Drivers hope traffic circle change may reduce 'honking and fingers'

Drivershug their steering wheels tightly as they try to navigate their way around the two-lane traffic circle in Calgary's southeast community of McKenzie Towne.

That is, unless something goes wrong.

Then, resident Melanie Laurin says, drivers'hands get a little loose.

"A lot of honking and fingers," she says.

Road rage, too? I ask.

"Yeah, and screeching of brakes," she adds."You have to enter and exit it very carefully, because people don't use it properly and they'll cut you off."

Laurinputsher groceries in the back seat of her SUVat the strip mall byone of the exits off that roundabout.

Some, like Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating,say aside from drivers not knowing the rules, the design is the roundabout's biggest flaw.

Built in 1998, he says it's too small for the number of lanes,exits and vehicles.

"I've used it many many times. It works very well, but not at peak times," he says. "And that's the problem.

"There's too many trying to get on and too many trying to get off, and so you have a hard time getting that sequence."

More lanes

The city has made a few tweaks over the years, but now residents are pushing for one more. They want the city to change three of the five exits from single to double lanes to allow more traffic to move through it more freely.

Right now, only two of the exits are dual lane.

"So the idea is, it should function better as designed. It's only been 20 years, but you know, lessons learned, right?" says Rob Van Gastel, president of the McKenzie Towne Council.

There is nothing that is going to make that circle acceptable to everybody.- Coun. Shane Keating

These changes would require the city scrap some parking along three roads shooting off the exits:Inverness Gate S.E., McKenzie Towne Gate S.E. and Prestwick Blvd. The city roads department would also need to repaint some lines.

Keating says he supports changing at least two of the three exits.

He's not sure whether the city could get rid of parking along McKenzie Towne Gate S.E. because there are condos along that initial stretch of road.

"Hopefully that will help ease some of the difficulty, but there is nothing that is going to make that circle acceptable to everybody," Keating sayswith a chuckle.

'Too dangerous' for some

Karen McMillan, who lives in nearbyElgin, says she's not sure anything will help.

"People keep moving here and they don't know the rules," she said.

"They keep putting it in the monthly newsletters to give people the rules to know, so I don't know.

"I don't knowwhat they're going to do to help."

Her best advice is to avoidit altogether, even telling family from Saskatchewn to take a different exit.

"'Don't use the traffic circle'causeit's too dangerous,'" she says.

The city roads department says it has yet to receive a formal request for the lane change. It says roughly 36,000 vehicles go through it each day, with an average of 20 collisions a year reported to police, involving fewer than one injury and no fatalities.

The city says compared to a lighted intersection of similar size, this traffic circle averages slightly fewer collisions and much better outcomes, as in fewer injuries.

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