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The Blount/person street conversions will likely hurt traffic mobility and capacity, for a questionable “benefit” for pedestrians. (The argument is that one way streets are bad for businesses and pedestrians. The former is at least arguable, I’d like to see evidence that the latter is true.)
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Originally Posted by pierretong1991
I'm also not a fan of the the two-way Blount/Person Street conversion - I wish they would just leave it one way and just repurpose the lanes on the road for bike lanes/parking
I'm also of the opinion that the two-way conversion of Blount/Person isn't the best idea. There needs to be a good pass-thru into downtown and Blount/Person serves that rather well. Trying to two-way all the main roads in the downtown core seems rather egregious.
Those streets are one of the few thru-way connectors between I-40 on the South end of downtown, up to Capital on the North end of downtown. I understand wanting to cater to pedestrians, believe me, I'm a huge downtown proponent, but this is going to just cause a traffic nightmare.
Those streets are one of the few thru-way connectors between I-40 on the South end of downtown, up to Capital on the North end of downtown. I understand wanting to cater to pedestrians, believe me, I'm a huge downtown proponent, but this is going to just cause a traffic nightmare.
They're getting ready to road diet Wake Forest Road from where Blount/Person begins up north to Capital Blvd (currently 2 lanes in each direction but they're going to take it down to 1 in each direction with a center two way left turn lane and bike lanes) so clearly the purpose is to make Blount/Person no longer the connector road you're talking about.
I'm no bike/ped expert but I feel that a one-way street would simplify things for a pedestrian with only having to look one way to cross the street. If higher vehicular speeds are the problem, you can narrow the lanes (which the bike lanes/parking would do) or adjust the signal timings along the corridor so that people aren't flying down the road.
As a cyclist and a pedestrian, I agree with you all. One way works well, and to restrict to one lane in each direction will only cause gridlock and frustration for drivers, cyclist and pedestrians. Imagine when a delivery truck stops to drop off food to a restaurant, there will be backups because there is no way to get around them.
I think this is a classic case of "it was not broke, don't fix it". I'd like to see more bike lanes, which I think actually helps the flow of traffic because it keeps lanes dedicated to their respective use.
The summary on page 7 shows minimal to no cons to the one way road diet (only real thing is business visibility/access) while the two way conversion has lost parking spaces and longer travel times.
On a similar note, looks like the mayor's race might be headed for a run-off if McFarlane can't get to 50% (she's up 48-37% over Charles Francis). All the incumbents except Bonner Gaylord won re-election (not official though, still close) and Nicole Stewart won the vacant at-large spot.
Not surprised about Bonner losing. A lot of the locals in the Five Points area aren't happy about the pro-development slant of city council and the rapid growth that they feel is destroying their neighborhoods. As someone who works for Kane/North Hills, Bonner sort of took the brunt of that anger despite the fact that the opposing candidate Stef Mendall really doesn't have that much experience IMO.
I know Francis is entitled to a runoff, but given that he ran as a Democrat against an Independent and lost relatively handily, I hope we can avoid that. Don't think he's going to pick up the 15% who voted for the Republican, which he'd essentially need to do to beat McFarlane. Given that both candidates somehow got my cell phone number and have been calling and texting me incessantly for weeks, really would like for this contest to be over.
Most of the roads mentioned ARE state roads. The city is planning on widening them because State money will likely not become available for them for a long time.
Same thing happened with Creedmoor Road (NC 50) almost 30 years ago.
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Originally Posted by Mr. Woodrow
I know Francis is entitled to a runoff, but... I hope we can avoid that.
Wait and see. Unless turnout in the runoff is astonishingly small, I can't imagine a win by Francis. On the other hand, I wouldn't characterize 48% for McFarlane as a smashing mandate. I wonder if this will be her last term.
Unless turnout in the runoff is astonishingly small, I can't imagine a win by Francis. On the other hand, I wouldn't characterize 48% for McFarlane as a smashing mandate. I wonder if this will be her last term.
Don't know much about Francis, but reading his platform, it doesn't strike me as noticeably different from McFarlane. Is it a case of voter just wanting something different? I don't recall any standout issues that seemed like they were a thorn for her(police pay?). I'll admit, that I think she does an incredible job of keeping herself away from controversy.
IIRC, traffic is slower on two way streets in urban areas, which make them a little safer for pedestrians.
I feel like traffic on those streets has been fine for most pedestrians however. The one-way configuration makes it "easy" to basically look in one dang direction and verify that there's no traffic barreling down on you to cross the road. With two-way you have to be far, far more attentive.
Note this is not to say you shouldn't look both ways regardless of one/two way traffic. You never know, but if someones barreling down the wrong way of a one-way street I'd say there are far bigger problems that are about to happen.
Don't know much about Francis, but reading his platform, it doesn't strike me as noticeably different from McFarlane. Is it a case of voter just wanting something different? I don't recall any standout issues that seemed like they were a thorn for her(police pay?). I'll admit, that I think she does an incredible job of keeping herself away from controversy.
I've always felt kind of 'meh' about McFarlane. I mean, she's never done anything I'd consider *bad* but really I've never been excited or enthused or anything by her ideas. She's very status quo and not upsetting the apple cart (as you correctly stated). However, I think it'd be nice to try someone else out that was up for making big changes. I know there's a chance I wont like all those changes, but I think we've got to try.
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