Roundabout Trips

It's looking like State Senator Dan Duffy's crusade to eliminate the red light camera scourge has finally seen the light of day. One man's quixotic jihad to liberate Lake County from the scourge of electronic traffic surveillance never attracted much traction in Springfield, foundering on the shoals of indifference and derision. Well those days may soon be over, as the venerable Lake County red light camera seems destined to become a thing of the past.

The fiendishly simple plan is both fiendish in conception and simple in execution. If Springfield will not consent to eliminate Lake County's traffic light cameras, then Lake County will just have to eliminate its traffic lights. While the news of a traffic-light-free county would seem to be a free-market libertarian's dream come true, there is a hitch: those traffic lights will be replaced by nanny-state (and tres French) roundabouts. The Daily Herald has pounded the pavement with the scoop ...

Roundabouts, regarded by the county as a new option to traffic signals or stop signs, are being installed at successive intersections on Hunt Club Road at Wadsworth Road and Millburn Road.
New way of getting 'round

In fact, it's looking like either Lake County has the roundabout fever -- or Lake County's politically connected contractors just hit the jackpot ...

Others [sic] roundabouts in the development stage include Cedar Lake Road and Monaville Road in Lake Villa, scheduled for next year, and River Road at Roberts Road in Barrington, scheduled for 2014
New way of getting 'round

It is hoped that when all the traffic lights are scrapped to make room for roundabouts, all the red light cameras will be scrapped as well. No one would be crazy enough to think a public-sector union employee might be paid to monitor cars going round and round and round in a circle all day, from a traffic command center somewhere. Ahem.

Tres informed sources inform your LakeCountyEye that before the end of the decade the traffic light will be a rarer sight in Lake County than Kent Gaffney. Plans are even being drawn at this very minute to install a roundabout & tollway oasis combo at every mile marker on the Route 53 extension. "Can you think of a better way to direct traffic to overpriced gas and greasy chicken balls?" one tres unnamed official asked your LakeCountyEye.

Operatives are advised to get some practice in before attempting to circumnavigate one of Lake County's new roundabouts. Your LakeCountyEye can be found driving in circles somewhere -- look for the low-speed vehicle with the frozen left turn signal.