“Obsessed” mayor leads council approval of roundabout ordinance

Mayor Travis Mitchell admitted he’s so “obsessed” with roundabouts that he has flown drones in order to videotape and then study them. Council member Yvonne-Flores Cale claimed to be a roundabout convert and her fellow council member Robert Rizo said he’s “leaning” that way. Their colleague, Michael Tobias, confessed he doesn’t like ‘em and he never will. And, when all was said and done, the city council voted 6-1 Tuesday to approve on first reading an ordinance that will (1) make roundabouts more prolific in the city and (2) give the city’s staff more control over roundabouts installed by developers.

And in case anyone on the near west side of the Interstate is listening, City Engineer Leon Barba said officially during the council’s roundabout discussion that too many obstacles exist to build a rumored roundabout at the Burleson-Spring Branch intersection and that, instead, traffic signals likely will be installed there.

“This (ordinance) will allow us to adapt the national standards that we have been trying to put together for the last year,” Barba said. “The guidelines we have adopted are very comprehensive. They have a lot of good information in there and we expect all future roundabouts to be designed in accordance with this and whatever future revisions are made to this standard.

“It doesn’t require all intersections to be roundabouts,” Barba said in response to a question Mitchell posed. “It gives us the opportunity to look at the subdivisions as they are coming in very carefully to determine where we are going to need a roundabout or where we believe we are going to need a roundabout and it gives us authority to do that and go through that process.”

“Everybody knows how I feel about these,” Tobias said. “I did some research today about the pros and cons and in most cases it improves traffic. It’s just that in our climate here, it’s the speed that these people drive through. The concern that I have is the roundabout that could be right at the intersections of schools where you have pedestrian walkways. You also have the speed of the traffic on some of these roads to go from 50 miles an hour to a roundabout where you have to go 15 or 20. I’m also looking at the emergency vehicles that have to go through there. Those are the big concerns that I have when we start looking at roundabouts throughout the city.”

After saying roundabouts are safer than other intersections because they eliminate broadside collisions, Barba admitted “they do take a lot of right-of-way. You don’t want to be taking out houses to put in a roundabout.”

“I was a fan of roundabouts in 2016 when I started seeing some roundabouts go in,” the mayor said. “I watch our roundabouts carefully. I’ve gone and sat at intersections. I’ve drone-videoed intersections. I’ve looked at intersections I thought needed roundabouts. I am obsessed. I’ve only quadrupled or more my belief that as long as it is the appropriate engineering and at the right intersection, I’d give my left arm to see a roundabout.”

Mitchell specifically cited the intersection of “Spring Branch and Veterans,” although I assume he was referring to the Silverado/Veterans intersection, where, he said, “that stop sign backs up traffic forever and ever. I’ve drone videoed that intersection and about one out of every four vehicles runs that stop sign. Some people just drive through it and never slow down. So I want ‘em.”

“I’ve never been a big fan of roundabouts,” Rizo said. “I kinda hate ‘em. But what I hate worse is what the mayor just touched on. I’ve seen this become a pattern here in Kyle and that’s people running stop signs. I had a gentleman the other day in a blue Ford pickup who ran five stop signs near the downtown area and I didn’t appreciate it because he almost hit me as well. What concerns me is what if there’s a family walking across the street? Little-by-little, peoples’ bad habits are leaning me towards roundabouts.”

“I did not like roundabouts either,” Flores-Cale said. “And when the Burleson one came, it was a game-changer. So now I am Team Roundabout. I feel like I’m a traitor to myself and to the people I told that I hated roundabouts. But I only take Burleson now when I go to the H-E-B. As someone who did not initially support a roundabout — who despised it — I have to say ‘I love it.’ If they’re made right, they can benefit the city.”