Modern Roundabout in a Town Square

[vtk]

Came across this on the job tonight:

http://m.google.com/u/m/wTcnXO
(Turn on "satelite" view if not already active)

It seems a modern roundabout, complete with latest MUTCD markings, has been retrofitted into Urbana's town square.  The way the parking was done around it is also interesting.

[roadfro]

That is quite interesting indeed, but it actually seems to work.

(Link to it at max zoom: http://g.co/maps/xhak4 )


Curious as to what it looked like before.

[NE2]

It seems a modern roundabout, complete with latest MUTCD markings, has been retrofitted into Urbana's town square.  The way the parking was done around it is also interesting.

Monument in the middle? Sorry, no modern-roundabout koolaid for you.

Curious as to what it looked like before.

Go to Street View mode or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Urbana_Roundabout.jpg .

[cpzilliacus]

There's something similar in "downtown" Georgetown, Sussex County, Delaware, at the junction of Del. 404/Del. 18/U.S. 9 here (also Google Maps).

[kphoger]

I've tinkered around with this concept as it relates to a public square where there's actually a courthouse in the middle.  I'm thinking specifically of Benton, Illinois.  The question is to how marry the concepts of a modern roundabout and pedestrian access to the middle.

[tdindy88]

Angola in northeast Indiana has something like that only its a civil war monument in the middle and its a tad bigger than the one there in Urbana, so I'm not sure on if it is truly a roundabout or not. Shelbyville, Indiana has a roundabout/traffic circle in its circle that contains a parking lot in the center, and a fountain in the middle of its parking lot.

Here's the Angola one: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Angola,+IN&hl=en&ll=41.635107,-84.99709&spn=0.003656,0.010525&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.784549,86.220703&hnear=Angola,+Steuben,+Indiana&t=h&z=17

Here's the Shelbyville one: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Shelbyville,+IN&hl=en&ll=39.524348,-85.776835&spn=0.001887,0.005262&sll=41.635107,-84.99709&sspn=0.003656,0.010525&hnear=Shelbyville,+Shelby,+Indiana&t=h&z=18

[6a]

I like that parking setup, that's really neat.

[vtk]

Curious as to what it looked like before.

Go to Street View mode or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Urbana_Roundabout.jpg .

To me that looks like essentially the same roundabout, but before signage and markings were standardized in the MUTCD.

As for the parking, I don't think I'd ever park in the NW or SE quadrants.  The three-way conflicts at the roundabout entrances look like a pain.

[cpzilliacus]

I've tinkered around with this concept as it relates to a public square where there's actually a courthouse in the middle.  I'm thinking specifically of Benton, Illinois.  The question is to how marry the concepts of a modern roundabout and pedestrian access to the middle.

"Modern" roundabouts are not supposed to allow pedestrians to use the middle, though the one in Georgetown, Delaware does.

In Georgetown, the county courthouse is located on the east side of the roundabout.

If you want a good (as in bad) example of what happens when the pedestrians use the middle, see Dupont Circle, N.W. (definitely not a roundabout) in the District of Columbia.

[kphoger]

I've tinkered around with this concept as it relates to a public square where there's actually a courthouse in the middle.  I'm thinking specifically of Benton, Illinois.  The question is to how marry the concepts of a modern roundabout and pedestrian access to the middle.

"Modern" roundabouts are not supposed to allow pedestrians to use the middle, though the one in Georgetown, Delaware does.

In Georgetown, the county courthouse is located on the east side of the roundabout.

If you want a good (as in bad) example of what happens when the pedestrians use the middle, see Dupont Circle, N.W. (definitely not a roundabout) in the District of Columbia.

Yet I remain convinced that a simple public square (with a courthouse in the middle) is inadequate when there are simple, unsigned T intersections at the approaches.  Some elements from the modern roundabout need to be incorporated to improve flow, but I'm not exactly sure which elements.  As I said, it needs to be a marriage of sorts–two different entities combining.

[Sykotyk]

I just drove through there two days ago and noticed that. Thought it was a good 'fix' for a conventional town square.

[empirestate]

A pure Modern Roundabout does preclude pedestrian access to the island, but doesn't the specification allow for certain adjustments to be made in cases like this one?

Also, I was just in Easton, PA, where of course there is a very similar central circle to the Urbana one, even down to the parking in the corners. The major difference is that the parking flow in Easton is concentric to the circle, whereas Urbana's is contra-concentric. Also in Easton, they've deployed orange cones to coerce circle traffic into a more orderly pattern; perhaps as a precursor to actually re-tooling the circle to match Urbana's?

[jjakucyk]

I think the Urbana situation is a rather unfortunate one.  What used to be a town square for people is now a 100% car-dominated zone, with pedestrians shoved to the extreme perimeter.  There's an awful lot of unused pavement and excessive circulation to serve those few parking spaces.  The result is a large, exposed, and hostile environment that doesn't serve to enhance the value of the businesses around it.  That is the center of town after all, and yet it's not a place citizens can actually go to.  It would be a great place on a cool day with the street closed for a town festival, but otherwise it just hurts what looks like a pretty salvageable downtown. 

As to the question about circulating around a courthouse or other civic building, what tends to happen is they apply roundabout principles (one-way circulation, yield at entry, and whatever geometric principles can be used) while recognizing that it can't really be a true roundabout.  A good example is Carthage, North Carolina.  Unfortunately Google's aerial photo is terrible, but Bing's is ok:  http://binged.it/wGie9g   Here's Google's street view:  http://g.co/maps/35wve  They basically took a standard courthouse square and rounded the inside plaza.  It's not ideal for either traffic or pedestrians, but it's a much better balance than the Urbana example.  There isn't a whole lot of traffic through Carthage, so it's easy to cross the "circle" to get to the courthouse.  The point though is that the whole square isn't some huge sea of asphalt that's a no-man's land where people aren't welcome.  The courthouse is a focal point for the streets around it, and the building and large trees provide some shelter from the harsh summer sun and winter breezes.