Southside Neighborhood Association Wins Impressive Traffic Calming Strategy

Last Tuesday I attended a Southside Neighborhood Association meeting to see the City Transportation staff's presentation responding to resident requests for traffic calming throughout the neighborhood.  With their consultant, Timmons Group, they shared their intent to install the following measures along West Enterprise Street: 

  • a raised crosswalk (and future flashing lights) at the American Tobacco Trail crossing

  • a traffic circle at the intersection with Fargo St (pending approval from Fire Department)

  • curb extensions (bump-outs) at the intersections with South Street and Scout Drive

  • two speed cushions in the two blocks between South St and South Roxboro St

This is a very impressive set of strategies that really address the residents’ desires for safer streets. Taken together, they will send clear visual and physical signals to drivers to slow down and watch out for people walking and biking. It will also reduce conflict points between cars at the intersections with South and Fargo Streets.

The City staff also shared that they will add curb extensions at thirteen additional intersections throughout the neighborhood along South Street and Scout Drive.  The fact that these measures will be installed throughout the neighborhood is a sign that City staff are serious about slowing speeds on City-maintained streets.  It builds upon their work last year to install traffic calming measures addressing concerns raised by the Bragtown Community Association.

Camillia Foust, longtime resident and current neighborhood association president, shared that for many years, residents have been requesting measures to slow drivers down, particularly at the intersection of Enterprise and South Streets where they have had a history of shootings.  She, and everyone, was pleased with the proposed measures that the City staff and their consultant presented.  "This has been a long-time coming."

This opportunity to address traffic calming throughout the neighborhood came about because the Public Works department is repaving all the neighborhood streets this summer.  Camillia had heard about Bike Durham's traffic calming work with other neighborhoods and invited our involvement to address the specific concerns at the intersection of Enterprise and South.  We were happy to become a partner and expand the work to the entire neighborhood through contracting with residents Stein Wexler and Kamaria Faison. You can read more about this project elsewhere on this website.

We think that this is a great model for the traffic calming plans that the City funded through the recently adopted budget. Those neighborhoods - Merrick-Moore, Lyon Park, Stokesdale, and Ganyard Farms - were identified through the Equitable Green Infrastructure outreach process. We'll be reaching out to those neighborhoods in the coming weeks.

This important work was supported by a grant from Duke Doing Good.

Southside Neighborhood Presents Traffic Calming Proposal to City Staff

The Our Streets Southside team has submitted the proposal for traffic calming on the neighborhood streets to the City Transportation staff. The proposal includes speed cushions, rumble strips, protected walking lanes, high visibility crosswalks, curb extensions/bulb outs, among other treatments (see below).

The proposal was the culmination of research led by Stein Wexler, and neighbor engagement led by Camillia Foust and Kamaria Faison. In addition to neighbor meetings, they also knocked doors, distributed flyers, and we all held a block party together on May 20th.

At the block party, we heard more ideas about the traffic calming proposals. Neighbors also brought fabrics to cut out letters for a beautiful banner installation at their community center that reads, “Build Community, Enjoy Outdoors.”

City staff has committed to evaluate these proposals and respond to the Southside Neighborhood Association. The City has also hired their own contractor to analyze options for reducing traffic speeds on Enterprise Street running east and west through the neighborhood. All of the streets in the neighborhood are scheduled for repaving this summer. Approved treatments would be implemented following the repaving.

This work has been supported by a grant through Duke Doing Good in the Neighborhood. We also want to thank Bull City United for working the grill and providing hot dogs at the block party.

Share Your Opinions on the Draft Traffic Calming Proposal

From the resident input gathered during the first phase of this project, we have developed a draft proposal for traffic calming strategies on the streets of Southside. The proposed interventions are all identified on a map in this file.

If you live in Southside, we want to know what you think of the proposed strategies, which include speed cushions, new crosswalk striping, curb extensions, and protected walking paths in the street where there are no sidewalks. Please review the map and take this brief survey to share your opinions.

We also invite you to come to the neighborhood block party on Saturday, April 22nd from 2pm to 4pm in South Street next to the community center at 201 Enterprise Street. In addition to discussing the proposed traffic calming plan, we’ll have food and drinks, traffic calming demonstrations, and activities for young and old! We hope to see you there!

Southside Neighbors Want Slower Traffic

Southside Neighborhood Association president Camllia Foust and neighbors discuss ideas for slower traffic

Southside residents Kamaria Faison (standing) and Stein Wexler (seated facing the camera) presented ideas for traffic calming at the February 21 neighborhood meeting

On the evening of February 21, residents of the Southside neighborhood gathered at the community center on the corner of Enterprise and South Streets to discuss strategies to slow traffic at that intersection and throughout the neighborhood. Rachel Wexler share the products of her research into the patterns of reported gunshots in the neighborhood, as well as traffic calming interventions. [Residents of the Southside neighborhood have long argued that there is a connection between the gun violence at that central intersection, and its location at the top of a hill with wide streets that make it easy to drive fast and see who’s coming for a long distance.] You can access the Our Streets Southside Workbook here.

Southside resident Kamaria Faison facilitated discussion among the attending residents to document which traffic calming interventions they wanted to see on their streets. City of Durham Transportation staff and their consultants were in attendance and listening to the residents’ ideas. The City’s consultants will be analyzing traffic calming strategies to slow traffic on Enterprise Street. Since all the streets in the neighborhood will be repaved this summer, the City Transportation staff committed to evaluating traffic calming strategies that the neighborhood brings forward for other streets in the neighborhood.

Project Update- June 1

Branches in your way? Time to contact Durham One Call! (Instructions below)

We at Bike Durham hope your summer is off to a great start, despite the heat! Later this week, the Safe Streets team will present our traffic-calming recommendations to representatives from the Old West Durham and Watts Hillandale neighborhood associations. The lead transportation engineer from the City of Durham will also be present, to advise us on the feasibility and timing of implementing our proposed solutions. We are hopeful! These preliminary recommendations focus on reducing dangerous driving and increasing pedestrian visibility, especially along 9th St. and Hillsborough Road, and near E.K. Powe Elementary and Westover and Oval Parks. Solutions are not limited to these areas, as they do reflect what we’ve heard from the community as a whole. We are grateful for your participation in our study!

We are excited to share our proposal and receive your feedback at an upcoming community meeting. We are waiting for a few details to come together before we can schedule this meeting, but plan to hold it in the next 10 days so we can complete this portion of our work before our deadline. Will you take this quick survey to help us choose a time that works for most? We appreciate your input and hope that many will take the time to attend this 90 minute meeting. A City transportation engineer will be available to answer your questions, so if you’re wondering what improvements might be possible on your street, here’s your chance to find out!

It’s a good time to advocate for safety and to look out for each other. Unfortunately, a young child was recently hit by a car (but is miraculously OK) on W. Woodrow Street. According to the family, the child was excitedly riding her bike from her driveway into the street and was hit by a car cutting through the neighborhood to avoid the traffic light at Club and Hillandale. A similar incident just happened in Trinity Park the other day- luckily, this child was also OK, but the potential for serious injury is alarming. Vision Zero for Youth is an excellent organization dedicated to eliminating traffic-related deaths- please check out their website for resources and ways to get involved.

We want to again encourage you to take advantage of Durham One Call to document safety hazards that can be addressed by the city. These may include:

  • Damaged/removed/obstructed traffic signage (i.e. vegetation overgrowth, worn-out signs)

  • Damaged pavement or sidewalk (i.e. potholes, tree roots shifting/cracking sidewalk slabs)

  • Worn paint markings (i.e. crosswalk, school zone, bike lane)

  • Street cleaning and litter removal (i.e. broken glass or trash left in the right of way)

  • Abandoned vehicles (including vehicles parked partially in the driveway and illegally obstructing the sidewalk)

You can do this on the Durham One Call website, by phone at 919.560.1200, or on the Durham One Call app. If submitting the request online or through the app, include a photo of the issue, the location, and describe how community safety is being negatively impacted. These three bits of context will help the City quickly identify and prioritize the ticket upon review. The app allows you to see existing service requests in our area and is very user-friendly.

Again, please stay tuned for details on our upcoming community meeting and drive, ride, and walk safely!

The Safe Streets Team

Project Update- May 20

9th and "Safe"way - A crosswalk that begs for higher visibility

A big thanks to all who have contributed to our study thus far. Our community meetings have been a valuable time of hearing and recording your concerns. The walk audits informed our study as participants put their "eyes on the street," a term coined by author and activist Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Your survey responses and emails provided specific examples of areas that need attention. We have a lot to chew on! 

At this point, our team has finished the data collection phase. We're now synthesizing our notes and plan to discuss our findings at a community meeting in early June (date TBD). In the meantime, you can already start directing the City of Durham's attention to local safety concerns by taking advantage of Durham One Call.  You can do this on the web site, by phone at 919.560.1200, or on the Durham One Call app. 

We are very fortunate to have local parks and businesses within walking and rolling distance of our homes. Sharing our sidewalk-level perspective through Durham One Call will help locate traffic safety concerns, get them addressed in a timely manner, and ultimately lead to a safer and more predictable environment. For example, our recent walk audits identified many cases of visibility issues caused by vegetation overgrowth, including some that contributed to the recent pedestrian injury at the traffic circle on Maryland. If you happen to find the following traffic-related issues, please place a Durham One Call service request.

  • Damaged/removed/obstructed traffic signage (vegetation overgrowth, hit-and-run etc.)

  • Damaged pavement or sidewalk (i.e. potholes, tree roots shifting/cracking sidewalk slabs)

  • Worn paint markings (i.e. crosswalk, school zone, bike lane, etc.)

  • Street cleaning and litter removal (i.e. broken glass or trash left in the right of way)

  • Abandoned vehicles (including vehicles parked partially in the driveway and illegally obstructing the sidewalk)

If submitting the request online or through the app, include a photo of the issue, the location, and describe how community safety is being negatively impacted. These three bits of context will help the City quickly identify and prioritize the ticket upon review.

Thanks for your help in making our neighborhood safer! We look forward to sharing our findings soon.

Coming Up: Walk Audits

What’s a walk audit? Walk audits are on-site conversations about specific traffic concerns that have been brought to Bike Durham's attention. These guided small-group tours typically last between 90-120 minutes and follow a pre-determined route through the neighborhood. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Who should go? You and your neighbors of all ages! Bring the family.

These small-group tours will:

  • Invite neighbors to come together to share how speeding, visibility, and other safety concerns impact their day-to-day activities

  • Provide guidance to the City of Durham so that poor safety conditions are addressed in a comprehensive manner (conditions will be documented as we walk)

  • Occur both on weekdays and weekends to observe conditions like rush hour, school pick-ups, errand-running, etc.

  • Span Old West Durham and Watts Hillandale (broken up into different routes)

The walk audits previously scheduled for May 13 have been rescheduled as follows:

  • Mon. May 16, 5 p.m. E.K. Powe (meet by the school sign on Ninth St.)

  • Wed. May 18, 5 p.m. Indian Trail Park (meet in the parking lot)

These routes were designed to study access to area amenities such as parks, schools, shops, and restaurants. Additional areas of the neighborhood are being documented, but may not be included in these walks.

Previous walk audits:

Project Update- April 13

Photo credit: Arleigh Greenwald

Many thanks to those who attended the first community conversation last Saturday in Oval Park! We received lots of helpful feedback on local safety issues and learned some ways you feel hindered by unsafe road conditions. There was lively conversation around these issues as well as excitement about the wonderful community in which we live.

Our next conversation (similar to the first) will be held Wednesday, April 20, 7-8:15 p.m. at Blacknall Presbyterian Church (1902 Perry St., Durham). We'll meet in the Community Room- look for the entrance on the left as you're facing the church on Perry Street. This will be another opportunity to share your experiences and help Bike Durham move forward in our work. Monuts has kindly provided donuts for us to enjoy!

For those who cannot make our in-person events, we invite you to share your input via email (safestreets@bikedurham.org). We can also set up a phone call or local in-person discussion with you. Our goal is to involve as many stakeholders as possible in these discussions. Please forward this email to your neighbors, subscribe to the Safe Streets email list and visit this site for updates. We'll use the email list (as well as the neighborhood listservs) to keep folks updated on our progress of gathering input, developing solutions and working with the city to make our neighborhoods safer.

In the weeks to come, Bike Durham will identify the themes being brought up so as to observe which issues are most prominent; where they exist within our geographic scope; what their root cause is, and much more. This comprehensive approach can only manifest with the community’s participation, because without it, we will find ourselves playing whack-a-mole with traffic issues; i.e. fixing one stretch of road only to have impatient motorists move over to an adjacent block within our neighborhood.

There are several phases of our work together, with a timeline as follows:

Mid-Late April: We will loosely establish any key themes/priorities related to safety, and map which areas of our neighborhood contain traffic issues. We'll continue to connect with residents, organizations and businesses that can share their thoughts.

Early/Mid-May (Dates TBA shortly): There will be 2-4 walk audits this month. The input we’ve gathered thus far will help inform several walking routes –think of them as community tours. Neighbors are invited to take part in several 1-1.5 hour group walks around the area to observe/discuss/document weekday rush hour and weekend traffic behavior. Key intersections and other problem areas will be incorporated into the route for us to explore what can be done! Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Mid/Late May: Several small-group sessions are necessary to segue into our solutions-building phase with the City. We will identify the underlying issues/spaces that require investment. Building consensus as a community is key, so our remaining focus in this project can go towards discussions with the City to get our needs met while also adhering to their code/safety protocol when altering the public right of way.

We’ll post another update after our April 20 meeting.

April 9 Group Discussion

Saturday, April 9, 2022

10-11:15 AM

Rain Date: Sunday April 10, 2 p.m.

Oval Park (North side, by ampitheater) 2200 West Club Boulevard (map)

Calling all Old West Durham and Watts Hillandale residents, organizations and business owners! Please join us for a group discussion facilitated by the Bike Durham Safe Streets team on Saturday, April 9, 10 a.m. at Oval Park. This is an opportunity to share your vision for a safe, healthy community and identify areas in the neighborhood that present a safety threat to pedestrians and cyclists. Bring the family- we want to hear from all ages and abilities. Monuts will be provided!

Community outreach is underway!

The Old West Durham/Watts Hillandale Safe Streets team has begun the task of engaging the community in the development of traffic-calming initiatives throughout the two neighborhoods. We are busy contacting Ninth and Broad Street business owners, the NC School of Science and Math, E.K. Powe Elementary, area churches, and residents. Every community stakeholder has an opportunity to envision safer spaces, voice concerns and share ideas for improvement. If you have a vested interest in the Old West Durham and Watts Hillandale neighborhoods, please be on the lookout for engagement opportunities, including the group discussion on April 9. You may contact the Safe Streets team at safestreets@bikedurham.org.