Debate in Incline circles on merits of roundabout
By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal
One day four years ago, Donald Kanare was waiting in traffic where Mount Rose Highway bottoms out at Lake Tahoe’s Nevada 28, “sucking exhaust,” when he had an idea.
The Incline Village resident, a native of New England, thought the place might benefit from a roundabout intersection of the type common where he grew up.
“I thought to myself, ‘why don’t we have a roundabout here? It seems like a perfect location,'” said Kanare, 55.
He pushed for the project, and state transportation officials agreed. With significant backing by the north Tahoe community, the Nevada Department of Transportation is designing a $2 million roundabout, with construction of the high-priority project expected to commence the summer of 2012.
“This is a good fit,” NDOT roadway engineer Nick Johnson said of the project, which will slow traffic, while also addressing dangerous turns onto Nevada 28 from an existing stop sign and the accidents that sometimes result. An added benefit will be a reduction in air pollution from vehicles idling at the intersection.
Roundabouts slow traffic but keep it moving and are effective in reducing accidents in areas with high traffic volumes, experts said.
Roundabouts are a great idea. But only an idea. The snow creates an entirely different take on the success of the roundabout. After you have driven through a roundabout in a snowstorm, you will see that it does not work. Further, at this time in our economic situation, experiements are not needed. New England has entirely different traffic and snow than Incline Village does.