The City of Fayetteville is hosting another public feedback session to update its Pedestrian Plan.
On Thursday, Dec. 12, residents can review and comment on the city’s draft list of pedestrian infrastructure project recommendations between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the FAST Transit Center on Franklin Street.
One recommended project would build sidewalks along the stretch of Morganton Road between the Haymount neighborhood and Highgrove Circuit. Currently, only one side of the street has a continuous sidewalk.
Another project would upgrade the already painted crosswalks at the intersection of Murchison Road and Country Club Drive. A large section of Ramsey Street — stretching from its intersection with Rowan Street and Grove Street and up to Long Hill Elementary School — would also see improvements.
Other proposed sidewalk/trail and intersection improvements can be viewed online on the Fayetteville Pedestrian Plan Public Input Map. The map allows residents to comment on the proposed roads and intersections if they cannot attend the in-person sessions. Residents can also provide feedback through an online survey that asks them to rank types of pedestrian projects on issues like comfortability crossing intersections and how funding should be prioritized. All online feedback must be submitted by Dec. 31.
The proposed projects come partly from comments the city received from its first public input session, comment map and survey in August. Those comments helped officials prioritize projects desired by residents, John McNeill, the city’s senior project manager for traffic, told CityView in November.
Some of the same places where residents requested pedestrian infrastructure improvements were also highlighted in a YouTube video by content creators Sam Reid and Preston Griffin, who is a Fayetteville resident. The video, posted in October, brought viewers along the pair’s almost nine-hour and over 16.5-mile trek across Fayetteville. The walk featured gaps in sidewalks and nonexistent pedestrian crossings, proving to Reid and Griffin that Fayetteville deserved its title as ‘America’s least walkable city.’
The city has been improving pedestrian infrastructure for over two decades, with the construction of 15.3 miles of sidewalk funded last year through city bonds. Fayetteville’s first pedestrian plan came out in 2018; the city plans to collect community comments to update the plan every five years, with this year’s being the first update to the original plan.
More information about the updated pedestrian plan and other city pedestrian infrastructure projects is available on the city’s website. Residents can contact Virginia Smalls, city transportation planner, at VirginiaSmall@FayettevilleNC.gov or 910-433-1148 with questions about the plan.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
One problem that we often see is people crossing through moving traffic and not at the stoplight and crosswalk. We can’t correct Stupid!
I think it is idiotic that we are talking about pedestrian projects, and we have no safe way to cross the busiest thoroughfare in the city and there is no plan to do anything about it. Try to cross Skibo Rd, from the Mall to Golden Corral, I double dodge dare you!.