Calling Bike Durham Advocates!
UPDATE: In light of the COVID-19 containment recommendations, the City is asking that all comments for Monday's City Council public budget hearing to be submitted electronically.
There are 2 ways to be heard:
Send in comments on the budget by email at council@durhamnc.gov
Answer the 3 short questions in our survey by clicking the button below. We’ll gather your responses and present them to the Council. Please respond by tomorrow, Monday, March 16 at 5pm.
If you would like to watch the hearing, you can tune in online via video livestream on Monday at 7pm.
Tl;dr: Our request
1. Support the proposed FY2020-21 Durham Department of Transportation budget and all the capital project requests for infrastructure to improve walking and biking facilities.
2. Fully fund the 2017 Bike + Walk Plan
3. Establish a quick-build program budget of $500,000 in FY 2021 for a Low-Stress Network and on-street transit reliability improvements. Continue this program, committing $4m annually through 2025.
We do not accept that traffic deaths are an inevitable price to pay for our mobility.
In Durham County during the five-year period between 2014 and 2018, there were:
1,094 crashes between people driving cars and people walking (855) or biking (239)
30 people were killed and 53 were suspected to have serious injuries
African-Americans who were walking and biking were disproportionately victims of crashes compared with their representation in the county population, especially among those who were killed or seriously injured while walking
Source: NCDOT 2014-2018
Proposal for a City-Wide Low-Stress Network
In support of the City’s Vision Zero initiative, its values for creating an equitable Durham, and the Mayor’s call for cities to lead in fighting climate change, Bike Durham proposes creation of a city-wide “Low-Stress Network” of protected (“light individualized transportation” or LIT) lanes and intersections, slow streets (aka Neighborhood Bike Routes), and greenways for all residents to safely walk, ride bikes or scooters, or use wheelchairs to travel around Durham.
We commend the progress that the City Council and staff have been making to establish strong goals and in planning new projects that designate LIT lanes or that improve transit schedule reliability. However, we find the following shortcomings to the current approach:
Project delivery is taking too long
Project designs and installations do not reliably include slowing traffic or physical barriers for protection of vulnerable LIT users
The piecemeal funding by project, rather than program, results in isolated projects rather than a more usable network
Our Ask of the Durham City Council:
Fully fund the remaining projects in the Bike+Walk Plan that are capital projects not well-suited to a Quick-Build approach.
Reduce posted speed limits on designated Neighborhood Bike Routes to 20 miles per hour. Add traffic calming measures as needed until 80% of drivers travel below that speed.
Set a goal of 125 new miles of a “Low-Stress Network” of slow streets, protected LIT lanes, and greenways by 2025.
Establish policy that all new on-street LIT lanes on streets with speed limits over 25 mph will provide physical separation from traffic through vertical barriers and protected intersections.
Create a team of staff to develop a Quick-Build program for delivering projects, by March 2021, using low-cost, temporary materials (versus civil works construction) that considers the engagement period to extend past installation of the initial design.
Establish a Quick-Build program budget of $500,000 in FY2021 and $4,000,000 annually through 2025 to fund a Low-Stress Network and on-street transit reliability improvements so that staff can proceed with developing a quick-build approach with confidence that the projects have the funding available for implementation.
Request the staff to report on progress annually in terms of mileage of Low-Stress Network implemented and improvements to transit time reliability.