By Chris FrankÂ
The citizens of south Oak Avenue have good news and bad. What’s good for some is bad for others. Or, “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.â€
Closely following the “Town of Carrboro Residential Traffic Management Plan for Speed Control,†a neighborhood group of us jumped through the hoops toward the goal of making our sidewalk-less, popular cut-through street safer for our kids, bikers, walkers, strollers — all of the “transportation†that shares this 20-foot wide road. Our focus was the two-block run with the slight curve, running from Weaver Street to Poplar Avenue.
First we had to produce a petition showing “widespread concern†for the issue signed by 75 percent of the residents in the vaguely determined “area of influence.†That got the ball rolling. Then the town staff measured, evaluated (probably 40 or 50 staff-hours of chin-scratching) and recommended what I call the “no-capital-cost-we-need-to-look-at-the-whole-neighborhood-do-essentially-nothing†approach. They call that “Stage 1†traffic calming: park a police car on the street once in a while, “inform†the neighborhood, move the paperwork to the file, plan to evaluate in five years if they don’t forget about it.
But as the TCRTMPSC (as we wonkers call it) process dictates, it then goes to the TAB — the Transportation Advisory Board — a thoughtful group of volunteers that cares deeply about the broader transportation issues, not just moving cars. They looked at the data and the staff report and recommended “Stage 2†calming: in our case, a speed table or hump. At least a couple of the TAB bikers had been brushed back by fast traffic heading for the center of the road on the curve. They agreed that it is a dangerous stretch that needed calming.
The staff wasn’t done yet; they measured again, and talked it over at some more meetings. And when the resolution went to the board of aldermen, it was for the staff’s original plan, not the TAB’s.
No matter, the board of aldermen are a smart, reasonable and mostly progressive lot. We showed up in force at the meeting, told them our problem, and our problem with the staff’s resolution, and they unanimously voted to follow the TAB’s recommendation for “Stage 2†calming.
Bang the gavel, we’re getting a bona fide speed-calming device! We all celebrated government “in action†instead of “inaction,†and last week, barely a month later, public works put a “speed table†on Oak Ave.
Funny thing is, that’s the bad news. You see, the “table†they installed is designed for higher crossing speeds, 25 to 27 mph (according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers: www.ite.org/traffic/table.htm). What good is that for a street with a 20 mph speed limit?
According to the ITE guidelines, the correct remedy would be a “speed hump,†which is designed for crossing speeds of 19 to 21 mph. As one of the neighbors said, “It looks like we’ve been had — and there go 2,500 of our tax dollars down the drain.â€
The good news is that for those of you in a hurry, you don’t need to slow down to go over the table, even if you are speeding!
Chris Frank is a Carrboro resident who — as you might have guessed — lives on Oak Avenue.
Instead of complaining why not wait and see how the speed hump affects traffic? People don’t know the speeds that you posted, so I imagine most would slow down.
Speeding on that stretch wasn’t that bad to begin with.