Greensboro Reporter

A Greensboro neighborhood that drivers are using as a cut-through is losing its reputation as a safe place to walk and bike because of speeding vehicles.

After years of complaints from residents – not to mention traffic plans that call for construction of the Urban Loop, which will double or triple traffic — city road crews have taken some traffic calming measures to slow down the drivers. The affected area is just south of Lake Townsend.

“There’s a problem right now,” resident Royce Scott told Fox 8. “There’s going to be speed because this is a straightaway.” 

The existing traffic calming approach includes painting a double-yellow line down the center of Peach Orchard Drive, putting up orange traffic barrels, and creating roundabouts.

Reaction about the effectiveness of those measures is mixed.

“Me and my wife will leave here going down Peach Orchard running the speed limit and cars pass us,” James Cobb told the news station. “You get people coming up through here running 60, 70 mph.”

He says it will take more to make drivers slow down.

“Speed humps should be put in,” he said. “If not, put stop signs right here. Stop signs slow the flow of traffic.”

Those ideas were considered, but Greensboro Department of Transportation Director Hanna Cockburn explained on the newscast why they were rejected.

“We did evaluate all the different types of installations and believe given the impacts to fire responsiveness in particular this is the best course of action,” she said.

The neighborhood is in for more traffic once the Urban Loop is completed, the number of vehicles is expected to increase to about 10,000 per day, up from the current 3,000 at most. 

That concerns residents even more.

“We have people that ride bikes. We have people that want to walk,” Scott said. “They’re going to be scared to walk down here because of the speed of the cars.”