Orange County NC Website
Approved 4/17/13 <br /> <br />Jeff Charles added that at the bicycle committee meeting in Chapel Hill it was reported there were 51,000 jobs in 101 <br />Chapel Hill, noting that this puts some perspective on how many people are coming into Chapel Hill for work. 102 <br /> 103 <br />Highway Map Comments: 104 <br />Jeff Charles commented on the improvements regarding making improvements to Old NC 86 that include four-foot 105 <br />wide shoulders for use by bicyclists. He stated that Old NC 86 will never make a good commuter bike route because 106 <br />of the line of sight deficiency. He noted that no one is going to ride on a road that is as dangerous as Old NC 86 is to 107 <br />bicyclists. The only way it would work is if you straighten it and make elevation changes which is unlikely due to the 108 <br />investment it would require. Additionally, Jeff commented that improvement for cars would be favorable but no 109 <br />monies should be spent on it to install 4 foot shoulders to accommodate bicyclists. Cars travel too fast and it makes 110 <br />no sense to invest money there and it is not a necessary connector. There are other roads for recreation and 111 <br />commuter cyclists in that area, such as new 86. The exception to that is the one project that is a pet project of the 112 <br />cycling community which is Calvander, the one section of Old NC 86 between Carrboro and the 113 <br />Homestead/Dairyland intersection. Jeff noted the natural place to stop improvement on the Highway Map in regard 114 <br />to accommodating bicycles/pedestrians is at the Dairyland/Homestead intersection. 115 <br /> 116 <br />Sam Lasris commented that there may be a need to have some traffic calming measures, i.e. flashing lights, posted 117 <br />speed limits on the improvements suggested on Efland-Cedar Grove Rd in addition to extending the project to the 118 <br />Post Office. 119 <br /> 120 <br />Scott Walston, NCDOT advised that traffic calming measures is something that needs to be discussed with the 121 <br />Division 7 office. 122 <br /> 123 <br />Paul Guthrie commented that what goes on regarding the Rail Map will increase traffic in the rural areas at certain 124 <br />times of the day. You could have feeder transportation needs to those stations that may be along the rail line. Paul 125 <br />suggested there should be some sort of footnote in the comments. He noted that while there is no public 126 <br />transportation rail in Orange County’s territory, there will be. 127 <br /> 128 <br />Public Transportation and Rail Map Comments: 129 <br /> 130 <br />Paul Guthrie referred back to his previous comment on the Highway Map regarding the need of a footnote. 131 <br /> 132 <br />Bicycle Map Comments: 133 <br /> 134 <br />Jeff Charles noted he thinks the Bicycle Map is really quite good. He referred back to his comment on the Highway 135 <br />Map about the widening project on Old NC 86 that proposes four-foot shoulders for bicyclists. He noted that in 136 <br />actuality the Bicycle Map shows that there is no recommendation for a bike route improvement in our plan but if you 137 <br />go the Composite Map (prepared by the Planning Staff), Durham/Chapel Hill has the route on either side of it and 138 <br />then DOT comes in and says now we are going to link it. Then it becomes part of the CTP and it is wrong thinking 139 <br />and needs to be pointed out the County Commissioners because they must have some input on the DCHC part of 140 <br />these recommendations. The Commissioners need to recognize that this project would be spending a lot of money 141 <br />for bicycles on Old NC 86 while also spending money on the DCHC plan on NC 86. It is basically from Eubanks 142 <br />Road to Hillsborough where they are going to put four-foot bike lanes on 86. Jeff added that he questions it but at 143 <br />least on new NC 86 you have line of sight and 86 is the way to commute from Hillsborough as opposed to Old NC 86 144 <br />which is too dangerous. 145 <br /> 146 <br />Amy Cole noted that while she understands Jeff’s comments on Old NC 86 between Arthur Minus and Davis, and 147 <br />stated that she clearly sees the safety issue. But she is looking at it from a connectivity point of view and leaving that 148 <br />out bothers her but the safety of having a four-foot shoulder makes no sense. Would it be possible to have the CTP 149 <br />designate this bike path as an off-road facility? 150 <br /> 151 <br />Attachment 2 <br /> 34