Bike Durham Releases Delivering Durham Report

PRESS RELEASE:  

Bike Durham Releases Delivering Durham Report Recommending Changes to Speed Up Durham Completion of Transportation Infrastructure Projects

Durham, NC - On November 5th, more than 75% of Durham voters said yes to a $115 million bond referendum to fund the completion of sidewalks and streets projects. One of the projects to be completed with the money is 1.5 miles of new sidewalks and bike lanes on Morreene Road between Erwin Road and Neal Road in west Durham. This project has been in development since 2012 - even earlier in the planning phase. Many residents and safe streets advocates have been wondering why this project, and others like it, are taking so long for the City to complete.

Bike Durham, one of the leading groups advocating in support of the bond, has released a new report, Delivering Durham - four case studies on transportation projects in Durham and ten recommendations for how the City of Durham can speed up the delivery of the bond projects and other projects that are earlier in the project delivery pipeline. Bike Durham executive director John Tallmadge states, “This is a clear-eyed look at what’s been happening to slow these projects down. There are real shortcomings, but nothing that can’t be fixed, and we believe the City is committed to doing better.”

The report looks at what has happened with the recently completed Neighborhood Bike Routes project, the Morreene Road project, a completed sidewalk project on Chapel Hill Road, and the bus stop improvement program (coordinated with GoTriangle). Joe Wilson, Bike Durham’s policy intern, did dozens of interviews with City staff and staff at NCDOT and the regional transportation planning organization. He also pored over project data that was available, but spread over numerous websites.  “One of our recommendations is that the City should create a one-stop website source for information on all of the transportation projects in Durham.  Currently, it’s nearly impossible for an interested resident to know where to look for an up-to-date status on a transportation project,” said Wilson. 

This is just one of ten recommendations (see page 2 for the full list) that Bike Durham urges the City staff and elected leadership to pursue.  Others range from project management process changes to taking over maintenance responsibility for key streets in Durham. Tallmadge said, “These are common-sense changes that will make a noticeable difference speeding up transportation project completion. We know that some of them are already in discussion at the City. It’s time to make them happen.”

MORE INFO: Full report is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eb-Zwr11Xt1_KkZoArv9x7HgKkwgMiFC/view?usp=sharing

Abbreviated StoryMap is available at https://bikedurham.org/delivering-durham 

Bike Durham Recommendations to Speed Up Delivery of Transportation Projects

1. Fund more projects locally.

2. Fund preliminary project design in department budgets, rather than through the CIP.

3. Accept maintenance responsibility from the NCDOT on key streets.

4. Train staff on Federal Highway Administration standards and on the requirements of NCDOT collaboration.

5. Hire or assign a program manager to guide the portfolio of transportation projects.

6. Join the North Carolina Benchmarking Project.

7. Adopt a street design manual.

8. Begin property acquisition for a project at 60% design.

9. Actively evaluate and invest in staff capacity.

10. Develop an accessible and authoritative capital projects viewer.

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Bike and Walk to School Day at Merrick-Moore Elementary

Fourth grade students walking around Merrick-Moore Elementary on Bike and Walk AT School Day

Tuesday morning I biked from Sherwood Park in east Durham to Merrick-Moore Elementary School at 2325 Cheek Road in east Durham where students were getting outside to walk around the school campus as part of national Walk and Bike to School Day.*  It was good to see the kids outside, and they clearly enjoyed the break from the classroom, but this was certainly not walking and biking TO school.  The reason this was a walk AT school event was clear when Dr. Vannessa Alford, principal at the school, asked the Kindergarten students why none of them walk to school.  One of them called out “No sidewalks!”

Where the sidewalk ends at Merrick-Moore Elementary

Merrick-Moore Elementary is located on Cheek Road, a two-lane road with no shoulder and incomplete sidewalks.  The school is a key institution in the Merrick-Moore neighborhood, a historically Black neighborhood that has a history of advocating for more walkable streets. “My community has lobbied for many years for safer streets. Sidewalks are needed more than ever,” Bonita Green, neighbor and President of Merrick-Moore Community Development Corporation told me in an email.

This isn’t just an issue at Merrick-Moore Elementary.  Bike Durham’s Safe Routes to School Program Manager Jen McDuffie identified fifteen Durham Public Schools’ elementary schools that don't have safe streets for walking or biking around them.  That’s more than half of the 29 DPS elementary schools.  We know that parents aren’t going to allow their kids to walk or bike to school unless they feel that it’s safe.  Investing in these connections to schools, and addressing other safety concerns that parents and children feel, have to be priorities before every child can experience the joy and independence of walking or biking to school. 

Events like these are one way to raise awareness of the benefits that biking and walking to school can bring to the kids and also the parents.  Two of our daughters attended E.K. Powe Elementary, right around the corner from our house, connected with sidewalks.  When they were in fourth and fifth grades, they would walk independently to and from school.  It was a great feeling of independence for them, and it freed my wife and me from having to race home from work to pick them up each day. 

These events are also an opportunity to identify the obstacles, like poor or missing infrastructure.  This event at Merrick-Moore was organized by Stephen Mullaney, an accelerated teacher at the school, and supported by Bike Durham’s Safe Routes to School Program Manager Jen McDuffie.  It was attended by School Board member Natalie Beyer, City Council members Jillian Johnson and Pierce Freelon, and Durham Transportation department staff Bill Judge and Dale McKeel.  Along with Dr. Alford, we had good conversations about the need to connect Merrick-Moore and the surrounding neighborhoods with sidewalks, and other strategies to advance the outdoor education at the school.

As I left the school, I was thankful for a lot of things:  that Bike Durham has this new partnership with the City and DPS to provide Safe Routes to School programming; that there are teachers like Stephen Mullaney and principals like Dr. Alford who are leaders in getting kids outdoors and active; that we have elected leadership that supports investing in sidewalks and bicycle facilities; and that all the pick up trucks were giving me wide berth as they passed me along Cheek Road.  

 *May 5th is actually the national Walk and Bike to School Day.  However, there wasn’t any biking or walking to public schools in Durham today because Wednesdays are Wellness Days for Durham Public Schools, meaning that students don’t have class in-person or remote.