roundabouts, unicycles, and pedestrians

I watched a great TED talk yesterday (what else is new?) about roundabouts vs. stop signs.  It's good.  HERE is the link if you want to watch it.

I gave a little thought to different areas that I frequent which could benefit from changes.  One of them is North Star Rd, which from Fifth up to Lane has no sidewalk, except for portions on the West side above Waltham Rd (I think?  I'll check again the next time I drive by) where it is more residential.  Either way, they are putting in all of these businesses and really developing the section of Lane Ave which rests perpendicular to North Star, west to about Northwest Blvd.  I'm not saying I would walk up North Star to Lane Ave everyday, but I've wanted to in the past.  And nearly every time I drive up North Star I see people (usually students) walking in the same direction, presumably up to the bike path which heads further toward campus.  The speed limit has recently been reduced to 25 mph, which few people follow, and a pedestrian crossing sign has been added to the entrance of the bike path.  But I still think that a sidewalk would be really great.  There practically is a sidewalk already do to the amount of foot traffic running through the grass.  This means that it is a muddy mess now.

Anyway, I was pondering how nice it would be for people closer to King or Fifth to be able to walk up North Star safely, and found out that the Upper Arlington Engineering Division raised the topic of placing a roundabout at the intersection of North Star, Waltham, and Kinnear.  See THIS article for details.  While I think that having the lighted intersection works just fine there, perhaps the roundabout would inadvertently encourage drivers who intend to end up travelling north on North Star to slow down?  Just a thought.

The last paragraph about the possibility of some changes to Northwest Blvd intrigues me too, for pretty much the same reasons.  There is really no good way to walk/bike up Northwest Blvd, which his silly because the COTA 84 (a fairly popular line in the morning and at night - when it is dark and pedestrians are also less visible!) and the COTA 3 run up and down that road throughout the day.

One last road that would seriously benefit from a sidewalk?  Kinnear Rd.  The whole thing.

Also, potholes are the bane of my existence.

I'm not complaining, I'm just observing the way Gary told us to.