After a long delay, the City is going forward with plans to reconfigure Cornwallis Road from Chapel Hill Road to South Roxboro Street, to be completed in 2025. While we commend the City for improving bicycle and pedestrian facilities, design standards have evolved in the 20 years that have gone by since the plan was initially conceived.

Before the Thanksgiving break, Bike Durham sent a letter to City staff with our feedback on the project. The letter is reproduced in full below. Here are our key recommendations:

Separated facilities for those walking, biking, scooting, or rolling must be included in every street project in Durham, including Cornwallis Road.
A planning-level estimate of the additional cost and time necessary to complete this project according to best practices should be provided. Without such an estimate, the public, staff, and elected officials cannot adequately weigh whether maintaining the current design is a worthwhile tradeoff.
Projects that consider pedestrian, bicycle, or transit elements and/or are initiated by the Durham Transportation Department should be developed through at least 30% engineering by Transportation staff so that the intention and integrity of the projects can be carried through a more advanced design phase.
An analysis should be done to determine the causes that lead projects like Cornwallis Road to take over 20 years from conception to completion and recommend corrective actions for future projects.
More flexibility needs to be built into the process to allow for changes that reflect new best practices, particularly if projects are going to take decades to complete.