Roundabout Being Considered for Estes Dr and Greensboro St Intersection

Did you know that NCDOT is considering removing the traffic signal at the intersection of Estes Drive and North Greensboro St in Carrboro?

There will be a drop-in meeting Monday, November 14th at from 4 to 7 pm in the Carrboro Town Hall Board Room.

Study Area for Potential Roundabout

Study Area for Potential Roundabout

Roundabouts have significant safety benefits as their design reduces 32 potential conflict points for cars to only 8, and 24 conflicts down to 8 as well for pedestrians- when compared to a standard 4-way intersection.

This intersection also provides a link to the Frances Shetley Greenway, so hopefully there will be an excellent bicycle interface between the two facilities.  Make sure to stop by Town Hall on Nov 14th!

Carrboro Greenways Have Great Tree Canopies

I took a ride on my bike recently to check out construction progress on the Bolin Creek Greenway extension under MLK Blvd in Chapel Hill. In the late afternoon, it was 93 degrees with a heat index of 97, and biking along West Main St and North Greensboro St was pretty uncomfortable, heatwise. Fortunately, I got two big doses of shade as I rode on both the Frances Shetley Greenway and the Wilson Park Multi-Use Path during my trip.

The Shetley greenway, a facility that has been in place for more than twenty years, has a tree canopy covering the path from both sides.

Shetley Greenway Shade Near Carrboro Elementary School

Shetley Greenway Shade Near Carrboro Elementary School

 

Here’s the view of the Wilson Park Multi-Use path, looking down towards Estes Drive, riding from Wilson Park. There’s more light here, as this path has been in place less than ten years. Still, the path has more shade than sunlight for most of its length.

Wilson Park Multi-Use Path Headed Towards Estes Drive

Wilson Park Multi-Use Path Headed Towards Estes Drive

 

Finally, in Chapel Hill, I reached the latest phase of the Bolin Creek Greenway that is presently under construction between MLK and Umstead Park. Here are two photos of segments of the trail that are already finished:

Bolin Creek Trail Extension Summer 2016

Bolin Creek Trail Extension Summer 2016 – picture 1

 

Bolin Creek Trail Extension Summer 2016 -  picture 2

Bolin Creek Trail Extension Summer 2016 – picture 2

In both of these photos, even with construction finished recently, there is significant shade in both locations and trees arching over the path. If you’re looking for a safe place to get some exercise with friends and family this summer, and want to beat the heat a bit, check the finished greenways out and enjoy!

Lloyd Farm: What Happens When You Let a Grocery Store Chain Do Urban Design

After several years of hearing suggestions for improvements from adjacent neighborhoods, elected officials, advisory boards and citizens from all over Carrboro, the folks at Argus Development have submitted plans for what they have always wanted to build here – a grocery-anchored strip mall.  I first wrote about this project in 2014, nearly 18 months ago, and have talked to many Carrboro residents about it since. Very, very little about the proposal has changed and its chief flaws dating back to 2014 remain mostly unaddressed.

If I was a member of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, I would vote to deny this rezoning application.

The most recent site plan attached to Tuesday’s packet is below. If you look at the link above to my prior post, you’ll see little has changed in 18 months. I’m going to list several shortcomings ahead of the image below.

  1. The overall design of the site is simply too suburban, which makes it hard to redevelop into something better in the future. Some of the suburban features damaging this site layout in particular are the gently curving road from the top of the site the area down by the two stores surrounded by stormwater detention ponds. This roadway geometry and lack of buildings along the side of the road will encourage speeding through the site by cars.
  2. Tax base efficiency for the town. This design incorporates several of the low-value per acre approaches documented in the 2014 presentation by Urban 3 to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce (click to see slides-they’re EXCELLENT!).  In a town with a rural buffer, we need to do our best to maximize our tax value per acre on parcels inside the buffer to produce a better balance between commercial and residential tax base in Carrboro, and that means building up in a denser format. The site design for this plan incorporates the limited value proposition of the Timberlyne Shopping Center and the “Older Outparcel Format” on slide 18 with parking completely surrounding a building, providing a much lower value per acre (in this case, about $950,000/acre) than more urban building types such as the Hampton Inn in downtown Carrboro. (Over $33 million per acre!). Go to the final slide and look at the comparison of mall or strip development per acre with mixed-use at 3 and six stories. The Lloyd Property should be in the categories on the right hand side of the chart; instead, it is mostly in the strip mall category, with limited tax base per acre developed and a design that locks that in for probably 30 or more years.
  3. The massive parking field in front of the Harris Teeter grocery store. I don’t think I have had a single conversation about this project that doesn’t involve someone lamenting the massive parking lot fronting the grocery store, and how much better it would be to have something more akin to Southern Village instead. This suggestion has been made repeatedly to the applicant, and they have done nothing to engage with this community request in their design. The most likely reason is that their client, Harris Teeter, has probably sent some middle management person to the site who looked around and said “yup, this looks suburban, it must have the suburban standard site layout,” which comes with a checklist that says, more or less- “if we can’t have all the parking right in front of the store in a massive parking field, the store will not make money. Our customers are simply too stupid to figure out how to use our stores otherwise.” Harris Teeter’s own store at North Hills in Raleigh shows this isn’t true, but since the corporate grocery office has labeled this “suburban” rather than “urban” they are shoving the standard design down our throats. Let me say that again another way- one of the most significant undeveloped parcels in Carrboro is being designed primarily around the needs of a checklist in a major grocery store corporate office, not the town’s needs and goals.
  4. The two water detention ponds with the two outparcel sites featuring a triple drive-through (worst kind of drive through!) bank and another retail site are a pretty irreversible suburban set of uses that work to prevent a future urban street grid from being installed while also only supporting low-intensity uses.
  5. No public gathering spaces. There are two locations titled “Plaza Lawn” on this drawing. Neither of them are likely to be used by many people and become the beloved community space that the Weaver Street lawn is. One Plaza Lawn (bottom left) is going to be nearly empty, all the time. With no adjacent uses other than parking, and a walking path to Old Fayetteville- the side of the site featuring the least pedestrian traffic, there’s no reason to be here. The Plaza Lawn in the curve near the top center of the site will have high-speed traffic on one side, and a retail/restaurant space on the left side. Perhaps there may be some spillover here if this is a restaurant, but if it is a retail store, this will just be another grassy berm that goes unused. Looking at these two sites plus the big green swath of land between the road and the detention pond north of the senior housing, there was plenty of space in this site to create a village green surrounded by active uses, but the parking for the grocery store was too important. Are you one of the folks who was really interested in a gathering spot, or are you interested in learning more about the failures of American “plazas,” and why the Lloyd Farm “Plaza Lawns” fail in the same way? Check out this neat piece by Neil Takemoto on the difference between Americanized “plazas’ and Italian “Piazzas.”
  6. Age-restricted housing. My most recent post on Lloyd Farm covered the issues with Senior Housing instead of housing for all ages. Click here to read why going from apartments to age-restricted housing presents a dilemma when it comes to equity issues in housing.
  7. None of the buildings have any relationships with the streets. They have relationships with the parking lots. This means that it will be harder to tear these buildings down and replace them with more dense development in the future, effectively restricting the future economic capacity of one of our limited commercial zones.
  8. Virtually all of the commercial buildings are one story. Orangepolitics ran a great piece recently on how we don’t have space to receive small and growing companies, and we can’t get ANY of these buildings to have a second story with some space for the next business that breaks out of an incubator to move to?
Lloyd Farm Plan April 2016

Lloyd Farm Plan April 2016

In closing, I’m going to share a few comments from the advisory boards that I thought were particularly good:

Add multistory mixed use development with ground floor commercial with residential
and/or office use above, and increased clustering  of  buildings relative to the current site
plan. Consider the model  of  Southern Village. The current site plan has too many
buildings too far apart with too much separated parking. Building up and clustering
would reduce impervious surface and therefore more effectively address stormwater
runoff and flooding issues. – Environmental Advisory Board

And…

The Board recognizes the need for senior housing in Carrboro, but is disappointed with
the lack  of  affordable or workforce housing. We would like to see some  of  the senior
residences made available at workforce rates. A payment-in-lieu should be required as a
condition  of  the rezoning.- Planning Board

And…

The Board strongly suggests that the final plan reverse the positions  of  the grocery store
and the buildings facing it. The intent is to reinforce a residential buffer. It would also
serve to decrease the distance between the grocery store and the senior housing.
The rezoning should include conditions regarding architectural standards, including
uniformity  of  materials and setback  of  taller buildings in proximity to residential areas,
which mirror the Downtown Districts. The conditions suggested by the Applicants should
also be included, however condition  #1  should be amended to reflect the change in
positions  of  the grocery store and the facing retail buildings.

It seems pretty clear that the rezoning is the last chance to get any improvements to the design or reconsideration of strategies, and I hope the Board signals that this proposal should not proceed unless these issues are addressed. Given we’ve been at this for 18 months formally and longer informally, I’m not terribly optimistic that we’re going to get much better by giving them a green light.

In closing, I want to acknowledge that I think that development processes that don’t make it clear what the community wants and expects make it harder for developers to come to reasonable  win-win outcomes for the community. I understand that the proposed investment at this site is a big deal, but I also think a superior project would offer better upside for the town and the developer if they could get past the inflexible approach to the parking on the grocery store and the other conventional mid-to-late twentieth century design approaches they are taking to the site layout and organization. Honestly, I feel like the investors and the Town are leaving profit and taxbase on the table to cater to the checklist at the Harris Teeter corporate office.

Given that we already have a Harris Teeter with a dangerous, pedestrian-hostile parking lot in Carrboro, and that these folks don’t seem to have incorporated much of what the community is asking for, I think that denying this rezoning is reasonable, and that the town should then turn to establishing a process that the TOWN leads to establish what type of development is appropriate for this site. We can (and should) do better.

Carrboro Likely To Approve Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Path for Construction

Near the end of their May 10th meeting, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen affirmed their commitment to see the Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path move forward to construction this summer.

Compromise Recommended by the School System Staff and Town of Carrboro Staff

Early in the meeting, Todd LoFrese of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System took to the podium to describe a compromise that had been worked out between school staff and Town of Carrboro staff regarding the Multi-Use Path. That compromise took the following form:

  • Reduced the number of Multi-Use Path crossings of the Cross-Country trail from three to one.
  • Proposed looking at alternative surfaces (such as ADA-compliant rubber instead of concrete) at the remaining crossing.
  • Explore creating as much separation as possible where the multi-use path and the cross country trail parallel each other.

 

staggered-fenceOne citizen brought forward an interesting photo (at right) showing staggered gates on a greenway designed to slow riders approaching a potential conflict point. To address concerns of runners worried about bicycles crossing the cross-country trail at speed, particularly during meets, these may be a potential solution to maximize safety.

Citing not only the financial implications, but also years of participation by many Carrboro residents in the process, and the town’s values in support of providing transportation choices and addressing climate change, the Board of Aldermen asked the town staff to explore how to address some remaining engineering questions about what types of alternative surfaces could be feasible and report back one week later, with an eye towards the Board passing a resolution to move forward affirmatively at their May 17th meeting.

What the Town Residents Will Be Getting From This Project

Lest the big goals of this greenway get lost in all the discussion of process, I want to remind everyone of the big, game-changing amenity the town will get when this project is complete- a safe, low stress way for up to 1,000 children living north of Homestead Rd to walk or bicycle to the three schools south of Homestead Rd.

I went out and shot some video (with audio) on the Morgan Creek Greenway and Fan Branch Trail Greenway in Chapel Hill yesterday. We rode about four miles in all, got pizza and did some grocery shopping, and took in all the great natural enjoyments found along the greenway. We saw squirrels, deer, many kinds of birds, and heard a barred owl calling nearby in the woods in the early evening. In a world where we hear talk of “nature-deficit disorder” among younger generations and childhood obesity, imagine what a joy it would be to get to ride to school on a facility like this every day.

You can hear many of the sounds we heard in the clip below, but you can’t smell the honeysuckle- you’ll need to get out there yourself to enjoy it.

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to be notified of new CityBeautiful21 Blog Posts when they come out, you can sign up to be notified via email below at the very bottom of the page.

Tell the Aldermen: Carrboro Needs The Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path

mup-typical-sectionThe town of Carrboro has been working steadily for seven years to plan for the Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path. The greenway would provide a safe way for hundreds of children to walk or bike to not one, not two, but  THREE(!) different schools (Chapel Hill High, Smith Middle, Seawell Elementary)  from the Claremont, Winmore and even Lake Hogan Farms neighborhoods. For so many reasons, which I will detail below, it needs to be built, and Carrboro residents need to let the aldermen know this is the case. You can email the Carrboro Board of Aldermen by clicking this link, right now.

The Recent Controversy

Up until last week, work crews were likely to break ground for construction of the Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path on May 16, 2016, or soon thereafter. Concerns about impacts to the Chapel Hill High Cross-Country (X-C) trail led to lots of complaints to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. I’m not going to recap the controversy any further, but here is a report from WCHL.

Benefits of the Homestead-Chapel Hill High Multi-Use Path

There are several benefits the construction of this greenway offers to the community:

  • A direct, safe route to multiple schools from neighborhoods that have almost 1,000 children who otherwise must cross a dangerous road with 40-45 mph traffic to get to school by bike or on foot today. (The 2014 American Community Survey reports nearly 500 children aged 6 to 11 and over 450 children aged 12 to 17 live in Census Block Group 1, Census Tract 112.02, just north of Homestead Rd)
  • Students can use it for daily transportation, and when they do, they get to hear birdsongs projecting from the canopy and the rustle of rodents on the forest floor, sensory experiences that are blocked by an enclosed automobile or a noisy bus.  When they do, they get to be surrounded by trees rather than motor vehicles zooming by at speeds in excess of 35 or 40 mph.  They get to pass under that road, hearing the rush of the creek, rather than nervously crossing at grade with a wary eye toward aggressive turning movements of hurried parent chauffeurs.  They get to have daily fresh air and exercise as part of their trip.
  • A route for joggers, roller skaters, moms and dads pushing strollers, and people in wheelchairs.
  • A zero-emissions transportation option in an area where the barriers to such options are high.
  • Access to the natural beauty of Bolin Creek and the surrounding forest, including access for community members with disabilities who can’t physically go there today.

 

This is Not  a “New” or “Surprise” Project- The Planning for This Greenway Has Been Going On For Years, With CBOA Oversight

  • After a Greenways Commission recommendation, the Board adopted the Concept Plan on December 8, 2009 (Supported by current CBOA members Gist, Haven-O’Donnell, Lavelle & Slade, votes on page 11 of 14) Dec-2009-CBOA-Meeting-Minutes(PDF)
  • Former Carrboro Transportation Planner Jeff Brubaker, who spent hundreds of hours working on this project up through 2014, stated today:
  •  This direction was included in the adopting resolution: “Adopt the recommendation for Phase 1A and 1B (1B would not extend any further south than Jolly Branch), and Phase 2.” To follow the Board’s direction to stay north of Jolly Branch, the preferred route came to resemble what is shown as Alternative Route 3 (the “green route”) on p. 71 of the Concept Plan (Concept-Plan-BCG-Phase1b).  The merits of the green route were much discussed at Greenways Commission and Board of Aldermen meetings.  The route of the Homestead-CHHS Path closely resembles it, and so it has already gone through significant public vetting.

  • The CBOA unanimously approved an agreement with NCDOT to design the greenway on March 1, 2011. (Supported by current CBOA members Gist, Haven-O’Donnell, Lavelle & Slade, votes on page 3 of 14)  March-1-2011-CBOA-Meeting-Minutes (PDF)
  • On June 9, 2015, in a motion made by Alderman Gist and seconded by Alderman Haven-O’Donnell, the CBOA authorized the Town Manager to sign a contract for Construction, Engineering and Inspection services to build the greenway. It passed 6-0 with all current board members in favor save Alderman Slade, who was absent. Minutes-CBOA-June-9-2015 (PDF)
  • On November 24, 2015, all board members attending the meeting voted together to approve a contract amendment for the project. (PDF) Minutes-CBOA-November-24-2015

 

The Price of Changing Projects at The Eleventh Hour

One of the challenges of transportation projects is that they take time- land must be assembled, engineering work and environmental work must be done, and then finally, construction drawings of a greenway like this one are ready. If you want to make changes to a project, the later you make them, the more expensive it is to make a change, and the harder it is to introduce a change without unraveling much of the work you have already completed because the engineers need to tear up some of their drawings and start over, and then depending on the extent of the changes, all the environmental work must also be redone.

For a project seven years in the making, delaying another year, or frankly, even three to six months –  is simply unacceptable. Asking all the people who participated in prior public meetings, sat in Greenway Commission and CBOA meetings to discuss this project over those seven years, to wait further (or maybe forever) because of concerns brought forward when construction was about to begin, is to say that all the planning that came before matters little in the face of late-breaking complaints. This is a terrible way to make decisions.

Unless the Aldermen want to turn those seven years of public dialogue into a complete waste of time and call into question the validity of all other future public processes the town hosts, the construction of this game-changing project for people who walk and bike needs to get moving.

What The Carrboro Board of Aldermen Should Do

Given how close this project is to being able to be built, and to respect the time put in by ALL citizens who contributed to the development of this project, over the past seven years, and not just those expressing their concerns for the first time in these past few weeks, the first and primary option for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen to resolve the controversy should be to see if the cross-country trail can be modified as part of the construction process to eliminate the two crossings south of the westernmost tennis court.

If this cannot be accomplished without also adjusting the greenway design, the town of Carrboro and its taxpayers will certainly incur costs in time and money- the only uncertainty is how much. These costs should be minimized, and Chapel Hill High School should be asked to contribute to the cost of any changes.

The second and less desirable option is to come up with a design that minimizes impact to schedule and budget for the greenway while adjusting both the greenway and the cross-country trails slightly to eliminate two crossings.  It probably looks something like this, where the blue dotted line would be the modified greenway path, and the pink dotted line would be the modified X-C trail. Engineers working for the town would get input from the cross-country coach about appropriate guidelines for the turn in the pink section, and follow best practices used along the remainder of the greenway design up until this point to provide the best geometry for bicycling given a slightly more northern passage. Working within a narrow portion of the already design project to explore solutions that meet the town’s goals and the cross-country team’s goals gives us the best chance to get a win-win without a massive hit to project cost and time loss to completion. (click to enlarge):

There is a proposal on the Facebook page of the Friends of Bolin Creek organization that suggests abandoning roughly half of the design and re-routing the trail towards the north side of the tennis courts, and it should not be considered as a way forward. This is one of those late-breaking changes that is likely to cost a lot more than either of the approaches discussed above, simply because a path so different from what has already been drawn up would contain significantly more re-work on the engineering side. Pursuing this approach is more likely to indefinitely delay the greenway or render it fiscally infeasible, which would be a tremendous failure on the town’s behalf.

In Closing: Carrboro Needs the Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path

In a world where we hear daily about the challenge of climate change, see data showing rising childhood obesity, struggle with equity issues, and parents worry about “nature deficit disorder,” the Homestead-Chapel Hill High School Multi-Use Path is the rare public investment that can address four such issues at once. Kids get more exercise on their way to school, walking or riding through nature instead of being strapped into a five-point harness in the back of a car. More facilities like this one mean more trips that are emission-free, promoting public health through not only pollution prevented, but also through increased physical activity. Finally, there are lots of people with mobility impairments for whom a multi-use path allows an exploration of nature that a dirt or gravel surface will simply not allow.

Carrboro has made this greenway a priority since 2009, and a majority of the board have cast several votes in favor of it in response to citizen recommendations over the past seven years. It’s time to build this excellent facility. You can let the Carrboro Board of Aldermen know you agree by emailing them when you click this link.

Thanks for reading!

Restoring Sidewalk Space for People By Gardening: Local Business Edition

Today I was out walking with DC along West Weaver Street, and I started noticing all the curb cuts for various driveways. Really, a curb cut is a big red flag for people walking that implicitly says “stop relaxing and look out, you could be endangered at a moment’s notice by a car here!”

But then I walked by Carrboro Family Vision, and noticed what a great job they had done to unplug this dynamic. Look at how they’ve succeeded through the magic of Google Streetview’s older photos.

Carrboro Family Vision Building – 2012

Carrboro Family Vision 2012

Carrboro Family Vision Building – Upgrade in Progress September 2014

Carrboro Family Vision Upgrades In ProgressCarrboro Family Vision – April 2016

carrfamvision-2016This was my view on a recent beautiful sunny Saturday. Instead of parking spaces, we have planters, flowers, a friendly notice of services available, and a garden path to their door and bike rack. (not visible in photo but it’s right around the corner) The curb cut still remains at left, but this space has been reassigned from cars to people very effectively.

When businesses need examples of how to be more pedestrian friendly at the curb, this is a great outcome to hold up. Great job Carrboro Family Vision!

Dream Up Downtown Walk in Chapel Hill / Carrboro Tomorrow

dream-up-downtownAre you free tomorrow evening, March 31st? If so, and you want to walk and talk city life,  I will be joining Molly DeMarco to lead a walking tour and discussion of Public Spaces in Downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro as part of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership’s “Dream Up Downtown” event series.The walk will begin at Peace and Justice Plaza (179 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill-in front of the downtown post office) at 6:30 pm. and proceed west, finishing in downtown Carrboro around 8:00 pm.

The walk will focus on the theme of Our Public Spaces! We’ll visit several public spaces as we wander through the two downtowns, and talk about what’s working well and what could use improvement. This event is meant to be a Jane’s Walk named after the influential writer and urbanist Jane Jacobs;  it is as much a conversation as a tour. So please bring your own insights, questions, and vision for the future to share.

Come join us, all are welcome!

Carrboro Parking Study Needs Your Input Thursday Eve (Feb 11th)

If you care about having choices in how to get to and enjoy downtown Carrboro, it is very important that you attend the Carrboro Parking Study Kickoff Meeting at Carrboro Elementary school Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

I’ll be there to share a simple message, and I invite you to join me to reinforce it.  That message is:

"THIS STUDY WILL BE MOST SUCCESSFUL IF IT FOCUSES ON A BROAD GOAL OF IMPROVING ***ACCESS FOR PEOPLE*** TO DOWNTOWN CARRBORO, AND CONSIDERS PARKING ONE OF SEVERAL TOOLS TO REACH THAT GOAL."I apologize for going large font on everyone, but really, this is the heart of the matter. People love downtown Carrboro because it is full of life, energy, commerce, culture, food, art, music, protest, you name it. And all of those great things come from PEOPLE. Some of them happen to come downtown in cars, but really, it’s the PEOPLE that make the magic. Cars don’t have wallets and shop in our stores. Cars don’t play in local bands in our venues. Cars don’t wait tables in our restaurants. PEOPLE do. The town staff, fortunately, seem to get this. From a 2013 staff memo sent to the Board of Aldermen:

In, Parking Evaluation, Evaluating Parking Problems, Solutions, Costs, and Benefits, a publication from the Victoria Transport Institute, the author notes, “A problem correctly defined is a problem half solved.” As the Board continues to refine its overall parking objective–from the continuum of creating a greater number of parking spaces, to encouraging more consumers to the downtown, to reducing the number of existing parking spaces, to removing automobiles from the downtown and thereby reducing the Town’s carbon footprint—it may become easier to frame potential policy changes and LUO text amendments.

Citizens need to encourage the Board of Aldermen to continue in this direction described in the staff memo. Here are a few strategic initiatives to consider that could move us in this direction.

  1. The People Who Drive Downtown Most Often (and Stay the Longest) Represent the Biggest Potential Pool of Parking Spaces to Free Up: Employees If we can identify what barriers keep downtown Carrboro employees from coming to downtown by means other than a car, and address those- we can get all those people to work and free up a lot of parking capacity downtown without adding a single new space. The most obvious example here is that we have 33 restaurants and bars downtown, and while most places finish serving dinner in the 9:30 – 10:30 pm range, the bus service back to most in-town neighborhoods has a final trip leaving downtown before 9 pm. Workers may be able to bus in, but needing to drive home also necessitates driving in, and taking a parking space for the entire dinner shift in downtown.
  2. Recognize That Not Every Access Strategy Needs to Be Used by Everyone In Order for Everyone to Experience Better Access The more people with cars who sometimes drive to downtown that we can help try walking or biking downtown, the more parking will be available for folks driving in from places where biking, walking, or using transit are not as easy. On some days, those people who can walk or bike may still drive, but working to make sure walking and bike access is assured for those within a closer distance makes it more likely that parking spaces are open for those coming from further away, or those not on a bus line.
  3. Consider the Power of Many Small Changes Let’s consider a downtown employer with 10 employees, all of whom drive to work every day. Generally speaking, that employer will have a much easier time getting all ten of them to find a way to only drive 4 out of 5 days instead of getting two of them to stop driving downtown altogether. Either approach still reduces this group of ten’s collective demand for downtown parking by 20 percent. I doubt that there is any single strategy that will solve the downtown access issue, but a host of strategies that all temper parking demand by 3% here and 6% there can cumulatively have a big impact.
  4. Identify the Ways That Parking Pricing Is Superior to Aggressive Towing, and Explain Those Benefits to Residents, Businesses, and Visitors If we charge for parking, and do it in a smart, technology-driven way, we get all of these benefits:
  • Gives visitors to downtown more choice in how long they shop
  • Costs taxpayers less to enforce than enforcing free 2-hour parking
  • Prevents all-day Park & Ride Parking to UNC in town lots
  • Makes it possible to find a lot with many open spaces online or by smartphone
  • Makes it more likely that visitors to downtown find a space easily
  • Reduces cruising for parking which leads to increased congestion and emissions downtown
  • Generates potential revenue for improvements that expand bicycle, pedestrian, and bus access to downtown
  • Helps generate revenue for businesses with parking when their business is closed

 

If you want more details about any of the benefits of Parking Performance Pricing, I wrote a detailed post here.

I hope you can attend the meeting Thursday evening- see you there!

New American Community Survey Shows Bike Commuting Explosion in Carrboro

Bike Corral on Weaver St (photo courtesy Carrboro Bicycle Coalition)

Bike Corral on Weaver St (photo courtesy Carrboro Bicycle Coalition)

There’s big news for Carrboro in the latest American Community Survey Data – bike commuting has really taken off in town in the last five years.

The most detailed, statistically reliable information we have on how people commute to work is now part of the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS collects data every year, but has the greatest validity and reliability in its 5-Year Estimates.  In December 2015, the Census Bureau released the 5-Year Estimates for 2010-2014, allowing for the first time ever a comparison to the 2005-2009 5-Year Estimates.

Here’s what the data tells us:

  • Workers age 16 or older living in town increased from roughly 10,100 to 11,900 between the 2005-2009 and 2010-2014 periods.
  • Percentages for travel mode to work in 2010-2014 were mostly similar to 2005-2009, with bicycle travel being the big change:
    • Drive alone travel to work rose from 60.6% to 61.6%
    • Carpooling fell from 13.0% to 11.2%
    • Public Transportation fell from 14.1% to 12.5%
    • Walking fell from 3.0% to 2.8%
    • Bicycling increased from 2.9% to 5.2%
    • Working from Home increased from 4.9% to 5.4%

The increase in people riding bikes is notable because it is a 79% increase in cycling over just five years’ time!  This is a big deal. When one thinks about the cities around the US that have some of the best bike infrastructure, Portland has a bike commute share near 7% and Minneapolis is around 4%. While college towns tend to run higher than other types of cities, it is still encouraging to see how many more people have felt comfortable riding around town.

Why Did This Happen?

The Census data does not tell us any reasons why Carrboro residents are increasingly choosing to bike, but my theory is that after many years of adding bike lanes here and there, the road diet on West Main St that was completed in summer 2013 was a real game-changer because it linked FIVE different bike lanes that previously functioned as islands with a high Level of Traffic Stress section in the middle that was a big deterrent to biking. See the graphic below for details.

Pre-Road-Diet: West Main St Bike Network Gap

Pre-Road-Diet: West Main St Bike Network Gap

I saw a significant increase in my bicycle usage after this segment went into place, as I felt less at risk from cars in the road dieted version of West Main than the original configuration.

The bottom line: investing in bike infrastructure works. As the Town of Carrboro continues to expand the bicycle network, and solve pinch points and troubling sections where “Interested But Concerned” cyclists feel unsafe, we will continue to see these great results.

Since this data was gathered the Smith Level Rd project, with brand new bike lanes up to BPW Club Rd and Carrboro High School, has opened, and the climbing lane for bikes under NC 54 along Jones Ferry Rd will also be complete in 2016. This suggests we still have room to grow.  I think 8.5% bike commuters is  good target for the 2019 ACS.  Let’s see if we can beat it.

Do you have a different theory for why people are riding bikes more than ever in Carrboro? Please share it in the comments!

Central Carrboro Traffic Went DOWN from 1997 to 2013

More People are Riding Buses, Biking and Walking in Carrboro

More People are Riding Buses, Biking and Walking in Carrboro

Did you know that many traffic counts in Carrboro were lower in 2013 than in 1997? Yep. In 1997, Carrboro was home to roughly 15,400 people. By 2013, the Census reported that number as closer to 20,800.

Despite adding over 5,000 residents and seeing downtown job growth, there were fewer cars on the streets all over central Carrboro in 2013 than there were 16 years earlier!

You can see for yourself by checking NCDOT’s traffic count maps at the end of this post. But let’s take a look at all the counts that went down, and those that went up. Out of curiosity, I also looked up a walkscore at a nearby address.

Traffic Counts from NCDOT that declined between 1997 and 2013

 

W. Main St by Chapel Hill Tire/Akai Hana (4% decline; Walkscore: 83)

1997: 4,700

2013: 4,500

N Greensboro between Short and Poplar: (8% decline; Walkscore: 86)

1997: 15,200

2013: 14,000

Rosemary St at Chapel Hill / Carrboro Town Line: (20% decline; Walkscore: 85)

1997: 10,500

2013: 8,400

W. Main St east of Blackwood: (26% decline; Walkscore: 55)

1997: 5,700

2013: 4,200

West Main between Lloyd and Main/Rosemary Split (30% decline; Walkscore: 91)

1997: 24,200

2013: 17,000

Main St between Greensboro and PTA Thrift (25% decrease; Walkscore: 86)

1997: 12,500

2013: 9,400

West Weaver St between N Greensboro and Center St (29% decrease; Walkscore: 86)

1997: 9,200

2013: 6,500

Traffic Counts that stayed the same Between 1997 and 2013

N Greensboro St just north of Blue Ridge Rd (0% decline/increase; Walkscore: 13)

1997: 6,000

2013: 6,000

S Greensboro between Carr and Old Pittsboro (0% decline/growth; Walkscore: 85)

1997: 12,000

2013: 12,000

Traffic Counts that went up Between 1997 and 2013

North Greensboro St between Morningside Dr and Hanna St: (6% increase; Walkscore:34)

1997: 6,600

2013: 7,000

Hillsborough Rd between Dillard and Greensboro St: (6% increase; Walkscore: 35)

1997: 1,600

2013: 1,700

Estes east of N Greensboro: (11% increase; Walkscore: 65)

1997: 12,600

2013: 14,000

Hillsborough Rd between Pine and Main: (8% increase; Walkscore: 65)

1997: 2,500

2013: 2,700

N Greensboro St between Weaver and Main: (22% increase; Walkscore: 91)

1997: 9,000

2013: 11,000

Jones Ferry Rd between Old Fayetteville Rd and NC 54: (4% increase; Walkscore: 42)

1997: 10,600

2013: 11,000

NC 54 between Old Fayetteville Rd and NC 54/West Main St Intersection: (18% increase; Walkscore: 42)

1997: 15,200

2013: 18,000

So what happened?

Carrboro invested in other ways of getting around. According to the recently released DCHC-MPO Mobility Report Card, Carrboro:

  • Increased sidewalk mileage by 24% between 2005 and 2013, adding 7 miles of sidewalk- making it easier to walk around town.
  • Increased bike lane mileage by 24% in the same period, adding 3 miles of bike lanes
  • More than doubled its mileage of multi-use paths to 3.8 miles in total
  • Had buses go fare free in 2002 on Chapel Hill Transit. Many of the places with declines are along major bus corridors in Carrboro on the F, J, and CW routes.

The Mobility Report Card also describes Main Street in Carrboro as one of the region’s leading “Multimodal Corridors” – places with more than 25% of trips that are not drive-alone trips. Trips on Main Street in 2012 were 57% by car, 6% by transit, 27% by walking, and 10% by bike.

When you give people viable choices for travel beyond the car, they use them.

Source data found here:

1997 AADT Counts – Chapel_Hill-Carrboro-1997-aadt

2013 AADT Counts – Chapel_Hill-Carrboro-2013-aadt