7/31/21: TRAFFIC LOG FOR SATURDAY, JULY 31.

Hi, folks:

I’m getting personal messages and emails from residents about today’s cut-thru traffic. For that reason, I am publishing this post so that folks can share their comments with others and document traffic conditions.

After spending my morning writing the update on new COVID-19 cases in Dare County, I hit the street with my dog and saw what I’ve seen throughout the summer when the left-turn ban at U.S. Hwy. 158 and South Dogwood Trail and the local-traffic-only barriers have been in effect, to wit:

The flow of traffic traveling north on South Dogwood Trail and turning right on East Dogwood Trail is steady and constant, albeit of a lower volume than I see when the left turn at U.S. Hwy. 158 is permissible.

The overwhelming majority of northbound drivers do not stop at the stop sign at South Dogwood-East Dogwood, and many pick up speed on East Dogwood as they race across the Dick White Bridge. Some are already speeding when they careen through the stop sign.

The overwhelming majority then turn left on Hickory Trail, despite the local-traffic-only barrier, and even, sometimes, when a vehicle is coming from the opposite direction.

I received reports last weekend of a fender bender at the East Dogwood-Hickory intersection caused by a driver trying to turn left at Hickory Trail into oncoming traffic, then backing up and colliding with the vehicle behind him/her. I saw a narrow aversion of a head-on collision earlier today when a northbound driver turned left into an oncoming car and barely managed to skim past it.

Oncoming traffic on Hickory Trail is not clearly visible to drivers stopped at the eastbound East Dogwood Trail stop sign. I know. I’ve made that turn hundreds of times in the past 23 years, and I always stop and take it slowly. Sometimes oncoming drivers will take both lanes of the road, casually assuming that that they have the road to themselves–or having just given a wide berth to a dog walker.

Please feel free to add to today’s conversation. Enjoy your weekend.

Ann, 7/31/21