ENCINITAS -- The Encinitas Planning Commission voted 5-0 Thursday to approve the first phase of Leucadia Boulevard improvements that call for sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping three roundabouts.

During more than an hour of public testimony, some speakers said the roundabouts, to be built at Hermes and Hymettus avenues, would impede traffic flow and not improve it.

A city fire marshal told commissioners that roundabouts -- raised, circular islands in the middle of an intersection -- would delay the response times of emergency vehicles. He said he worried about a proliferation of the devices in Encinitas, where the city's first roundabout was built this year on Santa Fe Drive.

Blair Knoll, a city engineer, told commissioners that pedestrian and vehicular safety were driving the project, for which $1.2 million has been budgeted to complete the first phase.

In addition to roundabouts, landscaped medians appear on plans.

The medians, as well as landscaped, meandering walkways, would provide safe havens for pedestrians who today must cross a boulevard that is up to 50 feet wide, Knoll said.

The roundabouts also are a safe way to control intersections because they provide fewer points at which accidents could occur, he said.

Some speakers and fire Marshal David Moore flat-out disagreed.

Moore said a city traffic consultant told him there are more accidents at roundabouts, but fewer serious accidents, because the devices force drivers to slow down.

Likewise, roundabouts and medians alike would hinder the responses of fire trucks to emergency scenes. Roundabouts in Portland, Ore., are being removed for that reason, he said.

"It will slow us 24 hours a day," Moore said of the Encinitas roundabout plan.

Beyond that, some speakers said, local motorists just don't understand how to navigate them.

Resident Frank Scarborough said he avoids Santa Fe Drive because of the roundabout and, as a result, does some of his shopping in Carlsbad.

"The big problem I see is when you're putting three of them in a four-tenths of a mile area" on Leucadia Boulevard, Scarborough said.

A greater number of speakers told the commission that roundabouts would slow traffic on the boulevard, and that was a good thing.

"I have driven roundabouts in Tijuana, Boston and Rome, and I don't think there are worse drivers in the world," said Kathleen Lees of Urania Avenue. "If they can figure it out, we should be able to."

Other speakers who supported roundabouts said they would reduce the time they spend waiting for a break in speeding traffic to turn left from side streets and driveways onto the boulevard.

In addition to the Hermes and Hymettus roundabouts, the first phase of the Leucadia job would include curbs, gutters, sidewalks, streetlights and bike lanes on both sides of the boulevard from Vulcan to Hermes; the construction of left-turn lanes on northbound and southbound Vulcan Avenue; and an asphalt pathway on the north side of Leucadia Boulevard from Hermes to Interstate 5.

The pathway would be replaced with concrete sidewalks during a second phase of construction.

The second phase also would add a third roundabout at Hygeia, which today has a four-way stop sign. It also would bring sidewalks to both sides of the boulevard all the way to the freeway and would include landscaping on the sides and on a median for the busy road.

After the meeting, Knoll said he expects construction to begin this spring and last about eight months.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.