Feb. 13. By Dave Vieser. A detailed traffic study regarding Bailey Road east of Hwy. 115 will be presented to the Cornelius Town Board during the Feb. 17 meeting. The $174,500 study has been prepared by Kimley-Horne, and will examine methods of addressing traffic volume on two-lane Bailey Road, where both Bailey Middle and Hough High are located.
Between buses, students driving to and from school and carpooling, as well as traffic generated by a variety of residential developments—including Bailey’s Glen—Bailey Road is a challenge on school days.
“Our staff has discussed draft recommendations with the consultants,” said Wayne Herron, deputy town manager. “However, many of them require coordination and approval by both NCDOT and CMS.”
The meeting will begin at 6 pm in Town Hall on Catawba Avenue. It will also be live streamed on the town website www.cornelius.org.
And of course our elected offices have been too busy approving development that cuts down every tree in sight, to recognize traffic as an issue. Traffic flow, it can honestly be said, has never been treated as a real concern by our politicos until well after the fact. Let’s face it, requiring a turn lane here and there is a mediocre attempt at best.
Developers have taken control of our state’s growth areas and NCDOT and local governments make their plans based on whatever devs decide to leave. They build too close to the road so that serious pedestrian, cycling, transit and tree replanting options are out of the question. Town officials flutter their fingers and whimper that there’s nothing they can do. Meanwhile the builders’ minions build. And build. And build. Cornelius has some wonderfully thoughtful master plan neighborhoods. Let’s see that kind of energy go into commercial development. Plan for the future. Get infrastructure plans in place before climbing into the developers’ beds. Remember they have zero stake in the future of Cornelius.
Did Cornelius really have to spend $174,500 to analyze a traffic problem?
When are the Town of Cornelius officials 1)Going to come up with a comprehensive traffic analysis for the WHOLE town? 2)Put a moratorium on ALL developement that has led to this traffic congestion?