Denton Installs New Multi-Use Lanes Near New Campus of Newton Rayzor Elementary and Calhoun Middle School
New lanes for active transportation on Crescent Street.
New striping appeared last week on Crescent Street between Malone Street and Bryan Street. The segment–previously a wide two-lane road–now features a six-foot lane, two-foot buffer with traffic buttons, and a 10-foot lane in each direction. The new lanes are for people walking or using a device like a bicycle or scooter.
Old design versus new design of Crescent Street between Malone and Bryan Street.
The project is part of a larger goal to proactively improve traffic safety around Denton ISD schools, according to staff in City of Denton’s Transportation Services. Deputy Director of Transportation, Dr. Farhan Butt, shared in an interview that his department plans to coordinate with Denton ISD to identify which campuses to focus on next.
The new shared campus of Calhoun Middle School and Newton Rayzor Elementary School are the current area of focus for traffic safety improvements.
Newton Rayzor Elementary (NRE) saw a 200 percent increase in students biking to school after the creation of the NRE Bike Bus, according to NRE parent and bike bus leader, Stephanie Brooks.
While the new campus will have more bike racks, according to Brooks, it may be more challenging to access than the old campus due to a lack of sidewalks or separated biking infrastructure along streets like Linden, Bryan and Ponder. “If you’re a student who lives west of the school campus and coming down Crescent, you’re going to be expected to be on the road or in the grass, and there’s just not a good way to travel there,” said Brooks.
Brooks’ comments were made prior to knowledge of the new lanes on Crescent Street.
The new lanes on Crescent Street end on the western side of the new campus at Bryan Street, feeding active transportation traffic onto the five-foot sidewalk.
Location of new lanes in relation to the new share school campus.
The new lanes end at Bryan Street, where a crosswalk directs traffic onto the sidewalk.
Despite the crosswalk guiding traffic onto the sidewalk, bicycle traffic is not legally required to ride on the sidewalk. According to Texas state law, people on bicycles may ride on all streets except in the main lanes of limited-access highways, like I-35 or Loop 288.
Transportation Services staff say that the new lanes immediately address the lack of sidewalk on the south side of Crescent St between Malone St and Bryan St. The lanes can serve as a temporary place for students to walk until a sidewalk is built, which typically takes months or years.
City staff did not add striping to Crescent Street between Bryan Street and Fulton Street due to challenges that require more time to resolve. These include a slightly narrower roadway with more homes and driveways, which create challenges with on-street parking and trash bins. A common complaint from users of the protected bike lane on W Hickory Street is trash bins in the bike lane.
Transportation Services staff say they plan to observe traffic patterns during school drop-off and pick-up. Street designs around the school may be adjusted if problem areas are identified.
Additional Safety Measures
In addition to the new lanes on Crescent Street, city staff are proposing additional measures to improve safety for students using active transportation to get to school.
To help students more safely cross roads, staff are proposing new all-way stops on:
Panhandle at Ector, Malone and Fulton,
Linden at Malone, Bryan, and Fulton,
Cordell at Ector and Malone.
Locations of proposed all-way stops.
In addition to improving safety for children traveling to school, the proposed all-way stops will improve safety and ease of drivers attempting to cross or turn onto streets like Ector, Malone and Fulton, where other drivers commonly speed.
New all-way stop at Fulton and Panhandle, where a driver recently crashed into a home after a two-car collision.
Denton’s Transportation Services Division is taking steps to create safe routes to school for children. Over the past few decades, the percentage of students walking or biking to school in the United States has decreased while the percentage of students being driven to school has increased. The result is longer car lines, more traffic congestion and more air pollution around schools, as well as reduced physical activity and health for children.
Transportation Services staff say they plan to continue methodically improving safety and consistency around each Denton ISD campus in collaboration with Denton ISD leadership. They also plan to look for opportunities to apply for external funding through programs like Safe Routes to School from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
