Five Points Roundabout Concept

Why are we doing anything at this intersection? The Five Points traffic signal is about 28 years old. It will reach the end of its useful life in the next 5-10 years. The city is studying the roundabout concept to see if it is a better option to manage traffic at Five Points and improve the intersection safety performance versus traditional traffic signal control.

Why are we considering a roundabout? There is extensive support from traffic safety studies for building roundabouts, showing that they reduce crashes, particularly serious injury crashes, and reduce motorist delays. Reducing delays also has environmental benefits such as reduced vehicle emissions. Roundabouts have been constructed and are functioning well in multiple locations around the Miami Valley, throughout Ohio and all around the country.

Where is a Dog Bone/Peanut roundabout being used in a similar densely populated area with school children crossing? The atypical configuration of the Five Points intersection supports a unique roundabout shape to improve safety and minimize property impacts. One of the benefits of roundabouts is that the shape does not need to be a simple circle, like the Alex Bell Rd/ Mad River Rd intersection, to achieve the safety and traffic capacity benefits. Peanut-shaped roundabouts have been proposed and constructed at numerous locations within Ohio and around the country to improve safety at complex intersections and to minimize property impacts. The peanut shape and other non-traditional shapes will become more common in the future as the benefits of roundabouts are understood as a better method of controlling traffic flow than a traffic signal. A few examples of non-traditional roundabout shapes and the proximity of roundabouts to schools are listed below:

36th St/Hill Rd/Catalpa Dr; Boise, ID – This is a 6-leg roundabout in a school zone with one leg being a school driveway.

Harding St/Madison St/Green St/Vernon St; Worcester, MA – This is a multi-lane, 7-leg peanut roundabout in an urban setting adjacent to I-290. The southeast approach

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