No roundabout at Sycamore and San Pablo — hell, no bike lanes, no pedestrian islands, no treed medians either. Everything is off the table; there simply is not enough room. At least that is the argument following a non-study of the intersection.

In response to a comment I made for the EIR study for the merged redevelopment area (which will now include the Sycamore Crossing and Hilltown properties), the City has effectively ruled out the possibility for a roundabout at Sycamore and San Pablo. This was my comment…

Round-a-bouts should be investigated as potential mitigation measures for the intersections of (a) San Pablo Avenue and Sycamore Avenue, and (b) San Pablo Avenue and John Muir Parkway. The studies should be conducted for these alternatives before any other mitigation measure (e.g. traffic lights, additional turning lanes, etc.) is enacted or decided upon.

To clarify, all I had asked for was that roundabouts be studied prior to decisions being made and/or implemented for the intersection. And to be sure, this is what the EIR currently states as its lone plan for the intersection…

San Pablo/Sycamore: Develop programs to encourage public transit use that will reduce vehicle trips by 10 percent for the intersection.

That’s right. Hope that people will take the bus and/or ride a bike. No additional lanes; no improved signal queuing; no flashing red after 9 pm; no improvements for bike lanes and pedestrian crossings. Nothing proactive is listed in the document. But roundabouts… off the table.

The following is the entire response to my comment published in the final EIR (page 40), with my annotated responses in-between (prefixed with >>)…

The City investigated all possible roadway intersection configurations, including roundabouts, to achieve traffic mitigation goals. Use of roundabouts can reduce vehicle stops, emission, and as a result improve air quality near intersections. However, roundabouts generally work well in residential areas where traffic is light.

>> What about the proposed roundabout at the Gilman Street exit off I-80 in Berkeley? Is that a residential area with light traffic, or exactly the opposite? This is a generality that is completely unfit for site-specific design.

At major arterial street intersections with high traffic volumes, roundabout designs require much more physical space (right‐of‐way) and it can be difficult for motorists to maneuver in and out of the circle due to high traffic volume and multiple traffic lanes.

>> This is a loser’s statement. (In fact, if you Google “examples of what losers write,” this is what you will find; at least now.) Why throw-out the possibility without fully studying the idea? Why not think outside the box? We have two left-turn lanes on three of the four legs at the intersection, and one leg has two right-turn lanes. Pedestrians are perennially in danger crossing the street. The intersection is broken. Why give up? What is the harm in evaluating the option further?

Both intersections of San Pablo Avenue at John Muir and Sycamore are currently signalized and fully developed and there is insufficient space and right‐of‐way available for widening or creating a roundabout.

>> Says who, the right-of-way fairy? What preliminary designs of a roundabout were used to evaluate this? How many lanes were assumed? There are currently seven lanes across San Pablo (plus a median), and a roundabout assumes using only four of them. That leaves three plus change for a roundabout. What about pedestrian islands? What about bike lanes? Are those possible in this limited right-of-way? Is a livable street even an option for San Pablo Avenue in Hercules? (It should be.)

Therefore, the mitigation measures in the Draft EIR focus on relieving traffic congestion at these locations by promoting public transportation use and developing strategies to divert traffic from this area to the new Interstate 80/State Route 4 interchange near the Willow Avenue and Palm Avenue intersection. The new interchange would provide another gateway access to and from Hercules and is expected to relieve traffic from the San Pablo Avenue and Sycamore Avenue corridor.

>> Yes, this will fix everything. Hope for the best… plan for the best?

Finally, as development continues, the City will be specifically examining the Sycamore and San Pablo intersection and looking for creative solutions to this important intersection.

>> Except roundabouts.