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.