Before its meeting on September 11, the Chapel Hill Town Council had a driving ordinance in the consent agenda that would prohibit turning right during a red light at certain intersections, mainly downtown. But that item was pulled from the consent agenda, and it now has reappeared as a discussion item for the council’s meeting Wednesday.
Chapel Hill resident Alison Stuebe uses biking as her primary way to and from work at UNC. She bikes home down NC Highway 54 to turn onto Hamilton Road and uses the greenway to travel the rest of the way. But she says she’s had many experiences where drivers trying to turn right during a red light have impeded her own path or almost caused an accident.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been unable to get on the greenway because of a car pulling up,” Stuebe says. “I will usually look at the car and give an expression. They’ll sometimes back up a little bit if they can, but if someone pulled up right behind them, then they can’t. Then I have to get off my bike and pick it up over the curb in order to get onto the greenway.”
If passed by the council, this proposed ordinance would prohibit drivers from turning right on red at that intersection of Raleigh Road and Hamilton Road. It would also be enacted at 15 other intersections in Chapel Hill, more than half of which are on Franklin Street, Rosemary Street and Cameron Avenue.
Stuebe’s husband Geoff Green has had similar experiences to his wife’s as a bicyclist turning on to Hamilton Road. He supports the proposed ordinance, not just at that particular intersection, but others in town.
“[When] a car is pulling up into the crosswalk where I’m about to be,” says Green, “[they’re] looking for cars and not looking for bikes. Restricting right on red is really an important safety concern at that intersection and, in my mind at least, it’s a no-brainer.”
The ordinance was pulled from the September 11 consent agenda by council member Nancy Oates. She says she wanted the chance to ask questions about the ordinance’s effectiveness and how it would prevent traffic backups. On her blog Chapel Hill Watch, Oates references a similar ordinance prohibiting right on red that was discussed by the Transportation and Connectivity Advisory Board in March of 2017. That ordinance was also pulled from the council’s consent agenda.
Town staff responded to Oates’ questions earlier this month, saying the intersections were recommended by the advisory board after studies done by staff and the state’s Department of Transportation. Each have either an exclusive pedestrian phase, an unacceptable number of pedestrian conflicts with vehicles turning right on red or operational characteristics that “might result in unexpected conflicts.”
The town staff also wrote they will revise signal timing plans at intersections where no right on red is in place, which should reduce the impact of drivers waiting longer at the traffic light. This comes after the council recently heard a presentation that displayed the town’s traffic has not seen any increases as of late, although traffic remains a top concern of residents.
Stuebe says she hopes the Town Council will pass the ordinance because it aligns with other values it has promoted through the years.
“One of the things I love about Chapel Hill” she says, “is it’s a place that’s, at least in the abstract, supportive of people traveling outside of vehicles. If we want to put our commitment to humans navigating space outside of cars, and we care about the environment, then we need to make it possible for people to safely travel outside of automobiles.”
Green remembers the item was meant to be discussed two years ago and says he’s frustrated it’s taken so long for action.
“To have such a lengthy process to try such a low-cost experiment that makes a pretty significant difference to help out bicyclists and pedestrians is really unfortunate.”
The proposal is back on the council’s agenda for the meeting Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.
