I have a bone to pick with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation when it comes to roundabouts.

Many of my fellow drivers and I generally hate them, but PennDOT cites these glowing national statistics to prove that they are safer. Essentially, the powers to be at PennDOT are telling us, “Roundabouts are here to stay, so get over it.”

Unlike PennDOT, I cannot cite statistical data that prove our distaste for roundabouts. Of course, PennDOT does not do surveys to confirm how annoying we motorists find them.

Why are roundabouts becoming popular again? Studies show that roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections with traffic lights. Speeds decrease through a roundabout because vehicles enter these circular monstrosities at a desirable angle and all travel in the same direction.

The National Safety Council believes that roundabouts can substantially reduce crashes that result in serious injury or death. In its report, the council says roundabouts will improve safety, promote lower speeds and “calmer” traffic, reduce or eliminate conflict points, lead to improved operational performance and meet a wide range of traffic conditions because “they are versatile on size, shape and design.”

I have to hand it to the safety experts. They have some compelling statistics to make their case about roundabout safety. They cite geometry, saying that roundabouts reduce crashes by the very nature of their configuration. Traditional four-way intersections have 32 possible collision conflict points; roundabouts have just eight. (Sorry, Mrs. Leibensberger, my high school math teacher, I hated geometry then, and I hate it just as much now.)

In July 1985, we all had a great laugh when National Lampoon’s European Vacation came out, and the bumbling Clark Griswold (played by comedian Chevy Chase), his wife and two children excitedly drove through London. Then, without warning, Clark encounters a true American nightmare - a roundabout.

Unable to get into the left lane to exit, he helplessly goes round and round for hours as he tries to make the best of a bad situation by playing tour guide - “Hey, look kids, there’s Big Ben and Parliament!’’ Driven to the point of mental instability, Clark finally exits the roundabout, and the family breathes a sigh of relief.

I have to tell you, though, when I saw that scene, I thought, “Oh, yeah, that would have been me and thousands of other Americans whose opinion of roundabouts is equal to mine.”

There are about 4,000 of these circular challenges in the United States. Those of us who loathe them will avoid them whenever possible. We grumble every time we hear about PennDOT’s plans to construct one.

Meanwhile, PennDOT has installed more than 20 roundabouts during the past nearly two decades, and it proudly proclaims that when motorists enter a roundabout they are much safer than when they are at a conventional intersection.

I am old enough to remember the old traffic circles which dotted many New Jersey highways. Motorists despised them, and screamed bloody murder until the state eventually did away with them. Now, they are making a comeback even in the Garden State.

Here in our area, some are iconic as they circle war monuments in downtown locations of two of our biggest cities - Allentown and Easton.

Constructing roundabouts takes time as evidenced by those being built at the routes 209 and 115 intersection near Pleasant Valley High School in Brodheadsville, Monroe County. State Sen. Mario Scavello (R-Monroe and Northampton) admits that “normally I’m not a roundabout guy, but in this particular case, when you’re waiting to make a left-hand turn, there’s tremendous traffic coming in the opposite direction.” There are two other roundabouts that were recently constructed in the Poconos: One was built eight years ago at the intersection of Route 209 and Business 209 near Marshalls Creek, while the other was opened to traffic in 2018 just off Interstate 80 near the borough of Delaware Water Gap.

Several French friends make fun of me because of my intense dislike of roundabouts. “C’est notre mode de vie” (“It’s our way of life,”) my friend, Joquim, once told me.

He’s right. Other countries are much more tolerant of these monstrosities. France has more than 32,000; the United Kingdom, nearly 25,000, and Australia, about 11,000.

I won’t say this in a roundabout way: They’re not for me.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com