Road Diets

[ah59396]

Instead of road-dieting Park Rd, why not take those funds and complete Little Sugar Creek Greenway and make it a safe and accessible bikeway.

 

Totally agree.  My prior comment was more tongue and cheek.  Obviously the city needs thoroughfares for cars, and Park rd is one of them, along with roads like S Blvd and Providence.  I'm okay with those not having bike lanes if they can at least provide those of us who do with ride with safe alternatives that don't involve 6000 stop signs.

[dubone]

Well, first off, there are no funds for Park Rd, as that is not a real project.  There IS actually a $2.1M project to complete LSCG from Tyvola to 485.  That project is getting closer because the money is budgeted for this fiscal year, so it should be under construction later this year.

 

(EB-4715 on page 235)

https://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/planning/Planning%20Document%20Library/LIVE_STIP.pdf

 

http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/search/details.html#id=1321

^ The project update says it started construction 10/2013, so perhaps some initial work is already under way.

[tozmervo]

As far as bike connectivity is concerned, I think Park Rd is a good candidate for a "road adjacent" bike path. Unfortunately, the road network provides virtually no good bike routes across Park Rd, so most folks are forced to go down the road for at least small stretches to get across it. For example. try biking from Sedgefield to Freedom Park and figure out how to deal with Park Rd safely without a really long detour.

[ah59396]

As far as bike connectivity is concerned, I think Park Rd is a good candidate for a "road adjacent" bike path. Unfortunately, the road network provides virtually no good bike routes across Park Rd, so most folks are forced to go down the road for at least small stretches to get across it. For example. try biking from Sedgefield to Freedom Park and figure out how to deal with Park Rd safely without a really long detour.

 

 

I live off Archdale.  I sneak through the back roads up to Seneca and then have to boot up Park Rd for about a quarter mile before I finally bail off into the Montford area before having to almost re-kill-myself by crossing Woodlawn.  And that's the SAFEST way I've found to get over to the greenway/the safety of selwyn.

[southslider]

To cross Park Rd from Sedgefield, try the pedestrian only signal in front of the YWCA.

As for completing LSGC, the County will complete generally south of Tyvola per the timeframe Dubone noted. However, the segment between Woodlawn and Tyvola is set to be a future City bond project. Granted, it may still be over five years out; voters won't even have a chance to approve a bond until 2016. That's to say, the first round of City bonds voted upon later this year may be targeting other projects ahead of the "Cross Charlotte Trail."

[dubone]

At least Selwyn has a nice bike lane for most of the Woodlawn to Tyvola stretch (coincidentally on-topic) due to a road diet.   Great  to see it is included in the planning for the trail. 

 

I think people are finally seeing the good things that come from trails, so I think it will do fine in the bond vote. 

 

 

 

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/Candidates%20Request%20Responses/2%20-%2026%20Mile%20Cross-Charlotte%20Trail.pdf

 

Strangely this document says the Briar Creek to 485 section is only funded for design, and with the italicization seems to be a very clear point.  However, the STIP, perhaps updated recently to include construction costs, but does categorize the 2.1m as construction money.  

[archiham04]

road diet here :

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.219873,-80.805484,3a,75y,112.72h,78.57t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sUPpegi7Ewl0YRvxhDp6KmA!2e0

I would like this please:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.200128,-80.842164,3a,75y,137.76h,70t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sD_jT7TNIbmqgsUdRrVa1mg!2e0

 

Central Ave. converted to East Blvd similar.

[Spartan]

I would love to be able to ride my bike on Park Rd safely, because its a bit of a nightmare now, but I don't think its realistic to expect a diet here. 

 

It's not. Park Road carries way too much traffic for a diet. In a city with a more well connected grid of streets, you could make the argument that doing a road diet would just disperse traffic to other streets. In Charlotte that's not the case. Further, a side path would cut through a lot of front yards, and you'd have driveways crossing relatively frequently. I'm not trying to be a killjoy but there isn't much that can be done with Park Road unless the City is willing to condemn A LOT of land.

 

On a related note, back in the 60's, the City had planned to widen Park Road to 6 lanes and grade separate Park/Woodlawn, basically creating another Independence corridor. Ironically, if that had happened, there would be plenty of room for a diet.

 

The biggest challenge I see with road diets going forward is that the vast majority of the "low hanging fruit" has been dieted (ie: most of the overbuilt roads are correctly sized now). The more complicated projects require more money up front for traffic analysis, and more public involvement to get buy in on the idea.

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that East Blvd, while a great project, was very unique in that it had a massive amount of excess right of way to work with.

 

 

Instead of road-dieting Park Rd, why not take those funds and complete Little Sugar Creek Greenway and make it a safe and accessible bikeway.

 

Different pots of money, but I like your thought process.