Comments for “Duke/Gregson Corridor Study”
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The curb ramps at the intersection of Morehead and Duke direct wheelchairs/strollers into the intersection. Bi-directional ramps are an important safety improvement at this intersection.
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I live in the 1000 block of W. Trinity but walk my dog every day about 2 miles throughout the neighborhood. I missed getting hit by the school bus accident months ago simply because we left home 10 minutes later than we normally do. We arrived at the accident before the police, when sparks were still coming from all the dangling wires. I never cross Gregson but just walking alongside it from one block to the next is very scary. Many cars are going at least 40-50 mph, and I know that a driver could swerve off the street and onto the sidewalk (and us) with just a second of inattention on his/her part. But: the flashing light for the pedestrian crossing on Buchanan from Urban to East Campus does not always stop people either, even when I and my dog are in full view and the light has been flashing long enough for them to see it and come to a full stop.
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My daughter crosses Duke and Gregson at Knox St to go to school, before she meets up with the bike bus. In my experience, traffic speeds vary widely and are sometimes way too fast and dangerous for people crossing the street. I would be very happy to have the streets made two way. I agree with the commenter who pointed out that Duke and Gregson are no longer needed to connect highways now that we have the 885 bypass, so commuters don't need the streets to function like highways.
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I cross Knox & Gregson multiple times a week, both biking and walking my dog. It is dangerous because cars are racing downhill from the light at Club and sight is very limited.
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I worry about what will be the solution here. Making Vickers two ways makes the 147 on-ramp unusable to southbound without congestion. How would Parker st traffic be routed to the ramp? Closing the ramp forces traffic north back through the neigborhood on Arnette that has a lot of foot traffic with no sidewalks and is the designated bicycle route through Durham.
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I live at the Duke St and W Markham intersection & every single day there are cars speeding up Duke street and running this red light. Every weekend we have street racers come and race up Duke st.
There are also dangerous accidents at this intersection, including one that caused a car to run into our house. Yes, a car crashed into our HOUSE. This should not be able to happen in an urban residential neighborhood.
A two-way conversion w protected bike lanes should significantly reduce the speed of drivers and the frequency of life threatening crashes.
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The speed that cars take down Vickers from Chapel Hill St, over 147 and into the turn pushes unaware drivers to be in the Yancey St turn lane forcing them to make a sudden left merge. Lot of accidents with cars parked right after Yancey or cars waiting to turn onto Vickers from Yancey.
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Pedestrians have had near misses here crossing over Vickers along Jackson. Though there is a crosswalk the traffic comes very fast over the hill and does not stop for the crosswalk.
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A neighbor of ours lives in the apartments on the SE corner of Dacian and Gregson. He is disabled and takes the bus to work. The bus stop is directly across Gregson from the apartments. In the mornings, with rush hour traffic, it is virtually impossible to find a sufficient lull in the traffic to get across Gregson at the speed with which he can walk. If we or other neighbors are there at the right time, we will stand in the middle of the street to block traffic and allow him to pass. Sometimes cars will stop in one lane, only to give false confidence that you can cross, and other cars zip by in the other lane. It's so dangerous.
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Extremely dangerous intersection for both pedestrians and motorists who are crossing S. Duke street from Cobb. There are cars parked on S. Duke that block the view of motorists on Cobb. And the traffic on S. Duke is going well over the speed limit. A light or stop sign here would be a safe and helpful addition. There is more traffic moving on this area of Cobb St. with the completion of the Terraces of Morehead Hill in addition to the apartments at 500 Cobb St.
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We live on Monmouth between Duke and Gregson. We have 2 daughters (7 and 9) who go to Watts Elementary. We have to cross Gregson each day to get to and from school, and it always feels so dangerous. In the mornings in particular, with rush hour traffic. There is about a 75-100 yard site line to the horizon where the cars are visible, and they are going so fast that we have only a few seconds to sprint across Gregson before cars are upon us. With the Watts boundary lines pushing farther east due to recent redistricting, that means more families have to cross both Gregson and Duke each day to get to school. It is so dangerous, I worry a child will be hit.
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Duke and Gregson streets used to serve an important purpose. They connected 85, 40, and 147. Since the addition of the bypass, there is no longer a need for Duke and Gregson to me major traffic corridors like they were. If someone is coming from the South on 85, they can take the 147 exit directly and connect to 40 (or hopefully they would have planned better and taken a shorter route to 40 via highway 86 in Hillsborough). If they are coming from the North/Falls Lake area, the bypass is now the quickest way to get to 147 and 40. Cars come flying down Gregson and my car has been hit 3 times in 6 months parked on Gregson in front of my house, only 1 of which I was able to get any compensation for from the drivers insurance (the others were hit and runs). I parked on Watts street for 5 years and this never happened. Because of this, I now park around the corner from my house on Gloria Ave.
I believe that if Gregson were to be made back into a slower 2 way street, it would be safer for people and cars. Often I hear 2 cars racing each other and blaring their engines and if the streets were 2 way this couldn't happen. I sincerely hope that the city will make the recommendation to the state DOT to switch the orientation of these neighborhood streets to make them safer for everyone.
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The sidewalk on the west side of Duke disappears about here, leaving only very uneven dirt (mud), roots, and grass. It's not viable or safe for people with mobility or balance limitations. The nearest pavement is inside the school yard (understandably no trespassing). To use the sidewalk on the east side of Duke would require crossing the busy street without protection. It's not possible to use the east side only, since for blocks north of here, there is no sidewalk there, only on the west side.
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There's frequently broken glass on both sides of the road here. There's no sidewalk on portions of the northern side of this road. This makes it really dangerous for me to walk and bike around this area.
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I have almost been hit by cars and even GoDurham Buses on multiple occasions. They don't abide by the pedestrian walking light and will turn because they see the flashing yellow turn signal. I've even been cursed at, even though the walk light was on, and it was my turn.
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It's very difficult to safely turn left here. There is lots of overgrowth/fencing that makes it so, if you are turning left onto Chapel Hill st from William Vickers, you have to pull out almost into traffic to see. I've seen people almost take out pedestrians or bikes because of this.
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The proximity of dangerously speeding vehicles and major traffic accidents to sidewalks, homes, and human life is surreal. I have never seen anything like it anywhere. What I have personally seen, at this intersection: flipped SUV on the sidewalk (and an upside-down trapped passenger who had just been discharged from Duke Hospital following brain surgery), a school bus ramming through a porch on one side of the street and then swerving over to take down a power pole and lodge itself in the backyard and house of a neighbor, a car losing control and barreling through a neighbor's fence into a backyard, a small car wrapped around the front of a city bus.
By the way, all of this is happening a block from an elementary school.
Please stop this insanity.
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I have noticed one of the main drawbacks to the traffic on Duke St. is the velocity of cars and the therefore significant traffic noise do to the speed. I like the idea of possibly converting one of the two duke street lanes into a bike lane with a buffer. The turn about at some intersections would be a way to decrease the traffic speed along Duke St..
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i live on Duke St at Englewood and walk the neighborhood daily. while i have concerns about speeding and accidents, i want to be sure that we are cautious about making the right changes. Simply turning both Gregson and Duke into 2-way streets (which a lot of folks seem to be embracing) will come with a LOT of consequences that need to be fully investigated (e.g. if only way onto 85 north is via Duke St there will be a bottleneck if Duke is one way; what this mean for Woodland and Ruffin and Dollar and other small streets which will be alternate routes, etc). Traffic slowing devices need serious consideration. I dont want the zeal to do something cause city/state (and neighborhood) to rush into anything without full examination of all of the unintended consequences. We could in fact make more problems than we solve. Even as a Duke St resident, i would prefer that Duke and Gregson take most of the load so the side streets won't be adversely affected.
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The sight lines crossing Gregson on Dacian from west to east are terrible. This plus the speed of cars leads to numerous accidents.
Sight lines were changed slightly a few years ago with bump outs but that has not solved the problem. I hope people who study the road try crossing this street a few times.
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There have been numerous collisions at this intersection in the last 10 years, and at least three times cars have ended up on property including colliding with houses. This corner is mixed income and has an elementary school half a block away, as well as a bus stop. It is very dangerous.
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My children cross Gregson at Englewood to go to school and I am scared about the fast traffic coming down over the hill on Gregson. My children walk or bike.
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We live nearby, and we often hear and see vehicle crashes at this intersection.
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Cycling up this hill is ROUGH. It's a steep hill, making cyclists slow, causing extra hazard with motorists speeding up on the way into town. If cyclists try to get off the road and use the sidewalk by DSA, it's even worse: the pavement is extremely uneven (tree roots displacing some tiles) and frequently the vines/bushes by the fence have grown completely into the sidewalk, requiring you to practically go through a bush.
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The freeway exit is a bit confusing, especially if new to the area — it's not clear that the exit ramp turns into a right-only lane, and the lane changing is a hazard to cyclists.
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