[Durham INC] Pedestrian Safety

Fri Oct 5 22:44:40 EDT 2012

Please see information below from Dale McKeel, Durham's Bike and Pedestrian
Coordinator, in response to some concerns/issues raised.
Wendy Jacobs

1.	 Alston Avenue.  The project is moving forward.  NCDOT has agreed to
provide one lane for motor vehicles in each direction with bike lanes and
on-street parking, for most of the project (between Main and Holloway
northbound, and between Morning Glory and Holloway southbound).  Right of
way acquisition is scheduled to begin this fiscal year and construction in
FY 2015.

2.	Main Street.  Main Street between Buchanan and 15th/Anderson will be
restriped with bike lanes later this fall.  The section between Buchanan and
Ninth Street will first be repaved.

3.	Erwin Road.  When Erwin was repaved in 2007, bike lanes were placed
between Anderson and Main. West of Anderson the outside lanes were made a
little wider than they had been before to better accommodate bicyclists, but
due to the volume of traffic it was determined that 5 lanes were still
needed there (putting in bike would require the removal of a motor vehicle
lane).  If anyone has access to a "street stretcher,"  give me a call!!

4.	Anderson Street bridge over NC 147.  The Bicycle and Pedestrian
Advisory Commission has requested bike lanes on this bridge in the past, and
it has been studied.  If my memory serves me correctly, putting in bike
lanes would require removing a travel lane.  I'll find my notes and share
this with you separately.

5.	Hillandale Road north of I-85.  The section of Hillandale that is
currently being widened will have 4-foot wide shoulders (NCDOT did not want
to mark these as bike lanes, but they will be the same width as bike lanes
and can be used as bike lanes).

6.	Hillandale Road south of I-85.  The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO
has allocated funds to Durham to provide bike and pedestrian facilities
along Hillandale Road between I-85 and NC 147.  The first step in making
these improvements will be to do a functional design for the corridor.  The
functional design will include public meetings, a review of options, and
cost estimates.  It is anticipated that City Council will award the contract
for the functional design in November and the study will be underway soon
thereafter.  Functional design studies will also be done on portions of
Morreene (Neal to Erwin), Carpenter Fletcher (Woodcroft Parkway to Alston),
and Cornwallis (S. Roxboro to Chapel Hill Rd.).

Regarding Hillandale, there is a way to go south from the intersection of
Carver and Hillandale to Guess on lower volume streets.  You can then cross
under I-85 on Guess, then use Sovereign to work your toward Duke.  I've done
this a few times and it is somewhat circuitous but works pretty well.  This
route is shown on the Durham Bike and Hike map.
http://durhamnc.gov/ich/op/dot/Pages/Durham-Bike--Hike-Map.aspx

Please let me know if you have any questions.

****

Dale McKeel, AICP
Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator
Department of Transportation
City of Durham/DCHC MPO
101 City Hall Plaza, 4th Floor
Durham, NC 27701
P 919-560-4366. ext. 36421
F 919-560-4561

Dale.McKeel at DurhamNC.gov
www.DurhamNC.gov

E-mail correspondence to and from this sender may be subject to the North
Carolina Public Records Law and can be disclosed to third parties.

From: Marge Nordstrom [mailto:mnordstrom at nc.rr.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 7:10 PM
To: willwilsn at gmail.com; 'Kelly J'
Cc: 'wendy jacobs'; inc-list at rtpnet.org; 'Philip Azar'; 'OWDNA'
Subject: RE: [Durham INC] Pedestrian Safety

Ok, if people are adding to the list, I would like to add Anderson Street!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On
Behalf Of Will Wilson
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 9:02 AM
To: Kelly J
Cc: wendy jacobs; inc-list at rtpnet.org; Philip Azar; OWDNA
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Pedestrian Safety

Might I also add the stretch of Hillandale by the golf course? Those of 
us living north of I-85 have few crossing options: Cole Mill, 
Hillandale, Guess, etc, and Hillandale is most sensible. However, I, for 
one, have lost my nerve for bicycle commuting because of that golf 
course stretch. Now that the city owns it, can't a bike path be placed 
on the inside of those fences?

Thanks,
Will Wilson

On 10/5/2012 8:46 AM, Kelly J wrote:
> Philip, Wendy et al, I've forwarded this conversation to OWDNA list
> as we have many similar concerns. Our neighborhood residents confront
> Erwin Road, Hillandale and the Durham Freeway between us and Duke,
> where many of us work or study.
>
> I've posted and written local officials and Duke administrators about
> pedestrians hit trying to cross Erwin Road at Trent. The NC DOT issue
> is a serious problem that needs coordinated  action.
>
> Likewise bike lanes. There are no bike lanes on Erwin east of
> Anderson-where all the workplaces are. There are no bike lanes along
> main street. There are no bike lanes on the bridge on Anderson that
> crosses Durham Freeway. Are we waiting for a death before we do
> this?
>
> I hope our elected officials will work with colleagues in other
> cities to make changes on rules that turn NC DOT roads through
> residential neighborhoods into raceways.
>
> Sent from my iPhone. Take typos and autocorrect errors lightly
> please.
>
> On Oct 4, 2012, at 9:45 PM, Philip Azar <philip917azar at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Wendy, Thank you for your note.  Have followed up with at least
>> some of the folk / organizations that you have mentioned, including
>> Dale, and am staying focused.
>>
>> Again, thanks for caring and for your suggestions.  We'll try to
>> leave no stone unturned, Philip
>>
>>
>> On Oct 1, 2012, at 11:28 PM, wendy jacobs <geewen at nc.rr.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Some great suggestions here, Philip. I also suggest that you
>>> bring this initiative/these concerns to the Durham Bike and
>>> Pedestrian Commission. Some really knowledgeable, hardworking
>>> citizens serve on DBAC as well as excellent transportation staff
>>> person Dale McKeel.
>>>
>>> Wendy Jacobs
>>>
>>> -----Original Message----- From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org
>>> [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> inc-list-request at rtpnet.org Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2012
>>> 12:00 PM To: inc-list at rtpnet.org Subject: INC-list Digest, Vol
>>> 93, Issue 36
>>>
>>> Send INC-list mailing list submissions to inc-list at rtpnet.org
>>>
>>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
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>>> inc-list-request at rtpnet.org
>>>
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>>> inc-list-owner at rtpnet.org
>>>
>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more
>>> specific than "Re: Contents of INC-list digest..."
>>>
>>>
>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>> 1.  FW: What are we doing to slow traffic on Duke and    Gregson
>>> and ensure that children walking to school throughout    Durham
>>> are safe? (Philip Azar)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>
Message: 1
>>> Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:26:33 -0400 From: "Philip Azar"
>>> <pazar at nc.rr.com> To: <TrinityPark at yahoogroups.com>,
>>> <inc-list at durhaminc.org> Cc: council at durhamnc.gov,
>>> commissioners at durhamcountync.gov Subject: [Durham INC] FW: What
>>> are we doing to slow traffic on Duke and    Gregson and ensure
>>> that children walking to school throughout Durham are safe?
>>> Message-ID: <038101cd9f1f$f92f4680$eb8dd380$@rr.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>
>>> Hi all, Tried to send this out last night, apparently it went to
>>> council and commissioners, but not to the listservs, which was in
>>> many ways the main point of this.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We need to not just have internal discussions, but also be
>>> consistently focused and a little hot on it.  I understand that
>>> there are some collective, more organized approaches underway,
>>> and that's great, but I think we also should go on record with
>>> demands for attention and action on this matter.  We were all
>>> lucky that the last accident was not worse.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, Philip
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> P.S.  I changed one word in the title line from "you" to "we"
>>> because this is not all on elected officials and staff.  I think
>>> we all need to step up and stay stepped up.  I've also tried to
>>> change the font to something more reasonable and consistent.
>>> (Not used to the Mac and its inferior mail management program.)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Philip Azar [mailto:philip917azar at gmail.com] Sent:
>>> Saturday, September 29, 2012 10:46 PM To: council at durhamnc.gov;
>>> commissioners at durhamcountync.gov Cc: trinitypark at yahoogroups.com;
>>> interneighborhoodcouncil at gmail.com;
>>> durhambikeandped at yahoogroups.com Subject: What are you doing to
>>> slow traffic on Duke and Gregson and ensure that children walking
>>> to school throughout Durham are safe?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Good People, We recently experienced another car/pedestrian
>>> accident in Trinity Park.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Traffic in and through our neighborhood has been an issue for
>>> quite some time and I, among others, am impatient, indeed angry.
>>> This is an issue that has been festering for a long time.  It
>>> festered on my watch when I was association president, and I
>>> should have helped to address it sooner, before the last accident
>>> happened.  You can imagine my relief and gratitude that the last
>>> accident was not more serious.  The issue is now also on your
>>> watch.  Perhaps you've been aware and been working it.  If so,
>>> thank you, but we need to work it more effectively before the
>>> next accident.  The next accident may be way more serious than
>>> the last one.  Actions and solutions needed.  Not blaming NC DOT.
>>> Not complaining about the distribution of speeding ticket
>>> revenue.  Not sloughing off to individual driver, pedestrian and
>>> cyclist responsibility.  Individual drivers, walkers and bikers
>>> are responsible for their actions, but we are collectively
>>> responsible for the current, unsafe traffic, walk, biking
>>> patterns that make this statistically toxic.  Let's get it done!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> No one needs be silent when:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Speed limits in our neighborhood are ignored, not enforced and
>>> too high to begin with.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Walk zones to schools are not matched with cross walks,
>>> markings, lights, etc. along major walk routes to the schools in
>>> our walk zones.  For example, The George Watts Montessori School,
>>> which has a walk zone, does not have properly marked crossings on
>>> Duke St, comparable to those on Gregson, even though students
>>> walk across Duke just as students walk across Gregson.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Informal walk and bikeways to schools, places of worship or
>>> employment and volunteer areas are not acknowledged and
>>> protected.  As you know, it is the act of walking or biking, and
>>> not the drawing of lines on a map in an office downtown or in
>>> Raleigh that creates a need for safety.  The formal walk zones
>>> for schools are just an obvious starting point and clearly call
>>> for greater protection.  There is a lot of walking and cycling
>>> that goes on in totally predictable places that is not designed
>>> on maps. Although DSA does not have a walk zone, DSA students
>>> walk to and from there in mornings and afternoon and to and from
>>> volunteer opportunities in the neighborhood during the day.
>>> These activities also need protection.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Resignation grows that designation of some streets as state
>>> roads somehow magically levitates them out of the neighborhood
>>> and out of the City and County's scope of responsibility.  The
>>> state may pay for the roads' maintenance and may have some level
>>> of control over them, but these are neighborhood roads -- they go
>>> through our neighborhoods -- and people hit on them are still our
>>> neighbors and friends or their children.  If you need help
>>> crowding a conference room or two or three in Raleigh, chewing
>>> out friends and colleagues in the capital, changing a regulation,
>>> or asking the Durham delegation to work with others to get new
>>> laws passed, we'll help. Explaining that you do not control state
>>> roads is not acceptable.  It is similarly unacceptable to ask
>>> staff to do another study.  It's solution and action time.
>>> Please take action and be part of the solution.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What the perfect, long term solution is, I don't know and don't
>>> think it's my job to figure the specifics out. That said, I think
>>> common sense and reason support the idea that within a month,
>>> we'd see, as a start, something like this:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --  Regular speed traps and ticketing with a commitment to keep
>>> it up.  I have frequently heard (sometimes from City and police
>>> representatives) that the City, County, and police don't think
>>> this is an effective tool because traffic ticket revenue is
>>> shared with schools state wide.  The revenue issue is immaterial
>>> and irrelevant to the safety issue.  Moreover, the fines for
>>> speeding in a school district have gone up, so this excuse for
>>> not ticketing is more lame than it ever was.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --  Striping of cross walks (with signage as at Brightleaf about
>>> stopping being the law) throughout formally designated walk
>>> zones.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --  Striping of cross walks (with signage as at Brightleaf about
>>> stopping being the law) wherever there are regular, predictable
>>> foot traffic patterns, regardless of whether they are in a
>>> formally recognized walk-zone.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Ped Safety Flags.  Please Google Ped Safety Flags and look at
>>> the images and articles that you find there.  It's a relatively
>>> cheap system and it can be installed quickly.  The more
>>> neighborhoods use it, the faster pedestrians will learn how to
>>> use it and the faster drivers will recognize and react to the
>>> system.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Sufficient government (police, police cars, public works
>>> trucks -- whatever draws attention) presence around those items
>>> for a period of time to help change the bad habits that we've
>>> accepted too long so that pedestrians to not have a false sense
>>> of security.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Absolute, positive, public rejection of the premise that state
>>> roads absolve local responsibility, that pedestrian solutions
>>> must be at the expense of cyclists (because otherwise they are
>>> inconvenient to cars), and that ticketing of speeders is not a
>>> worthy use of police resources.  Cars kill.  Walkers and bikers .
>>> . . not so much.  Cars are the lowest priority. They have less
>>> claim to personhood than corporations.   The urban neighborhoods
>>> pre-date the traffic and take priority.  If that's a framing of
>>> the issue that the experts have problems with, I urge you to get
>>> new experts.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- A public commitment to lowering speed limits (and increased
>>> commitment to their enforcement) in the city and county in
>>> proximity to schools -- regardless of whether it's a state or
>>> local road -- and to protecting children walking to any school at
>>> any age anywhere in Durham.  If changing or enforcing speed
>>> limits requires state-wide action, please lead it!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I am sure that the issues outlined above are not unique to
>>> Trinity Park, but are true of most if not all of the urban
>>> neighborhoods and at least some of the suburban ones, each of
>>> which have schools, churches and places to go to, are home to
>>> people who walk and cycle, and are inhabited by voters who
>>> believe that walking and cycling are activities that we want to
>>> encourage over the consumption of gas (and the belching of
>>> exhaust), the acquisition of status symbols and the constant
>>> quest for ever larger, ever "safer" vehicles that are more and
>>> more likely to be a weapon than a shield when crushing a
>>> pedestrian or cyclist.  The only person possibly more grateful
>>> for the accident averted than the victim and family is the driver
>>> who avoided the guilt, the responsibility and the criminal
>>> charges that typically go with a fatality.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanking you in advance for taking the Bull by the horn on this
>>> one, resolving to track this issue closely to make sure that you
>>> do, and encouraging others to do the same,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Philip "Increasingly a Whack Job and Wing Nut for Pedestrian and
>>> Cyclist Safety, especially for Students in and around School
>>> Zones" Azar
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> P.S.  All -- If deemed worthy for a cross post, go for it.  This
>>> discussion has been too internal, too local for too long.  Don't
>>> back off!  If you've already expressed a concern on a listserv or
>>> dug out a little history, please forward it to the addresses
>>> above with cc:s to the listservs unless there is a really good
>>> reason not to.  (Always a good idea to encourage some action and
>>> find something to be positive about.)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> P.P.S.  If you are in a neighborhood that has lots of drivers
>>> that go through Trinity Park and other neighborhoods during
>>> morning and afternoon "is the rush worth it" periods, please be
>>> sure to post.  Please don't kill our children (or our adults).
>>> Awareness is the first step.  Ditto for us Trinity Parkers, just
>>> because people from other areas speed in our neighborhood,
>>> doesn't mean we don't ever speed here or in other neighborhoods.
>>> Let's not kill anyone's children (or adults).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _____
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>>
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