Study focuses on downtown traffic

The Carrboro Board of Alderman accepted Tuesday night a draft report on traffic circulation in the town.

"I think it's a really well thought out and well executed study," said Mayor Pro Tem Diana McDuffee.

The draft from Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., which cost $75,000, looks at ways that traffic and pedestrian experiences can be improved.

It considers both the current situation and the situation that would arise if Carrboro met its goal of doubling nonresidential space downtown.

Roger Henderson, who gave the firm's presentation, said doubling nonresidential space would result in about a 40 percent increase in traffic.

Henderson also said that the town probably would not meet that goal unless changes in traffic circulation were made.

"This firm has taken these ideas and gone the next step to test whether they would work, what problems they solve and what problems they create," McDuffee said.

The firm worked with town staff and the North Carolina Department of Transportation to develop several options.

Dale McKeel, a transportation planner for the town, said the report was prompted by the New Vision for Downtown Carrboro, the product of a three-day charette in 2001.

Options for improving circulation downtown include creating one-way streets; extending streets, particularly Roberson Street; adding on-street parking; replacing intersections with roundabouts; and turning the first block of Weaver Street into a "woonerf" - a space with pedestrian, bicycle and slow, one-way motor traffic.

The proposed extension of Roberson Street would require coordination with the redevelopment plan for 300 E. Main St., Henderson said. He said it would have to run almost directly through the current location of Cat's Cradle.

The extension also would need to cross a railway built on University land, for which the town would need permission.

Henderson said that roundabouts were suitable only at two of the less-congested intersections in town.

The next steps for the study will be to receive public input and further design work by the consultants. A public forum will be held Nov. 4.

McKeel said he expects the report to be complete sometime next year, but Henderson said it is possible it could be completed before then.

Henderson said he thought the traffic problem looked worse than it actually was and asked the board for feedback on that observation.

Council members commented on problems for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists from peak-hour traffic jams.

But McDuffee said it might take too much to eliminate traffic jams downtown. "I don't think that people take into account the price that would have to be paid to ensure that there's never any queue."

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