A flyer for a town open house explaining two upcoming bike projects:

This coming Thursday, the town of Chapel Hill will be presenting two upcoming projects that will improve bike and walking connectivity through town:

  • When: Thursday, January 23
  • Where: Chapel Hill Public Library, meeting room B
  • Time: From 6:00PM until 8:00PM

This is a drop in meeting, so come in any time your schedule allows it. We have made no secret about how much we love greenways and bike paths, and how we want both Carrboro and Chapel Hill to develop more ways to get around town. These projects are from the town’s recently formed Office of Mobility and Greenways team(OMG for short!).

Visit the Bolin Creek Greenway Ext. project page
Visit the Estes Drive Ext. project page

I’ll offer my short two cents on the Bolin Creek project. This allows people currently using the town’s awesome Bolin Creek Greenway to head even farther west, all the way to the edge of Carrboro (where a short spur nearby can take you into Wilson Park and onwards into a good part of the towns residential area via the already existing Greensboro Street bike lanes. It also allows residents of Jay Street a huge shortcut into town via a connector to Broad Street, and the potential to reach the Carr-Mill mall area , the CVS and the Harris Teeter, without having to walk or ride on the Estes drive extension. I roughly measured this route to be a little more than three quarters of a mile. From a personal perspective, I have ridden the current path on the streets and it’s pretty challenging, a lot of up and down and a pretty sketchy approach to the Tanyard Branch into Northside. Many different routes and type of trail users will benefit from this project!

A map of the proposed Tanyard Branch connector

My personal thoughts on the Estes extension. With the completion of the Estes drive project, which stops at MLK Jr. Blvd, we still have a gap westward into Carrboro. Brave riders can roll on the Estes Extension, but t is not pleasant, and a lot of people on bikes will currently skip it. This allows people in this area to ride from the Library all the way into Carrboro. It completes some currently broken connectivity gaps, and even works well with the Bolin Creek project.

A map of the proposed Estes drive bike extension

Stop by, and support the towns progressive plans to initiate this projects for the town. The cool thing is people in Chapel Hill and Carrboro will benefit!

John Rees lives in Chapel Hill. He was, until very recently, a member of the Chapel Hill Planning Commission and former chair. He serves on the board of the Bicycle Alliance of Chapel Hill, and is also...