabouts is in how
traffic enters the circle and which vehicle has the right-of-way. With
roundabouts, drivers wishing to enter must yield to vehicles already in
the circle. With many of the older traffic circles, drivers inside the
circle must yield to the vehicles entering the circle. Traffic circles
quickly clogged up and came to a standstill when … many vehicles
entered at the same time.”
Tags: Bremerton, Chester Avenue, Fifth Street, roundabout, traffic calming, traffic circle
December 19th, 2008 at 1:07 am
The roundabout dosen’t stop anyone from speeding through there I have watched it several times that was a big waste of money, stop signs would have cost a lot less.