What's around the bend? Who knows for sure?

I haven't always said nice things about roundabouts.

You know what I'm talking about. Traffic circles. The latest fad in roadway engineering.

"Latest fad" is relative, of course. There have been roundabouts elsewhere in the world for a long, long time. But in this neck of the woods, a roundabout is still something of a novelty.

Cape Girardeau got off to a bad start with its first roundabout several years ago. That was when a small traffic circle replaced a four-way stop at the Silver Springs Road-Gordonville Road intersection.

The design flaws in that first effort were numerous, and it took several rejiggerings to make the circle usable.

Next came the circle at Morgan Oak Street and Fountain near Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus. It was an improvement, since its larger dimensions made for an easier turning radius. But there are still problems, particularly at night when many folks visit the campus for performances, because it's so hard to see the low curbs.

Now comes the real traffic circle, the roundabout at one of the busiest intersections in Cape Girardeau.

When a roundabout was first proposed for the intersection of Lexington Avenue, Kingsway and Route W, I have to admit I was among the skeptics. I, like many others, felt the proposed circle was too close to the nearby Lexington-Kingshighway intersection. And there was the creek to contend with. And so on.

I have to hand it to the engineers who came up with this circle. I haven't always said nice things about highway and street engineers. There are still plenty of traffic problems all over Cape Girardeau. But they got this one right.

The new roundabout, which is now fully open, combines logic with sound engineering. It will take a little getting used to, but it will be a boon for motorists in that busy area of town.

Maybe even more amazing is the fact that traffic -- hundreds of vehicles a day -- went through that intersection while the roundabout was being built. Only traffic on Kingsway was blocked, and there were other access points to businesses and residential areas nearby.

So, hats off to city and Missouri Department of Transportation officials who pulled this off. Such good results deserve special praise.

But ...

While I have the attention of the street gurus, I'd like to point out the obvious on behalf of thousands of Cape Girardeau motorists:

There are too many -- way too many -- blind intersections in our fair River City of Roses.

Some of them were created when streets like Broadway were upgraded. The blind corner at Broadway and Clark Street is just one example. Southbound traffic on Clark can't safely make a right turn on red at Broadway, so such turns have been banned, according to the widely ignored signage at that intersection.

At many other intersections motorists are required to nose their vehicles well into crossing streets to see if it's safe to proceed or make a turn.

Sometimes sight lines at these intersections are blocked by barriers -- buildings, walls and the like -- that would be difficult to move. Others, though, are the result of overgrown shrubs and other easily removed impediments.

This is something that could stand a serious review by city officials and, in some cases, MoDOT experts. Any improvements would increase safety.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.