Asheville on Bikes encourages people to attend the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) public comment session. Please encourage design treatments that:
- Calm vehicular traffic to 20mph
- Prioritize the safe and predictable movements of differently abled pedestrians
- A mix of bicycle facilities including bike lanes, bike boxes, sharrow marking, wayfinding, and bicycle corrals.
Meeting info here: https://www.asheville.com/news/2022/12/public-opinions-sought-for-haywood-road-improvements/
Project page and survey: https://publicinput.com/Haywood-Maintenance-Buncombe
Today’s meeting is a drop-in session from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 587 Haywood Road in Asheville. Anyone can attend.
4 questions for the Haywood repaving public meeting
- How are your 3 alternatives informed by the City of Asheville Close the GAP analysis?
- The Close the Gap analysis by the City evaluates our pending transportation projects with important criteria not previously considered together. Among other items it analyzed: public comments; the predicted effects of projects on walking, biking, and transit of City plans; expected costs; known deficiencies in biking, walking, transit; housing and commuter patterns by income and race.
- How does NCDOT’s Complete Streets Policy inform your designs?
- NCDOT requires all projects to go through an evaluation process to determine the elements necessary to build a complete street. There is both an NCDOT Complete Streets policy and an implementation guide to consider. As per the guide, “All projects will be evaluated using the Complete Streets project evaluation methodology attached and referenced herein. The five-step evaluation methodology will assist project managers and engineers in identifying bicycle and pedestrian needs, selecting the appropriate facility type, and estimating added impacts to the project.”
- We want a street design that meets those guidelines and also uses NACTO design criteria. We don’t want a complete street in name only, or a street that has elements in the design that are not practical improvements for each of the transportation modes in use on the corridor.
- Are all of the facilities ADA compliant on all 3 alternatives presented?
- All facilities should be ADA compliant as planned and as installed.
- How has the Haywood bridge design in the I-26 project changed since it was last presented to the public? Please explain how the bike and pedestrian features of that proposed bridge design interact with your 3 alternatives presented for this road?
- Links to I-26 public materials: I-26 video fly through of the entire project. Link to pdf of the bridge design: 2018 NCDOT Map of Haywood interchange. There may be a newer map featuring an updated design. If so, it should be made easier to find on the NCDOT I-26 project website.
- The Haywood Rd repaving project bisects future I-26 the bridge replacement project. That bridge, ramps, and intersection project is planned as part of the I-26 connector and set to begin within 5 years. The design of that future bridge is critically important to the function of this corridor.
- The last public design of the Haywood bridge showed a design that is inappropriate to the commercial nature of this corridor. The design, still published today, shows a 4 lane road in a divided highway configuration with center median, contained with a widened right of way, allowing for additional ramp space and other car-centric features.
- Both the bridge design and the design changes made at repaving should work together to make it safer and easier to move on foot, by bike, by bus between the two sections of Haywood Rd, nearby business, and the greenway. It should not be designed with a primary focus on free-flowing auto traffic.
- The I-26 bridge project also includes a major new greenway that connects West Asheville to downtown across the Patton bridge. One entrance to that greenway is near Haywood Rd and the Asheville City Schools property, across from B&B pharmacy, adjacent to an I-26 ramp. This will be a major source of bicycle, ebike, scooter, and pedestrian movements on the corridor.
We’ll see you at the meeting!