• A roundabout is being built near Chiles High School for a planned residential area.
• The new road extension is scheduled to be completed before school starts in August.
• Watch the video to hear what a neighbor has to say about his concern about teenagers driving on the roundabout:

TRANSCRIPT OF THE MISSION:

There are traffic changes near one of the largest high schools in our Leon County neighborhoods.

Construction crews work on building a roundabout on Lawton Chiles Lane.

Mike Manti lives on the same street as Chiles High School and says there is a lot of traffic during the school year.

“It's like a street race,” he said. “It's at the end of our street and we can't really leave our street at the start of school, especially at lunchtime, it's really dangerous. At the end of school it can be pretty bad too.”

He spoke of the cars lined up on Lawton Chiles Lane to drop off, eat lunch and pick up children from school.

In a few months, traffic here might look a little different.

A roundabout is being built here at Lawton Chiles Lane and Rhea Road.

I looked at the permits and found out that the roundabout is being built by a developer who is also working on building 790 housing units next to Chiles High.

I have contacted Bradford Hills LLC, the group behind the project, four times in the last two weeks.

No one has contacted me yet to comment, but the permits indicate that the roundabout is “intended to serve as the final main access road to the Bradford Hills development.”

Studies by the Federal Highway Administration show that roundabouts can reduce the number of accidents and the risk of injuries by 75%.

Manti said the roundabout could potentially lead to a reduction in reckless driving.

“This is where they stop the stop signs, I saw them driving by on the wrong side of the road,” said Manti. “I think we'll be fine, I'm not too worried about the roundabout.”

Others fear there will be further problems in the area.

SEE OUR COVERAGE OF A NEARBY ROUNDABOUT:

Mixed signals: Why some say the signs at Bannerman Circle are confusing

Heather Fuselier also lives nearby and says she notices traffic confusion at other roundabouts, like this one on Bannerman Road.

“I was involved in two rear-end collisions on this roundabout, and near misses happen all the time,” Fuselier said.

She fears that this new roundabout will lead to even more traffic confusion.

“There's a lot of data that shows that roundabouts are more effective at reducing accidents. And I think that's true if they're well built and everyone knows how to use them,” Fuselier said. “Teenagers on a roundabout do scare me a little bit.”

While Manti said the roundabout could ease school traffic, he will be watching closely how more housing will affect commuter traffic here.

“The traffic is already pretty bad and we just don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Manti said.

Construction of the new roundabout is scheduled to be completed before school starts in August.