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Council weighs street-safety complaints, freeway engagement translation request and funding for transit studies
Summary
Residents urged short-term safety fixes after a school-bus crash on Gregson Street; staff requested $7,000 to translate final Durham Freeway engagement reports and council programmed $5M for an access maintenance facility and $200,000 for a BRT feasibility study in the CIP.
Public commenters raised urgent street-safety concerns and potential interim fixes while staff and council discussed larger transportation projects and related budget items.
Margaret Chapman, representing the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association transportation committee, described an Oct. 30 crash in which a school bus struck houses on Gregson Street and urged the city to pursue short-term safety measures — an additional traffic signal at Knox & Gregson, a road diet, and other interim treatments — because longer projects like two-way conversions could take years. "Slowing traffic is the only way to prevent these accidents," Chapman told the council.
Chris Pearlstein, another resident, described similar safety problems on Roxborough Street and raised separate concerns about a county decision to reduce school-bus coverage; he urged staff to identify low-cost interim measures (crosswalk painting, flex-posts, volunteer efforts) that could be implemented by January if bussing policies change.
On agenda items, Sean Egan, director of transportation, said a vendor for the Durham Freeway engagement effort neglected to include translation of final deliverables and requested approximately $7,000 to translate the final report and executive summary into Spanish; he said about 80% of the cost would be covered by federal funds. Egan also outlined the project’s next phase: staff will develop alternatives over roughly six months and present them to council.
Separately, Transportation staff explained two CIP amendments: reassigning $3.3 million (plus $1.7 million new money) to move the access paratransit maintenance facility under city ownership (totaling $5 million) and programming $200,000 for a Bus Rapid Transit feasibility study along a high‑ridership corridor from East Durham through downtown to Erwin Road and Duke Hospital.
What happens next: Staff will pursue translation funding for the engagement report, present alternatives for the freeway study and return with appropriation details for the CIP amendments; residents continue to press for quick interim safety measures on Gregson and Roxborough.
Attribution: Margaret Chapman; Chris Pearlstein; Sean Egan.
