Cody Paradin remembers a time before the intersection of State Road 44 and Grand Avenue in Deland had a roundabout.

  • FDOT has 8 roundabouts planned for Central Florida
  • 1 in Lake, 4 in Seminole, 2 in Volusia and 1 in Flagler
  • LINK: FDOT roundabout resource site  

"I knew there were a lot of accidents there over the years,” said Paradin.

Although he laments all the accidents there, he's pleased to see a roundabout in place as opposed to a traffic signal.

"I think it's a little bit safer than maybe it has been maybe preventing the deaths of motorcyclists, especially," he said.

Central Florida may be late to the party, but make no mistake about it, more roundabouts are on the way.  In fact, Central Florida more than doubled the number of roundabouts in the last year alone.

"As we move forward, roundabouts are going to be considered on all new intersections that we build on state roads and all existing intersections,” said Jen Horton, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation.

As it stands right now, FDOT currently has eight new roundabouts that have been funded for design or construction on the state road system in Central Florida's nine counties.

One in Lake County, Four in Seminole County, two in Volusia County and one in Flagler County.

So the big question is, 'Why are there so many roundabouts now being built?'

"In 2015, we adopted a policy that says we are going to look on a case-by-case basis of all intersections,” said Horton. “Anything that we configure or build new, we are going to consider whether a roundabout would be a better option."

There are certain criteria that have to be met at a specific intersection before FDOT will consider putting in a roundabout instead of a traditional traffic signal.

Take the intersection of State Road 44 and Grand Avenue in Deland for example.  In the past seven years, FDOT did a study and calculated that more than 20 accidents had happened there, but none of those worse than a horrific crash that happened at the same intersection last October.

That crash was a quadruple fatality involving a grandmother and three children.

As a result, officials moved up the construction time of that intersection to make sure it was the first one built as part of FDOT's new policy.

"And our then Secretary of Transportation Jim Boxold made it a priority in the state to build that roundabout quickly," said Horton.