This week’s question: Now that you’ve had some time to drive around it, what are your thoughts on the newly constructed roundabout in downtown Murphy?
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“The more I use it the more I see the benefit of it, especially with the added traffic we seem to have. The only negative I have is that it’s small and that means it’s difficult to tell if the approaching vehicle is turning or going past you. Patience is the key.”
Bill Belian
Bellview
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“The problem with having a roundabout is most people don’t know how to drive them. They’re also too small for all the kinds of vehicles to navigate. We did this in a lot of cities, and sometimes engineers make the mistake of making roundabouts not large enough for the bigger vehicles. All they were doing was dragging their rear wheels across them in both directions. In a perfect world, they make sense; the sad thing is that they seldom live up to their expectations.”
Alan Lefstead
Murphy
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“I’m for them; however, you’d be surprised how many people driving with a pickup truck dragging a trailer will try to go contradictory to what the roundabout should do. They do move traffic faster, and I think there should be more of them. It’s about education, they need someone to oversee it for a period of time. You just don’t build it and say, ‘Here you go.’ ”
Mike Gentry
Murphy and Orlando, Fla.
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“It moves traffic really quickly, but I think people in Murphy don’t even know what a yield sign is so I think somebody’s gonna get killed. They get to the roundabout and go as fast as they can. There was this older lady, she drove completely over the roundabout. She had no idea what it was. I also feel that now with the roundabout instead of the intersection, especially for people out of town, they’re not there long enough to even see what businesses are there for shopping.”
Dan Stout
Ranger
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“I find the one downtown does make it easier to get in and out, but I’m worried about when all the summer people get here because of the people who won’t give in. I like that it got those bumpers out of that right-hand lane where everybody parks. I’m more for them than against them.
“The problem with a small roundabout like that is that you really don’t have time to signal where you’re getting off. I’m lucky to get one click off my directional before I’m turning off, so they won’t see it. You just gotta pay attention.”
Fred Grudak
Murphy