Woodfin – A few weeks ago, we reported that Woodfin Councilman Jim McAllister questioned Woodfin Police Chief Michael Dykes about what McAllister saw as a lack of traffic enforcement on Riverside Drive in Woodfin.
In an interview with the Tribune last week, McAllister admitted he saw the problem as mainly a lack of enforcement. “As Woodfin has grown, traffic has increased,” McAllister explained. “As future I-26 becomes more crowded, I think people who were shooting over it have discovered Riverside.” Adding to the traffic is the fact there is a new park [Silver-Line Park] and new businesses, he believes is adding to the problem.
“Segwaying out to the future, if any of these analysts are right and we’re going to have thousands of people on the weekends come to the Wave, how are they going to get there?”
McAllister has observed what he believes are high rates of speed but admits, “From my perspective as a layman on a truck and a car, the speed I think they’re going may be completely irrelevant. But the Edgertons (Eric Edgerton is a councilmember in Woodfin), and their neighbors live right there and…they say it’s crazy some of the stuff they hear.” He also said people wishing to walk or ride their bikes to Riverside Park find it dangerous to cross the river. “People are raising cane there, but the most is in the Riverwalk neighborhood.”
McAllister said that even when he was campaigning, Riverside Drive was one of the top five things listed as a priority. “I had been thinking all along that enforcement would play a giant role. Let’s just scare the daylights out of these people. Try to find the worst offenders.”
He now understands that enforcement is a piece of the puzzle to solving the problem after riding along with Dykes for several hours and better understanding the limits of enforcement along the road and what an officer has to do to write a citation.
“That place, I thought, is a great place.” Sure enough, we’d pulled it off. He identified some speeders, and we couldn’t go after them for several reasons. The places I said they should use—pull-offs—with all the rain, they were mud.” McAllister said it was an education in the problem of enforcement.
“The chief has wisely helped me realize that nationwide law enforcement agencies have figured out that enforcement is a piece of the puzzle, but much smaller than a guy like me would think.” Now, McAllister thinks adding signage and crosswalks would be other pieces to solving the problem.
However, there’s another problem. Riverside Drive is a state-controlled road, which means nothing can be done without state approval. McAllister said communication with the Department of Transportation has not been good. He said he would like to meet with all the stakeholders about Riverside.
The town is also trying to obtain a grant to do a traffic study to determine how many cars are using the road at what time of day and at what speed. Woodfin Town Manager Shannon Tuch told the Tribune, “We submitted a grant application last week, and a resolution is planned for next week’s Council agenda.” The grant is for $120,000 for “a feasibility study for sidewalks and other possible pedestrian improvements along the Riverside Drive corridor. The awards will be announced in the spring. McAllister said he wants something done before a tragedy occurs.
The chief adds more data to the issue
Chief Dykes spoke to the Tribune the same day we talked to McAllister about the enforcement issues along Riverside Drive. “It doesn’t mean that we don’t do speed enforcement, but it’s a little trickier and takes a little more effort and some more planning,” Dykes explained.
He had just finished running some traffic data on Riverside Drive and shared it with the Tribune. “For the last couple of years, our speed enforcement has been consistent with everything else we monitor on Riverside Drive, like about 11 to 12 percent of our crashes occurring on Riverside Drive… and just about 10 percent of our speeding tickets coming from Riverside Drive,” explained Dykes. “Which is consistent. You concentrate your speed enforcement where you have your crashes in an effort to reduce crashes, and that’s what we’ve been doing.” Dykes said about half of the crashes in Woodfin occur on the future I-26 and Weaverville Highway, which is where half of their tickets are issued.
He said the challenges to speed enforcement on Riverside include a narrow two-lane road that “gets a wide variety of traffic,” from regular traffic to large tractor-trailers, transfer trucks headed to the landfill, and dump trucks headed to the quarry and asphalt plant. “The big one that a lot of folks are aware of is Riverside Drive, which is a great destination for bicyclists.”
He said that ticketing speeders is not just observing speeders. Safely going after and apprehending them is the other part. “Safety is first and foremost.” If we’re going after a violator, we still have to do it with all due care and regard. “There’s nothing that excuses us from driving recklessly.”
Asked about the last time there was a fatality on the road, Dykes said it was in 2015 for a pedestrian who was walking at night in the dark and rain.