Widening North Garland

On Tuesday, I voted at the Street Committee to widen North Garland for four lanes and install a median with trees down it. Right now, it's a congested two-lane highway that divides the neighborhoods surrounding it. Both problems needed to be fixed, and I think we arrived at the best solution. We'll see what the rest of the Council thinks soon.
There was some talk of widening the road to five lanes, but none of the neighbors were in support of that. It is the option the State Highway Department recommended, but I think Fayetteville can design a better road than that.
It was clear from the traffic data that a three-land configuration wouldn't work, even though that's what a lot of neighbors wanted. Even if we got our bus and light rail system and installed bike lanes, it still wouldn't be enough. We don't want to have to rebuild the road again in 15 years, or spend a lot of money widening already swollen roads like Wedington.
So we settled on a four-lane configuration. We included a median so the road would bring the neighborhood together a bit. This configuration doesn't mean that the neighborhood will stay the same. The properties along N Garland will probably urbanize slowly and lightly over the next 50 years. We needed to plan the road to make sure that happened in the best way, instead of in a haphazard way.
We could have left out the median to save money and keep the road narrow, but we thought the neighbors would appreciate the aesthetics of the trees and the safety the median provides to pedestrians and traffic.
A strong majority of the comments I received from citizens asked for a median, like the University has already done from Maple to North. Some neighbors don't want a median because it will force them to go one direction out of their driveways, but its vital to maintaining safety in the neighborhood. Installing the median is the only way to keep the neighborhoods together.
And of course, we'll have bike lanes all the way down it, pending State Highway Department approval.