The Chapel Hill Town Council recently met to discuss options for the Franklin Street restriping and repaving project via the North Carolina Department of Transportation to happen this summer.
Resurfacing and restriping is a process required on main streets every eight to ten years. It involves scraping the top layers of asphalt off the street, leveling the road and replacing the top layer of asphalt. Then, new lanes can be drawn.
The section of East Franklin Street from Columbia Street to 15-501 was resurfaced several years ago. Now, the town is focused on the other half of Franklin.
Sarah Poulton, the Downtown Special Projects Manager for Chapel Hill, said the town has an opportunity to have the North Carolina Department of Transportation repaint the street to better serve the community’s need.
“It sets West Franklin Street up for testing and evaluating potential future designs,” Poulton said. “If we reduce the travel lanes and add bike lanes, we can see how those operate before we think about the future permanent design of Franklin Street.”
Poulton said this also helps to prevent Franklin Street from reverting back to its five-lane design pre-pandemic. Town staff also stressed the restriping is not permanent and could change to accommodate any plans for Franklin Street in the future.
Bergen Watterson, the Chapel Hill Transportation Planning Manager, said there are two main options on how the road could look.
“We’re really looking at two different types of bike lanes,” Watterson said. “The traffic running bike lane which is adjacent to moving traffic and the curb running bike lane.”
Photo via Town of Chapel Hill
Photo via Town of Chapel Hill
Watterson said with the traffic running bike lane, pre-COVID street parking would be maintained but it would be less safe for cyclists.
Curb running bike lanes are safer but would require a decrease in street parking because there are multiple driveways and intersections. Watterson said this would essentially remove the barrier of parked cars in a curb running bike lane.
“At the end of the day, both of the bike lane designs staff generally feels are safer for bikes and pedestrians than the five lane pre-COVID Franklin Street configuration,” Watterson said.
Chapel Hill Town Council member Karen Stegman said what the Town chooses to do with the roads should be focused on making them safer for everyone – not just cars. Stegman specifically mentioned the cyclist crash on West Franklin Street last week.
“Chapel Hill is really in a crisis around safety on our streets,” Stegman said. “Sixteen people were hit by divers in the crosswalks last year and we know some of those were very serious injuries and fatal. We are literally talking about life and death.”
The Chapel Hill Town Council is majority in favor of pursuing curb running bike lanes. Mayor Pam Hemminger echoed Stegman’s comments saying safety is the top priority.
“I don’t want to enter into this decision lightly,” Hemminger said. “Safety is our number one priority if we want to make downtown more walkable, more bikeable friendly. We still want to have some on-street parking both for businesses but also for safety of our pedestrians and bicyclists. I’m all in favor of moving forward with the curb running bike lanes.”
The next steps for the resurfacing and restriping project are to submit plans to the NCDOT by March 1, have a public input session for future design plans of Franklin Street and return to the council in the spring.
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