If it were up to some residents, a roundabout would be built at Cape Elizabeth’s town center to calm traffic.

That was just one of several new ideas for a redesigned intersection of Route 77, Shore and Scott Dyer roads that originated in a four-hour gathering Saturday of residents, councilors and town employees.

The council chambers transformed into a think tank where three groups of citizens and specialists sketched new designs for the intersection, the site of many close calls and fender benders as a result of awkward alignment and the lack of a stoplight. After hours of brainstorming innovative ways to calm traffic, create safe pedestrian access and beautify the town center, each group presented a unique plan for a future gateway to the town.

Suggestions included adding sidewalks with trees and esplanades, adding traffic lights, rerouting Scott Dyer Road and even creating a roundabout off Shore Road to reduce car speed, which proved popular with the people gathered.

“Every one of these has great merits,” project manager Shawn Smith, of the Maine Department of Transportation, said of the designs drawn up at the meeting. He said construction on the intersection could start as early as the summer.

Linda Johnson, who owns three buildings on Shore Road with her husband, Everett, said she favored the suggestion for a roundabout, because she believes a traffic light could cause more safety problems.

“The main problem as it exists right now is people not stopping at Shore Road,” said Gregg Jones, owner of Jonesy’s Service Station on Route 77.

The last construction on the intersection took place during the mid-1960s, when the area between Hill Way and the Mobil station was built. Currently, there is a blinking yellow light for Route 77 traffic. It is a blinking red light at Shore and Scott Dyer roads, which also have stop signs.

Letters from concerned citizens in recent years, along with the election of new town council members, have finally prompted Cape Elizabeth to take action.

Jones said he has witnessed a few accidents over the past couple of years, one of which involved one of his employees who was coming into work.

“They’re gliding through,” Jones said of people taking right turns from Shore Road onto Route 77, going into Portland. “You can tell they didn’t stop because they’re going 25 mph and they just left the stop sign.”

Johnson, who has lived in her Shore Road home for 17 years, said she hasn’t noticed a large number of accidents on the road, though she has heard a lot of screeching tires from cars turning onto Route 77 from Shore Road trying to beat out those doing the same from Scott Dyer Road.

Johnson said she thought there was too much of an emphasis on wanting to make the intersection “pedestrian friendly,” which shouldn’t be a priority for the Department of Transportation, which faces much larger infrastructure problems throughout the state.

“It’s a stacking issue,” she said, referring to the cars that pile up at the intersection. “They’re cleared out in a minute or two. It’s really a matter of patience.”

Though the Johnsons do not oppose a reconfiguration of the intersection, they’re staying involved in the process to make sure oak trees near the road on their properties are protected.

According to Smith, the town will compile the suggestions from the meeting and bring them back to him. Smith will then use a couple of the designs to do some computer traffic modeling. He said he hopes to have a final design by April or May, when he will go to the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee to advertise for funding from the state.

“This intersection is going to be here long after we’re dead and gone,” said Town Councilor Mary Ann Lynch. “We have to do it right.”

Carl Pearson explains his plan for a reconfiguration of the intersection of Route 77, Shore and Scott Dyer roads to Shore road resident Linda Johnson, left, and Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor Mary Ann Lynch at a meeting Saturday.