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  Forest Hill Road    

 

Macon, Ga

  SOS forest

  - Talking Points -
- Developed following a Meeting  on Apr 22nd, 2008 at St Francis Church -


 




   - Talking Points -


Traffic Counts used to justify FHR are grossly exaggerated.

fantasy projections in red


  • Counts have been relatively flat for past 20 years (see chart below) Flat traffic counts
  • Realistic traffic projections would not require or justify a design of this scale and cost.
  • The FHR project was originally justified as a road to the Macon Mall. It would feed a new “Northwest Parkway” offering a convenient shortcut to the mall from north Macon. The Macon Mall is now on the decline, the Northwest Parkway is no longer under active consideration, but FHR is still projected to handle more than double its current load, despite flat traffic counts for the past 20 years.
  • Vineville Avenue, the primary roadway fed by FHR, lacks additional capacity (90% of the traffic from southbound FHR will continue on Vineville Avenue according to RIP projections).
  • No plans for expansion of Vineville, which traverses locally valued historic districts, have been approved.
  • The cumulative growth rate for Macon is projected by the Macon-Bibb Planning & Zoning Department to be a total of 4% between now and 2035.

 



Constraints on FHR capacity are and will remain the intersections.

  • Rush hour congestion on FHR is due entirely to constraints at the major intersections (Vineville, Ridge, Wimbish and Northside).
  • FHR at Ridge
  • Intersection improvements, including better turning movements and additional stacking, would redress this problem to the extent possible; these intersections, particularly that with Vineville, will remain the constraint on FHR’s carrying capacity.
  • The intersections can, however, be improved at reasonable cost without expansion of the intervening roadway and without sacrificing local utility or the integrity and safety of adjacent neighborhoods.
  • The benefits to improved traffic flow and safety will be equal to that of the proposed project, at a savings to taxpayers of approximately $30 million dollars.

 



Public Safety is compromised by the proposed design.

  • The design speed of the FHR project is 47mph; the posted speed will be 35mph. 

    FHR_Accidents2007May3SignsDown.jpg
  • Too Fast
  • MAAI representatives have acknowledged that “after build” reviews are not conducted as a way of verifying project assumptions and projections. Such evidence-based reviews would show that several RIP projects have significant problems due to scale and excessive design speeds.
  • Mr. Chellman, an international renowned traffic engineer/planner hired by the residents of FHR, has suggested combining and reconfiguring the  Northminster/Wimbish intersection with the Wimbish/Forest Hills Roads intersection to remedy a major safety problem.  The proposed plan moves the Northminster intersection and conflicts further east at significant cost, but does not remedy them. There is heavy school traffic on Northminster during the morning rush hour



The scale of the project is unnecessarily expensive and intrusive.

  • The separated four-lane configuration of the Wimbish to Ridge segment of FHR is of a scale without precedent in Bibb County for even the exaggerated traffic volumes cited for FHR. 
  • The width is comparable to that of the newly completed section of Riverside Drive and Forsyth Road, both of which are major arterials.  The design is inappropriate for an existing residential neighborhood (modern traffic planning standards require “context-sensitive design”). 
  • The design denies safe and convenient access to adjacent residential properties and to St. Francis Church.

 



The excessive cost of the project does not result in comparable value.

  • The local utility of FHR will be reduced.
  • Safety will be compromised.
  • Capacity will be increased only by the improvements to major intersections, not by the excessive scale of the intervening roadway.
  • Future maintenance and policing costs will be excessive.



 

City Council and Residents concerns have been ignored.

The City Council has passed several resolutions requesting a more appropriate and neighborhood friendly design (numbers/dates). 

http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/MaconCouncilResolutionPower.htm

The City's concerns have been ignored.

Residents have presented these concerns prior to and during the planning process; these concerns have not been addressed.  Please see the  Position Paper, below, dated 2-25-2008.



Citizens Position Paper

Citizens have formulated “Design criteria and Constraints” that we believe should guide design of the FHR Project and mediation, and which address the neighborhoods’ primary concerns – footprint, speed, access, neighborhood integrity, and drainage:

• Protect the integrity and livability of neighborhoods fronting and served by Forest Hill Road.

• Recognize Forest Hill Road as one of Macon’s premiere scenic residential roadways, and protect that asset.

• Provide for the safety of motorists, pedestrians and school children.

• Provide safe and convenience access to adjacent businesses, churches, schools, and residential areas.

• Provide unimpeded access by public safety vehicles.

• Minimize on-going maintenance and operations costs by the City of Macon and Bibb County, to include traffic control, storm drainage and policing costs.

• Use modern traffic-calming and neighborhood-sensitive design techniques to further the all of above.

• Employ a design speed of 35mph.

• Minimize the footprint of the roadway and construction zone to preserve the existing landscaping and tree cover, and to avoid the expense and disruption of relocating utility lines and poles and channelizing storm drainage.

• Recognize that the current Statement of Need is outdated, and adopt a new one that realistically reflects current and future needs and traffic volumes.

• Thoroughly study the effect of induced traffic volumes on Vineville/Forsyth, Ridge, and Park Street; delay construction if increased volume will require expansion of those roadways that is unmanageable, unacceptable, or not contained in approved projects scheduled for completion in the immediate future.

• Protect the historic resources at Park Street, the Prado and the residences along FHR.



http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR



Below is how M-A made a "Mountain out of a Mole-Hill"...


http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/MAAI_Bad-Data-Hyper-Inflation.jpg

M-A is wrong for "mixing  apples and oranges" in a traffic counts table where Van placed a (high) "raw data" in the same table with "annualized data".  Van did this to make it appear the traffic counts were increasing at a higher rate than they actually are.  This manipulation is a deliberate attempt to distort the truth.

Inflated bogus 2007 data points at end of graphs (intentionally)  mislead the viewer.

Chart with bogus 2007 counts at station 449 - North of Lokchopee:
http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/MAAI_20080312d.jpg

Chart with bogus 2007 counts at station 445 - N of Overlook: 
http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/MAAI_20080312b.jpg



"The traffic counts done by Jim Gawlas for 2007 are the actual raw counts. " - Van Etheridge in letter here:
http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/Mediation_County_20080416.htm

Attached is an initial attempt to graphically depict M-A's subterfuge... ie...
hyperinflated-disconnected-from-reality-projections.

MAAI_Bad-Data-Misleading.jpg




- CAUTION Macon -

Forest Hill Road