This summer, the Town of Chapel Hill is planning to add bike lanes to Ephesus Church Road as part of the North Carolina Department of Transportation's repaving project.
The bike lanes will begin at Ephesus Elementary and end before the intersection between Ephesus Church Road and Pope Road.
To accommodate bikes, the road’s 16-foot lanes will be narrowed to a range of 11 to 14 feet, giving bicyclists at least 5 feet on each side of the road.
"That will make it so that more kids feel confident riding to school," Town Council Member Adam Searing said. "It will also help parents who are out there riding."
Josh Mayo, transportation planner for the Town of Chapel Hill, said the repaving process will take place over the summer to minimize conflicts with school traffic from Ephesus Elementary.
The plan has received mostly positive support so far. An online survey has garnered 125 responses with 85 percent of the responses backing the project, as of last week.
Mayo, who is leading the project, noted there have also been some concerns raised in the survey responses, such as questions about the plan’s call for narrowing lanes and prohibiting parking on sides of the road.
Recently, a biker on Franklin Street was struck by an individual exiting their vehicle and died as a result of subsequent injuries. The incident has led to a large number of Chapel Hill leaders and residents to raise concerns about pedestrian and cyclist safety in the area.
Searing, who attended Ephesus Elementary as a child and has been biking in Chapel Hill for almost 50 years, said the new lanes are a step in the right direction but do not offer protection for bikers, as they will be designated by paint only.
