In communities across the Bay Area, busy intersections have been turned into roundabouts. Proponents say they are safer and traffic flows more smoothly because of them.
But in the small Sonoma County town of Cotati, the circular interchanges have become a political battleground that is once again being put before the voters.
Cotati has stop lights, stop signs, all the normal traffic management devices. But one thing you won’t find there is a roundabout — and if you ask people on the street about it, the opinions vary 180 degrees.
“It appears to be fairly effective and I don’t know, really, what the downside of it might be,” said resident Barry Marris.
“They wanted to put ’em through the downtown but there’s not enough room here,” said resident Jim Schneider.
The whole thing started in 2009 when city leaders came up with a redevelopment plan for the downtown area. It was designed to make it more bike and pedestrian-friendly, and one of the key elements was a number of roundabouts. But a lot of people didn’t like it very much so three years later, in 2012, they came up with a creative idea for a voter initiative.