Roundabout Proposed for Maltby Road at Scranton Middle School

Parents may be taking a more roundabout way to in the future, but getting there a whole lot more quickly.

The Livingston County Road Commission is proposing to build a single-lane roundabout where Scranton's driveway meets Maltby Road. The roundabout will relieve traffic backups.

Currently at Scranton, there is a 30- to 35-minute window of heavy traffic during drop-off and pickup times at the school, said Michael Goryl, traffic and safety engineer for the Road Commission.

"It gets so backed up the line spills out onto Maltby Road," Goryl said.

The Brighton Area Schools Board of Education voted Monday to allow the Road Commission to apply for federal funding for the roundabout. Board members also approved a 60-foot easement of land on the Scranton site to accommodate a portion of the roundabout.

Goryl said after the Road Commission pinpointed Scranton as a problem area, it conducted traffic counts and generated computer-simulated scenarios for solving the issues.

The preferred plan, Goryl said, is to build a roundabout.

Board members audibly groaned and laughed when he presented the plan, reflecting strong feelings about the European-style traffic circles making inroads throughout Livingston County.

"They're confusing," said board member Miles Vieau, citing circles on Brighton and Lee roads.

Yet according to Goryl, the roundabouts work. They maintain a steady traffic flow and are less expensive to keep up than traffic signals, and single-lane circles are very safe, he said.

"The county's highest crash rate and severity was at the intersection of Jacoby and Kensington roads," Goryl said. "We've had not one crash there in the four years since we've built the roundabout."

The Scranton roundabout will cost approximately $500,000 to $700,000, but 100 percent would be covered by the federal government's Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Program, Goryl said. Goryl said Livingston County is eligible for one CMAQ grant in 2012-13, and Scranton was the trouble spot that scored highest in the county for needed improvement.

The grant application is due Friday, and once the project is approved, the design phase will occur this summer, Goryl said. The roundabout will take two months to build in the summer of 2012, Goryl said, and will be done in time for the 2012-13 school year.

The Road Commission is also reviewing improvements for Bauer Road near , which would occur in 2013-14. Goryl presented several options to the board, including his dream scenario of three traffic circles in a row down Brighton Road, something that would prove too expensive to consider.

Board Trustee Bill Anderson proposed another solution.

"The root of the problem is that we've got over half of our kids coming to school in cars instead of on buses that stop right in front of their house," Anderson said.