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13 <br /> Behavioral Components of Vehicular and Pedestrian Traffic Patterns <br /> There are no New Hope students walking or bicycling to school. On-site observations noted no <br /> elementary school pedestrians or cyclists walking in the vicinity of the school. Field staff noted the <br /> following travel norms for New Hope: <br /> ♦ Motorist behavior was observed as poor. Many drivers try to cut in line and make <br /> illegal U-turns in the road.Through traffic passes in the center turn lane at full <br /> speed. <br /> ♦ There are three driveways into the school. Car-rider drop off and pick up occurs at <br /> the westernmost driveway. Cars queue around the easternmost and westernmost <br /> driveways.The middle driveway is for buses only. <br /> ♦ Cars are not supposed to turn left into the school.They are supposed to get in the <br /> car queue to turn right.This necessitates that cars coming from the west make a <br /> U-turn to enter the car queue. <br /> ♦ Several vehicles arriving from the southwest were observed making a U-turn on <br /> New Hope Church Road to get in the car queue. Field staff observed several near <br /> misses with a car driving straight and a car making a U-turn. <br /> ♦ The majority of motorists turn right out of the school towards NC 86. <br /> ♦ The morning carpool queue wraps all the way around the third/easternmost <br /> driveway and onto New Hope Church Road past the last school driveway. Traffic <br /> backs up onto New Hope Church Road by 7:17AM and backs up past the third <br /> driveway entrance by 7:25AM.Traffic does not clear until after 7:40AM. <br /> ♦ Through traffic was observed passing in the two-way left-turn lane. <br /> ♦ Buses were observed crossing through the morning carpool line and passing in the <br /> two-way left-turn lane. <br /> ♦ All traffic in the two-way left-turn lane causes a conflict for exiting traffic. <br /> ♦ The signal at the intersection of New Hope Church Road / NC 86 queues all the way <br /> to the carpool exit line and does not include a protected left phase/exclusive turn <br /> lane. <br /> Existing Infrastructure - Strengths <br /> Few strengths were noted due to the lack of pedestrian and bicycle facilities.The following <br /> observations were noted as existing system strengths: <br /> + Clear school zone pavement marking is found along New Hope Church Road. <br /> + There are on-campus sidewalks along the building front, adjacent to the carpool drop-off line. <br /> Safe Routes to School <br /> Orange County,North Carolina 11 <br />