Building a roundabout near NIU is a horrible idea – Shaw Local

Replacing the intersection of Normal Road and Lucinda Avenue with a roundabout in the heart of the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb is a terrible idea.

Due to the location of the roundabout, the constant traffic throughout school days, and the large number of local drivers who have little or no experience operating roundabouts, DeKalb is not expected to lead complete the roundabout project.

With the roundabout being built right next to popular campus buildings such as the Peters Campus Life Building and the Holmes Student Center, as well as Anderson Hall being just down the road, there will almost always be traffic in this area during school days and hours. . Since students and faculty must access these buildings almost every day for classes, work and study, constant traffic on a new type of roadway could lead to more accidents in DeKalb.

Based on a 2023 Fox article titled “Hateful Roundabouts? Avoid these states – they have the most. » “There are some 13,000 roundabouts in the United States (depending on what you consider a roundabout) – that equates to one roundabout for every 25,531 people, roughly. » A graphic in the article shows there are 128 traffic circles in Illinois.

When you combine the scarcity of roundabouts not only in the state of Illinois but across the country with many young, inexperienced drivers in a college town, you have a recipe for disaster.

Building this roundabout is a horrible idea and a threat to the safety of DeKalb and NIU.

Zachary Bertram

DeKalb