CRANBERRY TWP — Touting recent state Department of Transportation research on the safety of roundabouts for motorists and pedestrians, the township plans to push full-speed ahead with its roundabout projects.

Well, maybe not full-speed. That’s kind of antithetical for roundabouts. Instead, it will keep its roundabout projects flowing.

A recent PennDOT study, which showed among other data a 100% decrease in fatalities at 26 state highway roundabouts, utilized a six-year-old Cranberry rotary to review the safety of Pennsylvania traffic circles.

While Cranberry has used roundabouts for more than a decade, its first was built in Cranberry Woods in 2009. PennDOT included the 2015 rotary at Glen Eden, Powell and Freshcorn roads in its review of state route roundabouts.

The study compared the results of traffic collisions at those intersections pre- and post-roundabout. Among the results were a 22% decrease in the number of crashes, 36% decrease in minor injuries, 81% decline in serious injury and 100% drop in fatalities.

PennDOT’s study comes out as Cranberry is implementing roundabouts in four areas where the township expects heavy pedestrian traffic, including at the MSA Thruway project; at the Meeder development’s Ogle View Road entrance; on Ehrman Road outside the new Seneca Valley elementary school; and a “mini” roundabout at the Executive and Brandt drive junction.

The Meeder and MSA Thruway roundabouts are currently under construction, while Ehrman and Executive will come presently.