The city held a public meeting last night to discuss the proposed roundabout at Hillsborough and Morgan streets. I attended and passed out copies of Jenna Robinson?s traffic calming paper: ?Livable Streets, Dangerous Roads: Traffic Calming Endangers the Lives of Those in Need of Emergency Services.?
Mayor Meeker and Councilman Crowder listened while the consulting engineers discussed four roundabout options. The attendees were primarily from the neighborhood and they focused on their narrow self-interest. They want to slow traffic on Hillsborough by using even more severe choke points in order to make the area more ?pedestrian friendly.? Many seemed to favor the ?do nothing? option because the current roundabout options still allow too much traffic to travel at speeds that are too fast. One local activist criticized the engineers because they used a five to one ratio of cars to pedestrians. She argued that the correct ratio should be one to five.
This reinforces the excellent October 8th Shaftesbury Society presentation by Duke professor Dr. John Staddon, “Driver Mis-Education What?s Wrong with Traffic Control in the US: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison.” One of his major points was that politicians often sacrifice the larger public interest to local interests by restricting traffic flow and creating congestion. This appears to be happening at Hillsborough and Morgan streets.
