The Skinny
As part of their 2018 Bicycle Improvements, the City of Durham, with help from Alta Planning & Design, is working on the design for restriping Broad Street (Main to Guess) and South Roxboro Street (Cornwallis to Summit) to include bike lanes. These two are being done first because NCDOT plans to resurface both roads this summer.
Links for Project Information
Broad Street (includes three design options and a survey).
South Roxboro Street (a single option and a survey).
Timeline
This summer. No deadlines for initial comments or surveys have been given, but they should be provided as soon as possible. A public meeting is promised, but has not yet been scheduled. NCDOT already has contracts to resurface both roads this summer.
Bike Durham’s Goals for Both Projects
Protected bike lanes on both sides of the street are essential on each corridor. The lanes should be carried through intersections and connect with adjacent bicycle infrastructure. Vertical delineators should be added immediately and permanent barriers should be added within two years of the restriping. Travel lanes should be narrowed to slow traffic. Bus stops should be designed to minimize conflicts between buses and cyclists.
Design Options for Broad Street: Three options are presented.
Option A should not be considered. It puts cyclists in the door zone of parked cars and would not allow for protected lanes on one side of the street.
Bike Durham supports Option B with one significant adjustment - if another foot can be taken from somewhere, preferably the travel lanes and/or parking lane, there could be a two foot buffer (enough for vertical delineators in the short term and a more permanent solution in the longer term) for the bike lanes not protected by parking.
If the adjustment to Option B can be made to ensure protected bike lanes on both sides of the street, Option C is not necessary. We recognize that this will risk an unnecessary fight with the business owners along Broad Street who are concerned about losing on-street parking. That said, it is the only option that includes protected bike lanes on both sides as currently shown and should be considered for blocks where on-street parking is rare. Our understanding is the Option B can include protected facilities, but was simply not rendered with vertical elements. Thus, a mix of an adjusted Option B with protected bike lanes on both sides where parking is needed, and Option C where parking is not needed, would be the best of both worlds.
The other option we have heard suggested by members of the community is a two-way protected cycle track. The City has indicated NCDOT would not support this design and that there would be additional signal and curb movement costs that the City has not budgeted. It also creates a tricky transition to the traditional bike lanes found at either end of the corridor. Therefore, Bike Durham does not recommend this design treatment.
Other Considerations for Broad Street
Bike Durham encourages the removal of turn lanes at unsignalized intersections along Broad Street to continue the bike lane protections as long as possible. Similarly, continuing the protected bike lanes through the ends of the corridor (at Main Street and Guess Road) is crucial to connect with the bike lanes on Main Street and on Broad Street north of Guess Road. While outside of the resurfacing project, the lack of bike lanes on Broad Street just north of the Guess Road intersection is a barrier to having a continuous cycling corridor along Broad Street and should be restriped to include bike lanes.
Design Option for South Roxboro Street
A single option is presented:
Bike Durham supports this proposal but requests that the City consider adding on-street sidewalks on the west side of South Roxboro Road, where they are currently absent. Since the proposed buffer between the travel lanes and bike lanes is ample (7 feet on both sides!), Bike Durham believes the City should consider using 5-6 feet of that to create an on-street sidewalk similar to this one in Seattle:
