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?

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6 comments:

  1. kwJanuary 14, 2013 at 3:03 PM

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

    ReplyDelete
  2. larry kurtzJanuary 14, 2013 at 3:17 PM

    dope strings internal, my brother. cold there?

    ReplyDelete
  3. DufferMay 29, 2013 at 7:27 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. larry kurtzMay 29, 2013 at 3:04 PM

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

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 1, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  6. John HessJune 7, 2013 at 5:22 AM

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

    ReplyDelete

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