
{"id":1321,"date":"2007-11-21T12:55:08","date_gmt":"2007-11-21T20:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/11\/21\/the-oak-avenue-traffic-calming-report\/"},"modified":"2007-11-21T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2007-11-21T20:55:08","slug":"the-oak-avenue-traffic-calming-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/11\/21\/the-oak-avenue-traffic-calming-report\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oak Avenue Traffic Calming Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Chris Frank\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The citizens of south Oak Avenue have good news and bad. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good for some is bad for others. Or, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ceiling is another man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s floor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Closely following the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Town of Carrboro Residential Traffic Management Plan for Speed Control,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d all of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153transportation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First we had to produce a petition showing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153widespread concern\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for the issue signed by 75 percent of the residents in the vaguely determined \u00e2\u20ac\u0153area of influence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no-capital-cost-we-need-to-look-at-the-whole-neighborhood-do-essentially-nothing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d approach. They call that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stage 1\u00e2\u20ac\u009d traffic calming: park a police car on the street once in a while, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inform\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the neighborhood, move the paperwork to the file, plan to evaluate in five years if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget about it.<\/p>\n<p>But as the TCRTMPSC (as we wonkers call it) process dictates, it then goes to the TAB \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the Transportation Advisory Board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stage 2\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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.<\/p>\n<p>The staff wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original plan, not the TAB\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resolution, and they unanimously voted to follow the TAB\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recommendation for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stage 2\u00e2\u20ac\u009d calming.<\/p>\n<p>Bang the gavel, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting a bona fide speed-calming device! We all celebrated government \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in action\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inaction,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and last week, barely a month later, public works put a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speed table\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Oak Ave.<\/p>\n<p>Funny thing is, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the bad news. You see, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153table\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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?<\/p>\n<p>According to the ITE guidelines, the correct remedy would be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speed hump,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is designed for crossing speeds of 19 to 21 mph. As one of the neighbors said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It looks like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been had \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and there go 2,500 of our tax dollars down the drain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that for those of you in a hurry, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to slow down to go over the table, even if you are speeding!<\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Frank is a Carrboro resident who \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as you might have guessed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d lives on Oak Avenue.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chris Frank\u00c2\u00a0 The citizens of south Oak Avenue have good news and bad. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good for some is bad for others. Or, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ceiling is another man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s floor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Closely following the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Town of Carrboro Residential Traffic Management Plan for Speed Control,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a neighborhood group of us jumped through the hoops toward the goal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}