Pineapple on a pizza. Formal wear and sneakers. Pancakes and ketchup.

They are all great things. But not everybody agrees they are great together.

Bend may try another odd grouping: traffic lights at a roundabout.

That’s a possible idea for the roundabout at Brookswood Boulevard/Bond Street and their intersection with Reed Market Road, adjacent to the Old Mill. City officials pondered the pairing at a meeting on Monday.

What if the city put in “metering” signals to control the traffic flow into the roundabout? Or should it look to turn it into a two-lane roundabout?

Go through that roundabout during peak traffic times and let’s hope you are a patient person. Some people cut through Woodriver Village to dodge delays or just don’t come near the place. The data the city has from four years ago showed delays at the roundabout of more than 30 seconds. It’d be bewildering if that somehow got better by itself.

For a cost of $4 million to $5 million, the city could go in and add more lanes to the roundabout. The room for construction may get tight because of a lack of available land and presence of other obstacles, such as the nearby power substation. The size of the center circle would likely be reduced. Two-lane roundabouts are a bit more challenging to negotiate.

For a cost of about $750,000, the city could put in signals. The signals would control when drivers could proceed ahead — and then prepare to yield as normal before venturing into the roundabout. The 2020 study by the city seemed to suggest that adding signals might help. City staff said Monday the signals could be set to operate only during peak traffic times and show green at other times.

Other cities have added signals at roundabouts. The logic is similar to those on highway entrance ramps for merging into heavy traffic. They can improve flow. And in this case, the price would be lower than the cost of adding lanes. It’s not clear to us how much improvement in flow there would be from either alternative. The city could pick one and always do the other later.

Councilors at the city’s community building subcommittee meeting Monday weren’t opposed to the idea of adding a signal. They seemed to settle on wanting to get the full council to weigh in and consider a policy of adding signals to roundabouts when there are capacity issues — rather than make the call roundabout by roundabout. Councilor Ariel Mendez also was eager for the city to move on strategies to reduce vehicle traffic overall, incentivizing alternatives or ridesharing.

Roundabouts are an antidote to intersection problems. They increase safety, because vehicles are all moving in the same direction. And they mean there doesn’t have to be the installation of traffic lights or stop signs. Well, except maybe soon in Bend.

Tell councilors what you think about how to spend city dollars on improving this intersection. You can email them at council@bendoregon.gov.