
{"id":5029,"date":"2009-03-05T11:21:12","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5029"},"modified":"2009-03-05T11:21:12","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T19:21:12","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-an-open-carrboro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/05\/letter-to-the-editor-an-open-carrboro\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: An open Carrboro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs can be idyllic neighborhoods. Kids play freely and neighbors visit each other with little threat from cars. In the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been asked to preserve this environment by blocking connections to new developments. Residents have asked why we recommend to do otherwise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that exactly what Carrboro wants to promote?<\/p>\n<p>The interests of the larger community sometimes conflict with what residents from a small area might desire. A good example is the Wexford neighborhood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to the proposed Claremont development (located south of Homestead Road, west of Bolin Creek). The new residents would travel north onto Homestead and south into Wexford via Colfax Drive. Colfax and adjoining Tramore Drive are new public roads with sidewalks and a clearly marked \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stub-out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the new Claremont development, but the residents currently enjoy a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153private cul-de-sac,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as described in realty ads.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Many of the Colfax\/Tramore residents oppose any connection to the new development \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who wants more traffic? But nobody is suggesting that the current residents will stop driving themselves. Each trip from Colfax passes by about 33 houses going north and about 45 houses going south, impacting daily their neighbors and schoolchildren with more traffic. Furthermore, the closed connection only pushes the new traffic on to somebody else. Some of the traffic will likely go south via Strafford; the result: one small area retains a privileged publicly maintained cul-de-sac, while their neighbors shoulder more traffic.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been asked to block the connection but let bikes and walkers pass through. Seems reasonable, but what about electric bikes? Mopeds? Motorcycles? Electric or hybrid cars? Will a teenager on a moped be forced to risk traveling on Homestead? Do we block certain classes of vehicles but force others to take a longer route?<\/p>\n<p>Energy consumption is also a concern. With the connection closed, each trip north from Colfax will be about half a mile longer. One residence is responsible for about 10 trips a day, so the impact adds up quickly. Overall, we know that connected neighborhoods are better for the air and environment.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been asked to block connections many times in Carrboro. Do we spend our tax dollars to maintain closed neighborhoods and cul-de-sacs where traffic impacts all but a privileged vocal minority? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often a hard political decision to keep the connections open and we are surrounded by communities that have decided not to. Each situation deserves special consideration; but if we envision an open and accessible Carrboro, connectivity will be an essential part of that goal.<\/p>\n<p>Charlie Hileman<br \/>\nCarrboro<br \/>\n<em>Charlie Hileman is chair of the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs can be idyllic neighborhoods. Kids play freely and neighbors visit each other with little threat from cars. In the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been asked to preserve this environment by blocking connections to new developments. Residents have asked why we recommend to do otherwise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that exactly what Carrboro&#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-5029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029","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=5029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}