Round and round we go

Auroville has its first roundabout at the Solar Kitchen crossing and it has been heavily criticised. It has been pointed out that it is too difficult for larger vehicles to navigate, the raised and cambered inner lane is dangerous for motorcycles in the wet, the signposting is inadequate, the angles are “all wrong”, and the design makes it easy to avoid the roundabout altogether when turning right.

From a recent Auroville Radio interview we learned that the roundabout had not been designed for big vehicles like large buses, in order to deter them from using the Crown Road, and that the raised inner lane was intended to slow down vehicles that wanted to speed straight ahead.

However, with construction activities along the Crown in full swing the idea of discouraging big vehicles doesn’t appear to have been thought through. Concrete-mixing trucks and lorries loaded with sand, steel and bricks are using the roundabout and the Crown to go to the new Kalpana and Habitat housing sites, as well as to the new sites along the Vikas radial, and they will continue to do so for years to come.

It is also unlikely that those used to driving fast or cutting corners will be deterred by this particular design, while the cambered inner lane will be a challenge for everyone on two wheels to negotiate during the monsoon.

In fact, on the first wet day in May an Aurovilian skidded over on this inner lane. The next day the community received a mass bulletin warning them that the inner lane was “dangerously slippery” and advising road users to avoid it. Subsequently, the Working Committee announced that the inner lane of the roundabout would be closed while modifications are to be made to increase safety.

The essential problem is that roundabouts require a radical change in driving behaviour but there is no adequate provision for ensuring that that will happen. ‘Give Way’ signs and direction arrows alone cannot transform local driving habits which, depending upon your point of view, are either refreshingly intuitive or downright hair-raising.