Horns honk and tires squeal during the morning commute at the Veterans Parkway and Geiger Grade Road roundabout.
Hundreds of South Reno drivers circle the intersection on their way to work and school, and some describe it as a magnet for near-misses.
“Sometimes I’m in the left lane going straight up to Geiger, and somebody from the right lane will try to cut across me and come this way,” Danielle Karges told 2 News Nevada while filling up her gas tank at the Maverick next to the roundabout.
Others have similar complaints.
“It is a little bit dangerous, treacherous, I would say treacherous,” said Amber Wood through her unrolled car window. “You have to make sure that you know which lane you’re in and where it’s going, or you’re lost.”
RTC recorded 45 crashes at the roundabout between 2016 and 2020, putting the average around nine crashes per year. It’s better than the national average of 12.5 crashes per year at similar intersections, said RTC public information officer Josh MacEachern. He added that the agency is looking at ways to lower that number even more.
“One of the things we’ve noticed from traffic data is the geometry could be a little bit easier for people who are just coming straight through and kind of get a pass-through,” MacEachern said. “We also noticed that we probably need some pedestrian hybrid beacons.”
The Veterans Roundabout Modification Project is expected to start in 2025. RTC is in the design stages now, looking at what changes will enhance safety for drivers.
MacEachern said that in the meanwhile, drivers can help improve safety themselves by obeying the traffic rules at the roundabout and staying off cellular devices while driving. He said that lots of the collisions at the intersection appear to be failure-to-yield issues, as drivers enter the roundabout without waiting for a gap in traffic, or incorrectly merge within the roundabout.
