Monday, Aug 28, 2006

Calendar of Events

Last Week: 8/21 Roundabouts and Traffic Circles - Richard Schell, DOT

This Week: 8/28 SCCC President on The Role of Community Colleges

Next Week: 9/4 No meeting Labor Day

Coming Up: 9/7 Gift of Life Golf and Bocce Tourney

9/11 Club Assembly

9/18 Spouses Night: The Role of Women in the Civil War

given by Hady Finy

Invocation: George Bailey, Garry Morrow, Dan Stec or Bob Youmans

Suggestions for future programs may be given to Linda LeTendre

- Linda thanked Ken and Alice Crotty for hosting a Christmas Party preparation committee meeting.

- We need to find and sponsor a student for RYLA. It should be a Jr. moving up to his or her senior year in high school.

- Richard Hodge from District stopped by to present the club a trophy won last year at the Gift of Life Golf Tournament for the putting contest.

- Sandra Kominoski asked for ideas on where we might hold a fund raising Garage Sale.

- Ron S. passed around a sign up sheet to help with the Interclub First Responders Honor Dinner that will be held in the East Glenville Fire Dept on Sep 10 between 2 and 5:00 pm. The Scotia Club, which is organizing the event, is asking for Rotarians to give 1.5 hours of time to help in the kitchen or for serving food. If you want to sponsor a First Responder and family you can do so for $20.

- Mark G. gave a moving Rotary Minute using the movie Shindler’s List and a quote from it – “you save one life and you save the world” – to really give us a factual and emotional sense of all the great things our club and Rotary does to save and change lives.

- Dick O’Rourke noted the Entertainment Books are in and ready to be picked up. They are $30 this year.

Roundabouts in NYS

We were very fortunate to hear a presentation on the history, design and benefits of Roundabouts, and specifically local ones, from a true expert, Richard Schell of the NYS DOT. Richard has designed or worked on enhancing virtually all of the roundabouts done on state roads throughout NYS. A great deal of discussion was focused on the five new ones that are being built near Interstate 87 in Malta.

Richard gave us a brief history of roundabouts both in Europe and the US. They were first used primarily in Britain in the early 1900s. Modern roundabouts started coming into favor in the U.S. in the 1990s. There are over 1,000 built now in the U.S. More than 300 have been built this year. A draft NYS policy now states that when constructing state road intersections, roundabouts will be the first option evaluated for the specific site.

The benefits cited for roundabouts are: they are the safest intersections, they handle high capacities with low delay times, they are good for all modes of traffic, and they are geometrically flexible and good for aesthetics and can be made to look very attractive. Data from Maryland DOT reports that in 2004 their roundabouts reduced total crashes by 68%, reduced property damage crashes by 41%, reduced injury crashes by 86%, and reduced fatal/incapacitating crashes by 100%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety figures for roundabout safety show similar benefits when looking at the entire US. Benefits were also given from a pedestrian’s perspective. They are: it is easy to determine gaps in traffic when it is possible to cross, cars only come from one direction, there are fewer lanes to cross, and splinter islands provide refuge when half way across the road.

We saw pictures of numerous roundabouts and their signage. We also saw some graphic video of the type of accidents that are usually avoided by employing roundabouts. Richard noted that communities often are concerned or object to the building of roundabouts but that after they see and live with the benefits, they change their minds, and praise them. He even cited an economic benefit in South Golden, Colorado where a commercial corridor that had roundabouts had a 60% growth in sales tax revenue as opposed to nearly flat growth for the rest of Golden.

It was a very interesting and professionally delivered Power Point presentation. We certainly will be able to form our own opinions of roundabouts because we will soon be living with many of them.