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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Vision Zero Durham

Remembering John Allore

As I was preparing to write this post last Thursday about our Vision Zero Durham rally and comments at the City Council public hearing on March 20, I heard the tragic news that John Allore, Durham’s budget director, had been killed while riding his bike in western Orange County.  I had known John from my years working at GoTriangle and more recently through Bike Durham’s advocacy on City budget priorities.  My impression of John was always that he was genuine, caring, and good at his work for the City.  I was also always interested to hear about his acting, too.  He was an avid bike rider, both for recreation, and as a commuter (bike-bus-bike from Carrboro to Durham).

I have been in touch with some of his family, as well as his colleagues at the City, about whether there is support we can offer to honor John’s memory.  We are also coordinating with advocates in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, where John lived.  As a reminder to all, we will host the annual Ride of Silence on Wednesday, May 17 at 6pm, starting downtown at CCB Plaza.  

John’s death is yet another tragic reminder that the time is past due for the local, regional, and state governments to change our approach to transportation to Vision Zero. 

Calling for Vision Zero Durham at City Hall

On Monday, March 20th, nearly fifty people gathered at the intersection of W. Main, Morgan, and Watts Streets to rally for safer streets and to protect one another as we rode to City Hall for the public hearing on the budget.  BIke Durham Advocacy Committee Co-Chair Erik Landfried remembered Tysiea Gurley and Mike Possley who had both been killed recently while crossing Durham streets.  He also spoke about the serious injuries suffered by Noah Goyette when the bike lanes on West Main Street were blocked by idling cars and he hit a pothole when swerving to avoid the cars.  On behalf of Bike Durham, Erik called for the City to invest in a Vision Zero Durham agenda:

• Fund a full-time, dedicated Vision Zero Coordinator. The person in this position will lead an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary team in identifying, prioritizing, and implementing measures to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries. It’s important to hire this position now as a Vision Zero Action plan will be developed later this year.

• Fund the repair of existing sidewalks, bring curb ramps up to ADA standards and convert all existing bike lanes into protected bike lanes.

• Provide annual funding commitments for traffic calming and the completion of safe city-wide sidewalk and protected bike lane networks.  

Residents, many with their bikes, gathered to rally for safer streets.

Brian Hawkins spoke on behalf of the Durham Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC), stating, “...what we are asking for is the city to prioritize the usability and safety of the infrastructure in which we have already invested. Bike lanes are a welcome addition to our cityscape, but it is clear that simply painting a stripe on the road is not sufficient. In fact, we would argue that a bike lane that is suddenly and unpredictably unavailable creates a more dangerous situation than no bike lane at all, which we saw right here last month.

We call on the City Council to prioritize the following to address this issue: 

1. The addition of physical barriers to existing bike lanes

2. More consistent enforcement of parking restrictions 

3. A program and policy whereby the City conducts public visits to sites of serious and/or deadly crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists, and produces crash memos that describe how similar tragedies can be avoided in the future”

Following the media event, we created a cyclist-protected bike lane to start our ride to City Hall for the public hearing.  Seven of us signed up to speak to Council in support of the Vision Zero Durham agenda.  I highly encourage you to watch the remarks made at this link.  In addition to powerful comments in support of the Vision Zero approach to traffic safety, there were others advocating for expansion of the community safety department, known as the HEART program.

We received excellent media coverage, including CBS17, WRAL, News & Observer, IndyWeek, and 9th Street Journal.  

Why Do We Advocate for Vision Zero?

Bike Durham was incorporated ten years ago as a voice for residents who wanted streets safe for people on bicycles.  We have since broadened our vision to a transportation system that is safe, affordable, and sustainable for everyone, regardless of who they are or where they live.  One key approach to achieving this vision is known as Vision Zero.

According to the Vision Zero Network, Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proven successful in communities across Europe — and is now gaining momentum in American cities and states.

Vision Zero is not just a catchy slogan.  It is a fundamentally different approach to thinking about our transportation system.  

Again according to Vision Zero Network, Vision Zero is a significant departure from the status quo in two major ways:

1. This approach recognizes that people will sometimes make mistakes, so the road system and related policies should be designed to ensure those inevitable mistakes do not result in severe injuries or fatalities. This means that system designers and policymakers at the city, state, and federal levels are expected to improve the roadway environment, policies (such as speed management), and other related systems to lessen the severity of crashes.

2.  This approach is multidisciplinary, bringing together diverse and necessary stakeholders to address this complex problem. In the past, meaningful, cross-disciplinary collaboration among local and state traffic planners and engineers, policymakers, and public health professionals has not been the norm. Vision Zero acknowledges that many factors contribute to safe mobility — including roadway design, speeds, behaviors, technology, and policies — and sets clear goals to achieve the shared goal of zero fatalities and severe injuries.

More is described in Vision Zero Network’s document Core Elements for Vision Zero Communities and their recorded webinar Vision Zero 101.

Here in Durham, the City Council adopted a Vision Zero resolution back in 2017, following the adoption of a Vision Zero program at the state level in 2015.  Our regional transportation organization also adopted a goal of zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050.  The goals have been set, but the paradigm shift has not occurred.  In recent meetings with NCDOT engineers, it is clear that safety is not yet prioritized ahead of minimizing traffic delay.  We still hear City staff putting too much emphasis on the behaviors of people driving, walking, biking, or rolling, and accepting enough responsibility for the changes that they could make to our streets to encourage slow speeds and safe spaces for everyone to use our streets.

We need our City leaders to recommit to Vision Zero through this year’s budget by approving:

• Funds for a full-time, dedicated Vision Zero Coordinator. The person in this position will lead an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary team in identifying, prioritizing, and implementing measures to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries. It’s important to hire this position now as a Vision Zero Action plan will be developed later this year.

• Funds for the repair of existing sidewalks, bring curb ramps up to ADA standards and convert all existing bike lanes into protected bike lanes.

• Annual funding commitments for traffic calming and the completion of safe city-wide sidewalk and protected bike lane networks.  

You can sign our petition in support of the Vision Zero Agenda and share it with your friends.  Our goal is 500 signatures by April 30.

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

Attendees standing vigil for the 22 victims of traffic violence in Durham during 2022. Luminaries were placed in the outside lanes of Guess Road at the trail crossing as a symbol of the type of measure that we would like considered to make this crossing, where Matt Simpson was killed while on his bicycle, safer for everyone.

On the Sunday, November 20, about 50 of us gathered at Westover Park for Bike Durham’s first observance of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.  It was a simple, yet powerful event.  We called for the City to complete a Vision Zero Action Plan by next November showing the roadmap for getting to zero deaths or serious injuries from traffic violence.  We also called for the City Council to fund a full-time, dedicated Vision Zero Coordinator to lead this work. 

Tyler Dewey, representing the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee, said that for those who are walking, biking, or rolling on Durham’s streets, “The dangers are clear to us, but they don’t define us…Our vulnerability is not inherent to our bodies. It is imposed on us by systems and institutions that value speed over human life.” He continued, “There is a way forward…We must build for a people-centered future, rather than our car-dependent present.”

City transportation director Sean Egan confirmed the City’s commitment to Vision Zero and said that the city has applied, together with the regional transportation planning organization, for a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant to develop a regional Vision Zero Action Plan.

Council member Javiera Caballero also spoke, challenging Durham residents to tackle transportation safety challenges the same way that we have tackled affordable housing. She said, “We need to be the…leader in the state. I know we can do it. When we put a bond, which is coming, in front of you all, we need you to resoundingly vote yes.”

Bike Durham executive director John Tallmadge and Bridget Bell lighting a candle for the vigil

Then Bridget Bell read a statement prepared by her friend Allison Simpson - widow of Matt Simpson who was killed while riding his bike across Guess Road, just steps from where we gathered.  This emotional moment was followed by lighting hand-held candles and reading the names of the twenty-two road traffic victims who had died this year in Durham, as well as 14-year old Riverside student Aliyah Thornhill who was killed while walking on a dark road in Oak Ridge, NC on Halloween.

We finished the vigil by placing luminaries in the outside lanes of Guess Road to narrow it from four lanes to two at the crossing where Matt Simpson was killed.  Twenty-two of the luminaries had the names of the victims and/or the dates of their crash. We all stood for twenty-two minutes to honor their memories and watched drivers slowly pass using the two center lanes of Guess Road.  We were grateful to the Durham Police Department for keeping us safe while we placed the luminaries in the street and retrieved them, and for producing this video summary of the event.

Asst. Chief David Anthony & other members of DPD participated in a vigil held by @BikeDurham at Westover Park for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Luminaires were placed on Guess Rd to remember the 22 victims who have died in road crashes in Durham this year pic.twitter.com/oXRz76eEg4

— DurhamPoliceNC (@TheDurhamPolice) November 21, 2022

The following day at the city council meeting, council member Monique Holsey-Hyman (who also attended Sunday’s vigil) read a Mayor’s proclamation recognizing November 20th, 2022 as the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in Durham. Allison Simpson was able to make brief remarks virtually on Zoom in accepting the proclamation. You can watch the reading and Allison’s remarks here.

Our local event, covered by CBS 17 and ABC 11, was part of a larger, growing movement for Vision Zero across the country and world.  More than sixty communities in the U.S. and hundreds across the world held Day of Remembrance events on November 20th (recap here) with the theme of “Remember. Support. Act”.  

Importantly, US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sat down for an interview recognizing the Day of Remembrance (you can read remarks from the Secretary and watch a recording of his comments here). This was an important reminder that this year the federal government has set a direction to eliminate deaths and serious injuries.  NCDOT adopted a Vision Zero policy in 2015, the City of Durham adopted a Vision Zero resolution in 2017, and our regional transportation planning organization adopted a goal of zero deaths or serious injuries due to traffic violence by 2050.  

The direction has been set and is aligned from the federal to the state to the regional to the local level.  But resolutions and policy statements won’t save lives. This past Sunday, The NY Times ran a story about how the number of roadway deaths in the U.S. began increasing in recent years while it has continued to fall in countries across the world.

Now it is past time for our leaders and government agencies to act on their commitments.  Bike Durham will be working with partners and supporters to move our local, regional, and state governments to action in Durham, starting with our calls for a Vision Zero Action Plan to be completed by the 2023 Day of Remembrance and for funding a full-time, dedicated Vision Zero Coordinator.