It should be noted from the start that Oak Ridge-is a town of 7,000 people. On the flip side—it is a growing Greensboro suburb and —as the Rhino Times points out– “heavily visited retail areas in town have gotten more crowded over the years and some type of road improvement is now considered necessary.”
So what type of road improvement are city officials considering? You guessed it–traffic circles:
Oak Ridge Town Councilmember George McClellan said town leaders have been in talks with officials with the NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and are expecting to see two plans for addressing congestion. One of those will call for two traffic circles.
…McClellan said people in the town are divided on the proposed traffic circles.
“Boy, it kind of depends on who you ask,” McClellan said.
He said he wants to hear all the arguments before he decides one way or the other for that town of about 7,000 residents.
“My official position is let’s wait and see,” he said.
If the goal –as McClellan puts it–“is to have rational traffic patterns that maintain good vehicle flow and reduce confusion for drivers”—then traffic circles are most definitely not the answer, in my humble opinion as a Raleigh native who has experienced the Hillsborough Street traffic circles. Don’t do it, Oak Ridge.
