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Stephanie Wiechmann
The Emily Kimbrough Historic District is named after an author and journalist born in Muncie. The neighborhood includes homes in a variety of architectural styles and a state highway. The Indiana Department of Transportation is proposing changing several intersections to roundabouts.

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Tom Collins
Roundabouts take up a lot of space, and that it's kind of a dense, tight urban neighborhood with a lot of historic homes. And people were concerned that that was going to mean that there would have to be demolitions.

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Stephanie Wiechmann
That's Tom Collins. He teaches in Ball State University's architecture department, and he's a past president of the East Central Neighborhood Association, and says the planned roundabouts would have a tighter radius and a flat center. So semi-trucks could drive over the center. Collins says he appreciates the city and state wanting to slow traffic through the neighborhood, but he says the data to support the roundabouts was collected in 2018 to 2020.

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Stephanie Wiechmann
And in 2024, the state road through the historic district was adjusted by what's called a road diet. Two lanes became one plus a bike lane and buffers.

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Tom Collins
Why is it that we're going to rip up perfectly good curbs and, accessible ramps and pavement to put roundabouts in a year after a whole road reconstruction project just happened?

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Stephanie Wiechmann
In presentation materials, Indot says that project quote didn't address the high level of crashes at the intersections. Indot announced the proposed roundabouts in 2023. Currently, the plan is going through a nonbinding process to see if it's right for a historic district in Muncie. Stephanie Wiechmann, IPR news.