U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
FHWA-SA-11-025
May 2011
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
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![]() Location
Implementation Stage City of Carmel staff prefer to start outreach 10 months to a year before construction to get people on board early. However, until construction begins, staff note that citizens may be less likely to take roundabout outreach seriously.
Roundabout Type/Setting
Target Audience
Strategies Employed
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Figure 1: The CarmelLink logo
In 2007, the City proposed building a pair of roundabouts at major cross-streets along a popular/central parkway to enable the free flow of traffic along the route. As depicted in Figure 1, the roundabout, situated on a bridge (see Figure 2), would have a teardrop shape and would be elevated above the Parkway. The City chose this shape because it would result in a smaller overall project footprint. As these roundabouts would have a unique shape compared with many of the City's other roundabouts, the City knew they would need to do extensive outreach to ensure the public would be supportive of the project, both before construction began and during the build-out of the intersections.
As a first step, the City decided to give the project a "catchy" name that would be used on all outreach materials – Project CarmelLink. Staff developed products to facilitate communication among all stakeholder groups, including the City, community groups, businesses, and citizens. This project's comprehensive outreach program included:
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Led by the strong support of a champion mayor, the City has successfully gained the support of the public for roundabout projects. The City has not conducted any benchmarking or satisfaction surveys, but according to City Engineer Mike McBride, "You know things are going well when the phones are quiet. This is one of the best measures of success, in our minds." From the safety and mobility side, the City tracks crash counts, minutes saved per commute, and other quantitative safety information at each roundabout installed across the jurisdiction. During the 2008 construction season alone, crashes along the Keystone Parkway corridor decreased 25 percent as compared to 2007 before the beginning of construction for the roundabouts.
The combination of outreach strategies, including public meetings with the mayor and City engineering staff, postcards, and an engaging branded project website enabled the city to successfully influence public perception of roundabout projects. Staff monitoring website hits during the construction of the roundabouts found that 15 percent of people went to the project website via a search engine, while over 80 percent of people either went to the site directly or were linked from a referring site, such as the City's roundabout website. Staff feel that these statistics show that they were able to engage the public in checking in regularly for project updates.Use hard data to help sell the case for roundabouts to people – sharing data on the minutes of time saved per commute resonates well with citizens.
Publishing project updates frequently helps engage citizens in the construction process. Begin developing outreach products early in the planning and construction cycle. Take the time to sit down and talk with people about a proposed project. It takes time to get people on board, but once you do, City staff feel that a project can be successful.
City of Carmel staff stated that the outreach products were a very low-cost investment but required a fair amount of staff time to pull together. Each postcard cost about $1 to print and mail. The videos that the City developed have been used for years, so in the long term, the costs are considered to be very low. For this project, the City hired consultants to assist with the development of a project website, but most of the other outreach products were developed in-house.
General Information Website
http://www.ci.carmel.in.us/services/engineering%20-%20roundabouts.html
Video
CarmelLink video player (includes virtual drive-through simulation and project update videos):
http://www.carmellink.org/video/CL_video_player.html
Project Website
CarmelLink roundabout project website: www.carmellink.org
Brochure
City of Carmel Roundabouts – Improving the Quality of Life:
http://www.ci.carmel.in.us/government/communityrelations/PDFfiles2008/Roundabouts.pdf
Mike McBride
City Engineer
City of Carmel, Indiana
371.571.2441
mmcbride@carmel.in.gov
Jeffrey Shaw
Intersections Program Manager
FHWA Office of Safety
708.283.3524
jeffrey.shaw@dot.gov