Greensboro is considering spending a couple million dollars a year on making neighborhood streets more narrow and less straight.
That’s not what the Greensboro City Council or the Greensboro Department of Transportation is saying. What they are saying is that they are installing “traffic calming devices.”
But in the end, what most of the traffic calming devices–with the notable exception of speed bumps–do is narrow and un-straighten the street or intersection to force cars to slow down.
An example given by GDOT Director Hanna Cockburn of traffic calming devices that are working is Peach Orchard Drive in northeast Greensboro. What the city did at considerable expense was take an excessively wide and unnecessarily straight street and narrow it by building concrete barriers out into the street. The result, which slowed traffic, makes the street narrower and not so straight.
So the people of Greensboro first paid for an excessively wide and straight street and then paid for the city to come along and at considerable expense retrofit the street to be narrower and not so straight.
Here is a radical idea. Instead of insisting that residential streets be wide enough for two fire trucks traveling in opposite directions to pass each other at 60 mph with cars parked on both sides of the street, why not make the streets wide enough for two cars going in opposite directions to pass each other comfortably at 25 mph and, if a car is parked on the street, then one of those two cars will have to stop to let the other one by.
Voila! By spending less money, the city will solve the speeding through neighborhood problem for the future. This would also give developers more land to build on, which would increase the tax base, rather than taking that land and covering it with asphalt for the city to maintain at considerable expense. While moving the curb-line to narrow the street is expensive, when major street projects are undertaken, the curb could be moved to narrow the street. Most streetscape projects narrow the vehicular travel portion of the street, why not do the same on a smaller scale in neighborhoods?
A rule of development is promoted by some experts–which is not followed in Greensboro–is to take a look at the most expensive neighborhoods in a town and, if those neighborhoods couldn’t be built under the current development standards, then the development standards are changed.
If you drive around the highest priced neighborhoods in Greensboro, you will find narrow winding streets, where if there is car parked on the street one lane of traffic has to stop to let the other one go by. It’s been like that in Irving Park for about a hundred years, and yet even today people are willing to pay several million dollars for a house on a narrow winding street in that neighborhood.
If wide straight streets were so desirable, then wouldn’t these people who could afford a house anywhere in Greensboro live somewhere else?
What Greensboro is going to continue to do is insist that the new streets be wider and straighter than they need to be and then come back and spend millions of dollars to narrow the streets and make them not so straight in order to encourage people to drive slower.
I have read this account over and over. I cannot figure out if this plan like most of the dribble that this city does is going to cost the taxpayers more money to satisfy the warm and fuzzy. My bet is that it does. When was the last time the actually had a idea that saved the taxpayers money?
Know what else is a “traffic calming” solution? Traffic cops writing tickets, which generate income, to speeders. Oops, there I go again, stating the obvious.
Well, duh. This is feel-good-make-work for the City, instead of a few speed cops, especially in school zones.
Sounds like east greensboro city council is on this one? Lol, your tax dollars at work! Pitiful.
Why not add sidewalks to narrow the street, By doing this, it won’t affect any landscaping the homeowner already have in place and make it safer and encourage residents to get out and walk.
Sidewalks, seriously? Haven’t you noticed the sidewalk crusade created lots of sidewalks (with huge budgets) in areas of the city where no one walks? Go out West Friendly and see the sidewalks that go to the interstate, and you won’t find people walking on them. Or Guilford College Road is another example. The council wanted the whole city to look like Irving Park I guess.
Sidewalks are good for the inner parts of cities where people live and work in downtown and live in homes without garages. Problem is the current council sees this as a great idea to try and make all areas of the city to look like Irving Park. NOT!
Aah geesh…what did a sidewalk do to you that was so offensive? Educate yourself about who uses them, why and when. Have you been on a stroll to your neighborhood market and been literally either nearly ran off the “curb” or not even paid attention to? Thanks!
Am not against sidewalks per se, but they should only be placed in areas where driving is limited, such as downtown or close in neighborhoods without a lot of vehicle traffic.
A sidewalk in the west side of GBO is useless, and costly, but it makes some council members happy to budget for and approve their “creation” as if they were returning to a society that had few cars, like in the 1940s or 50s. Then again, sidewalks priorities show a lack of decision making by the council to fix potholes in streets, pavements over 2-3″ manhole covers, weeds growing up in the cracks of pavements and curbs, etc.
Great idea.
It would be lovely if they could just pave the ugly patched streets first!
Bingo, bingo, bingo!!!!!
The intersection at Guilford College Road and West Friendly Avenue is a mess. They don’t have the potholes, just significant ruts created by wear and tear, drainage issues, and also asphalt that was not stable when applied. And don’t even get on the topic of manhole covers on city streets. It’s horrible that drivers have to dodge the covers due to the covers being too deep, which was caused by paving the road without raising the manhole covers (see front of Muirs Chapel Methodist Church) to be level with the street.
And then we get into the DEI contractors who can’t pave streets well enough to ensure an even pavement, going eastbound at Westridge Road and Battleground.
BTW, th idiots who approved a zoning request at the southwest corner of Westridge Road & Battleground (fir Chipotle) need to be shot. Why? They didn’t understand that putting in a U-turn lane at that intersection going north on Battleground, they are slowing down the traffic wanting to turn left to go on Westtridge, which only adds to the confusion. And if you wanted to go to Chipolte, there is no left turn after you get on Westridge.
C’mon Kathy, You know that would make too much sense…so it will never happen.
Brilliant!
Let’s make driving as slow, frustrating, and cumbersome as possible.
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We’ll all see these Road Ragers and other obstacles appear everywhere in the coming years, along with a forest of “Gotcha Cameras” to fine you when you exceed their absurd speed restrictions, or run a yellow light. They’ll choke roads with never-used bike lanes and bus lanes, they’ll take all possible measures to make gasoline as costly as they can, and they’ll try to force us into prohibitively expensive Electric Vehicles.
The political Left is waging a serious and determined war on our cars and our freedom.
I ask you to become a member of the excellent NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION. They speak up for the motorist. Nobody else does.
Austin, the city is trying to do that by encouraging everyone to use sidewalks, except for them.
Narrow, corny streets may work in some city ngbds, we have narrow, curved streets with 20-35 mph signs, but many of us gamble with our lives as we exit our driveways and vehicles going 40-50mph down the center of the narrow streets!
So, while living in Raleigh a local shopping center had 3D speed bumps painted through out the shopping center. It worked. It was realistic. Your so trained as a driver to slow down you forget it’s just paint.
Another hair brain idea! Vote these idiots.
looks like their education has excided their intelligence again !!
It costs money to put in traffic calming devices. It costs money to narrow the streets. Your idea only works for neighborhoods being built. What do you expect for existing neighborhoods? Hopefully your morning commute is less important than a kid getting run over
how to narrow the streets even more cheaply?
…allow us to put our freaking leaves on the curb.
I just tried squishing 3 yard waste cans full of leaves, as a practice run for next year, and it was a horrible waste of time. Let alone using flimsy paper bags. Why didn’t the women on the council consult their husbands on this one.
What about hiring a few more worthless police officers?
Anyone on the City Council a civil engineer? Contractor? Architect?