Complete Streets goal: Improve safety, appearance of city corridors
Published 12:00 am Monday, January 5, 2015
Salisbury City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday before voting on whether to implement a plan to change large parts of East Innes and Long streets to create a safer environment for traffic, pedestrians and bike riders.
The Complete Streets plan covers a 24-block area between downtown and the interstate. It runs from Innes Street at Church Street to I-85, and from Long Street at MLK Avenue to Bringle Ferry Road.
The plan has been in development since 2013 and was formed by the consulting firm Design Workshop with input from city staff and the community during several meetings.
Total cost of the project in its current form is estimated at $4 million.
The goal is to make East Innes and Long streets safer for traffic and more inviting to pedestrians by slowing traffic, narrowing lanes, installing curb bump-outs and adding crosswalks, medians, bike lanes and signage.
People have been hit, and in some cases killed, by cars on both Innes and Long streets.
The wide width of the roads, length between dedicated crosswalks and limited number — four to be exact — of pedestrian signals make crossing the roads difficult, according to a study conducted as part of the project.
Also, the plan is meant to improve the appearance of the corridors that serve as entryways into the heart of downtown Salisbury.
Modifications to the plan can be made, and, if approved by council, implementation would be done in multiple phases.
Examples of the what the plan calls for include:
• At East Innes and Shaver streets: narrowing lanes from 14 feet to 11 feet to allow for a median, installing fencing between the sidewalk and road to encourage crossing at intersections, crosswalks with bold stripes and colors, and signs with motion-activated flashing lights to alert drivers of pedestrians in the crosswalk.
Also, the median would be landscaped and could have a light pole.
• At Innes and Main Streets: curb bump-outs to reduce pedestrian-crossing distance and slow traffic, special paving within the intersection (such as a brick pattern), bold crosswalk paving, and planters for seasonal planting and seating.
Similar designs would be implemented at other intersections in the downtown area.
• Further down Innes toward I-85, the plan calls for medians to be installed where they wouldn’t block left turns into businesses, more crosswalks with pedestrian signals, and more lighting and landscaping.
The plan does not include bike lanes on Innes Street, but it does for Long Street.
• For South Long Street, the addition of landscaped medians is one major change from the road’s current form. The number of lanes would be reduced to three, and left turns into driveways of houses — and a small number of businesses closer to Innes Street — would be blocked by medians. But on-street parking is included along all of South Long Street in the plan.
Intersections and crosswalks on Long Street would also be enhanced. No medians are planned for North Long Street.
The plan can viewed on the city’s website, www.salisburync.gov. City Council meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.
Contact reporter David Purtell 704-797-4264.
