PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Two new roundabouts are being proposed Monday night within the city of Port St. Lucie. It comes after the topic of roundabouts emerged at a recent WPTV Let's Hear it meetup in Tradition in early March.
WPTV Reporter Tyler Hatfield is listening to neighbors about their thoughts on the two circles, one that's proposed for the intersection of SW Paar Drive and SW Savona Boulevard, and the other at SW Paar Drive and SW Darwin Boulevard.
Port St Lucie
Public meeting to preview 2 proposed roundabouts
Terryanne Hunt is on the fence about the the proposal.
“You might need it,” Hunt said. “Because there’s going to be a lot more activity.”
WATCH: How neighbors in Port St. Lucie feel about adding roundabouts in their community
Jim Pollard lives a few doors down from where the roundabouts would be. He isn’t against the them but feels it might be a learning curve for some residents.
“They’re not familiar with them enough to use them right,” Pollard said. “But if we get more of them in maybe they’ll get used to it."
During the Let's Hear It event, WPTV spoke to Gerald Freedman who doesn’t think roundabouts are the answer.
“They need to be traffic lights instead of roundabouts because I see where a lot of times, people almost get in accidents because of the roundabouts,” Freedman said.
Hatfield took their concerns to Scott Samples with the City of Port St. Lucie. Samples said the roundabouts are part of a years-long plan for infrastructure improvements.
“This was one we were looking at as an opportunity to make some improvements,” Samples said.
According to Port St Lucie Police Department, the intersection of Paar and Savona had a total of 41 crashes since 2020, and the intersection at Paar and Darwin had 18.
Roundabouts placed at intersections result in 82% fewer crashes that result in fatalities and injuries, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.
Samples said the roundabout can help with safety and traffic efficiency
“You spend less time at the light or less time at the stop sign,” Samples said. “Both of those factors are really designed to help improve people's mobility across the city.”
For Hunt, she said she’ll have to wait and see.
“You can’t know for sure until it gets in place and you really see what’s it about,” said Hunt.
