The art of the roundabout: A traffic engineer’s legacy in Park City

The roundabout at Marsac and Deer Valley Drive. Photo: Neighbors of Park City

PARK CITY, Utah — Of the 300 roundabouts Bill Baranowski had designed across the United States, seven were planned for Park City. Two never materialized. “I won’t tell you where,” Baranowksi said during our first conversation.

“Let me ask you a question,” I said.

“I won’t tell you where those were,” he said.

What Park City traffic could have been, and should have been, troubles Baranowski. His roundabouts save lives, while those unbuilt allow preventable tragedies—and cause congestion.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration reported that changing a traffic light intersection into a roundabout reduced fatal and injury crashes by 78%. Their design made it difficult for vehicles to hit each other or pedestrians at high speeds while improving traffic flow.

Baranowski, 63, grew up in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood and had run his consultancy, RoundaboutsUSA, for nearly 25 years. He studied civil engineering at the University of Utah and earned a master’s degree in transportation from Brigham Young University in 1989.

As a recent graduate working in Southern California, Baranowski visited the “famous” Five Points roundabout in Santa Barbara, designed by Peter Doctors, a pioneer of the American roundabout movement. That moment inspired Baranowski to bring roundabouts to Utah.

In 1993, he proposed Utah’s first roundabout at Utah Valley University’s entrance in Orem. His BYU classmate Ron Mortimer designed it, completing construction in 1994.

During a roundabout tour of Park City, Baranowski pointed out his designs at Kimball Junction. The roundabout at Ute Boulevard and Uinta Way was his, as was the one at Newpark Boulevard and Uinta Way.

Each element served a purpose. The Wendy’s roundabout featured a drivable “truck apron” along the inner circle for semi-trucks and slanted curbs for snow plows. The pedestrian crosswalks intentionally zigzagged, forcing pedestrians to look for approaching vehicles.

At the Walmart area roundabout at Ute and Landmark, which he didn’t design, Baranowski said, “That one is so ugly.”

He considered the roundabout at Olympic Parkway and Landmark “kind of boring.” To demonstrate its features, he drove onto the truck apron. Baranowski advocated for using turn signals in roundabouts and more frequent horn use.

The father of three children, ages 11, 14, and 16, joked about their patience with his work. “They’ve been through a lot of roundabouts,” he said. “They get mad if I go around more than one time.”

His first design stood at the entrance to Junction Commons. He also designed the roundabout connecting the Commons’ two sections.

“We’re gonna see the mothership,” Baranowski said, referring to his award-winning roundabout at Deer Valley Drive and Marsac Avenue, built for the 2002 Olympics.

Observing from City Hall, he watched for proper signaling. “Nobody’s using their blinkers,” he said. “That makes me sad.”

When a driver finally signaled, he brightened: “Ah, look at that. Alright. Someone knows what they’re doing.”

The Marsac roundabout, originally two lanes, was simplified in 2008. Baranowski reduced it to one lane but added a “turbo” lane, separated by a concrete island, allowing westbound traffic from Deer Valley Drive to pass through without yielding. “Nobody tried that in the USA until I did it,” he said.

He revealed one unbuilt roundabout location: the intersection of Bonanza, Monitor, and Kearns. “That’s a problem here by the cemetery,” Baranowski explained, noting space constraints and resistance to disturbing the cemetery grounds.

The other unrealized roundabout was planned near Park City Mountain Resort, where Shadow Ridge condos now stand.

Some projects required patience. His 2000 proposal for a State Capitol roundabout on State Street in Salt Lake City begins construction this October.

“It took 24 years for this,” Baranowski said. “That’s called planning ahead, or maybe saving the best for last.”

The region continues to embrace roundabouts, with construction underway at Route 40 and Silver Summit Parkway – though not a Baranowski design, it promises similar benefits in safety and traffic flow.