Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Dunwoody Transportation Meeting tonight 6 PM at Dunwoody Baptist

What are our top priorities for improvement?

Date: Tuesday March 1st
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Dunwoody Baptist Church
1445 Mount Vernon Road, Dinning Room
Dunwoody, GA

Building on the City’s new Comprehensive Plan, citizens, staff and officials are now preparing the City’s first Transportation Plan. This Comprehensive Transportation Plan will:

• Identify transportation needs and appropriate strategies
• Identify specific actions to implement the goals of the City’s Land Use Plan
• Define necessary transportation priorities, policies, projects and/or programs

Tonight is the Transportation Meeting where I will be listening to hear citizens suggestions and concerns on the plans presented.  I know that surveys went out but they don't take the place of talking to those directly affected.  For example looking at the Road Projects list, these are a few items that pop up for me...
  • Does Chamblee Dunwoody turning left on Chamblee Dunwoody need two turning lanes with a new added lane between Peeler and Vermack with then a dedicated Right hand turn lane onto Vermack? (Is this a road widening that makes sense?)
  • Do the Citizens prefer the proposed middle turn lane down the middle of Mount Vernon or would they want turn lanes to flair in and out as needed with cross streets?
  • Plans are nice but prioritizing them for the biggest bang for the buck is hard part.  If we had $2 Million to spend, should we knock out the small items or attempt to tackle one large project like Tilly Mill, North Peachtree & Peeler?  Should signal synchronization come before any hard scape improvements?
  • Should the Bicycle & Pedestrian paths and short connections (that already informally exist - not the greenways) be funded for improvement in part, at the same rate or not at all as compared to traffic improvements?

Looking at the presentation, maps and other information from second Comprehensive Transportation Plan Public Meeting-1/25/2011, how would prioritize future spending on Roadway Improvements?  Thoughts?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,

I favor a continuous center turn lane to be added to the portions of Mt. Vernon that are now just two lanes. In addition to being a better improvement to traffic flow overall, it provides additional room after cars pull over for emergency vehicles to navigate Mt. Vernon more quickly during the busy rush hours. The end result is that paramedics, fire, and police would shave several minutes off their response times.

Paula Caldarella said...

Good grief....What is this?

http://dunwoody.patch.com/articles/annexation-proposal-could-expand-dunwoody-southward

John Heneghan said...

Peter from the Patch told me about the Jacobs proposal at the Transportation Meeting and it was the first I heard that it might actually be proposed in the State Legislature.

Lots and lots of research needs to be done before anyone knows if it makes sense to go forward. I don't expect this to be a legislative priority for anyone this late in the session (so close to cross over day) therefore it is probably an item for next year.

David Ratonyi said...

Please be careful about adding continuous center turn lanes. I believe those who say build it and they will come are right, and we move one step closer to looking like parts of Cobb or Gwinnett county when we do so. The more lanes that are built, the less pedestrian and bicycle friendly roads become, and more and faster traffic is invited. I think a majority of residents would gladly put up with the occasional wait in traffic if it means avoiding the look and feel of suburban sprawl.