Study: roundabouts could help with the gridlock at Rotterdam intersection
Even before there were cars, the Five Corners intersection in Rotterdam looked exactly the same as it does today, but a study into alternatives might take the corners out of it altogether.
The first of two public workshops was held at the South Schenectady Fire District 6 Firehouse in Rotterdam on Tuesday, April 26, to present issues and possible solutions for transportation and land use improvements around the Five Corners intersection in Rotterdam. The Capital District Transportation Committee and the Town of Rotterdam sponsored the workshop. BFJ Planning, based out of New York City, did the study, which has 75 percent of its $45,000 cost funded federally and the remainder funded by the town. Georges Jacquemart, PE and AICP Principal for BFJ Planning, presented findings from the study, but data is still being collected.
It is obviously not the most attractive area in the town when you look at all the uses there, said Jacquemart. `A large amount of surface area is dedicated to circulation and parking. We look at that as not being very productive. What we like to see in the center of a town are commercial uses, retail uses and restaurants and community uses, and that is considered the more productive land use as opposed to parking.`
The goal of the study is to make the Five Corners area healthy and vibrant while developing a balanced circulation system encouraging different forms of transportation, such as bikes and by foot. Sidewalks were shown to be very sparse with a patch in front of Dunkin’ Donuts on Broadway and on the west side of Wallace Avenue in front of residential properties.
Landscaping also was a concern in the study, but new businesses such as Tops restaurant and Dunkin’ Donuts had better landscaping designs. The previous landscaping was sporadic and not uniform.
`Generally there is not a lot of landscaping and especially not very consistent,` said Jacquemart.
The problem, said Jacquemart, is current business owners can’t be forced to re-landscape their property. Landscaping would need to be addressed in future site plan approvals for business, so it could take some time before uniformity is reached.
The average daily traffic volumes, according to information from the DOT, is over 13,000 for Curry Road, around 5,000 for Mariaville Road, 10,000 for Broadway and roughly 12,000 for State Route 7.
One proposed solution to improve traffic flow was to build two roundabouts on the east and west sides of the center intersection, but the main problem with that solution is both roundabouts would fall directly on top of operating gas stations. The town would need to acquire the land from the businesses, which could be difficult and costly to pursue.
`The problem with an intersection like this is the legs are at a very, very shallow angles, so you could not do a roundabout in the middle, there is not enough room in the middle,` said Jacquemart. `The only way to resolve this particular problem with roundabouts is to take two roundabouts.`
Under this concept the current intersection would be in the middle of the two roundabouts. There is only one other roundabout in state similar to the proposed concept, which is in Buffalo and the two roundabouts are actually closer.
Many residents expressed concerns over the dual roundabouts due to the land that would need to be acquired from the businesses.
`I don’t mean to say there are no other alternatives. We will look at other alternatives,` said Jacquemart.
Another idea to improve traffic flow would include widening lanes to add another lane to highly congested streets, but even this approach would require the acquisition of some land from the same two businesses, said Jacquemart.
Traffic delays and accidents
`It is not that there are that many cars driving through the intersection, but the problem that we have primarily is that the intersection is very inefficient,` said Jacquemart. `Whenever we have a traffic light with more than four legs, we end up with very, very long delays.`
The afternoon peak hour delays were higher than the morning peak hour delays. Delays are graded by letters `A` to `F` for the average wait time during peak hours, with `F` equaling gridlock standards. Curry Road and Wallace Avenue have the longest traffic light wait times. Curry had a 45 seconds, `D` grade, wait during the morning peak and over two minutes, `F` grade, for the afternoon peak. Wallace had a higher morning peak at one minute and 12 seconds, `E` grade, but a lower afternoon peak at just less than two minutes and graded `F` too.
The average morning peak hour wait time for Five Corners intersection came to 46 seconds and was graded `D,` and the afternoon peak hour wait time was determined to be gridlock at an average of 80 seconds. Both Route 7 and Broadway had the lowest delays staying around 35 seconds for the morning and afternoon peak hours.
Jacquemart said the study also looked at accidents and found the further away from the center of Five Corners the accidents numbers drop typically along Curry Road and Mariaville Road.
The center of the intersection saw 13 total accidents from Jan. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2009, according to information from the DOT; of those accidents, four resulted in injuries, five resulted in property damage only and one involved a bike or pedestrian. Another nearby intersection with a high amount of accidents is North Westcott and Curry Road, totaling 12 accidents for the same time period; of those accidents, five resulted in injuries and three were property damage only.
Before the second community workshop on July 28 at the same location, the group will come up with a conceptual plan development and transportation analysis. Then before the workshop there will be a meeting with the New York State Department of Transportation. The study was started in March.
“
