If you follow City of Madison politics with regard to local neighborhoods very long at all, you learn that the the true élite of Madison, the true rulers of the City, are not the Common Council, nor even the Mayor– certainly not the Citizens!– but the traffic engineers indeed.

They are the priest-kings, the servants, of the great god Automobile. Their sole purpose is to insure that ever-larger numbers of motor vehicles may run ever less hindered courses, ever faster and faster, from one end of the City to the other, and back again. They are Wise and Good.

And how can you complain about the cost of something you don’t have to send a repairman out to fix every time the wind blows hard?

I have heard complaints that bicyclists don’t like them — drivers end up tailgating them and being jerks, because there isn’t always enough space to pass a bicyclist between roundabouts. But I think it was Paul Soglin who mentioned that, and he’s kind of grumpy anyways, so who knows.

The WSJ seems driven more by a distaste of liberalism than anything else. Traffic circles are environmentally friendly. Therefore liberals like them. Therefore the WSJ will complain about how much they cost.

I love roundabouts. I hate stop signs and stop lights. Roundabouts are better for gas mileage, so doesn’t that make it patriotic and all that? You’d think the WSJ would eat that up.