Niagara Region has come up with a plan to fix the traffic gridlock that is plaguing “downtown” St. Davids.

For several years now, the region has been working on a proposal to rebuild the Four Corners intersection in the village of St. Davids and replace it with a more efficient traffic management feature — a roundabout.

This will ensure the exceedingly long lines of cars and trucks that are constantly backed up at the existing four-way stop at York Road and Four Mile Creek Road can roar smoothly and quickly through the quiet hamlet and get on their way to Old Town or Queenston or Niagara Falls, etc.

Great idea.

Except: there are no exceedingly long lines of cars and trucks regularly backed up at the intersection. Nor is there an outcry from residents to do something about the traffic “headaches” that are plaguing St. Davids.

Sure, sometimes, there can be a minute or so wait for vehicles to get through the four-way stop. But, really, that’s it.

There is no compelling need we can see that merits spending $10 million — or more — of taxpayers’ money to fix a problem that does not exist.

The enormous cost of expropriating land and then installing a roundabout simply cannot be justified in this case, in this location.

St. Davids is a quaint little one-traffic-stop village and with a handful of local businesses, mostly near the epicentre of the proposed roundabout.

And many of those businesses could be adversely affected — losing land to this roundabout boondoggle and losing customers as drivers have trouble entering or exiting their enterprises.

Pedestrians — especially young students from nearby St. Davids Public School — will face challenges in trying to cross the roundabout as drivers zoom north, south, east and west.

Crossing the road here is already a problem for people on foot.

Even now, when cars must come to a complete stop, pedestrians are caught in a game of chicken as they duel with drivers in a hurry to get where they’re going.

The region claims the roundabout will improve pedestrian access, but if one of the region’s goals is to move more traffic — and, yes, a roundabout will do that — then people on foot are going to impede that efficiency.

With Premier Doug Ford and other right-leaning politicos, we hear a lot about improving government efficiency and ensuring value for money when spending people’s tax dollars.

By dropping some $10 million or more on this roundabout, Niagara Region is showing us all that value for money is not a concern.

We have seen no evidence that a roundabout is the best way to deal with the St. Davids traffic situation or that it is the most cost-effective. It simply seems to be a solution in search of a problem.

And we say that not because we hate roundabouts. In fact, we love the concept. We’ve driven them in Niagara, many other parts of Canada, the U.K. and Europe.

They are an efficient way to keep large volumes of traffic moving. That’s why the roundabout on Niagara Stone Road in Virgil is effective.

However, when it comes to St. Davids, we think conventional traffic lights and improved pedestrian access would be a wiser, cheaper and safer solution.

We hope our friends at Niagara Region reverse course. By doing so, they would show that they are willing to listen and adapt.

Pushing ahead with the St. Davids roundabout would give the public yet another reason to insist that regional government is a wasteful anachronism that should be reined in.

Unfortunately, our regional leaders have shown no inclination to change direction and instead seem hellbent on imposing this foolishly expensive and unnecessary choice.