The Town of Chapel Hill will paint walking lanes on Honeysuckle Road, Booker Creek Road, and Cleland Drive.

The Town of Chapel Hill will paint walking lanes on Honeysuckle Road, Booker Creek Road, and Cleland Drive. This addition builds on previous efforts to make space for people walking on these streets. 

The walking lanes will be:

• Dedicated space for people walking on streets without sidewalks
• At least five feet wide
• Marked with permanent street paint
• Placed at the edge of the road
• On Honeysuckle Road (north side), from Brookview Drive to Booker Creek Road
• On Booker Creek Road (west side), from Honeysuckle Road to the Booker Creek Trail
• On Cleland Drive (north side), from Hayes Road to Burning Tree Drive

Drivers, treat the walking lanes as any other lane marked with a solid white line:  do not drive or park in them.
Pedestrians, walk in the walking lanes in either direction. Normally in the absence of a sidewalk pedestrians should walk facing traffic, but the walking lane can be treated like a sidewalk that lets people walk in either direction.

Staff will paint the walking lanes the week of November 14th.  This might create minor traffic delays on these streets. For questions, email Josh Mayo at jmayo@townofchapelhill.org.

Time to change the clocks soon and when doing so it is important to remember that the days are shorter now. This will make people (and pets) less visible when walking, waiting for the bus, rolling or cycling .

On November 2, from 4 – 6 p.m. Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC will all have events, information and lights available at no charge to provide more visibility. Be sure to check Carrboro’s Lighten Up Bicycle Ride and UNC’s Light Distribution event at https://move.unc.edu/news/2022/10/28/lighten-chapel-hill-carrboro-2022/.

Go Chapel Hill will be distributing information on the Libba Cotten Trail at Merritt Mill Road starting at 4 p.m.

The Chapel Hill Police Department is planning pedestrian safety enforcement operations in November, in addition to normal patrols.

The Chapel Hill Police Department is planning pedestrian safety enforcement operations in November, in addition to normal patrols. Scheduled special operations include – but are not limited to – the following dates:

• Tuesday, November 1, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Saturday, November 5, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Monday, November 7, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Friday, November 11, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Tuesday, November 15, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Saturday, November 19, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 22, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Saturday, November 26, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 29, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Wednesday, November 30, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

*Dates and times are subject to change

Each effort will focus on areas with heavy pedestrian and bicycle traffic, including downtown, and mid-block crosswalks (ex. along the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Estes Drive corridors). We encourage everyone traveling, regardless of your mode of transportation, to remember that community safety is a shared responsibility.

The Chapel Hill Police Department is also planning at least five speed enforcement operations in November – in addition to normal patrols – with the main goal of improving safety for everyone who shares roads.

• Tuesday, November 1, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• Tuesday, November 8, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• Tuesday, November 15, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 22, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 29, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

*Dates and times are subject to change

Please use the following tips to improve safety for everyone on and near the roads:

• Limit distractions
• Phones down; eyes up (this is true for people driving, walking, riding a bike, and rolling)
• Keep your music at an appropriate level to hear what’s happening outside your car or around you
• Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks 
• State law says all vehicles must yield to pedestrians once they have safely entered a crosswalk
• Please use designated crosswalks to cross roads
• Walk against traffic; ride with traffic 
• People walking who don’t have access to sidewalks should walk in the opposite direction as traffic
• People riding bicycles should ride in a bike lane or in the same direction as traffic if there isn’t a designated path
• Bicycles are permitted to ride on the sidewalk except downtown (Franklin and Rosemary streets). Bicycles are permitted on sidewalks along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard outside the Chapel Hill Police Department as long as they are going in the same direction as traffic.

The Town will utilize its variable message sign (VMS) boards throughout Town to alert people driving of the events as well as encouraging them to limit distractions and watch out for people walking and people riding their bikes.

Vision Zero

On October 13, 2021, Chapel Hill’s Town Council adopted a Vision Zero Resolution, which states that traffic injuries and deaths are not inevitable “accidents” but preventable crashes and commits to eliminating them on Chapel Hill streets. To view the resolution, click here.