Part 2: How Hickory is Addressing Traffic Problems Relative to PeopleForBikes City Rankings and More

• Hickory's city government-driven effort to draft a comprehensive road safety action plan funded by both the city and a US Dept. of Transportation (USDOT) Safe Streets For All (SS4A) grant.
• From information I've gathered, the city is currently vetting viable traffic consultants to help draft that plan.

• Hickory continues to build and connect multi-use off-street trails as shown above and as outlined at: https://www.hickorync.gov/hickory-trail. Regarding completed projects and work-in-progress:

• The River Walk section of the trail network (photo above and dark blue section on the trail map) opened April 4th this year.

• Aviation Walk (green on the map) will open tomorrow,Tuesday, July 30th, and will connect the network of Hickory City Park paved and mountain bike trails and River Walk to Hickory Regional Airport and outdoor Hickory Aviation Museum. That outdoor collection of military planes will move into an enclosed museum building under construction at the approach end of runway 24.
• These trail additions follow the recent 2023 extension of the City Walk (light blue on the map and photo below) to sidewalk accessible neighborhoods and businesses on 11th St.

• Hickory is working with North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) to make the City Walk crossing (shown below) at the 4-lane intersection at state-owned 4th St. NW safer for non-motorized traffic.

• Our Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG), a four county professional local government support organization, is actively working with VHB traffic consultants, through an NCDOT grant, to draft a 4-county Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan (CHSP) focused on improving the safety of “high incident intersections”. 
• The word "Highway" above comprehensively includes all forms of motorized and non-motorized transportation. 
• "high incident" means high crash incidences.

• WPCOG and I are working on piloting a business and community-led Safe Streets For All initiative in Hickory designed to supplement current rules, regulations and enforcement policies by promoting increased personal responsibility and mutual accountability for all road users. 
• We will implement that plan with accompanying printed material once VHB creates a CHSP project website for WPCOG that will link to the QR code on our drafted SS4A logo shown below.

• Based on measurable results, we then intend to expand our Hickory community and business-led initiative to other cities and towns in our WPCOG region and beyond.

Finally, for now, BikeWalk North Carolina (BWNC), North Carolina's statewide bicycle and pedestrian access and safety advocacy organization, is planning to hold their 14th annual transportation summit in Hickory next September in part to highlight local traffic safety improvements and initiatives currently underway. For reference regarding the scope and purpose of the BWNC transportation summit, here’s a link to this year’s event: https://www.bikewalknc.org/nc-bikewalk-summit/ 

Culture change is always our steepest hill to climb for us as individuals and collectively, but that's exactly the level of change needed to improve behavior and expectations for all road users. PeopleForBikes and other state and national safety organizations have laid down the gantlet and identified the breadth and depth of the problems we face in Hickory. We get the message, not only in reports, but most vividly by what we experience on our roads everyday. We want to improve, and we now have completed work and more work underway from multiple points of approach to bend the curve down in traffic crashes, injuries and deaths.

Proof of our efforts, though, will only be evident in measurable results related directly to traffic crashes, injuries and deaths. I'll keep you posted!