Roundabouts are in Meadows Place's future

Meadows Place Mayor Charles Jessup wants motorists to know there are benefits to roundabouts.
Four of the traffic circles will eventually be built in Meadows Place as part of the reconstruction of Kirkwood Road, Jessup said. They will replace four intersections with four-way stops, he said.
The project will be paid for as part of a $153.2 million mobility bond referendum that Fort Bend County voters approved in 2007, Jessup said.
But the building of roundabouts has been criticized by some because they are different, he said.
So much that, Meadows Place has a page dedicated to explaining roundabouts on its Web site.
The most important thing they're going to do is separate Meadows Place from Alief and southwest Houston," Jessup said. We're going to be a proper introduction for Fort Bend County when you come in on Kirkwood."
Jessup said he expects for the roundabouts to increase values of nearby properties, improve the city's aesthetics, reduce pollution, and decrease vehicle crashes. Nationally, there are approximately 2,000 roundabouts, he said.
That number is expected to increase to 10,000 in the next few years, Jessup said.
It'll be common," he said.
Jessup said he recently spoke with the mayors of Carroll, Texas and Fort Collins, Colo., about roundabouts. Both cities have had success with the traffic circles, he said.
Everybody was throwing rocks at them until they got in," Jessup said. Now, people are saying, Well, how come you didn't put one in my neighborhood?' I think that's what'll happen here."