By J. Graber
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The intersection of Scottsdale Road and Dynamite Boulevard will have a traffic signal instead of a roundabout.

The Scottsdale City Council voted 4-3 during its April 8 meeting to make the switch despite the fact roundabouts have been proven safer and the move will cost the city millions of dollars in lost grant funding and construction contract penalties.

Some residents in the north Scottsdale community did not want the planned roundabout so Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas and Councilors Barry Graham, Kathy Littlefield and Adam Kwasman voted for the switch to a signal.

“Our job is to listen to the residents, not just the experts,” Dubauskas said. “I think we can make this safe and listen to the residents.”

A city staff report quotes the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety as saying roundabouts reduce fatal crashes by 90%, injury crashes by 75%, crashes involving pedestrians by 30% to 40%, and crashes involving bicycles by 10%.

The report also noted roundabouts increase traffic capacity by 30% to 50%.

The report goes on to say there were 7 accidents at the intersection between 2015 and 2019, including five that caused incapacitating injuries.
“If the city votes tonight to not put this (signal) in, we are making ourselves liable for the next person who gets injured at this light,” Councilmember Maryann McAllen said.

The city would also loose $31.8 million in grant funding to pay for not just changes at the intersection but to pay for the larger project to widen Scottsdale Road for a 2-mile stretch from Jomax Road to Dixileta Drive.
City staff have a plan to get around the federal grant funding loss by pulling money from other road projects earmarked to be paid for with grant money from regional sales taxes. The largest of which would be $15.1 million to improve Carefree Highway from Cave Creek to Scottsdale Road.

City Engineer Alison Tymkiw said staff is confident the switch can be made but also noted there is no guarantee.

There also will be scope change penalties that could reach as high as $1.5 million in the construction contract and about $280,000 to redesign the intersection into a signal.

The scope change will add at least nine months to the time line to finish the project.

Exactly how much support there is in the community for a signalized intersection over a roundabout is not clear.

Graham said the “overwhelming majority” of area residents the intersection want a signal. Dubauskas said about half the people she spoke to want the signal, and McAllen said two-thirds of the people who wrote in to her about the topic were in support of a roundabout.

It was even difficult to glean what people want during the public speaking portion on the item as well.

Thirteen people spoke during the public hearing portion of the debate. All but three spoke in support of the roundabout.

Lee Courtney, a resident who hauls horses in the area, said she does not think a roundabout would be any more difficult for her or other horse haulers to use than a traffic signal.

“The reason that I would say that is, there are several of them (roundabouts) further down Dynamite as you head into Rio Verde and I haul my horses behind me,” Courtney said. “Yes, you have to slow down to take your car and give your trailer time to get behind you but it’s safer. Nobody is rear ending anyone and nobody is T-boning anybody.

But the next speaker was resident Misty Collins whose neighbors haul horses in the area and said they don’t like the roundabout idea.

“They are concerned about the trailers in the roundabouts,” Collins said. “They have to maneuver the ones they’ve already put on Dynamite and it’s not an easy thing for some of them.”

The switch from a roundabout to a signalized intersection also is at the center of an open meeting violations complaint filed to Arizona Attorney General’s Office by former Councilmember Tom Durham last month.

Durham filed the complaint against the council after the Daily Independent published a story that quoted Tymkiw as saying in an email, “Based upon input from city council, the roundabout planned for this location will instead be a traditional signalized intersection. Staff members and project team members are determining how to modify the project’s design to reflect this change and are identifying potential impacts.”

That’s  an issue because the council never formerly held a vote in a public meeting to switch to a traffic signal until April 8.

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