Haywood Road in West Asheville is scheduled for a resurfacing from Patton Avenue to Ridgelawn Road.
It's a $7.7 million dollar project with the purpose of providing an opportunity to elevate and improve aspects of the road.
North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Communications Officer David Uchiyama expressed that they want everybody’s thoughts on how to make Haywood Road better. He added that the minimum they will be doing, improvement-wise, is updating crosswalks and curb ramps to meet the Americans With Disabilities Act standards.
Aside from that, Uchiyama said they want to hear from the public on what they want.
“Whether it be reducing the speed limit, which is something that we’re going to take a hard look at, perhaps even bike lanes,” said Uchiyama.
Since it is a resurfacing project, there will be some restraints as most of the work will be taking place from curb to curb.
Uchiyama said the goal is to find out what the area needs to help satisfy residents.
“What are the costs, what are the impacts of what people want to see?" he questioned. "Some things that may be wanted may require sacrifices in other places."
Some of the options on the table include bike lanes, parking, signage, flashing signs and crosswalks.
Kelsey Schissel owns Plays in Mud Pottery, a business on Haywood Road. She expressed how she would like to see clearly defined parking spaces.
“I don’t feel like the parking spaces at the corner of 191 and Haywood Road are safe," Schissel said. "People park in the pedestrian crosswalk and that is a dangerous space to park in."
She said a solution would be to see the curb painted “do not park” in red. She also said that she would like to see bike lanes added as her husband rides a bike to commute back and forth to work.
“Sometimes traffic can be really dangerous for him and I would like to see really clearly defined bike lanes,” said Schissel.
Mike Sule, executive director for Asheville on Bikes, said he believes that this project is a great opportunity to create a better functioning corridor that serves all people. He expressed that NCDOT should really focus on designing for pedestrian movements. Those designs include walkability, crosswalks and intersections that work for those moving by a variety of modes.
“When we design for the pedestrian, we create conditions that work for everyone else,” explained Sule.
He added that he didn’t believe there was really an opportunity for a bike lane from the beginning to the end of the project because there’s so much street parking that the road widths wouldn’t allow for it. On the contrary, he added that if NCDOT sticks to designing for pedestrians, it will calm traffic and simultaneously work for people on bikes.
Sule said that it's really important for NCDOT to get out front and communicate with people on these projects.
“I think one of the things the DOT can learn from the Merrimon project is that it's really important to engage people all the way through the process,” said Sule.
He also expressed that the city just passed the Close the Gap plan and Haywood Road ranked high. That means that there are a lot of issues with pedestrian motorists' collisions on the road.
Because of that, he would like if NCDOT would post their crash analysis because he believes the public needs to know where the conflicts are happening and what the opportunities are.
While he may be the director for Asheville on Bikes, Sule expressed that they’re not just about bike lanes for the sake of bike lanes.
“We are about great streets," he said. "A great city demands great streets and we’re really about maximizing the functionality, the utility of the public right of way so it serves all the people using it."
The NCDOT plan is to collect the public comments and go over them throughout the winter to have a design come into place to be able to begin construction by summer 2023.
“We will have conversations with neighborhood community groups as well as significant impact from the City of Asheville before making final decisions,” said Uchiyama.
“There’s a lot of residents in that area, there are a lot of businesses in that area, there’s also a lot of traffic in that area so Haywood Road itself has a lot of users who have a lot of different interests, we want to hear from everybody,” expressed Uchiyama.
There will be a public drop-in session on Tuesday, Dec.r 6 where people are encouraged to come by and express their opinions. The session will take place from 4-7 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, located at 587 Haywood Road.
For more information on the project, CLICK HERE.