City plans to install traffic circles at 5 intersections

Portland Press Herald coverage seems to indicate Portland is about to make another bad decision for Franklin Street. This is not a surprise since the stated design goals for this travel corridor are bad. Proper design goals would be part of wider plans for creating an equitable and efficient urban transportation system. The larger context for this process must be a culture that recognizes it needs to reverse last centuryʼs public policies promoting mass suburbanization - where bad transportation policy was the primary tool.

Rather than finding 'arterial' solutions for a limited number of travel corridors, forward looking urban design diffuses vehicle traffic across a net of redundantly connected travel corridors. This works better when traffic flows are platooned. Platooning allows traffic entering and crossing (including pedestrian traffic) more openings. While platooning often results with standard traffic intersection control, it is hurt by things that encourage continuous flow - roundabouts for instance.

Forward looking transportation design will discontinue its decades long war against pedestrian and mass transit modes of travel. Continuous vehicle flow promoted by roundabouts is inconsistent with pedestrian travel and inconsistent with stop and go bus characteristics.

While pocket parks are excellent aesthetic additions to the urban grid, roundabouts create wasted space in urban areas. The continuous circling vehicle traffic makes it useless even as a pocket park. It becomes additional dead space for pedestrians to cross, increasing distances between meaningful places.