Personally, I would love to see more roundabouts! I suspect any trouble navigating them could be partly addressed by having one-way signs at each entrance - at least until the populace is generally more familiar with roundabouts.
Last time this discussion came up here, there was a link to an article in the Herald saying the city's policy was to change traffic light controlled intersections to roundabouts when it came time to 'renovate' them, as warranted.
As I live in Scenic Acres, the intersections I would love to see changed to roundabouts are:
- The two lights at the Stoney-Scenic Acres/Tuscany interchange
- The three lights on Nose Hill just south of Crowchild
- The intersection just before the bus gates in the Crowfoot LRT station south parking lot
- The intersection at Scenic Acres Blvd and Scenic Acres/Scurfield Dr. That one was changed from a 4-way stop to traffic lights just after we moved into Scenic Acres; I guess traffic studies indicated that a traffic light was necessary there, but the 4-way stop seemed to be working fine (at least IMHO).
Scenic Acres seems to be generally overly conservative when it comes to traffic issues, so I'm not sure if these changes would fly, assuming they ever come up for discussion. If I get motivated enough, I may pursue looking into having the bus gates open at least during off-peak hours, and also have the lights at SA Blvd-SA/Scurfied Dr. changed to flashing red/yellow during off peak hours...
In any case, my fantasies about changing traffic lights to roundabouts caused me to think: under what conditions are roundabouts UNsuitable choices for an intersection? In my dream list above, I think certain directions have far more traffic flow than others; would that preclude a roundabout?