James Coley's blog

After all these years, there is this report that something is actually going to be built soon on the Horace Williams grounds. It would be the first building in the Carolina North project. 

Will it be a good start in terms of the principle that CN should be a transit, biking and pedestrian oriented development? This is what was called for in the Horace Williams Citizens' Committee report.

Transit-oriented development and the like does not mean that there is a mention of bus stops and bike racks. It means that it includes something like this. Will these new plans indicate anything of this nature? I am hopeful but not optimistic.

James Coley

In Atlanta last April, a woman named Raquel Nelson, with her three children in tow, jaywalked. They were hit by a car and her four-year-old son was killed. Astonishingly, she was convicted of vehicular homicide, although public outrage has helped her secure a new trial.

This is an extreme example of something we see in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and around the country: blaming the victim when our automobile-dominated transportation system, which is inherently lethal, kills or injures someone just trying to walk from one place to another in the urban environment.

Raquel Nelson did nothing wrong when she jaywalked. In all likelihood, the motorist driving the car that killed her son was breaking the speed limit. But even if, although I find this hard to imagine, the driver was doing everything they could reasonably be expected to do, the proper conclusion in that case is that no one is to blame. It is just another tragic instance in which our insane transportation system proved to be far too dangerous.

Just wanted to comment on what great news this is. Kudos to the Carrboro board for holding out for the right result! How strange that it should be so difficult and controversial to add bike lanes and a place for people to walk without adding new lanes for automobiles. (Note: This substitutes for the attempted post under "Will Chapel Hill / Carrboro ever be bike-friendly?")

http://orangepolitics.org/2010/04/ncdot-yields-to-carrboro-on-smith-level-rd