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OBSERVATIONS
June 11, 2020 |
 |
 Wingate Lassiter |
My suggestions for improving
our sidewalks and bicycle trails
Since I'm a frequent walker and bicyclist along our streets and sidewalks and Smithfield's one and only greenway trail, I got an invitation a couple of weeks ago to submit a letter supporting the Smithfield Planning Department's application for a state grant to prepare a local Pedestrian Plan.
Well, I've procrastinated and haven't submitted that letter yet, so I'll use this space to have my say instead (Planning Director Stephen Wensman, take note).
First of all, the town has come a long way over the past decade in providing safer sidewalks and off-road walking and cycling options.
Have you noticed the rebuilding of sidewalks throughout town recently?
And wow, have folks been taking advantage of the Buffalo Creek Greenway and the paved walk around Community Park since COVID-19 shut down our playgrounds and the Recreation and Aquatics Center.
So what else do we need to enhance this outdoor "Movement Movement"?
First of all, I'd very much like to see the town finish the Greenway. The three-mile paved asphalt trail ends prematurely at both ends:
• At Community Park it hooks up with the paved sidewalk there. That's OK for walkers, but for bicyclists it means turning sharply onto a walkway too narrow for riders and pedestrians to pass each other safely. The solution there is to extend the asphalt trail straight across the sidewalk through a clearing to the parking lot beside the Partnership for Children Park.
• At the south end of the Greenway beside the Girl Scout Hut, the paved trail ends at an unpaved, graveled parking lot that's rough on bicycle tires --- and strollers. The simple solution there is to pave an extension of the trail through the parking lot to South Second Street and its sidewalk.
Speaking of sidewalks, it's good to see the town joining NCDOT to construct concrete walkways on both sides of recently completed road projects like Durwood Stephenson Parkway and Kellie Drive. Other worthy candidates for state and municipal collaboration are Wilson's Mills Road in West Smithfield (Councilman David Barbour's pet project) and East Market Street between the railroad underpass and Outlet Center Drive (along with fulfilling my pet project to get Market Street widened beyond three lanes from Bright Leaf to I-95).
Then there's West Market Street beyond the river bridge. And South Bright Leaf Boulevard all the way from Market Street to the river. That's a long stretch, but what good's a Pedestrian Plan if it doesn't think big?
In the meantime, let's keep on walking and biking with what we've got.
Smithfield's Blooming --- with hydrangeas
I heard a gardener on the radio the other day rave about this year's hydrangea blooms. She attributed that to what she called our region's first "English Spring" in quite some time: cooler than normal with plenty of rainfall.
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