It looks like Simond Avenue, connecting Mattie and Mueller Blvd. is nearing completion. I rode my bike on it this morning, and then after seeing others drive it and the barrier moved, drove down it to get to Which Ich for lunch. A security guard was standing on the street looking around, and when I returned the barrier had been put back. It looks like they just need to finish painting the center line.

There is an interesting little median dividing Simond at Mattie which looks like a perfect spot for public art. How about a model of the first ever plane to land at the airport? Or, maybe a statue of Robert Mueller himself. Maybe it could be a talking statue like Big Tex or the creepy rubber LBJ that is constantly saying "Mill-er, Mill-er, Mill-er, it is Mill-er people, get it right or leave!"

Speaking of new things, has anyone used the grills at Lake Park? Are we allowed to use them yet. Everything looks finished out there, but I thought there was going to be a sort of opening ceremony for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NonUK_Roundabout_8_Cars.gif

At least it isn't the magic roundabout !

I don't know about all that. Did you see the little green car? He's just causing trouble. Almost sideswipes the yellow car, and just makes an elaborate U-turn. Roundabouts are hard.

And I would suspect that there's a difference between navigating a roundabout with three lanes entering and navigating a roundabout with a lane and a half entering it. Due to the size and turning radius, my BRT takes up the entire lane.

The roundabouts in Paris are completely bonkers to my untrained eye.

My kiddo's daycare is at the other end of Mueller Blvd, so I frequent our little traffic circle. It's been a while since I saw a confused driver heading into oncoming traffic.

Today I saw a car drive around the traffic circle the wrong way (cunning shortcut?) and head down Mueller Blvd on the wrong side of the median past Mosaic. Ignoring all of the oncoming traffic.

Has anyone else had any near misses, or have suggestions to prevent this happening?

Maybe a big sign for drivers entering the development?

Don't get me wrong, I love traffic circles. Much better than stop signs. I just see people misinterpreting them quite often.



I stopped to make a video as I was a little shaken by today's goof up.

The traffic circle was installed to save the live oak trees that are in the middle. The original plan was to remove them but Catellus went to great efforts to save the trees. So we now have a traffic circle.

Yes, we should definitely have one of these before all entrances to the circle:

yeah, roundabout driving is entertainment.
the good news is the cars' speed is low.

i've tried to get the mueller office interested in trimming or replacing the higher plants on the medians right across from the round planted area of the roundabout but there was no response. I thought that might help drivers in the roundabout realize they are not being yielded to !

Oh! I love roundabouts! We should turn half the intersections in Austin to roundabouts! Tomorrow!

Less stopping means less gas wasted, improved traffic flow and safety, more green space and I pity the fool that tries to run through the middle of our roundabout without slowing down! Impossible!

We used to live in Paris right off the Arc de Triomphe. I had two accidents in that 500 lane roundabout - one with a bus - and I still love roundabouts. I did roundabouts on the wrong side of the road in Ireland in a stick shift (which is on the wrong side of the car in Ireland) and I still love roundabouts.

I'll be teaching a course on navigating roundabouts at 5 am tomorrow. Hope to see y'all there.

Greg Buford