By Mollie Flowe
Many of you will be aware of the school bus crash which occurred on Gregson St. on October 30.
A car and school bus collided at the intersection of Markham and Gregson. The car came to rest in a yard at that corner, but the bus traveled a full block further before coming to rest against a house at the corner of Urban and Gregson. Thankfully, no kids were on the bus, and the bus driver was released from the hospital the next day; the driver of the car, however, was injured. By pure luck, no one happened to be walking along that stretch of road. In addition to a downed power line, two houses (on different sides of the road!) were damaged. Gregson was closed to traffic for hours while the crash was cleared and electricity was restored to a large portion of Trinity Park.
This crash, like the others which happen regularly on Gregson and Duke, illustrates the dangerous design of these high speed thoroughfares. Roads can be engineered to slow traffic down and keep all street users (including walkers and bus riders) safer, or they can be engineered for speed. Gregson and Duke Streets, with one way traffic, gentle hills, and few visual obstacles, invite speeding, increase the likelihood of human error, and maximize the potential consequences of speeding and human error.
The Trinity Park Traffic Committee is busy making sure our local and state leaders know about this dramatic and frightening crash and reminding them that we can do better. The city is currently working on a project with the NC Department of Transportation to redesign Roxboro and Mangum Streets for safer, two-way traffic, but it is far from a sure thing. Gregson and Duke are also owned by the state, and the state process for change is long and arduous at best. While the Trinity Park Traffic Committee would be delighted to see NCDoT make necessary improvements for safety, we do not believe improvements to these streets can be put off indefinitely. The City has signed onto the Vision Zero pledge, and the MoveDurham study specifies ways to make Gregson and Duke safer for drivers, walkers, cyclists, and bus riders. We are asking the City to support us in pushing for safer streets sooner, by pushing the state for change, by implementing immediate actions to slow traffic while pursuing longer term solutions, and possibly by taking ownership of these streets from the state.
The Traffic Committee has invited several Council Members to visit the crash site and hope to have visits on the books soon. We appreciate that Council Member Carl Rist came to observe the crash immediately.
We encourage all neighbors to reach out to City leaders to request action to make Gregson and Duke safer for neighbors and for the many Durham residents, including city bus riders and public school students, who use the streets daily. You can email the City Council as a group at citycouncilonly@durhamnc.gov.
If you are interested in working with the Traffic Committee, please reach out to Chair Mollie Flowe at mollieflowe@hotmail.com.
