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SLO County board rejects plans for Highway 227 roundabout

April 8, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 2-2 on Tuesday not to support two controversial roundabouts on Highway 227 near the SLO Country Club, following an 11-2 vote by the SLO County Council of Governments (SLOCOG) to support the project.

In early February, Arroyo Grande Councilman Jimmy Paulding voiced his support for the project. Paulding said he had a fiduciary duty to represent the residents of Arroyo Grande who want the roundabouts.

At that time, SLO County supervisors Debbie Arnold and Lynn Compton were the two   SLOCOG board who voted against the roundabouts. Compton disagreed with Paulding, saying the majority of local residents are opposed to the project because of concerns with safety and bottlenecks.

During Tuesday’s SLO County Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Supervisor John Peschong recused himself because of a perceived conflict of interest. Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg voted for the project noting issues with traffic congestion on Highway 227.

“It’s the best solution for congestion, it is the best to protect public safety, it is the most cost-effective to build and it’s most cost-effective to operate in the long-term,” Gibson said.

The plan is for two-lane roundabouts, one at Los Ranchos Road and the other at Buckley Road, to help ease traffic congestion during the morning and evening commutes.

Residents are concerned that the small roundabouts will increase the number of accidents and slow traffic during peak hours, said SLO Country Club resident Susan Hack. Instead, Hack would like local officials to focus on expanding Highway 101 south of San Luis Obispo.

“The commuters going southbound need some relief,” Hack said. “The roundabouts are not going to speed up the commute. I do not think this is the answer.”

Both Compton and Arnold said they need to listen to the people they were elected to represent.

“What you’re doing in my opinion is you’re taking a rural area and you’re taking freeway traffic, and you’re rerouting it through a rural area because the freeway can’t accommodate it,” Compton said. “That does not fundamentally make sense.”

Even though the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted against setting aside $691,000 for the design of the project, SLOCOG and Caltrans could decide to move forward without county support.


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The round about in Morro bay works OK till someone that doesn’t know what they are doing doesn’t wait for traffic to make the pass in front of them and thinks they can go instead of yelding the right of way, I feel safer in a traffic light where there is total control of the morons behind the wheel, even if you have to wait a couple minutes. The roundabout on Hwy 246 east of Solvang is a piece of useless work, what a screwed up mess that one is, there is no reason for it to have been put together the way it is, all that one does is slow traffic down it helps nothing with flow, trucks have a tough time getting through these as the cal trans people have never driven a semi to know what it needs to function.


25

Point of fact:


Caltrans owns and operates several 5 axle truck and trailer combination vehicles (“semi trucks”).


1

The new one at 46 and Vineyard has been there for maybe a year and works great with no problems. Surprised I agree with Paulding on this one.


-12

Dont recall the last time I saw traffic backed up for over a mile on 46 prior to the installation, the two roads have very little traffic issues in common. Wasn’t the main reason for the Roundabout on 46 due to the wine drinkers trying to cross from Vineyard?


13

On a regular basis I use 2 roundabouts with no issues and rather enjoy the experience. Morro Bay and Lompoc. They make total sense to me.


-4

I wonder why you got so many downvotes? I too like the Morro Bay roundabout, it’s still full of idiots but at least they can’t run the stop sign any more.


9

Because the simple mind is afraid of new things. It has always been that way.


7

Roundabouts in that area would definitely ease traffic on the commute from SLO to destinations south. Currently, traffic backs up because many motorists dread taking 101 at that time of day. Anyone who has driven in Arizona knows that roundabouts are safe, effective and save time. They also keep autos from sitting on the road idling waiting for a light. Chalk up another bad decision for this moronic board.


-16

The roundabout in Tijuana is like driving in a tornado but I didn’t care cuz I had Mexican driver’s insurance, bail insurance, lawyer insurance and a beat up vehicle which afforded me the right-of-way.


15

I often look at the CHP website and see that there are a lot of accidents at The Buellton roundabout. Compton and Arnold are right again as per usual.


13

LOL, that’s your scientific study? Occasionally looking at the CHP site?


Roundabouts work, they are proven to significantly reduce congestion and accidents, and are much cheaper to maintain. They are heavily used throughout the world with no issues. Unfortunately, some people have a backwards way of thinking that roundabouts are too complicated for the average American driver to use successfully because they aren’t used to them. Even if that is true, it just means drivers need to learn how to use them, not that we should stubbornly ban them because we are too afraid to learn something new.


-11

Thats Barbara Streisand. B.S.


11

Well said Paragon.


Properly designed and placed, the facts regarding modern roundabouts are irrefutable. They reduce the severity of accidents (reduction in T-bones) they usually improve overall operational conditions, they have lower maintenance costs (although they can be expensive to build due to right of way acquisition, lifecycle maintenance savings make up for that) , they are better for air quality because of the reduction of stop-and-go traffic, and they are usually more aesthetically pleasing.


Last but not least, they are used all over the world, including the US with great success.


These are the irrefutable facts, regardless of what the uninformed opinions declare.


-2

Roundabouts are the ideal concept proven all over the world. Four way stops are retarded, the intersection between Hyw 41 in Morro Bay next to Hyw 1 is the dumbest intersection i have ever seen in my life.

Ever bern to France or Italy? People fly through roundabouts there, because they know how to use them.


11

Yup, I too was very skeptical regarding roundabouts until years ago I spent several weeks driving around Italy and France. Saw large semi trucks using them, and cars of every size. That first trip there made a believer out of me.


We fear what we do not understand and then default to “our feelings.”


6

Traffic circles work. Used in the right setting they are sensible, effective alternatives to stop signs and stoplight-controlled intersections, especially in rural locations. Traffic lights contribute significantly to time delays, fuel wasting and increased noise & air pollution.


-2

Traffic circles. Technically speaking, are a little different than modern roundabouts. They are not as effective.


1

If our CCN comments could be edited, I would have changed my first sentence to read ”Roundabouts work”.


5

“ opposed to the project because of concerns with safety and bottlenecks”


This thinking is wrong. There are folks who can attest to this. Like any traffic engineer or planner or any resident of the rest of the world.


Traffic circles decrease the severity of accidents (remember Highland Drive/Santa Rosa-Highway 1 type scenario or the countless accidents at stoplights on Highway 1 in Morro Bay). These deadly T-bone accidents don’t generally happen in a traffic circle.


Bottlenecks happen at stoplights because traffic must start & stop. Unless you install full clover leafs, there is no traffic intersection that flows better than a traffic circle.


Dear God, lets not make traffic circles a culture war thing people


-12

Good points injustice!


On the culture war, think it’s too late, folks have retreated to their corners and dug in.


We often fear what we do not understand.


0

“Roundabouts are proven to work, under ideal conditions”…. Conditions that are never ever, ever, met. Imo they don’t work and cause more traffic congestion :/


-2
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