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DOT initiates safety measures

The University has sought speedy action to find ways to make walking around campus safer in the four months since a postdoctoral student was hit and fatally injured on Manning Drive.

On Feb. 16, state Department of Transportation official Vance Barham showed how eager his agency is to do what it can by announcing a series of traffic projects it plans to implement in and around campus.

Barham presented the projects to the Pedestrian Safety Committee that he serves on with 15 others. Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy appointed the group in January. It is headed by University Public Safety Chief Derek Poarch.

Barham said addressing the problem of pedestrian safety has become a high priority of his department -- so high that it is willing to try things never attempted anywhere else in the state to see if they will work.

One proposal calls for 11 signs to be posted at the border of Chapel Hill along major highways leading into town to call attention to walkers. The signs will be either black and white and read "Citywide Yield for Pedestrians" or they will be a greenish yellow and read "Citywide Watch For Pedestrians." A technical subgroup of the Pedestrian Safety Committee will study which will be used.

Diamond-shaped, thermoplastic markings will be installed on Pittsboro Street in front of the crosswalk by the State Employee's Credit Union to remind drivers on the one-way street to yield for pedestrians. These markings could be added within the next three weeks, Barham said.

Concrete islands will be installed at the two crosswalks on South Road, Barham said. Money for the islands already has been approved and they could be in place by early spring, Barham said.

On Manning Drive, at the crosswalk by the dentistry school where the fatal injury occurred last November, the DOT will install pedestrian crossing signs with solar-powered flashers. This project could be completed by the end of February, Barham said.

The DOT also will spend $60,000 to install a traffic light at the crosswalk on Manning Drive near Morrison and Craig residence halls. This crosswalk was the site of a Feb. 2 hit-and-run pedestrian traffic accident.

Funding for the light already has been approved, but design work has yet to be done and the light may not be installed for another six months.

Meanwhile, Poarch told the committee that his department is ready to crack down on vendors and suppliers who park their delivery trucks and vans on campus sidewalks.

The trucks force walkers off the sidewalks out into traffic, Poarch said. The situation poses an even greater threat to people in wheelchairs and blind pedestrians.

Poarch said there already is a parking ordinance in effect that prohibits parking on sidewalks. On Feb. 21 the department started warning drivers. On March 15, officers will start issuing citations, Poarch said.

A special-duty patrol continues to write traffic citations for drivers caught speeding or failing to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks.

Between Jan. 10 and Feb. 15, the department issued 201 citations -- 82 for speeding and 119 for crosswalk violations.

In the past 20 months, Poarch said, 27 pedestrian accidents have been reported-- an average of 1.4 incidents per month. For more information about pedestrian safety, see http://www.unc.edu/pedsafety/


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