Title
Presentation by Curt Devereux, President of Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy (TRTC), on improving the safety of trail users at the O'Kelly Chapel Road Crossing of the American Tobacco Trail.
Abstract
Action Requested: Receive Presentation.
Introduction & Background:
* For at least the last two years trail users have expressed increasing concerns with this crossing due to the high speeds and large volume of vehicular traffic. In addition, sight lines for motorists approaching this crossing are far from ideal.
* In early May 2015 TRTC and NC DOT's District 8 staff collaborated on a 9 day study to measure the hourly speed and volume of traffic over 24 hour periods while TRTC performed hourly counts of trail users crossing O'Kelly during selected 3 to 4 hour periods when usage is normally fairly high.
* Findings from this study documented that over the 9 days studied, speeds of over 60 mph were recorded in 17 of the 24 hourly periods. Motorists tended to drive slightly slower at periods of greater trail usage (4 to 7 pm on weekdays and 9 am to noon on weekends) however 47 to 48 mph is still a speed at which most drivers showed little inclination to slow down or stop for trail users waiting to cross. A high value of 76.5 mph was recorded between 9 and 10 pm on a week night.
* Besides the persistently high speeds seen at most hours, the average daily volumes during this recent study were about 7,200 vehicles, a figure about 10% higher than the 6,600 DOT measured in 2013. With the nearby residential growth already planned and the fairly steady growth in area businesses in both Durham and Wake Counties, it is fair to assume that daily traffic volumes on O'Kelly will rise to ~8,000 within two to three years.
* Our counts of users confirmed that usage of the Chatham section has increased sharply since the opening of the bridge over I-40 in January 2014. On Sunday May 3 and Saturday May 9 we counted 379 and 383 road crossers between 9 am and Noon ...
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