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Rebuild the I-481/Genesee St junction with an underpass roundabout

Post-Standard letter
https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2024/01/roundabouts-are-solution-to-i-481genesee-streetlyndon-corners-traffic-your-letters.html

January 31, 2024

Rendering of a Fast Compact Urban Interchange (FCUI)

To the Editor:

I agree with other letter writers that the current NYSDOT plan to revise the Interstate 481/Genesee Street junction will offer little improvement overall, if any. The design strategy seems focused on creating more exit and offramp lanes (storage space) to help reduce traffic backup on the highway. A better strategy would be to eliminate the bottleneck itself, where I-481 offramp meets Genesee Street.

To that end, I would like to suggest transforming the junction from a cloverleaf design with a traffic light into a “Fast Compact Urban Interchange” (FCUI). An FCUI brings onramps and offramps together to form a simple, four-leg roundabout junction. The rationale for using a roundabout at a highway-to-street junction is that it provides a much higher traffic flow rate than a traditional diamond junction with traffic lights. If optional slip lanes are added, flow capacity will increase substantially more. An FCUI will also be much faster for all traffic at all times, not just rush hour. All this within an equal or smaller footprint than a diamond junction.

The vast area of land currently consumed by the cloverleaf circle ramps could then be made available for new development.

Looking at the broader view, it seems evident that existing Genesee Street traffic, from I-481 junction to Lyndon Corners, is the larger part of the traffic problem. One big improvement to consider is to build a roundabout at Lyndon Corners.

The longer-run consideration is to understand that a growing suburban DeWitt needs a more urban-style interconnected street grid, as opposed to drives in residential subdivisions with hundreds of homes that dump onto just one of a few major roads at only one or two entrances. DeWitt has too few roads that go somewhere. It should start planning for two or three new east-west roads.

Carlo Moneti
Syracuse