By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
CARRBORO – Carrboro is considering a plan to slim down West Main Street along the road’s four-lane stretch near Town Hall, adding bike lanes and dropping the number of travel lanes for cars from four to two, plus a turning lane. The move could make the street far safer without leading to traffic backups, according to a plan reviewed during a Tuesday night work session of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen at Town Hall.
The proposal is a variation of previous concepts in the town’s Vision 2020 plan and other transportation studies for what to do with the wide, four-lane stretch of West Main Street between Weaver Street and Hillsborough Road. The design calls for restriping the street to reduce the four-lane cross-section to two travel lanes and a center turn lane and bike lanes on each side of the street.
The town’s Transportation Advisory Board asked the board of aldermen to present the idea to the state Department of Transportation to see if the state will help pick up the tab for the new road markings.
Board member Jacquie Gist said she thinks the idea is worth pursing, especially since the design has the backing of both the town’s transportation board and the UNC-based Highway Safety Research Center. In addition to providing for more bikes and slowing traffic, it could make getting across West Main Street easier.
“It could solve a problem that we’ve had a fair number of citizens complain about,†Gist said.
The idea is also appealing, Gist said, because of the potential for the state to pick up the tab, and because if the design isn’t working it can be undone easily.
“It’s just paint,†she said. “If we were going in and rebuilding stuff, that would be different.â€
In other action Tuesday night, the board approved a set of legislative priorities, including new requirements being pushed by the state League of Municipalities for counties that change their sales-tax distributions. Municipal leaders in Orange County have kept a wary eye on the county’s budget plans ever since the possibility was raised last year that the county might change its sales-tax distribution formula to help fill its budget gap. Carrboro Town Manager Steve Stewart said the town could see as much as $1 million in sales-tax revenue dry up as a result.
The league, which lobbies legislators oh behalf of its member towns and cities, wants the state to require counties to hold a public hearing before implementing a change in the distributions. It would also prevent the changes from taking effect for a year and require them to be phased in over four years.
And since February marks the end of a number of terms on the town’s advisory boards, Tuesday night’s meeting was also marked by a slew of appointments and reappointments. They include:
• Board of Adjustment — Sriv Navaratnam;
• Planning Board — Damon Seils, Michael Rodgers, John Killeen and Susan Poulton;
• Appearance Commission — Tom Wiltberger;
• Transportation Advisory Board — Heidi Perry, Kurt Stolke and Terra Curtis;
• Recreation & Parks Commission — Jonah Garson, Gini Bell and Jaimee Watts;
• Human Services Commission — Seth Maid and Earleen Burch;
• Economic Sustainability Commission — Terri Turner, Brian Russell and Christopher Stephenson;
• Environmental Advisory Board — Dana Stidham, Nina Butler and Bruce Sinclair;
• Northern Transition Area Advisory Committee — Jay Bryan; and
• Arts Committee — Steph Russ and Laura Korch.
If the proposed 5-lane reconfiguration is supposed to be “far safer,†that implies that the current situation is not safe. Have collisions at this location been analyzed? My guess is probably not.
You wrote, “In addition to providing for more bikes and slowing traffic, it could make getting across West Main Street easier.â€
Currently, bicyclists can and should use the full right lane of this low-speed 25 mph street, in effect having a 10’ wide “bike lane.†Motorists change lanes to pass; that is a purpose of multiple lanes. A 10’ lane affords bicyclists considerable clearance from adjacent motorists and those at side streets and driveways.
Narrowing the right lanes to the width of a sidewalk and “providing†for bikes is actually reducing bicyclist space. Not only will bicyclist space be reduced, but it will be to the worst part of the road near the edge where conflicts with motorists at side streets and driveways are exacerbated. Further, it is well understood that a bike lane gathers debris, as evidenced by every existing bike lane in Carrboro.
High speed motoring is not a problem there, so an alleged slowing of traffic is irrelevant. However, by reducing the number of through lanes it is clear motor traffic will be denser in the single lanes, thus making it more difficult for bicyclists to make a left turn. Bicyclists turning left will have to yield to denser traffic and then again to traffic in the center turn lane. In the current configuration, bicyclists need only yield to one lane of motor traffic.
This is a situation in which an imagined problem is turned into manufactured ones.
Better talk to the people stuck in traffic jams on Carolina Beach’s diet plan roads before doing this. What a mess that “Diet” made.