Bicycle-Friendly Roundabouts: A Case-Study

Roundabouts constrain speeds and impact angles for vehicles as they approach. Therefore, they are considered to be a ‘Safe System’ solution for intersections. Though roundabouts are a positive road safety treatment for cars they do not show as dramatic a reduction in road trauma for bicyclists. New Zealand crash data for 2001-2011, found almost 28% of injury crashes at roundabouts involve cyclists, while at priority-controlled intersections and signalised intersections the proportions are 8% and 5.5% respectively. VicRoads specifies technical guidance in relation to road safety treatments at roundabouts specifically targeted for the protection of cyclists and pedestrians. In 2018 this guidance was used to design and build two cycle-friendly protected roundabouts in Moray St, South Melbourne, as part of the Metro Tunnel Project. The project upgraded the Moray Street bicycle path to provide cyclists with a safe path in the north-south route and raised pedestrian crossings at all branches of the roundabout during Metro Tunnel works on St Kilda Road. Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd evaluated the performance and found a moderate utilisation rate of cyclists on the dedicated bicycle lanes and a high utilisation rate of pedestrians using raised crossings. The evaluation also found no significant issues with near-crashes for bicycle-and-pedestrian and bicycle-and-vehicle interaction. There were no significant problems with vehicle drivers using the protected roundabout. However, it was noted that when pedestrians are crossing at the raised crossings then vehicles would sometimes stop in the middle of the roundabout thus blocking traffic.