Editorial: Round and round city goes on random project

The long, late, emotional and ultimately circular debate about installing a roundabout at Rio Grande and Candelaria could be heralded as democracy in action.

It could also be used as a textbook example of expending other people’s time and resources on a random project at a random site.

Because to the outside observer, having a crowd scene in political chambers, complete with posters and life-and-death fears voiced at the open mic, would have to involve something on the scale of war or famine — not concrete and reflective paint in an intersection with an average crash history.

The end result of Monday’s extensive and contentious debate in City Council chambers, to have another engineering evaluation of the intersection, won’t ensure that Rio Grande and Candelaria is the best Metro-area candidate for a roundabout. And it won’t guarantee buy-in from project opponents. That’s in great part because the project is the product of council district politics, not a comprehensive traffic safety study.

In fact, the Albuquerque director in charge of traffic construction projects says that while a roundabout probably would improve safety at the intersection, sticking with the traffic signal and making other improvements probably could do the same.

“Probably” is not a good reason to spend $1.5 million in public money and squander the goodwill of constituents. Councilors should keep that in mind when they get their new engineering study this summer.

Because expensive traffic projects that affect people’s lives should be based on data, not raw emotions vented late at night in City Council chambers.

Of course if we used data and common sense, we would still have red light cameras at high volume intersections. Keep that in mind the next time somebody blows through a red and almost takes you out.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.