Roundabouts have become a norm in the growing and thriving city of Oxford, Miss. Roundabouts in Oxford have improved overall traffic flow and driver safety. The most recent roundabouts are in progress on University Avenue and they are scheduled to take approximately eighteen months. There will be two total roundabouts, one on each side of where University Avenue and Highway 7 meet.
Oxford Alderman Jason Bailey has been a big part of this project and has lots of hope in the outcome of it. Bailey describes the lengthy process that comes with starting a project like this.
“This project has been in the planning stages since 2019 with MDOT [Mississippi Department of Transportation] since they own the property where the roundabouts are going up,” Bailey said. “The process of completing this project is far longer than people think due to the many factors that go into planning new construction such as land acquisition, wetland mitigation, funding, and more.”
A project this big always comes with negative feedback. Bailey ex- plains different complaints that they have received from the public such as why they started during football season and difficulties getting into and out of businesses in the area.
“That’s just the pain of progress,” Bailey said. “With a growing city like Oxford, you have to plan for infrastructure needs and implement those plans which all take time. The public has seemed to become more receptive after adjusting to the new
flow of University Avenue as well as choosing alternate routes while the construction of the roundabouts is in progress.”
Bailey emphasizes the importance of teamwork and communication during the process of this project. Lots of help was needed when it came to pursuing the plan of the new roundabouts. This project is a joint monetary endeavor by the City of Ox-
ford, Lafayette County, and MDOT.
“With the help of Mayor Tannehill, this project was really pushed along. We also had good legislatures down in Jackson and a good transportation commissioner, John Caldwell, from the northern district,” Bailey said.
On top of planning comes finances, which is a huge part of any big project. The total cost of the roundabouts is approximately $5 million dollars. This is covered by federal funds through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-103). Preliminary engineering and property acquisition costs have been paid thus far by MDOT at nearly $1 million.
“This money also goes toward extending Pegues Road by Kroger all the way to Commonwealth Boulevard where Della Davidson is,” Bailey said. “This creates a connection point to the Oxford Common area since the area has grown a lot in the past couple of years along with The Pearl and Chick-fil-A being built.”
Bailey admits that he did not fully understand the benefits of roundabouts when they first started being built, but his opinion drastically changed after the statistics of wrecks around town dropped by a significant amount.
“Once we saw how well roundabouts help traffic, we started planning for more and more, bringing the roundabout count to almost twenty five total in Oxford,” Bailey said. “After seeing a clear improvement from the roundabouts on Sisk Avenue, the
need for roundabouts on University Avenue was established.”
Oxford Police Department officer Joe Bishop provides feedback on the overall improvement of safety from the policeman perspective. Roundabouts allow traffic to constantly move compared to sitting at a traffic light or yielding to oncoming traffic on a busy road. Traffic also moves more slowly in a roundabout which eliminates the possibilities of severe injury from a car crash.
“From the law enforcement side, we have very few wrecks in our roundabouts,” Bishop said. “The roundabouts allow traffic to flow much more freely compared to stoplights. Especially streets like University Avenue where you have multiple intersections close together.”
In a college town like Oxford, traffic safety is a very important component for the police department since the local university attracts people from all over the country. Bishop believes that driving in a town with roundabouts is very different and can take getting used to.
“Although roundabouts are becoming more common, it is still a different experience for people coming from out of town who aren’t used to roundabouts,” Bishop said. “We ultimately want the public to understand how to operate a roundabout–always yield to vehicles that are already traveling through the roundabout and always make sure you are in the correct lane when entering and exiting the roundabout.”
