jrees's blog
Snow blankets our streets and sidewalks and covers the ugly. For a brief period of time there is a quiet beauty in cities and towns. Snow also acts as an important indicator of usage, if we choose to pay attention and use this information to improve our infrastructure. On streets, the snow reveals how narrow a lane can be, and how slip lanes (a bane of pedestrians) are unnecessary and can prototype, to transportation planners, where they can be easily eliminated.
The Morgan creek trail has been in place and heavily used by residents of Chapel Hill for some time. The paths popularity is in spite of being isolated and lacking any connectivity at the ends. Most people, wanting to enjoy this fine path must drive on a highway, and then park their cars in a lot that is often overflowing on weekends. Families, living only a couple hundred yards away on either end, have no safe way to reach the greenway other than to drive there in a car.
Town counter data backs up how popular this trail really is. A counter, installed on the path last year, recorded an average of 307 trips per day on the trail over the last 329 days. A total of 101,297 trips in all. Most users of the trail pass the counter twice as they head in and out from the lot, so that is over 50 thousand trips in less than a year.
When I have run past the lot for this trail, and seen bikes loaded up on cars, I wondered why the town cannot make it fully accessible to the thousands that use it. My feelings were this situation is a failure in urban planning to have a recreational facility that requires a majority of the people to drive there to access *
Tonight, the town is holding a meeting in Southern Village to discuss traffic concerns and a recent plan to restripe the market street area. The meeting is on (tonight) Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Ascension Hall at the Christ United Methodist Church.
The traffic concerns arise from neighbors encountering speeding cars, especially on Edgewater Drive. The town actually conducted a study last summer on this street and came up with a plan to add traffic calming devices on this road.
Anyone living on Edgewater welcomed this. However, some neighbors on other streets opposed it, citing their belief that cars would simply reroute down THEIR street. For people not familiar with Southern Village, the streets that connect to Edgewater are all narrow, and very hilly. Neither of these features will entice 'cut through' traffic.
On Tuesday, February 9th, the Town of Chapel Hill will be seeking public input on some rather sizeable pedestrian and bicycle improvements on Estes drive. This half mile stretch runs from the light near Phillips Middle School, to MLK Blvd. and will cost nearly $2.6 million.
This stretch of road is a key East west connector for cars, and could also be the same for cyclists. The improvement would make it more practical for children to actually walk to school, it would also make cycling practical for trips that originated from the area near Whole Foods and Staples, as well as the various new projects sprouting up in the Ephesus-Fordham area.
My wife and I attended the food truck rodeo near Al's Garage this recent Saturday. There were five food trucks: Captain Ponchos Tacos, Parlez Vous Crepe, Only Burger, Will and Pops, Blue Sky Dining. I enjoyed the event, and since I have frequented all of the vendors except for Blue Sky, that is where I bought my dinner. There was a good turnout, and many of my friends were there too. We all had a good time. Here are a few comments I have about the experience.
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