Round and Round We Go!

Located at the junction of Mountain Road and Scenic Caves Road, the area's first traffic roundabout is really starting to take shape so-to-speak. Collingwood has reviewed the concept of implementing roundabouts at various locations around Town and are intending to install them at some point on High Street. The Blue Mountains however have one-upped Collingwood by seeing the merit of using this form of traffic control to better manage the flow of vehicles into the south end of Blue Mountain Resort, up the escarpment via Scenic Caves Road and on Mountain Road to and from Collingwood.

Roundabouts have been used elsewhere, particularly in Europe for years as well as in other ski resort destinations such as Aspen, Colorado. While living in Chicago, I regularly encountered them throughout certain suburbs. Most will at some point in time have used the one on University Avenue in Toronto by Queen's Park without even perhaps realizing what it was. Given the adverse winter driving conditions we encounter in this area, combined with the over zealous drivers racing to beat the morning rush to the ski slopes, this will be an interesting experiment to watch. If the Mountain Road location works with minimal incidents/collisions, then roundabouts will work anywhere. If not, then it might be a good location for the insurance industry to set up a claims centre. Time will tell.