I gave this statement to City Council on May 18th, 2020. Since this statement all sections of the Roanoke Greenway system are open. As of July, no announcement has been made about any action on Brandon Avenue. Tragically, one of the two people hit while walking across Brandon Avenue on May 15th has passed away. MacKenzie Beyers was 18 years old and had recently graduated from Botetourt High School. There have been at least two other pedestrians hit on Brandon Ave who suffered incapacitating injuries since 2013 according to data from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

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Thank you Mayor and members of the City Council for hearing me today. I want to thank the City of Roanoke for listening to the many people who advocated for the reopening of the Greenway system. I hope that the phased reopening of the Lick Run Greenway, Garden City Greenway, and Tinker Creek Greenway was successful and without incidents of dangerous crowding over the weekend, and that people continue to be responsible as the Roanoke River Greenway reopens today.

Roanoke’s Greenway system is incredibly important because it is a place that is consistently safe and available for biking, walking, and other physical activity. Last Friday, unfortunately, we were reminded of how dangerous Roanoke’s roads and sidewalks can be for people outside of cars. The same day that people protested the sentence of the driver who hit Linda Pierson and left the scene, there was a person hit on Orange Avenue and two people hit on Brandon Avenue. These events highlight the dangers that the people of Roanoke face due to streets that prioritize cars and speed.

While there are many places that Roanoke can improve the safety of people who bike and walk, I’d like to talk about Brandon Avenue today. Brandon Ave was identified as a priority corridor in the 2012 Bicycle Plan adopted by the Roanoke Regional Commission and for several pedestrian improvements in the 2015 Pedestrian Plan. As a corridor the area from Main Street to Franklin Street sees multiple crashes per year, including a fatality last year and numerous serious injuries according to data from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Brandon Avenue is currently scheduled to be repaved this summer, but repaving plans have not been made public.

At the very least, the City should take the opportunity of repaving to carefully consider the corridor and how it can be made safer. Repaving alone is unlikely to result in large safety improvements, but it can set up further improvements down the road. I believe that the City should conduct a road diet or multimodal study of the corridor and allow public comments on repaving so that we can begin to make this a safe corridor rather than one that presents a barrier for people biking and walking accessing the Towers Shopping Center and threatens the safety of all people who use it.

The City is currently going through its Comprehensive Plan process and asking itself what it will look like in 20 years. With the repaving of Brandon Avenue this summer it can take a step toward a safer, more multimodal future, as its Comprehensive Plan envisions, or perpetuate the dangerous design that caters to speeding cars. I hope that the City carefully considers the opportunity presented by repaving and takes every step possible to ensure that what happens this summer is a step toward Roanoke’s future.