CASE STUDY LOCAL

Carmel, Indiana is one of the most well-known communities that have implemented round-a-bouts in their community. The questions is, are these traffic improvements providing the benefit they were intended for? Carmel has replaced a significant number of its signalized intersections with roundabouts since 1996 in the hopes to save money for the city and its motorists while reducing traffic incidents.

As of 2019 the City contains more than 125 roundabouts. Due to the development of all these round-a-bouts, the city has seen a reduction of crashes that result in injury by 80 percent and a total reduction in crashes by 40 percent at locations where round-abouts are implemented. A study indicated that in 1996 the average number of accidents averaged to roughly 7 injuries for every 1,000 residents. This number has decreased by 2017 with 2 injuries for every 1,000 residents (data extrapolated to cover the year after analyzing 15 days of traffic accidents). This decrease in accidents has occurred even with an increase in population from 31,808 in 1996 to 92,475 in 2017.