YORK COUNTY, Pa. -- PennDOT just released a new report regarding roundabouts and how safe they are in Pennsylvania.
The new report shows that roundabouts reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
Officials say the roundabouts are often installed to address intersections with safety issues -- and are also installed to improve the traffic flow in the area.
PennDOT says sometimes they often help with calming the traffic, and with pedestrian mobility. However, there are sometimes where roundabouts don't work. That could depend on property impacts, capacity issues, and how close they are to other interactions.
However, PennDOT says overall they are more safe than signalized intersections.
"The facts speak for themselves. Roundabout save lives and reduce crash severitu over standard stop or signal controlled intersections," says PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards.
During the study PennDOT says fatalities were reduced from two to zero. Serious injuries were reduced by 90%, suspected minor injuries were reduced by 79%, and the total number of crashes were reduced by 34% from 138 to 91. However, crashes with property damage increased by 10%.
The data collected for their report was gathered from 19 roundabouts along state routes at intersections that were previously stop of signal controlled.
PennDOT encourages you to reach out to them if you have any questions regarding the roundabouts on their website. The report collected information from two roundabouts in York County, one in Dauphin County, and one in Cumberland County.
