Some brainiac decided that Brighton needed mall. They bought up some land nestlted between US-23 and Island Lake State Park.
Only, this intersection (and set of freeway ramps) was already a dreadful set up. It would have to be redone to accept traffic for the new mall.
Someone came up with the idea of putting in roundabouts. I’m not opposed to roundabouts… but whoever came up with the set up for the Lee Road Roundabouts was insane. There are three roundabouts, two literarlly on top of each other. And a craptacular design that even I have trouble figuring out. It’s like a free-for all– floor it and hope no one’s in the way.
Click here for a full size pic.
You have expressway traffic, mall traffic, local road traffic. And a couple multi-lane roundabouts to figure out.
It’s incredibly confusing, particularly since every lane crosses another lane through the big roundabout (bottom of the screen.)
I’m a fan of roundabouts, really, just not this one. I try to avoid going through it. It’s really just the lanes crossing each other that really throws me.
Though, truth is, the roundabout has only seen two accidents (that I’ve ever heard of) since it’s opening. And both of those accidents were caused when some dipshit put their car in REVERSE when they passed where they were going. Um, last time I checked, it is NEVER okay to go in reverse with traffic behind you– roundabout, regular road, or even parking lot. Not a roundabout problem– driver error at it’s “finest.”
I’m sure one contributing factor to the low accident rate is that people who are confuddled by it (like me) avoid it. The other factor is certainly the low speeds– you can’t go fast through the roundabouts.
I hear there’s some good shops at the mall. Nothing has enticed me, yet. I admit that if I so desired (or needed) I would learn how to navigate this engineering “masterpiece.” I did, after all, learn how to drive the expressway, a stick shift, and other things that I was incredibly resistant to once upon a time ago. But for now, I’m just going to declare this a clusterfuck and avoid it. Little roundabouts are okay– this is nuts.
What’s your favorite road-design distaster?
Visit Travis Erwin for more My Town Monday posts.
And I also have an entry in Patti Abbott’s Flash Fiction Challenge below (avoid if you don’t like naughty things. 😉
