Chapel Hill recommended budget includes bike safety funds

The Chapel Hill Town Council’s commitment to improving bike and pedestrian safety this year is clear.

The recommended budget for 2015-2016 fiscal year, first presented at the council meeting May 11, included a budget ordinance amendment that will allow Chapel Hill to receive an additional $22,400 in funds from the Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Planning Organization, the regional organization responsible for transportation planning in the area.

These funds will go toward a project to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety on Estes Drive.

The town is required to provide matching funds of $5,600 for a total of $28,000 going toward the project.

But the $28,000 is only part of a larger bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure project.

The project will be also be addressed as part of a bond referendum that voters will consider this November.

The value of the bond is $40.3 million.

$16.2 million of those funds would go toward improving streets and sidewalks to make them safer. 

The specific projects that money will cover are not yet fully designed, but they will come from recommendations approved in June 2014 for infrastructure to make traveling by bike safer, town spokeswoman Catherine Lazorko said.

“The Estes Drive bike and pedestrian project is incredibly important,” town council member Maria Palmer said in an email.

“We need to make it possible for people to use transportation other than cars to get around safely in Chapel Hill, and Estes Drive is a major connector.”

The project will take place on the section of Estes Drive between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Caswell Drive. 

Palmer said that the road is narrow and always full of cars, making it dangerous to ride on, especially for families with kids or beginner cyclists.

“I believe it is a critical investment for our community,” she said.

“It will improve connectivity and sustainability.”

The larger bike plan includes collaboration with Carrboro, which is also represented in the Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Planning Organization.

North Carolina had the sixth-highest rate of pedestrian fatalities per capita in 2012, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Damon Seils said the two towns are currently working on a project to improve the safety of the intersection between Chapel Hill’s West Franklin Street and Carrboro’s East Main Street.