5/28/13

Traffic circle proposed for Rapid City intersection, updated



Rapid City is clearly struggling as it deals with some growing pains: a smoldering fire at the landfill is just one example.

Robbinsdale is a post-war development built over a former dump on the banks of one tributary still trickling into Rapid Creek in the southeast part of town. Hundreds of modest, cookie-cutter houses that mostly support the medical industry have helped to bolster a strong real estate market despite an otherwise dismal attitude.

Four stop signs have governed traffic flow at the intersection of E St. Pat and Elm for decades.

It's usually ordered and cordial; but, in the era of heightened tensions being generated by that town's despair it's only a matter of time before firearms are drawn then people die in hails of gunfire after someone breaches some unwritten, finger-wave, right of way protocol.

Signals for the location have been proposed and rejected so it behooves this former resident to offer a thought experiment: how does funneling the flow into a traffic circle work for you guys?

6 comments:

kw said...

It,s South Dakota. Do you really think they're ready for a traffic circle? kw

larry kurtz said...

dope strings internal, my brother. cold there?

Duffer said...

I donno man - first time I encountered one of those (Glenwood Springs headed) I had to do a double-take. You know, WTF? They're thick on the main drag through Sedona - got 'em figured out now. I've not seen one in California.

With the hostility I observe on the mean streets of Rapid City - and that's no freaking joke - I can't imagine the knuckle-draggers won't get hot about another stimulus.

Put in the lights and call it good.

larry kurtz said...

Metaphor, Duff: on this corner there is All American Glass, All American Lawnmower Service and some cultist church in the old Safeway.

Anonymous said...

Agree. South Dakota's drivers are too bad, too incompetent to deal with traffic circles. I've over 10 years experience with them; they are marvelous when the drivers know what to do and how to do it. But put them in front of South Dakota's Q-Tip and rural drivers and it'll be a disaster.

Apparently the design for Rapid City's traffic flow came from a junior high kid. Interstate exits that go no-where, lack of meaningful cross-town traffic flow (N-S or E-W). It's an embarrassment that the city hosts on engineering school because of the traffic it's far from a liveable city.

John Hess said...

I've read they are becoming popular all across the US. They are confusing at first.