PIED PIPER? John Swallow leads kids along Concord Road toward Davidson Elementary School Wednesday. The math professor departs with his daughters around 8 a.m. weekdays and gathers children along the way. It’s an example of a “walking school bus,” an idea being promoted by the citizen committee Davidson Walks.
Joe Dennis was a newcomer to Davidson two years ago when he saw firsthand how inhospitable the town 
can be toward pedestrians. While trying to cross the intersection at Main Street and Concord Road, the McConnell resident was struck by a car. His injuries were minor. More lasting was the lesson he learned about walking in Davidson.
“When I moved here, I saw the signs – Davidson is a walking, biking friendly community. It’s actually one of the least walking-biking friendly places I’ve ever lived,” said Mr. Dennis (pictured above).
So Mr. Dennis is trying to help change the situation. He is now an executive board member of Davidson Walks, a committee of residents and town staff members that meets monthly to look for ways to promote walking and improve pedestrian safety.
The commmittee initially has included Shireen Campbell, of Concord Road, who also is a Davidson professor and elementary school parent; Gene Davis, a former Davidson Elementary School principal; and Betsey Stewart of Hillside Drive. They’ve been working with town staff, including Sara-Lynne Levine, the town’s director of communications.
Ms. Campbell walks her son to school nearly every morning, often with the family dog along as well. She has her own pedestrian horror story: Like Mr. Dennis, she was once hit by a car while crossing Concord Road.
The idea for Davidson Walks grew out of conversations more than a year ago between town officials and residents, including Mary Jo Clark, a Woodland street resident and outspoken advocate for biking and walking to school, Mr. Dennis said.
WALK TO SCHOOL
Town staff and committee members say the daily school commute is one of the top priorities of Davidson Walks. One of its first public programs this spring will be aimed at getting more children to walk or bike to the elementary school, Mr. Dennis said.
Local students and families will join in on a Davidson Elementary School Walk to School Day, Tuesday, May 8.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dennis and Ms. Campbell, also a professor at the college, worked with students in Ms. Campbell’s “Writing for the Community” course this spring to develop information to help promote walking to school. That included mapping several possible walking routes for kids who live within 1.5 miles of school.
Mr. Dennis, a history professor at Davidson College, has two children at Davidson Elementary School. When the family arrived in Davidson, they lived closer to downtown and he and his kids walked to school every day.
But since moving to a home off Concord Road in the McConnell neighborhood, they’ve found walking more difficult. Children Kerry and Christina now take the bus most days, and walk or bike only occasionally.
Walking or biking to school from McConnell is “rather dangerous,” especially when it comes to crossing Concord Road while dodging speeding traffic, Mr. Dennis said. “I don’t really enjoy it,” he said.
Christina, a fourth-grader, recently researched speeding on Concord Road for the school’s math fair. Her project, which has advanced to the state finals, found that 91 percent of cars passing her home were above the 35 mph speed limit.
BARRIERS TO WALKING
Mr. Dennis said the committee also hopes to work on broader issues as well. “One of the things that got me involved is there are things that could be done to make it easier not only for me, but for everybody in Davidson to walk,” he said.
“There’s a number of things that keep people from walking,” Mr. Dennis said. “One is a perception about how safe it is to walk.”
Fear of walking can be the result of speeding cars (a problem on many town streets), difficulties crossing major thoroughfares, worries about crime. So the committee is looking at a variety of tactics, according to Mr. Dennis, including:
– Better enforcement of existing rules.
– Construction of new sidewalks, crosswalks and other infrastructure improvements.
– Addition of crossing guards on main walk-to-school routes.
– Establishing “walking school buses,” where parents or other volunteers accompany kids from designated pickup spots to school on a regular basis.
“I think there’s long-range and short-range goals,” Mr. Dennis said. In the short term, that means making it easier for kids to walk to school and promoting the idea.
“In the longer term, we want to make this a more walking friendly community and we want to get more people to walk because it’s easier to walk,” he said.
More information about Davidson Walks is available by emailing executive board members Joe Dennis or Shireen Campbell.
LINKS
National Center for Safe Routes to School, SaferoutesInfo.org
NC Dept of Transportation Safe Routes to School program (possible , CLICK HERE>
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, walkinginfo.org and bicyclinginfo.org
International Walk to School in the USA, walktoschool.org
Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 website, CLICK HERE>
(CORRECTIONS: The name of the Walk to School Day on May 8 has been corrected. We’ve also deleted information about a state grant for a walk-to-school workshop. Town spokeswoman Sara-Lynne Levine said this morning, “We applied for a workshop several months ago and were turned down. There is a possiblity we may have the workshop if the town and NCDOT can work together to make it happen, but I am still waiting to hear from the state before we are certain if it is a go.” — David Boraks)
Professor Dennis correctly identified the problem with our towns “bike and walk friendly” slogan. I am very concerned about the many residents of The Pines that walk along Avinger Lane without a sidewalk to Pine Road with a wonderful sidewalk. When is this stretch due for a sidewalk?
It’s great to see a group committed to pedestrian safety. Davidson has always lagged in that area, and even when it tries, sometimes it just doesn’t get it.
The foremost failure is the intersection at Main Street & Concord Road. As Davidson’s busiest intersection and crosswalk, people have complained to the town for a decade about it. Finally someone just spent probably $100,000 on new traffic lights there, but it’s still about as dangerous as before.
I have been nearly clipped a dozen times trying to cross there. Most recent was yesterday. Walking up to DCPC, I waited for the crossing signal, and everything seemed clear. But halfway across, a teen driver whipped around from Main St. I jumped back and she jammed her brakes, missing me by a foot. A little upset, I went to her window and strongly suggested that she should pay attention. She replied she had the green light, which she did. I reminded her that pedestrians have the right of way, but from her look, I might as well have said the moon is made of green cheese.
Problem is it’s a small, crowded intersection with difficult sight lines. I counted, and there are ten possibilities for traffic movement between walkers and vehicles. So you have to check ten places for cars to cross safely, and that can change any second as a semi-conscious SUV commander with cell phone in one hand and latte in the other careens through the no-go zone.
Even if a pedestrian has the crosswalk light, there’s a good chance of getting your toes squished, and worse. Afraid of having to wait even 5 seconds, drivers rush to get through the intersection and woe to the pedestrian who’s in their way. Other cars park in the crosswalk, hoping to get a jump through the traffic. I’ll tap on their windows, asking them to move out of the crosswalk, but get the green cheese look back because I’m interrupting their phone conversation.
The only solution is a 4-way stoplight system controlled by pedestrians. Though the town might think that’s a good idea, it drives the NCDOT through the roof, because it does not believe in pedestrian safety, only in moving traffic fast. Maybe the town could supply neon safety vests for pedestrians when they cross there.
The story on the town’s website about this Saturday’s Town Day does not make mention of the 5K race which is typically held in conjunction with Town Day. I had to call a running store in Charlotte to find out whether a race is being held in Davidson. After they realized where Davidson is at (“oh yeah, that place where they killed the geese a couple of years ago”) they confirmed that a race will be held. I agree with Mr. Dennis that it takes more than just signs to truly be considered friendly towards physical activities.
Details about the Town Day race were in our weekly calendar this week and we’ve just posted a full item:
http://davidsonnews.net/2007/05/02/town-day-road-race-is-saturday/
In response to Fran Hodges, the town is putting a sidewalk along Avinger this next fiscal year, which will not only help walkers on that road particularly, but also connect the two currently disconnected parts of the town’s greenway. My Eng. 201 class identified a number of “needs sidewalks” spots related to children walking, and someone has emailed with another–Lorimer between Thompson and Pine. I believe our committee can keep bringing up such needs and try to get them integrated into subsequent budget cycles.
Lorimer between Thompson and Pine is an especially treacherous route for children not only during the school year but during the summer, since many kids walk/bike to the Swimming Hole (located on that street). I have witnessed a number of near misses when kids were biking to their homes (in the direction of Woodlawn Street) and were not in full view of cars that were turning on the “traffic calming” corner of Lorimer and Thompson. My understanding is that Davidson College owns all the land (except for the former Covington house on the corner) that is on the Swimming Hole side of Lorimer between Thompson and Pine. If so, I hope they would be agreeable to helping create a sidewalk that would protect the many children who walk/bike on that street throughout the year.
I would hope that a kid-used route such as that described near the swimming hole would get priority over Avinger Lane. I run 3-4 times a week on the “overland connector” portion of the greenway that includes Avinger Lane, and I don’t think I’ve seen a child yet. Lorimer is another story. The little jog in Lorimer that occurs at its intersection with South Thompson Street is very dangerous as very few cars seem to heed the stop signs, plus of course there is alot of kid traffic going to the swimming hole.
The Huntersville Herald has written a feature story about Davidson Walks, interviewing town communications chief Sara-Lynne Levine. http://www.huntersvilleherald.com/articles/2007/07/20/schools/schools01.prt