Carrboro transportation planners are studying traffic on Oak Avenue after the town’s Transportation Advisory Board approved a plan to put a speed table on the well-traveled street.
Adena Messigner of the town’s planning staff said the advisory board heard from petitioners in the Oak Avenue area who asked for some relief from a growing number of cars using the road and driving too fast.
After a preliminary study of the road, the counts and speed were high enough to put the road in a category that would allow for traffic calming if residents requested it.
The road, which runs between Weaver Street and Greensboro Street, is heavily used by pedestrians and bikers, but is also an oft-used cut-through by drivers in a hurry
Some residents wanted to make Oak Avenue one way, but at its June meeting the advisory board opted instead to approve a plan to put a speed table with a textured surface on the road. The advisory board also asked the town to look into narrowing the Oak Avenue intersections at Weaver Street and Greensboro Street — possibly with planters — to discourage and slow down cut-through traffic.
Messinger said an analysis by the staff along with the advisory board’s recommendations could go before the Board of Aldermen in October, giving a little more time to study traffic during a busier time of the year.
“We need to finish up the data collection once school is back in session,†she said.
The speed table would be similar in construction to one in the Lake Hogan Farms neighborhood.
— From Staff Reports
Putting it at the Shelton St intersection may help, since loads of kids walk down Shelton St to the Elementary School, and cars speed down Shelton St too.