South KC Drivers Fail

The above snipped from a Google satellite view, is a traffic circle, or roundabout, in south Kansas City. It is at the junction of the entrance to the shopping area at 133rd and State Line Road and Inverness Drive. Inverness goes between 135th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard. It is something of a shortcut if you are coing to the Wal-Mart or Lowes from the north and/or east. Traffic circles like this one are used to slow traffic down and permit turns without making everyone stop all the time. Customarily they show yield signs as you approach them, and you do not need to stop unless someone is already in the circle, making their way towards you. Today, I had errands at this Wal-Mart and other businesses in the area. When I came to the traffic circle, I noticed something different.

Stop signs. Stop signs? Yes, stop signs, in each direction. Northbound on Inverness. Southbound on Inverness. Proceeding eastbound from the shopping area. Why? Putting stop signs here sort of negates the building of a traffic circle/roundabout thingy.

Now, the presence of these stop signs could mean that the police determined that there was too much volume to use the traffic circle method of control. In a similar vein, the PD could have decided that there were too many crashes at the location. The cynic might suggest that stop signs increased the revenue potential of the intersection by making it easier to find violations to write tickets for.

As one who learned to drive in a different area, I can tell you that KC metro drivers are not the brightest bulbs in the box. And I have seen drivers struggle with traffic circles as they become more numerous around the metro. The appearance of stop signs at this intersection is a bit of an indication of driver failure to me--that KC drivers could not handle the decision making and attention required by a traffic circle.

Bring back Driver's Ed!