Why is Intercity Transit proposing a new roundabout on Martin Way East?
Residents near a Martin Way East intersection have come out against a roundabout proposal by Intercity Transit and questioned the agency’s process and intentions.
The proposed East Martin Way Gateway Station Roundabout would be located at the intersection of Martin Way, Meridian Road and Duterrow Road, east of the Lacey city limits.
Intercity Transit wants to change the intersection so it can have a place to efficiently turn its buses around on this east-west urban corridor.
“The corridor is primed for some speed and reliability transit treatments in there because it represents our highest ridership corridor,” Peter Stackpole, development director for Intercity Transit, said. “Just over 30% of our total system ridership is on that Martin Way corridor.”
However, a group of residents living nearby, near Ridgeview Drive Southeast, have organized in opposition to the proposal. Larry Taylor has led this campaign by repeatedly speaking at Thurston County and Intercity Transit public meetings and creating a petition with about 100 signatures.
Taylor told The Olympian he believes a roundabout would cause traffic backups that would make it difficult for him and his neighbors to turn left onto Martin Way from Ridgeview Drive.
Taylor also believes a roundabout at such a large intersection would be too dangerous and costly for the problem Intercity Transit wants to solve.
In letters to Intercity Transit, he said it would be best if the transit agency turned its buses around further east at Nisqually Cut Off Road or used the Orion Drive and Meridian Road roundabout to the north.
“In my humble opinion, we need to look into a little more depth of how much money Intercity Transit has and why are they willing to waste money on things they don’t need,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s efforts have yielded some results. In response to concerns, Stackpole told the Intercity Transit Authority on June 5 that the agency would expand the scope of the initial phase of the project to consider alternatives to a roundabout.
What’s the status of the project?
Stackpole said the project is in a preliminary engineering and design phase in which three options are being studied.
Do nothing to the Martin Way East and Meridian Road intersection and find an alternative turnaround location.
Build a transit U-turn and a westbound transit station at the intersection.
Build a roundabout and transit station as initially proposed.
Each option will be scored based on safety, traffic operations, environmental impacts, right-of-way impacts, financial feasibility and stakeholder support, Stackpole said.
In February, Intercity Transit Authority authorized the agency’s general manager to execute a $798,125 contract with SCJ Alliance, an engineering company, to complete the first phase of the project.
The project so far is being funded by a $680,000 grant from Washington state’s Bus and Facility grant program, Stackpole said. The initial phase is expected to conclude in summer 2025 at the earliest, he said.
The second phase of the project, which will involve right-of-way acquisition, will be paid for with the help of two grants from the Federal Transit Administration’s Surface Transportation Program that total $945,653, according to Intercity Transit documents.
The third phase of the project would be construction. Stackpole said Intercity Transit currently does not have any funding allocated for construction and Thurston County would have to permit construction.
“I think the biggest misconception was that people assumed that a roundabout was just being designed and built without going through the public process,” Stackpole said. “That certainly is not our intent.”
Stackpole said Intercity Transit plans to hold community open houses and targeted stakeholder meetings during the first phase of the project to gather community input.
“We are part of the community and we’re not just looking for a solution that works for transit, but that works for the entire community,” Stackpole said. “It’s not just about having the bus turn around. It’s about benefits for general purpose traffic and communities.”
Why place a roundabout there?
Stackpole said the Martin Way and Meridian Road is the “logical place” to turn buses around on Martin Way East.
“The reason that that location was chosen is because the eastern end of the corridor really represents the end of that urbanized portion of the corridor,” Stackpole said.
He said the agency wants buses at each bus stop every 15 minutes from Capitol Mall to the Martin Way and Meridian Road intersection. Turning buses around further east or north, he said, would be costlier and not as efficient.
“By being efficient in that corridor, we can redeploy resource to maybe some less populated area where that high level of frequency isn’t warranted,” Stackpole said.
But is a roundabout appropriate for that intersection? Thurston County, Lacey and Thurston Regional Planning Council officials each wrote letters of support for Intercity Transit as it sought grants for the proposal, according to Intercity Transit documents. Each letter described the roundabout proposal as a safe and efficient solution.
Those words contrast with concerns raised by Taylor, who believes a roundabout at this specific intersection would cause more accidents and traffic jams.
Taylor said he thinks roundabouts on low- to medium-volume roads are “quite good,” he just takes issue with roundabouts on high volume, major arterial roadways with many converging lanes.
“Engineers are generally taught in school, roundabouts are great, fine and everything, but you do run into limitations,” he said.
His long-term objective, he said, is to draw people’s attention to what he calls “dangerous” roundabouts. As an example, he pointed to the Marvin Road, Britton Parkway and Willamette Drive roundabout in northeastLacey.
He said a driver struck his wife’s vehicle in the roundabout several years ago and he’s since become aware of other accidents there.
“If somebody comes flying through, I mean, all of a sudden you’ve got a big wreck and it’s not just a little fender bender,” Taylor said.
Are roundabouts safe?
Scott Davis works as a traffic design engineer for the Washington state Department of Transportation. He’s not directly involved in the proposed Martin Way roundabout, but he spoke with The Olympian about general roundabout safety.
Davis said many factors must be studied when considering whether a particular intersection and community would benefit from a roundabout, but roundabouts are generally known to improve safety and traffic flow for vehicles big and small.
He said roundabouts generally make drivers travel slower and reduce conflict points with other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.
“If you start taking speed out of the equation or reduce it, the probability for a severe crash can significantly decrease,” Davis said.
Roundabouts are particularly effective at eliminating the possibility for T-bone and head-on crashes that can occur at traditional four-way intersections.
“When vehicle-to-vehicle crashes do occur in roundabouts, they tend to be less severe, they tend to be sideswipes,” Davis said. “There can be rear-end crashes too, but those tend to be less severe crashes.”
Davis said vehicle-to-vehicle collision rates at large, multi-lane roundabouts may not always be better but they still tend to be less severe than at a four-way signal stop.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety cites several studies that found roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 72% to 80% at U.S. intersections where stop signs or traffic signals were previously used.
Another study cited by IIHS shows roundabouts that replaced traffic signals or stop signs at three locations in New Hampshire, New York and Washington state reduced vehicle delays by 89% and vehicle stops by 56%.
Efficiency can depend on traffic volume and the design details of a roundabout, Davis said, but generally studies have shown that well-designed roundabouts improve traffic flow.
“Even though you’re slow at the intersection, once you count all the delay taken out of the system, especially throughout the day, usually you have a more reliable system in the end,” Davis said.
