I completely agree that we need sidewalks here. As the area becomes more retail focused and less of a warehouse area, neighbors need to be able to walk safely. Thanks!

The City of Raleigh has a sidewalk petition program - if someone wants to take the lead, you need over 50% of property owners at a minimum to sign the petition and submit it back to the city to get put into consideration for a sidewalk (depending on funds): https://www.raleighnc.gov/services/content/PWksDesignConst/Articles/SidewalkPetitions.html

Helen, if you want to lead this, I'll sign it! And help in other ways if I can.

I don't own any property along that stretch of Whitaker Mill but I live nearby and am happy to help in any other ways if i can - ptong@g.clemson.edu. I'm sure LBC and other businesses would be in support of it since people can then walk from the Five Points neighborhood over to their business. You can use the City of Raleigh iMaps system to find out who the different property owners are in that area - https://maps.raleighnc.gov/iMAPS/

It is my understanding that the group responsible for redeveloping Dock 1053 is required to provide a sidewalk along the Whitaker Mill property frontage. This, however, does not address off site needs.

A worthwhile improvement to consider for the area would be to replace the traditional intersection at Whitaker Mill and Wake Forest with a 2 lane roundabout. The roundabout will more efficiently move traffic through the intersection.

The roundabout will also slow traffic through the intersection making the crossing more pedestrian friendly.

Without detailed measurements, it appears that there may be sufficient right-of-way to accommodate the improvement.

Thoughts?

There is a lot of potential to make Whitaker Mill a little nicer - I think the 4 lane section between Atlantic and the Senior Center/Noble Road is not completely necessary and could go down to 2 lanes with bike lanes and a landscaped median. Adding crosswalks at Wake Forest Road is a necessity and making sure sidewalks are continuous throughout that section. I'm not sure how effective a roundabout would be at Wake Forest & Whitaker Mill since there is a good amount of rush hour traffic on Wake Forest Road heading to Capital Blvd.

There's 21,000 cars on Wake Forest Road a day and 9,000 on Whitaker Mill Rd (30,000 total). The threshold volume for a single lane roundabout is around 25,000 and 45-50,000 for a dual lane roundabout so a dual lane roundabout is potential feasible. There are issues though since people aren't familiar with dual lane roundabouts here (Hillsborough Street in front of the NC State bell tower was originally dual lane but because of issues they had to restripe it back to a single lane) and a traffic study will also have to be done to see how if it negatively affects Wake Forest Road significantly during morning and afternoon rush hour periods.

Pierre - do you know what the NCDOT right-of-way radius requirement is for a dual lane roundabout?

Not entirely sure what the requirements are but for single lane roundabouts, the typical size (not minimum but just average) is 88 foot inner diameter circle with 16 foot lanes so 120 feet diameter total. Add another 16 foot lane and you have 152 feet total diameter for a dual lane roundabout.

This is a dangerous section for walking and there are many who walk through this area as it has recently been revitalized. Business owners have done their part to repurpose this area and make it an asset to the surrounding neighborhoods. It is time for the city to partner with them to provide infrastructure for walkable streets before something tragic happens.

I just submitted a sidewalk petition request to the Public Works department. I'll let everyone know if I get a response back.

Just received a response back from transportation planning denying my sidewalk petition:

Pierre,

Thank you for submitting the online request form for sidewalk construction along Whitaker Mill Road from Wake Forest Road to Atlantic Avenue. According to the City of Raleigh’s newly adopted Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Whitaker Mill Road is classified as an Avenue 2-Lane, Divided street or road and is not eligible for the sidewalk petition program. Whitaker Mill Road is already on a list of adopted street and sidewalk improvements ranked #120 of 216 streets for improvements to add sidewalk through the City’s Capital Improvement Project Program and will be considered for improvements as funding becomes available. For further information pertaining to the potential improvement schedule you may contact our Office of Transportation Planning staff at (919) 996-2155.

Donetta Powell, Assessment Specialist
City of Raleigh - Public Works
222 W. Hargett Street
P.O. Box 590
Raleigh, NC 27602
(919) 996-3030 Phone
(919) 996-7167 Fax

Thank you for trying Pierre. I heard the same thing from Transportation Planning Manager Eric Lamb.

That sucks that we have to wait that long just to get sidewalks on a street. It was always a culture shock coming here to NC and finding out that roads in urban areas don't necessarily have them. Maybe someone will redevelop something in that area sooner and the city will make them put it in as part of the project haha

Another option is to bring the topic up for discussion at a Raleigh Bike & Pedestrian Committee Meeting. They meet Mondays at 6 PM at the Raleigh Municipal Meeting and have a public comments section of their meetings where the public can bring up topics or ask questions.

(correction - 3rd Monday of each month)

A roundabout at Whitaker Mill and Wake Forest is a great idea! I know Americans seem to be befuddled by them, but once you get used to them they are much more traffic- and pedestrian-friendly. Would a roundabout be covered under the Capital Improvement Project Program? Thanks for being so proactive, Pierre.

The problem with a roundabout at that intersection is just there is not enough space for the size you need to accommodate all the traffic going through that intersection (it would have to be at least a 2 lane roundabout) - it would take out the parking lot for Snoopy's (thus killing that business), the gas station, Premium Imports and the other auto repair shop at least.

OK, the intersection is probably smaller than I think -- I am a Premium Imports customer, so they have to stay. :) Regarding a roundabout at Atlantic and Whitaker Mill -- is that covered by the CIPP?

Not sure if that is prioritized somewhere but I haven't heard anything about that roundabout (if there is going to be one). It's certainly not something that's going to be happening in the near near future since it's not on this map - http://ral.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=6c00494fff5942c3834c8473fd29672f

Thanks all for the comments. We would have directed everyone to the sidewalk petition program as noted above. SeeClickFix is meant to be a system for reporting broken/faulty city infrastructure or violations of the City Code. Other inquiries or requests may be directed to the appropriate city staff. Thanks for using SeeClickFix.