BATON ROUGE La. (BRPROUD) — Some motorists in the Livingston Parish area calling the I-12 and Highway 447 roundabouts dangerous, or maybe confusing.
What was dubbed the “deadliest roundabouts of mankind” by some Walker locals have not been fatal so far.
Department of Transportation and Development Communication Director Rodney Mallett says, “Historically the data does say they are safer, especially when it comes to serious crashes and they do help the traffic flow because you are not stopping.”
DOTD says although accidents increased with time this may start to normalize soon.
“As people get used to that new part of their driving routine, then you’ll see the numbers go down, historically we have seen that with roundabouts across the state,” says Mallett.
Some have loved the new additions to their community.
Roundabout user Heather McManus says “I like it, it’s pretty efficient. it doesn’t hold as much traffic as it used to around here. We used to be backed up for hours and trying to get in and out was horrible.”
Tommy Stojak says, “But now, it’s pretty much smooth, it doesn’t matter if it is a Friday or a Monday. When you are getting out of the interstate you’ll be out of it in like 2 or 3 minutes or faster. ”
While some still need to get adjusted to the new roundabouts.
Dana Behuler says, “You know, I thought it was really strange because you can go left and go around the roundabout or you can go right as you would normally and kind of circumvent it, so I felt like it was a little bit confusing. ”
DOTD says that the key to navigating these roundabouts is to pay attention, yield, use your blinkers, and to be patient with other drivers.
DOTD put out a survey to get commuter’s feedback on the roundabouts. That survey can be found here.
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