Wenatchee staff and consultant recommend mini roundabout for Crawford and Okanagan, highlight pedestrian treatments

City of Wenatchee staff and an outside traffic consultant presented an educational briefing on roundabouts and said a mini roundabout at Crawford and Okanagan appears context-appropriate, while council members and residents raised pedestrian-safety concerns and asked staff to pursue targeted safety treatments.

Sean Samsel, the consultant leading the presentation, summarized decades of research and local experience showing that roundabouts can reduce severe crashes and lower overall collision severity. "You can see, as much as 82% reduction in severe crashes," Samsel said, citing synthesis findings from crash-modification databases and national studies. He added that overall crash counts across treated intersections typically fall substantially and that roundabouts tend to convert higher-severity crossing crashes into lower-speed merging or sideswipe conflicts.

Samsel reviewed two local case studies. At the Western and Springwater mini roundabout, he said police reports showed an average of about 1.4 crashes per year in the six years before the mini roundabout and roughly 1.1…