Sandy Springs Roundabouts Dizzying Drivers, Cause Delays
Kate Sweeney / WABE
The roundabout. It’s a trendy type of traffic circle that’s known for improving safety and decreasing trip times. But a new roundabout intersection in Sandy Springs is off to a rocky start.
Vernon McKinley’s daily commute takes him through the new intersection — in which two roundabouts replaced stoplights on each side of the Interstate-285 exit onto Riverside Drive. (You can see a rendering by the Georgia Department of Transportation here.)
“Oh, it’s terrible, McKinley says. “It’s terrible traffic; I mean, it’s bottle-necked, it’s slow. It’s actually kind of hazardous, depending on what time of day you’re going through.”
McKinley is stopping for gas about a mile from the intersection. He’s concerned about the long traffic delays he’s seen on I-285 as drivers approach the exit.
Natalie Dale, a G-DOT spokewoman, says he’s right: traffic has not gotten better with the new roundabouts.
“What our traffic engineers have seen is not necessarily a decrease in backups yet,” Dale says.
But, she says, if traffic is still just as thick, the roundabout is causing it to move better.
“You get that constant, consistent movement,” Dale says, “so instead of having a traffic light at the end of this ramp that only allows a certain amount of cars through and then it stops, you have a consistent flow.”
She says it’s safer too. With a circle instead of a four-way intersection, there’s no chance for cars to T-bone each other — a big problem before.
But what about the safety of placing this type of intersection here, along this busy section of the Perimeter? That concerns Dunwoody resident Bridgett Grant.
“Actually, just last week, I saw somebody coming up it the wrong way, so it can be a nightmare if you’re not familiar with it,” Grant says.
Again, G-DOT agrees. After all, roundabouts have only been in the state’s driver handbook for about five years. In fact, Dale blames a lot of the slowdowns taking place now at Riverside Drive on a lack of familiarity— which she says will get better, once people are used to it.
Roadwork on the intersection is slated to wrap up in November.
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