Is Mission Viejo Ready for Roundabouts?
by Dale Tyler

Earlier this year, Councilmember Cathy Schlicht asked the City Council to form a committee of citizens, including two Planning Commissioners, to look into the feasibility of using roundabouts as a traffic control device in Mission Viejo.

The Roundabout Committee had a number of meetings which were attended by members of the public as well as the appointed members of the committee. I was one of the six members of the committee. During our discussions, we focused on the intersection at Oso and Marguerite. The city is about to solicit bids to widen Oso near that intersection to four through lanes in each direction. We wanted to find out is a roundabout would be feasible instead of widening Oso.

In case you are not familiar with the term roundabout, here is my understanding. Roundabouts are circular roadways with one, two, three or more lanes going around the circle. Each entrance lane matches with at least one circulating lanes and one drives around the circle until the exit point is encountered. So for a right turn, one travels 90 degrees, to pass straight through, one travels 180 degrees and a left turn would require 270 degrees. There are no stoplights, so traffic moves smoothly. However, unlike its larger cousin the traffic circle, speeds on a roundabout are much slower, perhaps 30 mph and this contributes to increased safety for both motorists and pedestrians. Vehicles entering a roundabout must yield to those already circulating, which allows pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the entry lanes more easily. More information can be obtained at http://www.roundaboutsusa.com/

There are a number of challenges to building roundabouts in Mission Viejo. In many cases there may not be enough open land adjacent to a intersection to allow for the circle and entry lanes at the busiest intersections. Although there are some fairly large roundabouts elsewhere in the US, there are none that currently handle the 80,000 cars per day that pass through intersections like Oso and Marguerite. Finally, drivers must learn a new set of skills to successfully use roundabouts.

Nonetheless, widening roads can only take us so far and we need to look at alternatives such as roundabouts and other ideas, like over/under roadways. It is projected that Oso and Marguerite will carry in excess of 100,000 cars per day in 2030.

In considering whether a roundabout could be successful at Oso and Marguerite the committee asked the city to get more information from Scott Ritchie, a consultant who had done some initial work on roundabout is Mission Viejo at the behest of city staff. We had a conference call with Mr. Ritchie where a number of questions were answered. He proposed that a detailed study, costing about $18K and taking 4 weeks would be required to come to a conclusion as to how well a roundabout would perform and how it would compare to a widened, signalized intersection with coordinated signals. The Roundabout Committee recommended that the city pay Mr. Ritchie to complete this work so that the question of the feasibility of a roundabout at Oso and Marguerite could be settled.

The final report of the Roundabout Committee will be heard at the May 18, 2009 City Council Meeting. Included in the report will be the request to have Scott Ritchie complete the study. However, there is a concern about the short time available before the contracts to improve Oso and Marguerite must go out to bid. It may be that we do not have time to perform the roundabout study before the OCTA and other funds allocated for the intersection improvements expire.

Since it is apparent that there is little support for proceeding among the council and city staff, it looks like the answer to the question is "No Roundabouts in Mission Viejo".