The $4.7 million roundabout at Cody’s Corner that started construction at the beginning of April is now open to traffic and is expected to significantly reduce fatal and grave crashes at what had been one of Flagler County’s three deadliest intersections. Cody’s Corner, named for a convenience store there, is the intersection of State Road 11 and County Road 304, 10 miles southwest of Bunnell.
The other two intersections are at Old Dixie Highway and U.S. 1, and at Matanzas Woods Parkway and U.S. 1. A $4.27 million roundabout was completed at the Old Dixie Highway intersection in 2020, with additional improvements along U.S. 1. The $2.6 million Matanzas Woods roundabout was completed in the fall of 2020. There has been one fatality since, in September 2022, when a man driving at 100 miles per hour crashed into the circle at the center of the Old Dixie Highway roundabout.
There have not been any other fatalities or grave vehicle crashes at the roundabouts, underscoring the Florida Department of Transportation’s recurring message, itself proven by evidence: while roundabouts do not eliminate crashes, they substantially decrease the incidence of fatal and grave crashes by almost eliminating the sort of t-bone and head-on collisions that claimed so many lives at the three intersections before 2018. The transportation department puts the reduction of severe crashes at 82 percent.
Construction at Cody’s Corner is not completed. Barrels, signage, and message boards are still in place, guiding drivers through the construction zone. “Vehicles should enter the roundabout by going to the right and continuing counterclockwise,” a Department of Transportation release states. “Traffic entering the roundabout must yield to those already present, but drivers should not stop if it is clear to enter.” Single lane closures with flagging operations will also continue, with lighting upgrades, landscaping in the center of the roundabout, new signage, and new pavement markings, being completed. Lane closures are announced here.
For all the safety improvements of roundabouts, resistance to and misinformation about th structures continues in Flagler County, as was the case four weeks ago when the County Commission approved a regulatory step for Radiance, the large development along Old Kings Road north of Old Dixie Highway. A roundabout is planned for what will be the intersection of Old Kings Road with Crosswinds Boulevard. Even a commissioner who has since stepped down raised questions about it creating a “possible backup” of cars turning to get into the subdivision from the roundabout, without a traffic light. (The commissioner said he wasn’t against the roundabout.)
Walter Fufidio, who addressed the commission as a representative of the Fairchild Oaks Homeowner Association and a member of an alliance of several subdivisions in the area, said the roundabout was “a bad idea,” with dump trucks driving down the road at 60 miles per hour. He imagined motorcycles “jumping over that roundabout” and elderly drivers getting rear-ended as they slow down to make turns into the subdivision. He said the county’s focus should be on improving traffic flow at the Old Dixie and Old Kings Road intersection further south.
It took Commission Chair Andy Dance, who also chairs the county’s Community Traffic Safety Team, to correct false assumptions. “It’s unfortunate to hear more misleading information about roundabouts,” Dance said. “The roundabout is not a safety concern, and if anything, the intent is to slow down vehicles that are coming down and speeding down old Kings Road. Especially with elderly, it’s been proven to be safer than than a four way intersection, which is what that’ll be in the middle of a high speed road.” He said improvements at Old Dixie and Old Kings road are essential, but “I’m not willing to abandon the roundabout yet.”
