Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
124 <br /> will be a parent late for a game, distracted by young children in the back seat and scrambling to <br /> find an available space in a crowded parking lot. <br /> For the safety of the children it is a good thing that our use of the access road is, as Mr. Stancil <br /> notes, commercial. It is because our traffic is business-related that we know that nearly all of our <br /> traffic will occur at times when children are not present. The traffic we create occurs almost <br /> entirely on weekdays between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. (with crew members arriving from home <br /> in their personal vehicles and then leaving with their work trucks), and then again between 2:30 <br /> p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (with crew members returning with their work trucks and then leaving for <br /> home in their personal vehicles). You will not see school-aged children at County soccer fields <br /> during these hours. County soccer fields are generally only used by children during weekends <br /> or well after school lets out. This is precisely when you will typically not see our trucks. <br /> To drive home the point, consider just how much traffic is created by eight soccer fields during <br /> soccer season on a Saturday. Assume that each soccer team has 12 players and 2 coaches. <br /> Each child and each coach arrives in a separate vehicle. Four of the parents simply drop their <br /> children off at the game, driving back to pick them up afterwards. Two grandparents arrive in <br /> separate vehicles to watch their grandchildren play. All told, this yields a total of 40 vehicle trips <br /> per team per game. Since there are two teams per game, there are 80 vehicle trips per soccer <br /> game. If there are eight soccer fields this gives us 640 vehicle trips per game slot. If there are <br /> four game slots per game day, we have a total of 2,560 vehicle trips per Saturday during <br /> soccer season at the soccer complex. <br /> Whatever we do at our parcel - however large we grow - our contribution towards vehicular risk <br /> to small children at these soccer fields will be as a raindrop in an ocean. This is true regardless <br /> of where our access road is located. Eliminating our traffic will do practically nothing to increase <br /> the safety of young children. Our vehicles generally aren't on the road during the field usage <br /> times. On the other hand, eliminating one soccer field would do a lot to decrease vehicular risk <br /> to small children. Eliminating one field would subtract 320 vehicle trips per Saturday in the <br /> height of soccer season. When compared to just one soccer field, our entire business at its <br /> maximum size would be creating half as many vehicle trips per day during times when no <br /> children would be at the soccer complex. I am not suggesting that the County should reduce <br /> the number of soccer fields. Despite all of the risks, I think building all eight soccer fields and <br /> another ten baseball fields would clearly be in the interests of young children. We are simply <br /> asking the County to think accurately about the relative risk that traffic from our business is likely <br /> to pose to young children at the imagined soccer complex. <br /> My deep gratitude to you if you have read to this point and have weighed my arguments. <br /> Sincerely, <br /> Craig <br /> 6 <br />