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Medford may soon get a roundabout By Melissa Martin What has been a traditional British and East Coast answer to long waits at red lights may be coming to the Rogue Valley. Medford may get a roundabout - in which cars drive in a circle to get to another street - at the corner of Siskiyou and Highland near Bear Creek Park. Another roundabout could be built at the tricky intersection of Table Rock, Merriman, DeBarr and Swing. "I grew up in Rhode Island and we had a half a dozen roundabouts within 20 miles of my house," said Medford city engineer Ralph Browning. At Siskiyou and Highland, the roundabout would control an intersection that now has three unpredictable entry points, pulling in 16,700 cars a day. Traffic also comes from a nearby fire station, cemetery and strip mall. "It's surprising there aren't more accidents there," Browning said. "People tend to drive it slowly and give the other driver the benefit of the doubt just to make sure they won't get hurt." Would a roundabout work next door to a fire station, wonders Medford fire Capt. Steve Shafer. His Fire Station 3 is situated between Bear Creek Park and Highland Road. "We're quite curious how it would work," Shafer said. Already, fire crews wait a long time for a break in traffic to get out of their driveway, unless they are responding to a call and using lights and sirens, Shafer said. A few times a month, a firefighter stops traffic to allow the driver to back up an engine. Shafer is not sure how one would stop traffic in a roundabout. "Maybe it will work wonderful," Shafer said. Roundabouts at Siskiyou and Highland and Table Rock and Merriman are on a list of 17 street projects the city of Medford hopes to complete within the next five years. Not on the list but still a possibility is a roundabout where Barneburg Road, Keene Way Drive and Keene Drive meet Highland, about a half mile from the proposed Siskiyou roundabout. Ashland may have the region's first roundabout at Siskiyou Boulevard, Lithia Way and East Main, near the fire station and the library. The $500,000 project is likely to receive state funding this year. Jacksonville briefly considered a roundabout at the city's gateway, at Jacksonville Highway and Shafer Lane, near the Texaco station. "You need a certain amount of land to accommodate it," said Paul Wyntergreen, city administrator. "But we never got down to measuring it. The consensus was to consolidate the access points rather than accommodate them." Central Point also considered a roundabout on Second and Third streets near Crater High School but rejected the location because of pedestrian safety. "There were concerns that drivers would be watching traffic so closely, they wouldn't be paying attention to kids," said David Gilmour, a medical doctor and Central Point City Council member. But the City Council likes the idea of roundabouts and may find a place for one in its many newly-constructed neighborhoods. "In England, they are used instead of traffic lights," Gilmour said. "It's cheaper. Roundabouts require an education, Browning said. The city of Medford would use its newsletter and local media to help teach drivers. The traffic devices were common in New Jersey and Massachusetts in the past, Gilmour said. Oregon's first roundabout was built in Bend on the highway to Mount Bachelor. There are also roundabouts in Sun River. "The more I drive it, the easier it becomes, but the first time, I got confused," said Medford resident Angela Coddington, who has maneuvered roundabouts in Sun River. "If you miss your street, you keep going around in a circle." The key is learning to flow with traffic, Gilmour said. "Out west, they haven't been used much and people don't know how to use them appropriately," Gilmour said. "They end up stopping and causing wrecks." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.