Washington has its DuPont Circle, London its Piccadilly Circus. And, maybe, Richmond will have its A.P. Hill Roundabout.

City traffic engineers would like to create a traffic roundabout at the dangerous intersection of West Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road, presided over by the memorial to the general whose surprise counterattack at Antietam ended one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles.

The intersection is where a pickup truck that witnesses estimated was traveling 100 mph ran a red light and slammed into the side of a minivan last summer, killing the minivan's driver.

The idea is to slow traffic and reduce accidents at the intersection of two major arteries, said Gary DuVal, deputy director of public works.

"There are a lot fewer conflict points," he said "Everybody is going right and you're not turning against traffic."

DuVal said a growing number of traffic engineers believe it would be safer to let traffic flow constantly through the intersection using a roundabout than it now is to rely on red and green traffic lights to keep drivers from slamming into each other.

A 1998 study through the federal government's National Cooperative Highway Research Program found a 37 percent reduction in accidents and a 51 percent reduction in injuries when roundabouts replace traffic lights.

Roundabouts aren't like the traffic circles that are the source of so many Washington driving nightmares -- even though there is a circle at the center of both types of intersection.

The difference is in the roads leading up to the circle. In the approaches to a roundabout, there typically are small triangular concrete islands that narrow the lanes and guide vehicles into the central circle.

"It lets drivers smoothly merge," DuVal said. "It's designed for people to travel through at about 23 mph, and you're looking left and easily merging with other traffic going 23 mph."

Richmond already has two roundabouts -- including one drivers may not realize is there, at Allen and Monument avenues, site of the Robert E. Lee monument.

The new white lane markings at that intersection do the same thing that the concrete islands do at more recognizable roundabouts.

The city's other roundabout is at the y-shaped intersection of Lombardy and Admiral streets, near Virginia Union University.

DuVal said if the city builds a roundabout, it won't require moving the A.P. Hill monument -- the only Civil War memorial on Richmond streets that is actually the burial site of the person it honors.

In fact, by narrowing traffic lanes, "we're going to be taking quite a bit of asphalt out," he said. There will be more green space around the base of the monument.

In addition, the plan calls for reshaping the medians on Laburnum and Hermitage, so that they will curve. The city would move pedestrian crossings away from the intersection, which DuVal said should make it safer to get across the busy streets at the intersection that is also home to Linwood Holton Elementary School.

DuVal said the work could be done this fall and would likely cost about $250,000. The project would need to be approved by the city's urban design committee, Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board.

He's hoping city officials can convince neighbors it is a good idea -- though that may take some work.

"It took everybody by surprise," said Tom Scott, who lives in nearby Laburnum Park, referring to the city's presentation of the idea at a recent neighborhood meeting.

"It's a busy street; at NASCAR time, it's a parking lot, and you've got Holton school there," he said. "A proposal to take the lights out and put a roundabout in is making everybody go: Huh?

"And have you ever met a roundabout you like?"
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.