Parents, Neighbors Press for Safer Conditions on Estes Drive

Middle-schoolers hit in a crosswalk

Parents, teachers, students and neighbors are calling for action after an SUV hit and seriously injured two middle-school students trying to cross Estes Drive in a marked crosswalk joining Caswell Road and the Estes Hills neighborhood with Guy B. Phillips Middle School.

The crash happened on New Year’s Eve on Estes Drive as a 13 and a 14-year-old used the west Caswell crosswalk to return from the school grounds. Both girls were seriously injured, one remains in critical condition. The driver has been charged. A second pedestrian accident occurred a week later when a vehicle made a left turn onto eastbound Estes from southbound MLKJr and hit a pedestrian in the intersection crosswalk.

Last week, with the help of NC Representative Verla Insko, Estes neighbors organized a meeting with North Carolina Department of Transportation officials to propose immediate safety improvements. They invited Town and school officials to attend. In advance of the meeting, they sent a letter to the senior NC DOT officials. Read the letter at the end of this article, or by following this link:  letter.

Community members take action

The tragic collision has galvanized Estes Hills neighbors who have lived with years of safety concerns and near misses. They are calling on Town and DOT officials for timely pedestrian safety improvements. Anne Goldstein, a 3 year resident, helped to organize a protest walk to be held exactly one week after the accident occurred. Several hundred neighbors, parents and teachers carried hand made signs and walked in the frigid weather motivated by an outpouring of care and concern for the injured girls and the fear of potential future danger.

Chapel Hill Town staff reported on the DOT Zoom call that the Estes Drive Connectivity Project, planned since 2013, may finally begin this April after numerous delays. This plan includes pedestrian activated blinking yellow lights on Estes (presently used on MLK Jr. Blvd and Franklin St) for the west Caswell crosswalk where two middle school students were injured, as well as a new crosswalk at Somerset Drive, and one near the future Aura entrance. The plan also calls for both on-road and off-road bike lanes from MLK Jr Blvd to Caswell Road. Further delays are quite possible due to weather, and issues with existing utility infrastructure.

Published January 30, 2022

Read the letter to NC DOT:

Ashley Wright NC DOT
January 24, 2022 (updated)
Dear Mr. Wright,
Within the last several weeks, three pedestrians were injured while crossing in marked crosswalks on the busy Estes Drive corridor between Franklin St and MLK Jr Blvd. Two of the injured were children, one remains in critical condition. In response, neighbors, teachers, and students marched in protest last week on Estes Drive to call for immediate measures to slow traffic NOW in order to provide a safer road for pedestrians.
We write to share our concerns in advance of the 12 noon Teams meeting on Monday, January 24 with DOT decision-makers, local government officials, and Estes Drive neighbors. Representative Verla Insko and Monica Fuller has assisted us to set up this meeting.
As background, Chapel Hill Town staff report the Estes Drive Connectivity Project, planned since 2014, may finally begin in March 2022 after numerous delays. This plan includes pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs), or similar signals for two crosswalks, and both on-road and off-road bike lanes from MLK Jr Blvd to Caswell Road. Further delays are quite possible due to weather, and issues with existing utility infrastructure.
A January 21st,2022 article in The Local Reporter documents earlier efforts made in 2009, and later in the 2014 Central West Area Plan, to bring safety improvements to Estes Drive, including a recommendation to work with the schools for safer crosswalks and a stoplight at Somerset Drive. See “Pedestrian Safety Measures Coming to Estes Drive”. https://thelocalreporter.press/pedestrian-safety-measures-coming-to-estes-drive/

Given the well-known existing hazardous road situation, we request these immediate short-term actions to improve pedestrian safety at the Estes Drive school zones:

  • Convert the existing 25 MPH school zone on North Estes Drive, which currently applies during specific weekday hours, to a full-time (24/7) 25 MPH zone.
  • Install continuously operating radar speed signs in both directions where the current school zone begins/ends. Currently there is a radar speed sign for eastbound traffic that operates only during school arrival and departure times.
  • Install a low cost, temporary flashing signal such as a PHB at the western Caswell/Estes crosswalk (near Phillips Middle School and the tennis courts) until a signal is installed there as part of the Town’s Estes Connectivity Project. As noted, a vehicle recently hit two middle school student girls in this crosswalk.
  • Install a PHB, or similar signal, at the Granville/Estes crosswalk near the Chapel Hill Library entrance. This crosswalk, regularly used by school children and others, lacks any type of signalization, and lies outside the scope of the Estes Connectivity Project.
  • Re-program the stoplight at the Estes-MLK intersection so that the pedestrian walk signal occurs *before* vehicles on southbound MLK Jr Boulevard are invited (by a flashing orange turn arrow) to turn left onto eastbound Estes Drive. Of note – a pedestrian in this crosswalk was hit last week by a vehicle while turning left from MLK Jr Boulevard.
Thank you for a careful review of these recommended actions.