McKinney officials are revisiting the idea of installing a roundabout at the intersection of Ridge Road and Glen Oaks Drive.
The full story
Council members indicated a consensus for moving forward with a proposed roundabout during a March 17 work session, but preliminary designs are expected to come at a later date. City staff are recommending a roundabout at the intersection to accommodate existing and future traffic volumes, according to a city document.
“We know that they are safer than traffic signals,” Engineering Director Gary Graham said. “They have lower speeds going through the intersections. There’s fewer conflict points, so when crashes do happen, they’re less severe.”
City staff were asking council members for guidance on moving forward with either a roundabout or a traffic signal at the intersection
Council member Patrick Cloutier said he was willing to invest in design work to answer questions about pedestrian ingress and egress on a potential roundabout before the council makes a final decision. Graham suggested a two-stage contract approach that would give council members more detail before coming back with a full design contract for consideration.
Council member Geré Feltus agreed with the approach and said it would allow city officials more time to gather feedback from the community.
“I’d love to move forward with design,” Feltus said.
By the numbers
The intersection of Ridge Road and Glen Oaks Drive currently operates as a four-way stop that sees an average of 22,064 vehicles per day, according to Graham’s presentation. Most of the traffic volume is heading north or south on Ridge Road.
More than 50 crashes were reported between 2014 and 2025. Crash data is gathered from reports filed by the McKinney Police Department, Graham said.
“If there was a fender bender and the police department did not write an accident report, we don’t know if that crash happened or not,” he said. “There could be more out there.”
Of the crashes reported, 19 of them involved an injury, according to Graham’s presentation. Injuries are typically reported if a police officer is on the scene and asks someone involved in the crash if they need medical attention. If that person says no, it may not be reported as an injury, Graham said.
“Over 35% of the crashes have injuries,” he said. “That’s quite a few. That’s more than we typically have at locations, so this is really a concern for us.”
Graham’s presentation also included a collision diagram that plots where the crashes occurred in the intersection. The diagram shows a pattern of drivers not stopping in one direction or another, he said.
When multiple drivers are present at the intersection, they tend to “have trouble,” Graham said.
“Unfortunately, our drivers just don’t know how to drive a four-way stop when there are other people there,” he said. “They’re pretty good when there’s no one else there.
In comparison
City staff are recommending installation of a roundabout but Graham’s presentation also included a breakdown of benefits to installing a traffic signal. Both are listed below with a projected cost.
- Roundabout
- Projected cost: $2.5 million
- Lower operational costs
- Continuous traffic flow
- Opportunity to improve aesthetic
- Traffic signal
- Projected cost: $850,000
- Lower initial construction cost
- Faster construction
- Less right-of-way acquisition needed
The history
This is not the first time McKinney City Council has discussed a potential roundabout at that intersection. The project has been on city staff’s radar since 2016 when citizens began submitting complaints about accidents at the intersection, Graham said.
A roundabout was proposed for the location and staff presented a design contract to council for approval in 2022. Council members chose not to move forward with the project at the time due to concern from the Stonebridge Ranch Community Association, Graham said.
“There aren’t very many roundabouts within Stonebridge itself, so it’s kind of a new concept for them,” he said. “There also weren’t any multilane roundabouts anywhere in the city so that was some of their concerns.”
City staff met with Stonebridge Ranch officials in 2022 and met with council members individually in 2023, Graham said.
“The council’s consensus was, let’s wait until the Wilmeth corridor is built,” Graham said. “Let’s come back and re-evaluate that after that’s been operating for some time to see if those are good solutions.”
At the time, four roundabouts were planned along Wilmeth Road in north McKinney. Those roundabouts opened to the public between 2023 and 2025, according to Graham’s presentation.
