Too expensive, not necessary, out of character for the Vineyard and unsafe for cyclists. These were the common refrains heard from critics of the proposed roundabout last week, but Oak Bluffs town officials remained bullish, citing safety above all else.

“I have years and years of experience and I do everything I can to avoid that intersection because when I get there I have to look at every single car and I have to make eye contact with every single driver, then I have to hope as I proceed forward that they get it,” said Oak Bluffs selectman and board chairman Kathy Burton. “Before our luck completely runs out and someone gets killed, I believe we should embrace the only improvement being offered to us: a roundabout.”

The comment came at a public hearing last Thursday before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which is reviewing the $1.2 million roundabout plan for the blinker intersection in Oak Bluffs as a development of regional impact (DRI). About 40 people attended the hearing, which saw strong opinions on both sides. The leading proponents for the project were the Oak Bluffs selectmen and other town officials.

“Under my watch if I didn’t vote for this and somebody got killed I couldn’t stand myself,” said selectman Walter Vail. “I avoid that intersection like the plague. It is a terrible intersection. I just don’t understand why anybody would think a roundabout is a worse solution than a four-way stop sign. So I urge you to approve it.”

Speaking with his “nephew hat on,” Oak Bluffs police chief Erik Blake relayed the experience of his aunt in the town of Marstons Mills on the Cape which installed its first roundabout over a decade ago.

“My aunt is far more opinionated and has far more comments than probably anybody in this room,” Mr. Blake said. “When we first talked about this in 2006 I called her because she lives right next to the roundabout that was put in and she had every single reservation and issue that everyone here has had and within a month or two of being installed no one in the community even talks about it,” he said, adding: “It’s about change, people don’t like the change but I’m telling you that community there loves the roundabout and it has improved all their issues.”

The chief said from a public safety perspective, a roundabout is preferable to the status quo.

“When the backup actually goes past NStar for police cars, fire trucks and ambulances to actually transverse that line to get to a call at another location it makes it completely dangerous,” he said. “For the safety’s sake of it I support this.”

Priscilla Sylvia, who serves on the land bank commission, school committee, historical commission and has lived in Oak Bluffs since 1965, also spoke in favor of it.

“I hope people will stop reacting emotionally and think rationally about this,” she said.

Others thought differently.

“The philosophy here is somebody else is paying for this so jeez let’s do it,” said Niki Patton of West Tisbury, referencing the fact that the project will be funded from state transportation improvement program money, which comes from a tax on gasoline. “There seems to be a rush to claim the free money from the government. This is not free money, this is my money, this is your money,” Ms. Patton said. “We are paying this via a small program called taxation. We don’t have this money. Massachusetts is running a budget deficit of $3 billion a year and we all know about the federal deficit.”

Madeline Fisher of Edgartown said she believes opposition to the roundabout is widespread.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of people about this: commuters, bus drivers, propane truck drivers, lumber truck drivers, tri-town ambulance people and residents of the Vineyard,” she said. “Most of the people who I speak with do not want this.”

In 2004 during the first discussions of the roundabout Ms. Fisher collected 1,600 signatures on a petition to oppose the project. In 2006 when the town held public hearings on the proposal she collected 1,800 signatures. This time around commission DRI coordinator Paul Foley said he has not received any new petitions, but a Facebook group with 60 members has formed objecting to the project and Stop the Roundabout bumper stickers have appeared in stores around the Island.

On Thursday West Tisbury selectman Richard Knabel, whose board referred the project to the commission for regional review, said the roundabout is out of character for the Vineyard.

“One of the things this commission is supposed to do is to preserve the character of the Island and I just wondered whether you have considered whether this radical change is consistent with the Island and the way people here like to have things be,” Mr. Knabel said.

Craig Hockmeyer who owns Craig’s Bicycles in Vineyard Haven agreed.

“That looks like off-Island to me,” he said referring to the engineer’s drawings. After the hearing, Mr. Hockmeyer said he had heard nothing to reassure him about the safety of roundabouts to bicyclists, and in a letter to the commission submitted this week he urges the planning agency to consider a smart traffic light, an option that Massachusetts Department of Transportation project manager Tom Currier insists is not on the table.

Engineer John Diaz from the firm Greenman-Pedersen Inc. presented the project on behalf of the town.

“The roundabout is the safest option, provides the best operation and it doesn’t make sense to look at something that isn’t the safest option,” he said.

Mr. Diaz also addressed the commission’s principal concern about the roundabout — the impact it would have on other intersections at either end of the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road. By his estimate, the roundabout, assuming no cars turned off at locations between Tisbury and Edgartown, would add one car eastbound every four minutes and one car westbound every 12 minutes, while reducing wait times at the intersection by several minutes.

“Clearly this is not going to create additional impacts at the other ends of the road,” he said.

Commissioner Leonard Jason rejected the claim, predicting long backups at the Edgartown Triangle.

“By that logic you’ll never make an improvement anywhere on the Island. Everything you do is going to have an impact on something else,” said Mr. Diaz.

“First you have to assume that this intersection is at a crisis,” responded Mr. Jason.

“I don’t understand Lenny’s argument at all,” said commission member Holly Stephenson. “I don’t understand how improving an intersection creates more traffic at another intersection. It’s the same number of cars.”

The commission closed the public hearing, keeping the written record open until Sept. 22. Deliberations and a vote will be held at a scheduled meeting sometime after that.