Alston Avenue Update in today's Herald-Sun

Ray Gronberg has an update today in the H-S (their article links are too impermanent for me to type the HTML) on Alston Avenue, and it ain't pretty. Evidently the final meeting between city traffic engineers and NCDOT resulted in no further concessions by NCDOT, leaving dedicated right turn lanes (in addition to dedicated left lanes and two through lanes) at both East Main and Angier Avenue. NCDOT also refused to stripe bike lanes, labeling such striping as 'unsafe'. Evidently some elements of the new de facto streetscape design in Durham will be incorporated, although it isn't clear what that is.

My heartfelt disappointment goes to Ken Spaulding, our representative on the transportation board, for siding with the NCDOT engineers. It's clear that NCDOT has no business designing roads in the inner city - a place where roads have to serve a multitude of purposes (and play nice with land uses) rather than simply serve as the fastest route for motor vehicles to move from A to B that NCDOT builds so well (hmm) out in the hinterland.

But some people did a masterful job of convincing some stakeholders that this swath of asphalt is the answer to wealth creation in East Durham (because that's worked so, so well before) and because that group includes the mayor and his pals, it was a struggle to get any traction to build the road that Durham, particularly the people who actually live near the road, deserve.

My thanks for everyone who fought to try to improve this project - perhaps a few of the concessions won will make a difference.