UPDATE as of 4/30:

The wrap-up meeting on the Winters Chapel Road Corridor study is 7 p.m. tonight 4/30 at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road. This is a joint project between the cities of Peachtree Corners and Dunwoody.  Although we didn’t get dedicated bicycle facilities nor a “Complete Streets” application, learn what is proposed for this corridor.

To download the proposed plan, click HERE

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Hi Friends,

We’re asking your help. On Monday night, 4/27 the Dunwoody City Council is voting on a resolution to support/endorse the Winters Chapel Road Area Study. It can be downloaded here: http://dunwoodynorth.blogspot.com/2015/04/dunwoody-city-council-agenda-for-monday.html

Can you attend the council meeting & speak at Public Comments on the below five items for consideration? The meeting starts at 6 pm. I recommend arriving by 5:45, filling out a Public Comment card & handing it to the City Clerk before the meeting starts.

If you can’t attend, please share this message with your friends, and send an email to [email protected] and copy Peachtree Corners Mayor Mike Mason at [email protected]

The Details

We’ve reviewed the Winters Chapel plan and it is missing details of bicycle facilities and complete streets. There is one mention of adding bike lanes in section 2.3, Option C, but it applies to the whole corridor, instead of breaking it down by specific areas. (The study identifies 5 unique area segments of the corridor).  And it suggests that adding bike lanes requires utility line relocations which is very $$ costly $$ and hence will not be an attractive alternative. Instead of applying a “one size fits all” to the entire five project areas, each area should be analyzed individually. We’ve widened at least two streets in Dunwoody for Bike Lanes to date without needing to move utilities. (Mt. Vernon west of Ashford-Dunwoody & the west side of Roberts Drive north of Austin Elementary).

Here’s Five Recommendations to consider for incorporation into the Winters Chapel Plan:

1. Adopt a Complete Streets Policy for this corridor

Reference here: http://patch.com/georgia/dunwoody/bp–complete-streets-continues-in-dunwoody-womack-road

National reference here: www.CompleteStreets.org

2. Identify & Designate Bicycle Facilities within each area (1 through 5)

Each area in section 2.2 identifies items such as landscaping, crosswalks, bus shelters, rest areas, sidewalks, and pedestrian lighting. Let’s please add bicycle facilities for each section, too Some sections can have bike lanes via just re-striping, like along the Water Works where it is a 4-lane road. Other segments there are long acceleration & deceleration lanes for turning into neighborhoods. These acel/decel lanes make cars go faster, reducing safety of all the stree users. They can be eliminated with paint, and all of a sudden there’s “free” pavement for bike lanes. Other segments might need wider pavement.

Let’s go down to 10-ft wide motor vehicle travel lane widths, too. It meets nationally-accepted engineering best practices as spelled out by AASHTO. Maybe as an interim, there would be wide shoulders created.

3. In Section 2.2 “Specific Base Projects” for each area (1 through 5) add dedicated Bike Facilities (Bike Lanes, wide shoulders, etc.) that do not mix pedestrians with persons on bicycle.

Example from Roberts Drive in 2011: http://www.bicyclingjoe.info/2011/08/dunwoody-complete-streets-policy.html

4. When installing sidewalks, shift them far away from the road to accommodate future road widening for bike lanes

Like we’ve done across from DES on Womack and on Happy Hollow and will be doing this year on the south side of Mt. Vernon east of Dunwoody Village.

5. Identify the different types of bicycle facilities

Just as this plan provides examples of different trees, park benches & trash cans, add a section that identifies & references the different types of bicycle facilities and their respective “Context Sensitive” use.

Example from City of Atlanta’s Cycle Plan from 2012. See CycleAtlanta Report PDF page 15 & 16. Download (Introduction, Overview of Findings) here: http://www.atlantaga.gov/index.aspx?page=1090