More than 200 residents packed the gymnasium at Global Scholars Academy on Roxboro Street on Tuesday evening for an open house about proposed street design changes in downtown Durham.

The City of Durham’s transportation department and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NC DOT) invited residents to speak with staff and leave public comments to express their enthusiasm or concerns about the redesign of Roxboro Street and Mangum Street. Many folks walked from their homes in the surrounding neighborhood to attend the meeting, including Durham resident Brittany Price. She says she constantly worries about the safety of folks in her street, especially children, because of how fast drivers are speeding.

“I’ve seen almost every telephone pole on my block replaced because of crashes,” Price says. “It’s really frightening for pedestrians and cyclists. I don’t ride a bike because the road is so intense.”

The entrance to Durham restaurant Indian Monsoon located at the intersection of South Mangum and West Morgan Streets is boarded up following a recent traffic collision Credit: Photo by Angelica Edwards

Posters and information tables were spread throughout the gym. Folks crowded the stations to write feedback on sticky notes which were placed on a map of the design area, a roughly two-mile stretch between Lakewood Avenue and the I-85 interchange near Duke Park. Comments ranged from keeping the streets as they are, to making one of the one-way lanes exclusive to bikes or buses, or redesigning them as two-way streets. The amount of engagement was encouraging for city staff.

“I was thrilled with the turnout that we got,” says Sean Egan, director of the city of Durham transportation department. 

Around 200 people turned out for an open house at Global Scholars Academy to weigh in on the redesign of Roxboro and Mangum Streets. Credit: Photo by Angelica Edwards

Better sidewalks, bike lanes, and more safety infrastructure were other common suggestions. Overwhelmingly, the root of all residents’ concerns, Egan says, is safety.

“We’ve heard, certainly from some of the residents in the community, that there are just too many cars going too fast on the corridor and that we need to address that head on,” Egan says. “We’ve looked at the speed data and the number of cars and speed limits. But our experience is that just changing the speed limit doesn’t impact the actual speeds that are happening on these roads. There has to be a change in the design of the road.”

Converting back to two-way streets requires “restriping” the road, essentially repainting, which NC DOT covers as part of its regular maintenance cost. But additional infrastructure such as traffic signals, changes to the curbs, and other signage and poles is necessary to complete the conversion and would require more funding from the city. The transportation department has requested those additional funds through Durham’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

Durham residents talk with city staff about their ideas for the redesign of Roxboro and Mangum Streets in downtown Durham. Credit: Photo by Angelica Edwards

Next Monday, March 18, the council will host the first of two budget public hearings. Residents can share their own budget priorities for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Last year, residents rallied around two issues: expanding the HEART program and funding a full-time Vision Zero coordinator. Both items were included in the current budget. Lauren Grove was hired in December to fill the Vision Zero coordinator position, and has since worked across departments to understand the public safety needs throughout the community. She says there will be tradeoffs to redesigning streets that historically carry high volumes of traffic. Lowering speeds and tighter lanes could cause more congestion. The community, she says, will have to decide if it’s worth it.

“Vision Zero is the political will to choose and prioritize safety over those other objectives,” Grove says. “We’re talking about undoing almost a century of trying to solve congestion or solve for getting people quickly to where they need to go in a car. That’s a long history that we’re slowly taking a step back from and saying, ‘Wait, hey, this isn’t working.’ People are continuing to get injured or die in crashes. Let’s prioritize something else. Let’s actually prioritize safely moving people.”

In 2020, the Durham city council approved the two-way conversion of Roxboro and Mangum Streets based on recommendations from the Move Durham Transportation Study. After the public comment period closes later this year, the Durham transportation department will work with NC DOT to hire an engineering team to design the new roadway. City staff estimates that the new street design on Roxboro and Mangum, if approved, would begin construction in 2026.

Disclosure: Justin Laidlaw was formerly a member of the board of directors for the nonprofit Bike Durham. Bike Durham is lobbying for changes to Mangum/Roxboro Streets. 

Follow Reporter Justin Laidlaw on Twitter or send an email to [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected]. 

Justin Laidlaw is a reporter for the INDY, covering Durham. A Bull City native, he joined the staff in 2023 and previously wrote By The Horns, a blog about city council.