The Equity Benefits of Completing the Bolin Creek Greenway

Posted on March 6, 2023 by patrick

There are lots of great reasons to complete the Phase 3 and 4 segments of the Bolin Creek Greenway through Carrboro that include a wide variety of environme ntal benefits. But equally important are the equity benefits that the community will receive from completing the greenway.

Connecting Students to Public Schools

There are three Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools that are close to the proposed Phase 3 and 4 segments of the Bolin Creek Greenway: Seawell Elementary School, Smith Middle School, and Chapel Hill High School.

Really? Where?

The image below shows proximate the northern portion of the greenway would be to the three schools. Connecting the greenway to each of them would be easy to do as part of the Phase 3 and 4 project. The Chapel Hill High School-Homestead Rd path already connects neighborhoods north of Homestead Rd to Chapel Hill High School near the tennis courts.

Talking Equity: The Differences Between Household Income Along the Proposed Greenway and School Demographics at Seawell, Smith, and CHHS

The households living in the Census Block Groups immediately adjacent to the proposed phase 3 and phase 4 segments of the Bolin Creek Greenway have only 3% of residents living in poverty, and have median incomes over $123,000 per year. (well above the median income for Chapel Hill/Carrboro of roughly $77,000 per year) The map below shows the relative income of Census Block groups near Phase 3 and 4, labeled as “Bolin Creek Missing Greenway.”

However, data gathered by US News shows that the percentages of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch (strongly correlated with household poverty) at the three schools are notably higher:

Seawell Elementary: 26% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch
Smith Middle School: 23% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch
Chapel Hill High School: 16% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch

Here are individual median incomes identified for some of the Census Block Groups near the proposed Greenway. In each case, the median household income of the block group is identified in a green box.

South of Estes Drive and East of North Greensboro Street

The Census Block Group immediately south of Estes drive and East of North Greensboro Street has the lowest median household income near the proposed greenway. This area include the Estes Park apartments and the 605 Oak Avenue public housing community.

Immediately East of the University Railroad and West of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd in Chapel Hill

This Census Block Group has a median income of roughly $72,000 per year, which is closer to (but still below) the median income in the area.

North of Estes Drive and Surrounding the Proposed Greenway Alignment

The Census Block that largely surrounds the proposed greenway on both sides has a median income of over $123,000 per year.

The Attendance Zones for These Schools Serve Low-Income Neighborhoods in both Carrboro and Chapel Hill

Here are the Smith Middle School attendance zones laid on top of the income map and the proposed greenway alignment. What becomes pretty obvious is that the SCHOOLS are at the north end of proposed Bolin Creek Greenway and many of the neighborhoods with lower and middle income residents are at the south end.

Completing this portion of the greenway (and connecting the southern end to Umstead Park in Chapel Hill!) would really provide a safe, healthy, environmentally friendly transportation choice for students at all three schools, though particularly middle school and high school students, who are more likely to take a longer trip by foot or bike.

Given that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are facing unprecedented challenges in hiring school bus drivers to bring children to school, and that low-income families are less likely to have a car available to drive a child to school if their bus doesn’t show up, completing the Bolin Creek Greenway is more than a way to create emission-free, environmentally-friendly trips between neighborhoods – it’s a way to help make access to education more equitable, resilient and reliable for everyone.

The Morgan Creek Greenway Will Be a Great Asset for Carrboro – Let’s Include Lighting to Maximize Its Benefits

Posted on August 28, 2022 by patrick

On Saturday, August 27th, Carrboro Town staff hosted a tour of what will be Phase 1 of the Carrboro portion of the Morgan Creek Greenway.

Morgan Creek Greenway Overview

The Morgan Creek Greenway is a regional greenway connection across southern Chapel Hill and Carrboro with many years of planning behind it. Our family has ridden on the existing portion of the greenway for years and it is delightful. Here is a “sights and sounds” video I made in 2016. Notice what a safe and low-stress riding environment it is for children. (and people of all ages and cycling abilities)

The map below shows the existing sections of the Morgan Creek Greenway, which connects to Merritt’s Pasture, and the Fan Branch Trail, which connects the Morgan Creek Greenway to Southern Village. The red box near Smith Level Rd indicates where Phase 1 of the Carrboro portion of the greenway will be built.

Existing Morgan Creek Greenway in Purple, Carrboro Phase 1 in Red Box

The Carrboro Portion of the Morgan Creek Greenway

The Town put together a Morgan Creek Greenway Conceptual Master Plan Report(PDF) in 2010 to outline the possibilities of what full implementation could look like. The original master plan alignment is shown below. Again, the red box indicates Phase 1.

Morgan Creek Greenway Master Plan, Phase 1 in Red Box

Current Phase 1 Design Features

The greenway is currently at 30% design. This is a portion of the engineering process when many major things have been figured out, but there is still an opportunity for some adjustments to be made to the path of the greenway.

The current design proposes the following:

A sidewalk from Smith Level Road and public works drive leading from the street down to the greenway
A connection under the Smith Level Road bridge to the portion of the trail that the Town of Chapel Hill is working on
The greenway proceeding on town property outside of the Public Works facility fence along the north side of the creek

Greenway will run to the left of the fence outside of Carrboro Public Works

A sidewalk access into the cul-de-sac at the bottom of Abbey Lane by Canterbury townhomes and another access point further up on Abbey Lane directly across from Friar Lane
A bridge (in maroon, at right below) over the small creek that passes under Public Works Drive
A bridge (in maroon, at left below) crossing Morgan Creek to the south side of the creek and a turnaround where the future Phase 2 section of the greenway will begin

Carrboro Portion of Morgan Creek Greenway: Phase 1

Design Analysis and Recommendations for Improvement in the Next Design Milestone

Overall, there’s a lot to like about this design. A bridge under Smith Level Road to the Chapel Hill section ensures this will be a Level of Traffic Stress 1 facility, suitable for children and senior citizens. This is the gold standard of bicycling safety and comfort in terms of protection from motor vehicles. The two different access points to Abbey Lane ensure that nobody has to significantly backtrack out of the neighborhood to go east or west when the full trail is built out.

The most important opportunity for improvement in this design is to include lighting as part of the trail.

The Frances Shetley bikeway in Carrboro is heavily used and beloved by neighbors, and one of the key reasons is that it has excellent lighting that makes it useful after dark. (see left side of trail picture below) There are even new lighting types that reduce or completely eliminate upward light pollution by ensuring the light emitted only goes down. The International Dark Sky association maintains a list of compliant lights that can make the Morgan Creek Greenway as useful as possible while meeting dark sky goals.

For the 60% and final design of this greenway, the town should ask the engineering team to incorporate dark-sky compliant lighting for the trail into the design.

Shetley Greenway with Lights Near Carrboro Elementary School

Improving Public Process: Notify Everyone

Finally, one place where the Town continues to use an outdated practice is to notify near neighborhoods of a project meeting, but not the broader community. I only learned about this event because we own property within a certain number of feet of the project location. But this is supposed to be a REGIONAL bike-ped project that is part of a multi-town plan in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

There’s no reason this project and commenting on how to improve it should be a privilege of nearby neighbors, and not the whole town, and even our neighbors in Chapel Hill who might use it as well. Numerous studies have shown how notifying homeowners in near neighborhoods around projects ultimately biases processes towards favoring participation among older, wealthier and whiter participants. And frankly, while the crowd of nearly 50 who attended were largely enthusiastic about the trail, and that was great to see – they also largely fit the narrow demographics of this outdated notification method. Given that 33% to 38% of the population of the Census tracts that would be served by the trail are home to non-white residents, we probably could have done better at reaching those residents.

Let’s work to broaden the conversation from here on out, shall we?

Carrboro Needs a Comprehensive Plan, and The Aldermen Should Put Money in the Next Budget To Create One

Posted on January 22, 2017 by patrick

Carrboro needs a new Comprehensive Plan, and an entirely new Unified Development Ordinance. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen should take the first step towards these goals by putting money in the town’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget to create such a plan.

Last year, my most widely read posts on CityBeautiful21 were about one subject- the proposed Lloyd Farm development, a crappy 20th century strip mall concept that greatly underused the site and missed the mark in many ways. I’m not going to rehash the problems with the proposal, but anyone who wants a rundown can read my final piece before the vote here.

Instead, I’m going to discuss the two things that Carrboro lacks that likely would have prevented the Town from taking FIVE YEARS to reject a bad idea.

Those two things are:

A lack of a Current Comprehensive Plan or Vision document with appropriate geographic specificity
An outdated and piecemeal-amended Unified Development Ordinance that draws its core values from the ideas of the late 1970s, that does not reflect the challenges and opportunities present in Carrboro today.

Quick Review: What’s A Comprehensive Plan? What’s a Unified Development Ordinance?

Simply put, a Comprehensive Plan is an overall policy document for a city or town that describes the type of community the city or town seeks to become in the future. A Comprehensive Plan usually has many subsections with goals for each including items such as Land Use, Transportation, Economic Development, Parks and Recreation, Social Equity, Environmental Quality, and so forth. Truly excellent plans try to address the places where goals for each of these topics may conflict and accurately frame the tradeoffs inherent in those conflicts.

A Unified Development Ordinance is the nitty-gritty, detailed set of rules and regulations that govern how buildings, streets, sidewalks, telephone poles, plantings, trash bins and just about any other physical element of the community you can think of gets laid out on the ground when it is built.

Lack of a Current Comprehensive Plan or Vision Document

It is worth nothing that while the town does not have a Comprehensive Plan, Carrboro does have a Vision document, called “Carrboro Vision 2020.” It was adopted quite a while back, in 2000, and it is a vision for the whole town. Some of the policies are quite good. Here are a few:

2.22 Where development is deemed acceptable, there should be well defined dense
development with areas of well preserved open space.

Another:

2.41 The town should support the evolution of a downtown district that embodies
Carrboro’s character. The downtown district should have medium-rise buildings
appropriately sited with adequate public access, and it should provide shopping
opportunities that meet our citizens’ everyday needs. The downtown should
remain a center for the community where people work, gather, shop, socialize and
recreate. The Century Center should serve as a focal point for the downtown.

And another:

4.41 As a general policy, established roads should be widened to accommodate bike
lanes and sidewalks, but not to provide additional lanes for automobiles.

It is terrific that Carrboro has a policy document like this, and the 300 East Main development in downtown is evidence that this policy is being applied in at least part of downtown. But while it is great that we have such straightforward, intentional statements for downtown, it is clear that “well defined dense development” is nearly the opposite of what we got at Lloyd Farm.

An Outdated Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)

Generally speaking, if you want to build something that positively adds to the town’s urbanity, amplifying the “life-on-foot” feel that makes downtown Carrboro such a great place, you need to jump through all sorts of hoops, extra public hearings and special use permits to get it built. When you want to build something that turns inward, away from the street, and doesn’t contribute much to the public realm in Carrboro, you can usually get a building permit pretty quickly under our 1970s suburban ordinances. Under these conditions, you’re counting on the quality of the vision of the developer to give you something other than a terrible outcome.

While once in a blue moon we get a solid outcome like Shelton Station, we usually get an urban failure like the Park Slope development. What’s wrong with Park Slope? Several things, but the worst thing about it is that the Town did code not require Park Slope to build a piece of sidewalk on South Greensboro St along the front of the Park Slope property.

No Sidewalks At Park Slope (right side, with little red signs on white posts) on S Greensboro St

What’s particularly sad about this outcome is that residents have been advocating for several years to get a sidewalk on South Greensboro Street. If the Town had required a sidewalk here, and the new South Green development had been required to build more sidewalk to connect to it, the Town would be much closer to having a sidewalk from downtown to the base of the South Greensboro, and the private sector would have been a partner in helping to make that connection.

Instead, the town is having to compete with Durham, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough for limited Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds at the DCHC-MPO to build a sidewalk for $400,000. Carrboro should be getting developers to participate in building our sidewalks on major arterials, so that we can request CMAQ funds for things that are greatly needed but unlikely to be funded by developers, like future phases of the Morgan Creek and Bolin Creek Greenways.

So why exactly didn’t the code require sidewalks here? It’s not entirely clear to me, but the reason may be in Article XIV (the Streets and Sidewalks section) of Carrboro’s current UDO.

In subdivision developments that abut a public street, sidewalks shall be con-
structed adjacent to such street if a sidewalk in that location is required by the officially adopted town sidewalk master plan. Whenever possible, such sidewalk shall be constructed within the public right-of-way.

I put a few words in bold above. Carrboro does have an adopted Bike Plan on their website, but I did some Googling and Carrboro does not seem to have an officially adopted sidewalk master plan. That seems to be a big hole weakening the connection between what we want to happen and our requirements to deliver our desired future.

There’s also some text in other parts of Article XIV that states:

The permit-issuing authority may reduce the sidewalk requirement for subcollector streets
meeting the alternative street standard from both sides to one side of the road if:
a. The development contains a parallel system that is integrally designed and provides pedestrian access to the interior of the site;

This is great for the people who live in Park Slope, but not good for anyone who doesn’t live there but needs to walk by Park Slope. It’s also very consistent with the idea that paths are for walking within developments, and presumes you will never need to walk out of the development because you will drive to anywhere else- a very 1970s view of the world.

Our Regulations Aren’t Working For Us (Or For The Developers)

With five years to get to “No” on Lloyd Farm, and missing the chance to have developers build sidewalks on a street where we ARE approving development and are applying for public funds to build sidewalks, it’s clear that our directions to the development community aren’t clear enough about our desires and our ordinances aren’t organized to require the pieces of town infrastructure we need.

If Carrboro doesn’t change its approach to development proposals, what happened with Lloyd Farm will happen again, and what happened with Park Slope will happen again.

Our ordinance is full of band-aids with amendments in 1998 or 2003 still trying to address thoughts from the 1970s and the 1980s in 2017. The world has changed, our towns opportunities and challenges have changed, and so should our development regulations to be more specific about the future our town needs and desires. It’s time to throw the old stuff out and start fresh. Want to see what a modern UDO looks like? Check out Raleigh’s – complete with pictures to make it easy to understand for residents.

From the point of view of the development community, I’m sure they would like to propose projects that generate less fractious debate and have a better chance of being well-received by residents. A clearer code could be a win-win where Carrboro residents see more changes in town that complement their vision for the future, and developers can approach projects with more certainty about outcomes.

What The Aldermen Should Do

On January 24th at 7:30 pm, there is a public hearing on budget priorities for the upcoming year. I’m requesting that the Aldermen put in funding to hire a consultant to support the Town Planning staff in developing a new Comprehensive Plan for Carrboro and a completely brand-new UDO. Please join me in making this request. You can attend in person, or tell the Aldermen “We Need a Comprehensive Plan!” by emailing boa@townofcarrboro.org.

Roundabout Being Considered for Estes Dr and Greensboro St Intersection

Posted on October 17, 2016 by patrick

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

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

Posted on July 14, 2016 by patrick

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

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

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 – picture 1

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!

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

Posted on May 16, 2016 by patrick

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.

One 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.

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

Posted on May 10, 2016 by patrick

The 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

Posted on May 3, 2016 by patrick

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 Building – Upgrade in Progress September 2014

Carrboro Family Vision – April 2016

This 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!

Key Take-away From Summer Streets: It’s Time For Autumn Streets

Posted on July 22, 2015 by patrick

Sunday, July 19th, from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm, Carrboro held its second “Summer Streets” (Herald Sun article) event, in which the block of Weaver St between Main St and North Greensboro St was opened to people and closed to cars. For the umpteenth time in the decade and a half I’ve lived here, the Town closed this portion of Weaver Street with no visible negative impacts to traffic or downtown in general.

As usual, people came out and enjoyed a calm public space, kids drew with chalk, and everyone generally had a grand time relaxing, even with 100-degree heat index temperatures. People did yoga, hung out in folding chairs just talking, and one of our Aldermen even held “office hours” for the second time during such an event.

What does opening a street to people do for a town? Stuff like this:

Kurt Stolka and his 3-year-old son walked around Weaver Street after playing a game of soccer in the street.

He said when there is traffic on Weaver Street, “I just can’t feel calm letting my kids play. You have to constantly keep an eye on them.”

But the Summer Streets program helps parents like him relax, he said.

Carrboro Summer Streets: Safe, Happy Kids Dancing on Yellow Lines

Kurt is absolutely correct. I took the picture to the right at the 2012 Carrboro Music Festival. I was able to take this photo because I did not have to hold DC’s hand in a vise grip in downtown Carrboro to provide protection from the greatest danger to children, cars. Why is this so important? Sure, I can take DC to Wilson Park, Carrboro Elementary School, McDougle School, or MLK Park and take advantage of any of the stuff there in the same way, but none of those places have the amenities of downtown in terms of food, commerce, and culture.

Back in May, WCHL reported that the Town was only going to hold three Summer Streets events, and to end them at 2:00 pm each time. This was due to concerns from “…local business owners inside Carr Mill Mall who don’t love the idea. They worry the street closures will keep shoppers away from the mall.”

Given the people-attracting quality a street closure can provide, I was baffled by these concerns. Fortunately, the latest Herald-Sun article reports:

“…[Carrboro Economic Development Director Annette] Stone said that after last month’s event, she sent out an email to business owners. She said she didn’t receive any negative responses and several businesses expressed support for the program.

Seeing as there appears to be broad agreement that there’s not problem here, let’s not take any more half-measures in managing what could be one of our community’s marquee public spaces- let’s set up an “Autumn Streets” program that starts the first Sunday in September and runs EVERY SUNDAY until the Sunday before Thanksgiving, from 8:00 am to 9:00 or 10:00 pm.

That would be twelve glorious autumn days to come downtown and relax, and twelve other great opportunities to try ways to program the block to engage residents. There are plenty of tourism co-promotion opportunities between UNC football games, 2nd Friday Art Walks, etc to take advantage of as well to engage visitors.

If you think this is a good idea, please email the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and let them know “I support weekly Autumn Streets!”

Morgan Creek Greenway Sets a New Standard for Local Bike Facilities

Posted on July 11, 2014 by patrick

While Chapel Hill and Carrboro have some of the highest rates of walking and cycling for transportation in North Carolina and the Southeast, there is still a lot of work to be done to build a continuous network of bike/ped infrastructure that both IS safe and FEELS safe. The recently published final Chapel Hill Bike Plan notes that one of the primary reasons identified by residents for why they do not ride their bike for transportation is safety. (see pages 25-27 for the excellent Level of Traffic Stress Assessment)

With that in mind, it is critical to recognize the outstanding leap forward that the Morgan Creek Greenway project in southern Chapel Hill represents, and the standard it sets for other future off-road and on-road facilities in the area.

Recently we’ve begun taking family bike rides on the Morgan Creek Greenway, and the reasons are numerous:

It’s safe from cars. The greenway is 10 feet wide and from where we usually begin at a parking lot off of NC 54 to Southern Village, there is not a single roadway to cross thanks to the new Culbreth Rd. underpass. Within Southern Village, the crossings of the streets are on low-speed, 2-lane only roads with limited traffic, 3-way or 4-way stop signs, and pedestrian bulb-outs at the crossing points.
The scenery is terrific – creeks, bridges, honeysuckle bushes, wildlife.
It takes you somewhere- we usually integrate dinner in Southern Village into the roundtrip; the picnic tables outside Pazzo are in the shade late in the day.

Here’s a map of the Morgan Creek Greenway, connected to the Fan Branch Trail, via the Culbreth Rd underpass. While the graphic says “trail segment planned for 2014,” I’m sure that will be updated soon – the trail and underpass are completed and open.

Morgan Creek Greenway (map by Town of Chapel Hill)

While at present, the trail seems to end at a parking lot along NC 54, this project is part of a larger effort to bring the trail all the way to University Lake. Another great benefit of this trail’s current and future alignment is that in addition to the already-served Scroggs Elementary school, there is the potential to also link Culbreth Middle School, Frank Porter Graham Elementary, and Carrboro High School to the same trail. You can take a look at the future potential of this greenway by viewing page 13 of this PDF on the Town of Carrboro website.

By the time the greenway reaches Smith Level Rd, the current project to add bike lanes and sidewalks to Smith Level Rd should be complete to the Morgan Creek Bridge near the Carrboro Public Works facility. This will allow the growing network of on-road bicycle lanes to connect with the off-road network that includes the greenway system.

Everybody who had a hand in making this happen in Chapel Hill should be very proud- it’s a terrific community asset!

Here are a few more photos from various locations along this map.

Bridge Over Morgan Creek

Culbreth Rd Underpass Approach from the South

Fan Branch Trail Section

Looking Through Culbreth Rd Underpass