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.