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In the area between the South Campus Gateway and The Short North, there is a quiet new mixed-use development going in at the corner of Euclid and High. The development is filling in a former empty lot with three retail units and three apartment units. One of the retail units has already been announced as signed by Hungry Howie’s Pizza.
The other High Street development news comes from further north at the corner at the problematic intersection of North Broadway and High. The City of Columbus is currently studying a proposal to install a traffic roundabout at this intersection.
The area around North Broadway and High is becoming a cool little area. Embassy, Skreened, and Capitol City Recording to name a few worthy NEW businesses to choose that area. Traffic can suck there so an improvement could really prove usefull.
Also check out Seagull Bags, Tanahairku (the Indonesian grocer next to the studio), and our newest neighbor The Aggressive Hippy Tattoo Shop (dude also does etchings on unbreakable glassware you can buy from the Kitchen and Bath place next door…)! Clintonville RULES!
ps – I’m all about the roundabout.
thanks CCR I was trying to think of the other start ups ibn the area and drew a blank.
BTW is CCR oipen for the public or by appointment only? I would like to drop in and check out the operations without being a hastle.
Any idea about whats going on with the old Clintonville Appliances location, or the two story building that used to have the dance studio?
Couple of cool buildings and location, would be nice to have something in there.
Traffic circles are a tricky proposition. I don’t think they work too well in areas where they are not very common. When people only encounter them occasionally, they tend to screw them all up. And they’re usually too small.
I agree, I think if they want to put in roundabout they might have to clear a lot more land to make the it big enough to accommodate the traffic. I think just adding a turn lane would take up less space.
I remember when they put in a roundabout in Upper Arlington next to Miller Park library. For the first year every time I went through it there was accident … and those roads only get light traffic.
It’s hard to tell from the Dispatch graphic, but it looks like they’d have to acquire some land to make it work, and it appears to be a two-lane roundabout, so perhaps they’re aiming bigger.
I don’t doubt that it could work just fine, and people will learn how to use it properly. I’m always surprised when I see people going the wrong way on one-way streets downtown, so you’re always going to have a few morons acting screwy.
I’m not familiar enough with these things to know how much it will help with traffic congestion though. I would think that having that suburban light-rail service running north-south parallel to 71 would help out more than anything else.
Just an FYI, roundabouts are not the same thing as traffic circles. The thing in Upper Arlington has some roundabout-ish characteristics (like yield control on entry), but the geometry and curb radii make it more of a neighborhood traffic circle.
A two-lane roundabout will probably need a diameter of at least 150 feet, and that doesn’t include sidewalks. So probably more like 175′ diameter minimum.
More here: http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/roundabout-proposed-at-high-north-broadway/
That Dispatch graphic is laughable, they don’t even have the proportions done right.
This thing has disaster written all over it. I mean if you read the Dispatch article it says the roundabout would include tearing down a building and having to waste money on acquiring land for the road. It’s just a ton more work then is even needed. Plus, there is no way anyone can say a roundabout would work in this busy of an area.
The Clintonville residents who are against the widening just come off as selfish and stubborn.
This is my hood, I don’t see a roundabout working for that intersection… buses and etc., would need to be able to navigate it and pick up passengers in the area as well…. recipe for disaster.
I have driven and survived many traffic circles in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia – they can work well but not so well in a residential area that is also a major road (SR23).
This has been hot news in the Booster (C-Ville weekly paper) for months. Residents on the street do not want ENB to become a more major thoroughfare out of concern for increaseing the speed or volume of traffic.
A medium term solution would be to acquire the property on the SW corner and add a Right Only Turn Lane for Eastbound traffic and then move the Cota Bus stop there about 1 block down the road to ease backing up at the light. There is a historic theater in the building cluster that could be saved and there would even be some room left over for a small park and some extra parking spots as well. This reduces much of the congestion and avoids many of the concerns the residents of ENB have. Plus Clintonville loses an eyesore of underused buildings at this corner. This is a partial win for both sides and as King of Clintonville – would make me happy.
Build the the turn lane suggested above and then do something else down the road.
Roundabouts work well all over England/France/Europe (within their cities). They can work here and would keep the flow of traffic moving, once people put their phone down and focus on driving. The size of EN Broadway does not change, therefore the traffic will not increase. People that can’t drive or hate the Roundabout, would likely avoid it.
Roundabouts are more efficient, use way less electricity and require little or no maint. Tear down the starbucks, build it. Change is good. For all those clintonville no-leash dog people – heck you could put a dog/cat poop park in the middle of the roundabout.
Congestion isn’t the problem, IMO. Its all about the speed people are traveling and the no left turn from ENB to SB High, and right now people FLY through this area (from all directions) in hopes of not hitting the light. People also regularly ignore the no left turn rule, backing it up even more, or even better, cut through the West side neighborhood at 45mph to go south on High. I just want people to slow down, and the circle seems to me to be a great way to accomplish that. Not to mention the potential for a really cool landmark for Clintonville (depending on what fills the inside). I was in DC last weekend and the traffic circles accommodated people, cars, busses, all pretty seamlessly, and traffic there is about 10000000x worse than here. Plus, the circles there are hubs of activity – offices, shopping, restaurants all seemed to reach critical mass at these intersections.
Coreroc – we have office hours 10am-4pm weekdays. If you can’t make it, just give me a call and I can set up a tour! 262-6260
Well just because it works well in Europe doesn’t mean it’ll be a hit here. They are used to the concept of roundabout since they started to drive, we are not.
That being said if it’s well engineered and large enough I’m all for it. It could be a nice signature entry way for Clintonville. If you’ve ever been to Mt Vernon they have a very large roundabout with a park in the center. It would be great if something like this was built, but it would probably require a entire city block (or two) and be cost prohibitive. It would be nice though…
My main issue is that this has simply not been done on any road of this size in all of Central Ohio. That’s 1.5 million people that will have to be retrained. I have my doubts that it would be success and worst case scenario would be a large waste of tax payer money being replaced with a conventional intersection later.
On a side note, do you think the people who lived in Weiland Park/Italian Village/University District got much say when Summit and Indionala were converted to 1 way? Essentially turning there roads in urban freeways? I would argue that people in Clintonville are one of the primary users of these roads. It’s was okay to make the 1 way conversations, but *some* will fight to the end about a simple turn lane. It doesn’t add up to me.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=462176
a couple interesting comments and articles on roundabouts in general here.
Although I think there is too much traffic in this area! We all know how it is like trying to utilize and off ramp followed by an on ramp. ie: from 70w.270n passing roberts to cemetery and northbound during rush hour. This is a con for me.
The Environment reasons and not having to wait for a light are pro’s to me.
I really don’t see how a roundabout would work at this intersection. I too have mostly seen this sort of traffic plan work well in less trafficked areas, mostly rural. In more heavily trafficked areas the roundabouts that work seem to be huge in order to avoid being a total cluster. I went ’round the one in Mt. Vernon today. Not a lot of traffic, worked just fine. But it was big, bigger than what would be available at N. Broadway/High without seriously cutting into corners and buildings. Plus with roundabouts not being commonplace I think this is a recipe for disaster on a daily basis, some drivers will just not get it.
I guess I don’t understand the outcry over the turn lane (Pedestrians! Community! hhhhhhh). The original proposal didn’t seem to threaten the significant or lengthy widening of E. North Broadway. And I would think a turn lane would be preferable to people either turning illegally or cutting down more narrow residential streets in order to be able to head south on High (sorry, I’ve done it).
The thing in downtown Mt. Vernon is also not a roundabout. The MORPC traffic count site shows about 43,000 vehicles per day at High & N Broadway. This is pushing it, but could be within the capacity of a two-lane roundabout.
Just what we need, an Axis near OSU, as if Gateway weren’t loud enough. ;)
Now the roundabout is bad because it’ll cost $1 million and will tear down a commercial building, as if there weren’t enough buildings torn down here already. I think Clintonville is vying for that title with Downtown. The problems are the drivers themselves and amateur road design. Lots of one-person vehicles taking up lots of space when more should be using alternatives. The 35MPH speed limit and ridiculously long stretches without a stop promotes speeding over that limit. With higher speed traffic there is more space between each vehicle. Bring down the speed of traffic and you can fit more cars in the same amount of road. Traffic counts are irrelevent here. High should be geared to encouraging alternate modes of transporation (taking up less space) and providing a pro-business, pro-residential environment.
Ha! I actually thought the same thing about “Axis” when I saw the banner there. No one is talking much about it, as the Clintonville Roundabout is obviously a much bigger deal, but I really like seeing this type of small project urban in-fill going up. It’s not as sexy or as exciting as a bigger project, but it really helps to fill out the continuity of the street and add a little bit more vibrancy between the South Campus Gateway and the Short North.
Will be fun to see what else goes into those retail units.