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Traffic safety expert urges roundabouts on South Parkway to reduce severe crashes
Summary
Guest presenter Mr. West told the advisory board that roundabouts at the Love Road and Broadway intersections on South Parkway could cut fatalities by about 90% and injuries by about 80%, and asked the board to draft a resolution endorsing the idea and to pursue state and federal stakeholder support.
At the Feb. 10 meeting of the Grand Island supervisors advisory board, guest presenter Mr. West urged the board to pursue two roundabouts on South Parkway between Love Road and Broadway, calling the corridor "one of the most dangerous" on the island and citing a pedestrian fatality two years earlier.
Mr. West summarized research and a diagram he distributed, saying a roundabout at the two intersections would "eliminate fatalities at those intersections by 90 percent" and reduce injuries by roughly 80 percent. He argued roundabouts create a physical barrier that prevents T-bone and head-on collisions, slow vehicle speeds and reduce maintenance and signal-vulnerability during power outages. He contrasted those benefits with the up-front cost of traffic signals (which he estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) and ongoing electrical maintenance.
Board members queried pedestrian crossings and design trade-offs; Mr. West said pedestrian exposure points in his diagram drop from 24 to 8 at the roundabouts. Participants also discussed a DOT post-incident study and state policy thresholds; one attendee said state policy typically requires five crashes in five years to meet a threshold for action, and Mr. West noted the report counted four within a timeframe and additional crashes just outside it.
Mr. West asked the advisory board to draft an endorsement or resolution to send to town, county and state stakeholders to support further study and to request state or federal funding. Board members said the topic "warrants further discussion" and invited Mr. West to provide diagrams and additional data for future meetings; no formal vote or resolution was recorded at this meeting.
The board plans to place the item on a future agenda for more detailed review and potential drafting of a resolution or referral to staff for engineering study.
