Town, NCDOT to Look at Pedestrian Safety

Transportation Planner David Bonk said the NCDOT presents a report after each pedestrian accident, such as Tuesday's collision near the intersection of Church Street and Franklin Street in which a car struck and killed 77-year-old pedestrian James Elijah Ellis.

Bonk said pedestrians crossing Franklin by Church Street had used a crosswalk that connected the two wheelchair ramps on either sidewalk until May 2000, when the NCDOT painted over it.

"It was on the west side of the intersection, and they wanted it to be on the east side," he said. The crosswalk never was repainted.

Council member Jim Ward said the council can only make decisions about town roads.

Decisions about Franklin Street, a state road, are controlled by the NCDOT.

"If it's a state road, we can lobby for it," Ward said. "We have a number of neighborhoods that come to us asking for more signals and for police to slow down vehicular traffic."

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said Chapel Hill needs to deal with trouble spots for pedestrian safety.

"Generally Chapel Hill is a safe place for pedestrians, but that doesn't mean that improvements aren't needed," he said.

"I know at my house if I want to take the bus I have to cross seven lanes of traffic without a crosswalk."

Kleinschmidt said pedestrians going to the bus stop across from Shadowood Apartments on Airport Road cross four lanes of traffic and one turn lane without a crosswalk.

"We know where people are crossing," he said. "We need to focus our attention on these spots and get it done."

Kleinschmidt said he favored the installation of more crosswalk signals with countdown indicators such as those on Franklin Street.

Ward said it can take years to succeed in lobbying the state for improvements. The NCDOT bases decisions about crosswalk and crosswalk light installation on factors such as the speed limit and the volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

"Traffic builds and grows each year so we ask them to reevaluate it," Ward said. "I suspect that there is a backlog at the state level."

The death of a graduate student killed while crossing Manning Drive in 1999 resulted in the construction of many of the pedestrian safety measures we have now, Kleinschmidt said.

He said Tuesday's traffic accident might have similar results that will focus on both pedestrian safety and driver responsibility.

"Maybe this (accident) will be an opportunity for people to reflect on how they're driving," Kleinschmidt said. "It takes a combination of strict enforcement and public education."

Ward and Kleinschmidt both said they called on the NCDOT to devote more consideration to pedestrian safety issues.

"We're a pedestrian community," said Kleinschmidt.

"It's more important for us to get people across the street safely than for us to get cars through."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.