All posts in category Roads

Driving us crazy

Terri Buckner works, walks and drives in Chapel Hill. Here’s her take on Chapel Hill drivers learning the rules of the road: At last week’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, a resident petitioned the town to remove 3-way stops on Umstead Drive. His request launched a discussion about how many drivers don’t know what to […]

Table talk

John Ager is a member of the Planning Board and co-facilitated the recent Central West Focus Area meetings. Here’s what he has to say: A fundamental challenge lies at the heart of the “Central West Focus Area” debate. This area contains some of the town’s oldest and loveliest neighborhoods. No one is surprised when the […]

Timing

Gene Pease put it in a nutshell last night. In response to the concept plan review for Carolina Flats presented by Florida developer Russ Greer of Progressive Capital Group, Pease said, “Your timing is lousy.” After Greer and Scott Radway presented the “back of the envelope” plan, as Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt called it, and a […]

Don’t block the bump

I’ve been pressed gently but relentlessly by people in the neighborhood where I own rental property to sign a petition to install traffic-calming devices on the streets that frame my corner lot. I’ve gently but relentlessly refused. My observation has been that traffic-calming devices – speed bumps, humps, tables, cushions and traffic undulation devices – […]

Speak up on cell phone ban

Tonight Town Council will hold a public hearing to debate whether Chapel Hill moves one step closer to becoming an exclusive community. The ordinance up for discussion proposes that Chapel Hill ban some drivers from talking to certain people on a cell phone while driving on selected streets in town. Study upon study and layers […]

Transit report

Looks like Chapel Hill Transit is spending its Christmas money or maybe leftover TARP funds set to expire. According to a report in chapelboro.com, the town is shelling out $200,000 — perhaps as much as $300,000, depending on which source you believe — to a consulting firm to determine whether the Eubanks Road Park-n-Ride has […]

Traffic safety for everyone

What’s more dangerous than riding a bicycle in Chapel Hill? Riding a bicycle in Chapel Hill at the Estes Drive-Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard intersection. That’s why some residents plan to petition the Town Council at the business meeting tonight at 7 in Town Hall to end right-on-red turns at the intersection and paint wide […]

On the road

Merritt’s diners can now choose to sit at tables with awnings where the gas pumps used to be. Al fresco dining is not something most Chapel Hill residents associate with Merritt’s, where the famous BLT remains a favorite and a lot of the clientele is construction workers. But the new scene at Merritt’s will soon […]

Does this bus go to Durham?

Chapel Hill residents may soon have the opportunity to hop on one of the town’s fare-free buses and take a trip to Durham as the result of a proposal to revise several routes along U.S. 15-501. The route modifications will allow Chapel Hillians to transfer to a Durham Area Transit Authority bus and tool on […]

Down the road

I guess you could call it the warning bell. On the Town Council’s Consent Agenda for tonight’s business meeting is commitment of town money toward the cost of putting sidewalks along the Weaver Dairy Road widening project. Yes, first efforts seem to have begun in the long-aborning state project, which would three-lane the 2.74-mile length […]