Spinning out of control
April 20, 2018
By DYLAN TRIGG
The Mirror reporter
There are plans for a new roundabout to be designed and constructed at the intersection of Northpoint Drive and Division Street. For those who don’t know, that is the intersection by Sentry and the road that leads to our school building.
Although the plans are not final, the people of Stevens Point and Plover should be prepared. All traffic coming on or off the highway would have to go through this roundabout.
Plenty of traffic comes through this area due to the two major high schools, Pacelli and SPASH whose total enrollment is 1757. There is even a greater number of employees at Sentry, around 2,250 people.
Building a roundabout would take about two months during which time people trying to get through the area will be funneled through congested alternative lanes. With so many people driving in this area I feel like there will be plenty of collisions just during construction.
The reasons some people may want this roundabout is because studies say that they are safer. The flow of traffic keeps going and it’s less stop and go, which results in fewer rear-end collisions.
Roundabouts have a 37 percent reduction in overall collisions, 75 percent reduction in injury collisions, 90 percent reduction in fatality collisions and a 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions. That data is pulled from the Federal Highway Administration.
In my opinion, the overall number of collisions would not go down. I think they would actually go up. First, you have to look at the type of drivers going into the roundabout. Many of them are inexperienced high school students.
Many high school students don’t know how to drive through a roundabout. They don’t know the rules. This can cause confusion and confusion leads to collisions.
Kim Engle, a Sentry worker said, “I think it is fine just how it is. I don’t like roundabouts and driving through them with high school students must be terrifying.”
I completely agree with her. There will be multiple inexperienced drivers, driving in something with which they are not comfortable.
Reese Gaber, a junior at SPASH said, “I usually try to avoid the roundabouts.”
This goes to show that younger drivers do not like going into them.
In my opinion, the roundabout should not be constructed. The circumstances of where it is helps me make that decision. If one person crashes in the roundabout, all traffic will be stopped. There is no other way to get past this than to go through that intersection. This could cause big problems for people who have strict schedules and need to be to work or school.
With where we are in the country there is a large chunk of time when there will be snow all throughout the roundabout. This will make it easy to side-swipe other cars when driving next to them.
There are a good amount of semi-trucks that get off this exit due to the various companies in the area. Semi-trucks driving through the roundabout would take up all the lanes and slow everyone down. With a regular intersection, there can be two lanes and you can get around them without being bothered.
Manuel Lupercio • Apr 23, 2018 at 12:49 PM
That is one thing i never liked about the schools driving program is it only focused on things locally. There are many other forms of roads and intersections that arent usually learned. I took my drivers test when i was 18 so didnt have to take drivers ed but i feel the program could definitely do a better job especially with it being a semester long.
Kacey Koch • Apr 23, 2018 at 12:40 PM
A roundabout wouldn’t be a bad idea but there are definitely downsides with it being right by the high school. I’m glad I got to read this because I really didn’t know this was being considered!
Dylan Konicek • Apr 23, 2018 at 12:33 PM
I had heard about this plan before the school year started and I always liked it. Every time i get stopped at the light on Division St i’m always stuck at the red light forever and I can’t stand it, so I think that the roundabout will increase the flow of traffic. But otherwise your article was well written and I enjoyed reading it
Kara • Apr 23, 2018 at 12:32 PM
I like having stop lights at this intersection, it makes me feel safe as when I am going through a roundabout I am worried I will get off at the wrong exit or someone won’t see me or I won’t see them. I really liked how you added statistics to your piece! Good job.
Will • Apr 23, 2018 at 12:26 PM
Hopefully as traffic to SPASH is affected by this change, there’s less congestion and more people going up towards 2nd street. I enjoyed how this article came with facts about how roundabouts affect traffic.
Alina Burmistrova • Apr 23, 2018 at 11:36 AM
I can say It is really informative and interesting article who is full of different opinions. Also the reporter really often described his own point of view.
Hannah Gibbons • Apr 23, 2018 at 9:50 AM
I had no idea Point had plans in possibly constructing a roundabout by SPASH. It won’t effect me as much, being a senior I won’t be attending SPASH next year; however, for incoming students and returning students it’ll be a pain. Especially for the buses coming off the high way, I have a mini SUV and I had roundabouts because I feel like if I go too fast I’ll crash, I can’t imagine what a school bus would feel like. If anything, I feel like the percentage of car crashes would go up, not go down.
Merita Mehmedi • Apr 20, 2018 at 1:01 PM
It can be difficult for people to get used to change quickly. You mention that high school students are not experienced or comfortable with roundabouts and that is an important factor to consider. Hopefully this roundabout will help reduce accidents based on the statistics you discussed, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Hannah Siegel • Apr 20, 2018 at 12:25 PM
This was a really interesting article. I didn’t know a roundabout was (maybe) going to be built but I totally agree with you. Personally, I am fine driving in roundabouts but because they are so uncommon in Point I too feel it will cause many accidents.
Alyssa Schroeckenthaler • Apr 20, 2018 at 12:25 PM
I completely agree. Even though we learned how to approach roundabouts in drivers ed. and they are supposed to be safer, I just find them stressful. My parents don’t like them either because they never had to learn how to deal with them. I think that it’s much easier to have a stop sign or traffic lights tell people when they can and cannot go. I honestly don’t see how statistics say roundabouts are safer. I feel like accidents are more likely to happen with people trying to self-determine when they can sneak into the flow of traffic.
Tony Ludwig • Apr 20, 2018 at 12:22 PM
I was stopped at this intersection for 2 minutes on Tuesday. A roundabout would have really helped in this situation, and I didn’t know there was one planned until I read this.