Editor, The Times:
I have been in and around the trucking industry for over 40 years and the proposed roundabout concerns me a great deal.
I took the “computer image” the Ministry of Transport (MOT) provided and constructed a full-sized version (to their scale). I measured an “actual” truck owned by an out-of-town trucker I know, as he drove around it. The outside front tires were on top of the outside line (what would be the sidewalk), the drive tires on the truck were less than a foot from the inside line, and the trailer tires tracked 1.7 m (5.5 feet) into the inner lane – that’s half a lane. It will overlap half a car driving in the inner circle. This danger will be coming from the right (blind) side and from the rear where car drivers in the inner circle won’t be able to see it coming. The present left-turn lanes allow you to see potential accidents coming at you. A four meter (13.1 foot) car does not fit in close quarters with a 25 meter (82 foot) truck – the car loses every time. Increased accidents will injure many people as well as raise insurance rates drastically.
To be able to traverse the traffic circle trucks will take at least four times as long to go through the intersection resulting in longer waits for the cross-traffic. A 15 liter truck engine working to get his 63,500 kg (140,000 lb) load moving again after being slowed to 15 km/hr will pollute a great deal more than a three liter car motor idling for 60 seconds or less. According to one MOT official there are to be no traffic lights to protect the pedestrians on their longer-than-present trek to cross the highway. Think young kids and elderly tourists responding to the lure of fast food and/or tourist information.
When I asked one MOT engineer in the afternoon session about snow removal, he seemed surprised we get snow here. Obviously snow removal had not been considered in this design. In this roundabout, the only places to put the plowed snow are the sidewalks and the islands between the through lanes (an absolute disaster, says an Argo representative).
How can $1,700,000 – $2,300,000 (I heard $2,800,000 from a MOT rep in January for a roundabout cost) be considered “similar” to $250,000 – $300,000 for traffic signals as stated in the Clearwater March newsletter? How can a vote of 67 per cent in support come from a suggestion box? A show-of-hands vote was denied three times at the afternoon information session.
Roundabouts work to varying degrees if vehicles go slow enough, the vehicles are similar in size, and the traffic volume is relatively equal in all four directions. None of those factors apply in this situation. As for speed control, that’s what the police are for. Don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.
Don Capps
Clearwater, B.C.
