A Great First Week of Bike Month 2022

Big Turnout for Biking Fun Festival at Glenn Elementary

April 30

Last Saturday we had a huge turnout for a Bike Fun Fest at Glenn Elementary.  There were more than 70 kids from Glenn and the surrounding neighborhoods and we gave away 65 helmets while the kids practiced their biking skills.  Thanks to a donation from Ninth Street Bakery​, everyone (including me) also enjoyed delicious cookies.  This was a capstone to the four-session bicycle safety training class that the 4th graders at Glenn Elementary completed during the month of May. A big thanks to Principal Hunt and Coach Matheson for all their support.

May 1

On Sunday, we launched a couple of rides from Hi-Wire Brewing. We had a good turnout, and a great time, and appreciate the participation of the Durham Bike Co-op​, Rescue Project Racing​, and Trek Cycles. Thanks to Jacopo Montobbio and Christy LaGuardia for leading the rides.

On Sunday, Ali Shoenfelt and Nikola Milenkovic also held the second of five walk-audits scheduled for the Old West Durham and Watts-Hillandale neighborhoods as part of the traffic calming plan that the neighborhood association boards asked us to develop with financial support from Duke Doing Good. You can learn more about that project on our website.

Council member Javiera Caballero joins with students and teachers from Merrick-Moore Elementary on Bike, Walk, and Roll to School Day

May 4-6

Wednesday was Walk, Bike, and Roll to School day.  Fourteen Durham public schools held events on the 4th, 5th, or 6th, and six more will hold events later this month. This represents thousands of students who are getting out and walking, biking, or rolling. Many Durham schools do not have safe routes for students to walk or bike to school, even if they live a few blocks away. Bike, Walk, and Roll to School days are a great way to bring attention to this issue and for the schools to celebrate the joy of walking, biking, and rolling.   You can learn more about our Safe Routes to School program here.

I can’t wait for the rest of Bike Month.

Our In-Person Presentation to the DPS Board of Education

Last Thursday, February 10th, I had the privilege of presenting an update on our Safe Routes to School program to the members of the Durham Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education.  And we were able to be there in-person!  This was a great opportunity to tell the story of the outstanding reception that we’ve been getting to our work in the schools and to share our plans for deepening our impact in the future.

You can watch the video of the presentation here (it should be set to start at the 2:14:40 mark).  The presentation is 15 minutes long and remarks from the Board members are another 12 minutes.  You can also view the slides independently here.

We have been developing and delivering Safe Routes to School programming under contract with the City of Durham since March of 2021.  Our work is shaped in part through bi-weekly video calls with Dale McKeel of the City’s Transportation Department and Mathew Palmer, DPS’s Executive Director of School Planning, Design and Construction where we discuss our plans and get support and advice from Dale and Mathew.  This opportunity came about through discussion of our desire to deepen the relationship we have, not just with leaders at individual elementary schools, but with district-level leaders.  We are scheduled to make a similar presentation to the Durham City Council on March 24th. 

We are seeking additional Bicycle Safety Educators  

If you are interested in working with the Safe Routes to School team teaching bicycle safety skills to 4th or 5th grade students, please see the job description here.  

Black History Month Slide Deck for Elementary School Students

Stephen Mullaney of our Safe Routes to School Team, and a DPS outdoor learning specialist put together a slide deck for Black History month that highlights Black individuals on bikes from historic figures across the country to current day here in Durham.  This has been shared with all Durham elementary schools.  You can view it yourself here.

May 4th is Bike and Roll to School Day

Every May is Bike Month, and this year the national Bike and Roll to School Day is May 4th. Last October, more than 5,000 students at thirteen DPS elementary schools participated in Walk and Roll to School events. We want this May to be even bigger! We will be supporting administrators, teachers, and parents with planning activities for this May. More details to come. If you’d like to discuss ideas for your school now, please email us at saferoutes@bikedurham.org.

Photo from October 2021 Walk and Bike to School Day at Eastway Elementary

Bike Durham Hears Support for Protected Bike/Walk Lanes from Residents Around North Miami Boulevard

On June 24th, Bike Durham joined with staff from Durham’s Department of Transportation to talk with neighbors of North Miami Boulevard about a proposal to add protective posts to the bike/walk lanes planned for this stretch of street between Raynor Street and East Geer Street.  This is a stretch of street where three people have been hit by drivers while walking in the past two years.  

The first woman who stopped to speak with us was Ms. Brown.  She was using her powered wheelchair in the curb-side travel lane because there is no sidewalk on stretches of the street.  She liked the idea of adding the bike lanes with protective posts so that she has a designated space to operate her wheelchair.  Next we spoke with Mr. Davis who lived around the corner.  He told us that he had purchased a bicycle two years ago, but doesn’t ride it because the streets are too dangerous.  He also supported adding bike/walk lanes with protective posts so that he could bike or walk his dogs in them.

In all, we heard from twenty-one residents who were all concerned that too many drivers go too fast up and down North Miami Boulevard, and reported hearing or seeing crashes on a regular basis.  In addition to speeding concerns, we heard concerns about gun violence in the area.  This is an important reminder that we need to think beyond street design in our advocacy for safe and healthy streets for everyone.

The City had already planned to restripe this street to reduce the driving lanes to one in each direction, adding buffered bike/walk lanes to each side.  In 2019, the City held their own public input process for re-striping this street and eight other streets totaling just over eight miles of new buffered bike lanes.  These projects, all funded with federal grant funds, were all delayed last year by NCDOT when they decided to slow down spending due to their financial problems.  We received grant funds from the American Heart Association to work with the City to install protective posts on buffered bike lanes.  This project should be completed this Fall.

We are hoping to secure additional funding to continue this work with residents in the neighborhoods where all eight miles of planned buffered bike/walk lanes that the City will stripe this Fall.  If they are supportive, we’d like to see all of these bike/walk lanes protected with posts. 

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.   

Transit Is Essential Connection to Healthcare Jobs

Standing away from the others at the bus shelter in front of the Duke Medical Center, Jani Hale waits for her GoDurham bus.  Wearing her light blue surgical gloves, she’s ready to take the bus home at the end of day working for Duke University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.  She rides every day and has noticed that it is a lot emptier on the buses since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Durham.  She has continued to ride because it’s her only way to work, and she appreciates that there is hand sanitizer on-board and that the city of Durham has recently made the buses free of charge. “It kinda lessens the heavy weight that we’re all carrying right now.”

Jani Hale, Duke University Medical Center Employee, waits on GoDurham Route 20

Photo Credit: John Tallmadge

On Sunday night, the City of Durham, followed by GoTriangle, the City of Raleigh, and the Town of Cary, suspended fares and required boarding through the rear doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As reported Monday in the Raleigh News & Observer, Sean Egan, transportation director for the City of Durham said these measures are intended to keep customers and employees safe. “GoDurham operators and all of our front-line colleagues face the same pressures as everyone else right now,” Egan said in a written statement. 

“They have families, kids out of school, loved ones with health concerns, and others may know someone already impacted by COVID-19. Despite these pressures, and despite understandable concerns, our workforce is showing up out of a sense of duty to the community.”

Egan said GoDurham will continue to operates as long as it is “safe and appropriate to do so.”  Durham Mayor Steve Schewel shared in an email that he’s “worried about the social distancing on buses.”  He is discussing with partners whether to run extra buses on busy routes “so we can cut down on the number of people on each bus. I’m not sure this is going to be able to happen, but I think it would be good if we could do it.”  

Jen an Occupational Therapist at Duke Hospital who lives about two miles from the hospital on Route 11B, remarked that “everybody seems to be adhering to the precautions about being six feet apart.  I just try to be careful and carry hand sanitizer with me and not touch anything.”

If the local bus systems or GoTriangle stopped running their services, or significantly cut back on their frequency, most remaining passengers would have few, if any, remaining options.   While Jen has a car, she does not pay for a parking space at Duke Medical Center, so if the buses stopped running, she believes that “she would be in a bit of trouble.”  Jen thinks she “might have to ask friends for a ride, which would be very inconvenient and scary for them.  They don’t want to be close to others right now when we’re supposed to be socially distancing.  I think that the bus is probably a better way to socially distance oneself than carpooling.”

Masti, a young woman who works in a lab at Duke University Medical Center, rides GoTriangle route 405 and connects to Chapel Hill Transit routes.  She has already had to adjust to last week’s cutback in Chapel Hill service to less frequent Saturday levels.  Monday morning, she missed her connection to work and ended up calling Uber to get to her job.  If GoTriangle were to discontinue or reduce service levels she is afraid she couldn’t come to work or would have to pay for an Uber most days.  Doug M., who works at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, and uses the same route as Masti, expects he would reluctantly switch to driving or taking Uber to work. 

Ms. Hale has considered biking, but like in most cities, few of the streets in Durham have been designed to be safe for all users.  She mapped out a bike route, but found “they don’t have the bike lane throughout the whole path coming here, so that would be kinda dangerous.”  She called out Duke University Road, Academy Road and University Drive as the three main roads along her route where she wouldn’t feel safe on a bike.  Jen also considered biking but noted that on day’s like Monday when it was raining, “it wouldn’t really be convenient to have to change once I got to work.”

For Hale, keeping the buses running is essential.  “Yeah, I don’t know what I would do if the bus system was to stop running.  I wouldn’t be able to get to work.  Where I live and where I work was based on the bus route.”  

NOTE: This post is the first in a series about how people are using transit and bicycles during the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Durham.