There are numerous safety benefits associated with roundabouts, which will soon be trialled on Second, Third and Fourth streets along Main Avenue as part of a pilot project designed to improve pedestrian safety while maintaining a steady flow of traffic.
Aside from acting as traffic calming measures, roundabouts also eliminate the need for motorists to make left-hand turns against oncoming traffic. There will also be pedestrian crosswalks at each roundabout, said Stuart Richardson, an infrastructure manager with Alberta Transportation.
Additionally, the new design will facilitate U-turns, which would otherwise be impossible to manoeuvre under the existing design, he told council during its April 24 meeting.
"A car can make a U-turn at the roundabouts, no problem. The roundabouts are pretty large in diameter."
Even snowplows, freight and commercial trucks as well as large recreational trailers and motorhomes will be able to navigate the roundabouts, he said.
"We know this is a high tourist traffic area in the summertime."
Ball arms that bounce back up will help to guide traffic through the roundabouts. While some larger vehicles are expected to occasionally strike the posts, the units are expected to withstand several hundred impacts at speeds as high as 96 kilometres per hour. Should the time come when a ball arm does not bounce back up, it will be replaced, he said.
"Some drivers will probably hit these ball arms ó we're fully expecting that to happen. But they can get through here without the need to do that."
The placement of the posts was designed such that only over-dimensional vehicles should hit them, his report to council states.
The largely two-lane redesign was also created specifically to accommodate more room for pedestrians to move around Sundre's downtown more safely without large rigs driving past with essentially no buffer space.
Mayor Terry Leslie said it's important for the community to understand the municipality brought the request for the pilot project before Alberta Transportation officials.
"We had concerns about pedestrian safety," the mayor said, adding the business community also had expressed serious issues with regards to the lack of a foot-traffic friendly downtown core as well as gravel and small rocks being projected by passing vehicles into storefronts, occasionally causing damage such as chips in windows.
"When safety is the concern, this is a win for all of us," he said about the Main Avenue redesign.
"It's a pilot project and will be studied ó and we expect that it's going to be positive ó but we're not above saying, ëIf there's some glaring errors, and traffic doesn't move, then we can look at Plan B, whatever that might be.'"
