State transportation officials are committed to abolishing rotaries across the commonwealth, but that's not stopping them from spending more than $300,000 to construct a smaller-scaled version at one of the historically worst intersections on the Vineyard.

The roundabout is now slated for construction next year at what was once the notorious blinker light in Oak Bluffs and is currently a four-way stop, at the junction of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven and Barnes Roads.

MassHighway spokesman Jon Carlisle told the Gazette this week that his agency is funding a handful of roundabouts in the state - in Duxbury and North Andover as well as Oak Bluffs - but only under certain traffic conditions.

"We're going full-speed ahead to remove the Sagamore rotary, and the trend is to move away from rotaries in general," Mr. Carlisle said. "But in certain circumstances, a roundabout can be very successful with traffic moving at a relatively low rate of speed and on roads with relatively low volume of traffic."

More than two years ago, responding to the growing number of serious car accidents at the blinker intersection, Oak Bluffs selectmen commissioned a traffic study which found that about 1,485 cars travel through the junction in one hour on a peak summer morning or afternoon.

The study also reported that most cars on the highway approach the intersection at speeds of at least 40 miles per hour.

Clearly, such data didn't sway state officials from the roundabout solution. The traffic study had actually recommended installing a traffic light - which would have been the Island's first - as the best solution.

Oak Bluffs selectman Kerry Scott this week voiced her dissatisfaction with MassHighway-funded projects on the Vineyard, citing the Tashmoo Overlook in Tisbury and the sandbags along Beach Road as examples.

"I have zero faith in MassHighway," she said.

Selectmen then proceeded to commit up to $50,000 of town funds to jumpstart the design end of the project.

Meanwhile, the good news at the long-troubled intersection is that accident rates have fallen sharply one year after selectmen decided to tear down a flashing yellow beacon and put up four red stop signs.

But while the four-way stop has led to greater safety for motorists, it has also landed some of them at the back end of some serious traffic jams.

"It's definitely cut down on accidents, but the back-ups are still pretty horrendous," said Oak Bluffs highway superintendent Richard Combra Jr.

Mr. Combra described delays of up to 20 minutes. Oak Bluffs police Lt. Tim Williamson estimated shorter waits of about ten minutes.

Eastbound traffic is the worst. Lieutenant Williamson said he's witnessed cars lined up as far back as Sea Glen avenue, just shy of the Tisbury town line.

The four-way stop that went into effect last July has always been seen only as a stop gap.

The ultimate goal remains a roundabout - a scaled down, one-lane version of the rotary familiar to Islanders who travel over the Bourne and Sagamore rotaries as an unavoidable part of many excursions to the mainland.

Estimated cost to build the Oak Bluffs roundabout is $330,000.

Selectmen discussed the idea of a traffic light but eventually steered toward a roundabout as the solution that would improve safety without ruffling the Vineyard traditionalists who would have likely objected to the advent of something that smacked of suburbia.

Unlike a rotary, a roundabout forces cars to slow significantly - to about five miles per hour - before entering the one-lane loop, and to yield to cars already in the circle.

Initially skeptical, Martha's Vineyard Commission executive director Mark London later supported the roundabout idea for the dangerous crossroads on one of the Island's main traffic arteries.

"When people hear roundabout, they envision the Sagamore rotary and think, "The state's getting rid of this so why are we getting one here?' " Mr. London told the Gazette. "But a roundabout is a different animal."

Studies funded by the federal transportation agency have shown a reduction of accidents at intersections where roundabouts were constructed.

This week, Mr. Combra told selectmen that while the state transportation agency has backed the roundabout concept for the notorious intersection, it won't accept a design plan from the county engineer.

The state wants to see blueprints for a roundabout drafted by a state-certified designer and engineer, Mr. Combra said. That requirement will end up costing Oak Bluffs somewhere between $25,000 and $50,000.

The highway superintendent recommended tapping the town's $250,000 nest egg for road work, funds approved by voters at the annual town meeting in April. "I'm confident we can squeeze out the money and still complete our paving plan," Mr. Combra said at Tuesday's meeting of the selectmen.

The time line calls for hiring a designer to finish plans this fall and completing construction of the roundabout by the fall of 2005.

Meanwhile, as the town waits until next year to build its roundabout, the four-way stop has made the intersection markedly safer, Oak Bluffs officials said this week.

"Accidents have gone down significantly," said Lieutenant Williamson.

He could not provide hard statistics because of the continuing problems with the police computer software Islandwide, but he said the intersection is nowhere near as dangerous as it was before selectmen and police implemented the four-way stop.

In the 12 months preceding the four-way stop installation, emergency officials in Oak Bluffs counted 18 accidents at the blinker light that left people injured and needing medical treatment.

"We're hardly up there at all this summer," said Mr. Williamson. And those accidents that have taken place have been less severe, since motorists are moving at much slower speeds.

But police were blunt about having traded safety problems for traffic congestion with the one-year-old arrangement.

"We're sending police up to try to alleviate it and wave people through, but they don't understand a police officer takes precedence over any signage," said Lieutenant Williamson. "You end up becoming the target of everyone's anger like it's your fault the traffic's there."

But Mr. Williamson also sought to put things in context. "You compare it to some of the traffic on the Cape or 93 North and South," he said. "We've got it made here."