For the web last week, we published a story by Justin Laidlaw on the City of Durham’s plans to get input from residents on the proposed redesign of Roxboro and Mangum Streets in the downtown area. We’re publishing that story in the paper this week, and you can read it on page 6.

Reader Audrey Shore sent us the following message via email: 

I live off of N. Roxboro and was thrilled when I first learned about the resurfacing project. However, N. Roxboro is not a part of this project. About once a month, there is a multi-car accident at the intersection of N. Roxboro and Lavender and/or at the Club Blvd. and Avondale intersections with N. Roxboro. The speeding is horrible and multiple cars run the light at Lavender Ave. every time it turns red. The NCDOT owns the road so there is little Durham Transportation can do, but it is incredibly unsafe. This is an area that should be more walkable, we have coffee shops, King’s Red and White, parks, and restaurants but you don’t see people walking because it is dangerous.

Thank you so much for the article about the Twitter account that tracks speed on Roxboro. I wish we had something like that on N. Roxboro.

And in our paper two weeks ago, we published a story about local Vision Zero officials’ efforts to eliminate pedestrian fatalities from car crashes. We received the following note from reader Steve Jesseph:

I just read the article, Striving for Zero Deaths with dismay but no surprise.  

No matter where I go in Wake County or throughout the State, far too many cars are moving well in excess of the posted speed limit. Either drivers don’t think the limits apply to them, they are affronted by the fact that the government would impinge upon their personal freedom by telling them to drive with a maximum speed, or they know with some certainty that they can speed with impunity because of the low likelihood of being caught. Public streets and roads in North Carolina are NOT practice tracks for the Richard Petty School of Racecar Driving.

RPD ticketed 42 drivers for speeding this last weekend in downtown Raleigh in just two hours.  Wake County Deputies and the NC Highway Patrol could issue 100 times that on I-540 and I-440  alone in those same two hours.

A similar issue surrounds red lights.  In the past year, I’ve almost been broadsided three times as I move into an intersection on a green light as someone comes flying through the red light.  I’ve also seen at least five very near misses in the last six months alone.  Apparently a red light means “Hurry up, you can make it!” by too many.

I’ve heard that Raleigh and many other communities are short of officers.  Government officials must, in my view, place a priority on public safety and services above all else when preparing budgets.  It’s what we pay taxes for.Police and fire protection should be the #1 and #2 … priorities in governance.  While it may be the largest line item in government budgets, it is still not enough.

I am all for individual freedom.  We are blessed to be living in the most free country in the world.  But with that freedom comes the responsibility to not recklessly kill our fellow citizens.