Rick Neale

FLORIDA TODAY

VIERA — Loathed by legions of Space Coast motorists, the Viera roundabout has served as a lightning rod for irritated drivers since its 2003 debut as Brevard County's lone two-lane traffic circle.

"We probably get more questions and comments about the Viera roundabout than any other single feature in the transportation system in Brevard. And the comments are almost exclusively negative," said Bob Kamm, executive director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization.

"In a way, that's too bad in the sense that it has colored the public's perception about roundabouts in general. Not all roundabouts are like the Viera roundabout. The Viera roundabout is a special circumstance, and there are some difficulties with using it from the motorists' point of view," Kamm said.

Critics will complain about the controversial circular crossroads at Wickham Road and Lake Andrew Drive. But perceptions aside, how dangerous is the Viera roundabout?

FLORIDA TODAY requested crash data at the roundabout and its sister intersection on the other side of the Interstate 95 overpass — Wickham Road and Murrell Road — from 2011 to present from the Space Coast TPO, which maintains a database of Brevard crash statistics.

The results? More crashes were reported at the roundabout (200) than at the Wickham-Murrell signalized intersection (159). However, Wickham-Murrell accounted for 46 percent more injuries, 41 percent more crashes where patients were transported to the hospital via EMS, and four crashes so severe that victims suffered incapacitating injuries (the roundabout had zero.)

Average property damage per crash was $3,992 at Wickham-Murrell, compared with $2,783 at the roundabout. That's a 30 percent increase.

"The severity of crashes is lower at a roundabout. And even though there were 159 crashes (at Wickham-Murrell) versus 200 at the roundabout, the total amount of property damage was less at the roundabout than at Wickham and Murrell," Kamm said.

"The crashes that do occur are not as serious, both from an injury point of view and from the amount of damage that occurs," he said.

More roundabouts coming?

In recent months, Florida Department of Transportation planners have unveiled plans to potentially install six new roundabouts on five Space Coast state roads:

Cocoa Village: State Road 520, near the base of the Hubert H. Humphrey Bridge

Indian Harbour Beach: Two on Eau Gallie Boulevard, at Burns Boulevard and Winn-Dixie

Rockledge: Fiske and Roy Wall boulevards

Titusville : Southern split of U.S. 1

Titusville: Garden Street and Singleton Avenue

"There have been some locations suggested. It does not mean they're going to be built. They are candidates for further evaluation," Kamm said.

"I would like to caution people not to get too worked up over it right now. None of the projects that we talked about in the corridor studies are funded for construction. These are planning studies only at this point," he said.

FDOT planners dumped the beachside Eau Gallie Boulevard roundabouts after news of the idea triggered an uproar — the bulk of a standing room-only crowd opposed the plan in November at Indian Harbour Beach City Hall. During that meeting, a FDOT project manager said the Viera roundabout design is "a lot more aggressive" than other roundabouts, and signage issues lead to "a lot of driver confusion."

The Rockledge City Council opposed the Fiske Boulevard roundabout in a June letter to FDOT. The following month, Deputy Mayor Pat O’Neill led the Space Coast TPO board to a unanimous vote backing the city's stance.

Officials oppose Rockledge roundabout on Fiske Boulevard

Conversely, Cocoa leaders support the State Road 520 roundabout, citing speeders zooming onto and off of the Hubert H. Humphrey Bridge.

"I was talking to a colleague over in Sarasota, and they love roundabouts. They’re putting them everywhere. The first roundabout in the county is perceived by many to be a dysfunctional improvement — and they would love to have it taken out," Kamm said.

"We have an attitude here, because of the Viera roundabout, that has colored the public's view on roundabouts in general. And that’s really not fair. There are other ways to design them. Other situations, they work differently," he said.

Roundabout pros and cons

Kamm said roundabouts are safer and more efficient than signalized intersections. He pointed out that traffic routinely grinds to a standstill at the Wickham-Murrell stoplights.

"If you arrive just as it turns red, you will wait there. Sit there, doing nothing — along with a lot of other vehicles. You'll be there for three minutes before you can move. Now multiply that by the 35,000-vehicles-a-day-plus that go through there. That's a lot of wasted time," Kamm said.

"On a roundabout, everybody's moving. You may have a short delay at the beginning, waiting to get in, but you can negotiate the whole thing in 30 seconds or less. So it's more efficient from a motorist's point of view," he said.

Titusville roundabouts proposed on U.S. 1, Garden Street

On the flip side, Kamm said motorists know exactly what to do at a traffic light, where everybody has their place in a timed sequence. But the Viera roundabout creates "a yield situation” where it can be difficult to judge the speed of oncoming vehicles.

"The motorists that are queued up are in an ambiguous situation. They're trying to decide: Can I get into the circle? Do I have enough time and space to do it? You, as a driver going into it, have to make your intentions clear. You can't be weaving back and forth. Pick a lane and stay in it. And — like so much on our highways — slow down. Be predictable. Pay attention. And slow down," Kamm said.

“It’s driver behavior. It’s not the roundabout. It’s driver behavior,” he said.

Many longtime Viera drivers recall the October 2007 afternoon rush-hour crash where an eastbound Lincoln Town Car accelerated through the roundabout at an estimated 50 mph, struck the inner curb, veered to the southeast and plunged into the Wickham Lakes subdivision retention pond.

County officials believe the driver, a 73-year-old Baytree man, suffered a medical episode. He died six days later in the hospital of anoxic encephalopathy, or lack of oxygen to the brain, according to the Florida Highway Patrol crash report. His passenger, a 78-year-old woman from the nearby Heritage Isles subdivision, drowned in the pond. FHP investigators were unable to determine why the driver abruptly accelerated or was unable to control the car, the report concluded.

During weekday afternoons nowadays, Kamm said traffic routinely backs up from the Walmart Supercenter-SuperTarget entrances into the roundabout because of The Viera Co.'s delayed $10 million Wickham Road widening project.

"They see that queued-up traffic through the roundabout, and they blame the roundabout. The problem is downstream at Shoppes Drive and the interchange ramps. Those are not coordinated right now during construction. They're making it worse. That problem will go away when that construction job's finished," Kamm said.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter

Cocoa Village roundabout on State Road 520 gets support

Crash comparison

On an average day, 34,400 motorists drive on Wickham Road between Murrell Road and I-95, Space Coast TPO 2014 records show. Just west of the overpass, 34,840 daily Wickham Road vehicles travel between the roundabout and I-95.

Crash data from 2011 to present:

Viera roundabout

Crashes: 200

Injury crashes: 31

Transported by EMS: 10

Incapacitating injuries: 0

Property damage: $556,675

Property damage per crash: $2,783

Wickham/Murrell traffic signal

Crashes: 159

Injury crashes: 57

Transported by EMS: 17

Incapacitating injuries: 4

Property damage: $634,706

Property damage per crash: $3,992

Source: Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization