Citizens are invited to meet around a roundabout to discuss roundabouts – and how to make them safer, more efficient, and simply better – at a drop-in public engagement event next Tuesday.

This “Community Pop-Up” will be from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 22, at Bloom Roadside, which is fittingly located by the Hopewell-Thompson roundabout. It’s an opportunity for anyone to not just grab a made-from-scratch donut, breakfast sandwich, and coffee, but also talk with members of Milton’s “Safety in Action” team about improving our city’s transportation system.

Safety in Action taps into a federal Safe Streets for All grant to focus on three specific ways to improve Milton roadways, rights-of-way, and then some. (For more information, visit www.miltonga.gov/SafetyInAction.) One of those is creating a toolbox of measures to reduce crashes and improve efficiency at Milton’s roundabouts.

So, putting aside wholesale redesigns and reconstruction, the City is looking into what relatively small, lower-cost upgrades like rumble strips and other traffic calming devices, striping changes, new and modified signs, and the like can make a big difference. The City plans to pilot some of these countermeasures at two specific roundabouts – Hopewell Road at Bethany Bend and Hopewell Road at Thompson Road. (So, the location of the July 22 open house is no coincidence!) The idea is that what works best in those locales could then be incorporated into other present and future roundabouts throughout Milton.

You can swing by any time on that Tuesday morning to check out visuals, ask questions, and share your valuable opinions. This is the latest, but not the last, of several ways the City is connecting with citizens about this project and the upgrades that it could inspire. You’re also welcome to reach out to Rob Dell-Ross in Milton’s Public Works Department at robert.dell-ross@miltonga.gov.