What is the big deal when it comes to navigating roundabouts?

Which is it?

The signs? The drivers? Or, is it that roundabouts were recently written into the the driver handbook, but haven’t been implemented on road tests?

Either way, the 37 traffic circles in the region are seeing a lot of accidents.

Could it be a combination of all three? Perhaps there are even more factors that come into play? Not according to Wilmot Mayor Les Armstrong who said, “You can’t fix stupid”, referring to drivers at a three hour education session yesterday that 9 of 16 regional councillors attended with traffic planners.

Speaking on 570’s Gary Doyle show regional councillor Geoff Lorentz said we could talk about the sings and driver education, but to him it’s really simple.

“People go into these things too fast and they come even faster. The stats show that when they go into a roundabout, if no traffic is coming, they go out twice as fast on the other side.”

Some of the other things discussed at the session were improving signs, reducing speeds and implementing raised crosswalks.

“When you’re walking as a pedestrian you have to be street smart, you have to know what’s going on in your surroundings. If you don’t, I mean, it’s your peril”, said Lorentz when speaking about the responsibility that both drivers and pedestrian share at traffic circles.

Lorentz says the fact is nowadays we have more distractions than ever while we drive and people need to slow down. He also urges the public to watch the education session which is posted on the Region of Waterloo website.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today