The Herald Sun
By choice, Caleb Southern doesn’t own a car. He lives and works downtown, walking just about everywhere he needs to go. You might think, then, that he’d be excited about the N.C. Railroad Co.’s proposal to close the railroad crossing at Blackwell and Corcoran streets to automobile traffic. In place of the street-level crossing, the railroad has proposed a 65-foot wide pedestrian underpass.
Southern adamantly opposes the plan.
“I believe the best solution,” to the imminent increase in train traffic at this crossing “is to improve the Blackwell Street railroad crossing at grade.”
Many readers of this column have asked for my opinion as a cyclist. I agree with Southern that closing the crossing to cars is not in downtown’s best interests. Nor the best interests of Durham’s cycling community.
Here’s why.
I’m not sure where it comes from, but there is an assumption that cyclists and drivers are at odds with one another. Occasionally, a driver resents slowing down to pass a cyclist, and sure there is a small but sometimes vocal community of cyclists who proclaim that gasoline consumption is tantamount to global devastation. But for the most part cyclists and drivers are happy to share the road with one another. Think about it, most cyclists are also drivers.
Sharing the road is what urban cycling is all about. A well-designed street is one that keeps traffic – in all modes of transportation – flowing smoothly and safely.
Many Durham residents have long complained that the downtown loop impedes downtown’s ability to attract businesses because the loop diverts traffic around the district. City transportation planners have listened and rethought downtown’s streets.
For example, the city plans to realign the Foster/Corcoran Street, Chapel Hill Street intersection. Coupled with this will be a new bicycling route through downtown. The Downtown Trail will connect the South Ellerbee Creek Trail with the American Tobacco Trail. It will follow Foster and Corcoran, cross the railroad tracks, and continue on Blackwell Street.
I believe downtown’s renaissance depends on growing downtown from the center, out. As I’ve said before, Durham is already a city divided into bike-friendly islands. Closing the Corcoran/Blackwell railroad separates downtown physically and visually from its newest resource – the American Tobacco Campus.
As Southern says, the railroad company’s “plan will clearly impede the continuity of the Downtown Trail for cyclists and pedestrians and further separate the two sides of the tracks.” Finding an attractive and safe street-level solution will unify Durham’s downtown and preserve the flow of Durham’s contribution to the East Coast Greenway – the 2000-plus mile cycling trail from Maine to Florida. If cycling traffic at the railroad crossing is disrupted in any way, Durham may lose its best opportunity for bicycle tourism.
The proposed closure of the railroad crossing shows that cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians share more than the road; we also share the desire to get from here to there as safely and efficiently as possible.