City of Cheyenne Promoting Roundabout Safety

The City of Cheyenne and the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization [MPO] are launching a campaign this week to promote safe driving through the city's two-lane roundabout.

The campaign is slated to run through the month of April.

While the educational effort is especially aimed at improving driver safety for the Pershing/Converse/19th Street roundabout, it will also work to educate drivers and pedestrians about how to safely navigate roundabouts in general. There are currently 11 roundabouts on city, county and state roads in the Cheyenne area according to the MPO.

But officials say that while one-lane roundabouts are easy to navigate, many road users find the two-lane roundabouts much more challenging.

The Safe Streets Cheyenne Campaign has information and videos to help educate people on how to safely use the larger structures. But city officials say in general roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections and offer more efficient traffic flows.

They cite figures from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which show roundabouts reduce fatal crashes by 90 percent, injury crashes by 75 percent, pedestrian accidents by 30-40 percent and bicycle crashes by about 10 percent.