Pedestrian safety at Duke Park

Had a very good meeting this week with NCDOT and city traffic folks about making the Knox St. and Roxboro St. intersection a little safer for pedestrians.

Some background. NCDOT widened Roxboro St. north of Knox from 3 lanes to 6 lanes, as part of the I-85 project. They also proposed having folks walk 300 yards down the hill and back up to cross Roxboro at the signalized collector/distributor. Of course, just south of the intersection, Roxboro is only 35 feet or so wide. So naturally, anybody wanting to use Duke Park will cross at Knox, rather than spend nearly 10 minutes to cross a couple of freeway ramps.

Getting NCDOT to understand this and put a crosswalk and some other safety features in has been a project almost as difficult as renovating our bathhouse. But, in this case at least, we're getting results. And for all the kids who live on one side of Roxboro and have friends on the other, life is going to be a little bit safer.