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Davidson West and Nobert Streets Roundabout
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The Davidson West and Nobert Streets Roundabout is located in the City of Gatineau, province of Québec in Canada. History and Background Built in 2006, the roundabouts aimed at reducing the speed of motorists. The City of Gatineau has implemented roundabouts in other locations within the city. The roundabout "infrastructure" includes two (2) pedestrians crosswalks, one on each Street. Pedestrian Crossing at Roundabouts Studies done on roundabouts document best practices, especially as they pertain to pedestrian crossing. This particular study depicts roundabout crossing, and interestingly includes one from Gatineau. It appears the Davidson West and Nobert Streets Roundabout has no particular infrastructure to assist pedestrians in their crossing, other that signs indicating to motorists that a crosswalk is ahead. The Challenge of the Davidson West and Nobert Streets Roundabout According to some residents, the roundabout is not efficiently solving the speeding problem. In fact, many incidents and accidents have been witnessed by nearby residents. It has become, in certain periods of the day, quite hazardous to cross both Davidson West and Nobert Streets at the roundabout As reference and in support of the factual nature of this text, a representative list of incidents and accidents witnessed: Accidents: * Car hitting the back of preceding car because it was yielding to opposing-direction traffic, when turning (from Davidson West towards East, turning on Nobert towards North); * Sports-model car hitting the concrete in the middle of the roundabout - cause unknown, no injuries. Incidents * Motorists not yielding to traffic in roundabout; * Motorists not yielding to pedestrians using crosswalk; * Near-misses when motorists yielding to pedestrians (near-misses from vehicles following the vehicle yielding); * Daily honking from motorists - various causes. The efficiency of the roundabout is questionable. Perspectives By looking at how other cities have implemented roundabouts , the Davidson West and Nobert Streets appears to differ somewhat in conception, but most notably in size. While many other similar infrastructures are rather large in size, the Davidson West and Nobert Streets roundabout is only a few meters wide. Local media say that an information campaign will soon be launched and is aimed at assisting Gatineau's motorists to better use roundabouts. Referring to other Gatineau City roundabouts, the Ministère des Transports du Québec have stated in 2008 that some of the by-laws in effect in roundabouts are not well respected by motorists.
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