Especially around crosswalks. I know RPD has done some crosswalk enforcement around Broughton from time to time maybe if they did more of that downtown it would change people’s behavior.
(Probably not )
1 Like
The artist behind Bikeyface did something like this in Boston to help remind drivers to be on the lookout for people on bikes. I think it would be a neat thing to do - maybe add a little artsy vibe to downtown - but I doubt it would be effective.
If we’re serious about getting people to slow down we’ll have to implement a lot of traffic calming measures. I’m convinced that the only way to change driver behavior on a large scale is to construct roads so that drivers feel unsafe if traveling above the speed limit.
5 Likes
Looks like the light timing changed recently. This morning, driving south and starting stopped at Lane st, I got stopped by the lights at Hillsborough and South.
Going north starting at South st, I stopped at Davie, W Morgan and almost at Lane st where the light was definitely orange.
I was under the speed limit, probably between 30 and 35. I know for sure that previously going at the same speed, I would have all the lights green.
I wonder if it’s an experiment or if it will stay that way.
5 Likes
12 posts were split to a new topic: Rezoning at the Firestone lot
Brainstorming some park / trail ideas and had this thought. What if we split Rocky Branch trail where it crosses Dawson / McDowell and built a pedestrian bridge right where our money shot is. This would be a Beltline level of activation of what now seems to be a sleepy path. It’d be “the spot” to head to for photos even more so than Boylan Bridge. The bridge could also be designed in a way to really signify itself as the welcoming point to downtown while traveling on Dawson / McDowell northward. Add some lighting features for the night time. There’s also some usable land on either side to activate as a park.
8 Likes
I like it, but my gondola will be coming right through this area as well so we’ll need to coordinate your bridge with my gondola.
3 Likes
I’m sure elevation was the factor but I can’t believe they didn’t try to have it bridged originally.
Just make sure this is one of the gondola stops and we’ll make it work
2 Likes
There is already a tunnel under Dawson/McDowell there, although passing through it doesn’t exactly inspire warm fuzzy feelings of safety.
A bridge there would have a great view, to be sure, and could definitely serve as a gateway- but it just wouldn’t match well with the lay of the land. The trail is ten or twelve feet below the pavement surface of the Dawson/McDowell connector, and to bridge over it you’d have to climb to 20 feet above it, or a total of 30 feet, which means a 600 foot long, 5% steep grade.
So from a transportation perspective, I kind of think they’d be better off rebuilding the tunnel to be wider, more open, and maybe have a skylight in the median to make it feel like less of a… well, less of a dank hole in the ground.
3 Likes
I’d vouch for leaving the tunnel intact and basically having a “detour scenic route” as the bridge for people just coming for the view and pictures.
5 Likes
Y’know, that’s not a bad idea. Hm!
1 Like
This would be purely an aesthetics / tourist type thing and since the main path would still be in place you might be able to get away with some steeper grades. You could even make it a stair case and provide a wheelchair elevator as they’ve done on some high grade parts of the Atlanta beltline
3 Likes
I wouldn’t call them stroads. Wouldn’t Wake Forest and Capital north of downtown be better definitions of stroads? I’d also consider S. Saunders out by DTS, and Western Blvd stroads.
I call them all roads…
2 Likes
Are stroads just a way of saying “stupid roads”? In that case, I call them all stroads.
I don’t know, what does StoakCityDylan mean?
1 Like
Every highlighted road in the jpg is a State Road. Roads that NCDOT pays to maintain. Not the City of Raleigh. State Roads also includes most roads (including those in subdivisions) out in the non corporate limits of Wake County.
4 Likes
After reading both StrongTowns books, I’ll respond from that perspective.
I would call Saunders/McDowell Stroads because they are designed to be high speed connections between destinations with highway scale features, yet they encounter tremendous amounts of complexity with crosswalks, bikers, cross-traffic intersections, and business entrances. This combination of highway design and complexity creates dangerous interactions that result in pedestrian fatalities and driver fatalities. Saunders/McDowell are designed for two competing objectives, and thus fail at both. They neither succeed at being an efficient high speed connection (road) nor a low-speed platform for value generation and commerce (street).
The solution is to determine whether McDowell/Saunders should be prioritized as a high speed N-S connections, or a low speed platform for generating wealth and value for Downtown. I would think most here agree McDowell/Saunders should be tamed down into a Street, and if that’s the consensus, then we need to slow them down, possibly remove travel lanes, possibly convert to 2-way, add raised intersections, bollards, and/or a host of other traffic calming measures. Then maybe, they will change from a pair of Stroads to a pair of Streets.
7 Likes
On the counter (and I haven’t read either book), if they’re determined to be “high speed connections” between N/S, I imagine they’d need to be either elevated for separation, or perhaps sunken with cross streets at-grade but not impeded by the high speed roads.
Neither seem to make any sense and would be incredibly expensive.
3 Likes
Exactly.
The federal highway system is extremely effective at connecting cities with safe highspeed connections. They design wide lanes, sweeping curves, large recovery areas, tree removal, exit ramps, and grade separation to maintain safety at speed. With these complexity reducing features, highways are very good at being Roads.
And to make an obvious point, a lemonade stand on the side of I-40 wouldn’t be a very prudent business model. High speed connections are not platforms for building wealth and value, rather they connect places of wealth and value together.
3 Likes
High speed connections at 25 mph?