I read an article in this past week’s Fountain Hills Times paper reporting on the town council considering the implementation of a roundabout to address the four-way stop at La Montana and Avenue of the Fountains. I was actually in attendance at one of the recent town council meetings when this idea was brought up. Other four-way stops, such as La Montana and Palisades and Saguaro and Avenue of the Fountains, were also mentioned as possible roundabout targets during that meeting. A number of us in the audience shook our heads in disbelief when this idea was brought up.

Roundabouts can be a very effective traffic control measure when you are only talking about vehicle traffic. Roundabouts eliminate the need for stop signs and instead rely on yielding right-of-way to vehicles inside the roundabout. This means that cars approaching and driving in the roundabout are typically always moving.

Unfortunately this “always moving” paradigm, coupled with removing stop signs, would be extremely dangerous to pedestrians who would become nothing more than targets for moving vehicles. Any stopping in the roundabout to accommodate pedestrian traffic would also adversely affect the timing of the roundabout and would most certainly create accidents.

Installing a roundabout at La Montana and Avenue of the Fountains would effectively prevent foot traffic through that intersection. Think of how that would affect access to and from the various activities on Avenue of the Fountain (i.e. the art fairs, car shows, holiday activities, etc.)

Just say no.