Thank you to everyone who reviewed the information and provided their feedback. We captured hundreds of comments with various opinions. We appreciate the diverse viewpoints. The team is using what we heard from the community to develop the first design. We will announce future design reviews through this website and our project email updates in the future.

Community comfort using roundabouts

A majority of people indicated they were comfortable using roundabouts.

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Of those who said they feel uncomfortable using roundabouts, here are the main themes sited:

Inexperience and Misuse: There's a worry that other drivers do not yield or follow the rules correctly, causing potential collisions.

1. "I get angered by those that don't know how to navigate them and clog up the system."
2. "Because generally other people don’t know what they’re doing in a roundabout."
3. "I just don’t get them."

Large Vehicles and Farming Equipment: Some feel roundabouts are difficult to navigate for large vehicles like semis and farming equipment, siting concerns about safety and space.

1. "Difficult to navigate with large farm equipment. It takes a tractor longer to get going, you have more blind spots, and need more space to operate and most traffic does not understand this."
2. "Driving on them with a semi or truck and trailer needing to use more than one lane and others cut in."

What we heard

Top themes from commenters who viewed the roundabout favorably:

Safety and Accident Reduction:

• "Its just the right amount of traffic to make a roundabout work well. I think it would be a good answer to the problem of so many crashes there. The same thing happened at the intersection of 42 and 9 outside of Eyota. They put a roundabout there and it works great."
• "This intersection has a large expanse and good sight distance. It is also a location where speed increases as traffic drives North on HWY 44. It is hard to judge speed and very difficult to cross straight on east/west on Kingston/HWY 76 or make left hand turns. I feel the roundabout would help everyone be able to navigate through this intersection more safely and most specifically help ag equipment that travels slower get across the intersection."

Slowing Down Traffic

• "Would slow down traffic, especially as it is in a hilly location."
• "No cross traffic. Slower speeds. They make traffic flow."
• "It will slow down highway traffic, making it easier to cross at that intersection."

Traffic Flow and Efficiency

• "Roundabouts are easy to learn, slow drivers down, and prevent accidents."
• "Roundabouts, when used correctly, allow everyone to keep moving. No one has to sit and wait. No one has to attempt to turn left in front of speeding traffic."
• "Slow down traffic from both directions and help to keep flow moving when trying to cross 44 with large trailer."

Top themes of those who were undecided or viewed the roundabout unfavorably:

Calls for other alternatives:

• “Reducing the speed would be the best solution.”
• “Stop lights would be better especially for farm equipment & 18 wheelers.”
• “There is no need. Just slow down the speed limit and put lights by the Kwik Trip.”
• "My thoughts are a stop light at the Kwik Trip intersection will alleviate some of the congestion on the 76/44 intersection."

Concerns about a roundabout on a hill:

• "I do wonder how well this will work at the bottom of a hill. It’s usually a slippery area in winter."
• "Very concerned about the hills coming into the roundabout would be easily mis navigated and hard to stop if do not realize they need to slow down for roundabout."
• "Speed coming down the hill could cause issues."

Winter Conditions:

• "Vehicles coming down the hill on winter roads would not be safe even with well-maintained roads."
• "That's a bad place for a roundabout especially when it's slippery, you'll slide into it because three of the entrances are downhill."