New crosswalk on Prince

Via Flagpole:

A Safer Crossing: Here’s hoping the new light-up crosswalk signs on Prince Avenue will contribute towards improving safety there. In an encouraging (if anecdotal) report, ACC Planning staffer Lara Mathes reports seeing a man in a motorized wheelchair cross safely at the Grit under cover of the flashing lights in the first week they were installed—a good sign!

ACC taking public input on Oak/Oconee St & prince Ave

See the background details and let 'em know what you think here:
www.accplanning.com/corridorstudies.php

Public meeting: Oak Street/Oconee Street and the Prince Avenue Corridor

A community-wide public meeting regarding the Oak Street/Oconee Street and the Prince
Avenue Corridor Studies will take place on Thursday, April 30 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm in the
Planning Department Auditorium:

View Larger Map

The Mayor and Commission of Athens-Clarke County have requested that the Planning
Department evaluate the existing conditions along Prince Avenue and Oak Street/Oconee
Street. Based on what is discovered, recommendations will be prepared regarding the future
of these corridors. These recommendations can include changes or additions to public
policies and development regulations designed to improve, enhance, alter and/or conserve
the future quality of these corridors.

The primary focus of this project is on land use and design outside of the right-of-way, with a
secondary focus on right-of-way improvements as they relate to the land use and design
goals.

Planning Staff will give a short presentation at the beginning of the meeting and then again
at 6:30. Public comment on the future of these corridors will be welcomed and is
encouraged.

The Oak/Oconee Street study area boundary includes an area on either side of the corridor
from the intersection with Broad Street, east to the intersection with the Athens Perimeter.

The Prince Avenue study area includes an area on either side of the corridor from the
intersection of West Dougherty Street with North Hull Street, west to the intersection of Prince
Avenue with the Athens Perimeter.

For more information, contact the Planning Department at 706-613-3515, or visit our website
www.accplanning.com.

Revisiting Prince Ave?

For now, numerous plans to improve Prince gather dust on a shelf, but if the state legislature commits to funding a Medical College of Georgia expansion and an associated University of Georgia health sciences campus at the Navy school, the Athens-Clarke Commission can pull them out of mothballs, Commissioner Kelly Girtz said.

"As soon as we know what's happening with the Navy school property, we need to get all those plans back on the table," Girtz said.

If it had passed, a commission proposal in November 2005 would have been the key to turning ideas on maps and in binders into real landscaping, bricks and pavement. In one of the most controversial votes of recent years, the commission voted 6-4 against taking over a state-owned stretch of Prince Avenue west of Milledge Avenue from the state.

The vote saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance costs over the decades and reassured suburbanites who viewed the street mainly as a highway into downtown. But it destroyed in-town residents' hopes that Prince would become more of a neighborhood center, lined with trees and small businesses, and safe for people on foot and on bicycles.

(emphasis added)

Full article from the ABH here.

I was quoted in this piece as a BikeAthens representative, but I'm not happy with 1) how I phrased myself or 2) how the ABH decided to quote me. Let me clarify that my point was not that any of the Prince accidents were the pedestrians' or cyclists' fault.

The point is that clearly defined crosswalks, 3-lane striping, and bike lanes would certainly make Prince a safer place- for walkers, cyclists and motorists.