Wheels Turning Slowly

The Colington Road Multi-Use Path Committee recently posted 2,700 letters, one to each property owner on the islands and the adjoining Baum Tract. Here is one response sent to our email address ncsr1217@gmail.com

"I live in Colington Pointe and would love to help with this project.  I would love a way to get past the bridge on a bike or on foot. I can only see it as adding value to this area....  I would use it every day.  I also have a 3 year old that will be attending First Flight and when she is older it would be great to have a way for her to safely ride a bike there - or to the Wright Bros park."

The immediate work for all of us that want to see this become a reality as soon as possible is getting a viable plan. Please add your voice to NCDOT asking for their help in designing this. Address your email or phone call to Lauren Blackburn—her e-mail is lablackburn2@ncdot.gov and her number is (919) 707-2601. She is the Director of the Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation.

And pass this post along!

As a point of information photos you see in this blog are current at the time of posting and are taken along Colington Road.

Just Wanna

Just wanna go a'fishing

Just wanna go to school

Gonna get there anyway

But a path will be so cool

I know you think I'm doing fine

Strolling side the thick white line

But the cars get kinda near

Makes me tremble with some fear

Just wanna catch some dinner

Just wanna get back home

Gonna get there anyway

Hoping no cars decide to roam

We LOVE Steve Lambert & ARPO

Progress of a different sort.

Church curve is finally being eliminated. Three years behind schedule but now becoming a reality.

The next funded for scheduled work on Colington Road is a slight widening with added four foot shoulders on both sides. Acquisition is not due to start for a couple of years yet. And then construction.

And so meanwhile we plug away at finding alternative and safe ways to get non-vehicular traffic from any point on Colington Road to the beach.

Some say that only DUI and beer buyers use the road  without the advantage of a vehicle so why bother to help them.

We reply that many, many more would use a safe pathway if it were available. No one with any other way to travel is going to travel alongside the road now.

Those that we do see walking or cycling have no other choice. Just because they might have a DUI, they still need to get to work, to the doctor, to the grocery. And safely.

A typical moment at just about any time of the day along Colington Road. Do we really want our teens going to school or the beach negotiating this traffic on a road with no shoulder.

Finally a huge shout out to Steve Lambert and the ARPO for funding a mailing to all Colington residents describing the problem and asking for suggestions.

Riding the White Line

A long and winding road with a long and winding history. Situated on Big & Little Colington Islands, this road probably began as an Indian footpath possibly following the curve of the dunes. Starting in the mid-1600's colonists would settle here.

There were once two communities supported by commercial fishing, Colington and Eagleton, on the southwest and northwest shores respectively. Likely these communities help carve the path that later became Colington Road.

Today the communities along Colington Road are as varied as the twists in the road. But one thing remains clear to almost if not all, a non-vehicular path is needed for the safety of everyone that uses the road.

Traveled by private vehicles, commercial trucks and vans, pedestrians and bikers that all have no other way to enter and exit the islands, Colington Road needs help.

It's a huge undertaking with many problems to overcome but every problem has a solution, we just need to find it.

Write, call, email any and all, talk it up positively.

Let the Bike Wheel Squeak Loud & Clear!

Sharing the Road

Yep that's us approaching church curve; our car, approaching cars, and a cyclist. Donny & I don't mind riding behind a cyclist until the coast is clear, really clear. Because of the amount of traffic on our only way onto and off the islands, it took us until past church curve and over the bridge before we passed this guy. And this was a midday trip, no school letting out traffic, no end or beginning of the work day traffic, just plain midday traffic on any given day.

We could have passed the cyclist into on coming traffic. Vehicles in both directions and a cyclist can share the road with a few feet to spare, but why risk an accident to save a few minutes. Anything can happen any time, but when you are forced into close proximity and a driver gets distracted, the bike hits a rock, well that is just asking for trouble. Take the time to give the rider, the jogger, the mom with a stroller, space. It's only a few minutes.

The Dare County Planning Commission needs to implement a plan where any new development along the road must add a multi-use path section as part of the improvement. If this had been in place for even five years, Colington Road would be well on its way to have many sections of a multi-use path.

I have a note from a concerned cyclists with some concrete facts and ideas that I will post next time.

To NCDOT Engineer Jerry Jennings

Hello Jerry,

Jack McCombs said that he talked to you yesterday at the NCDOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Summit about our concerns regarding a multi-use path for Colington Road. It is my understanding that over many decades individual citizens and groups have petitioned for something wise to be done about the lack of a travel alternative along the road and unreasonable expense is the standard reply.

I started a Facebook page for folks to dialogue about their concerns a year ago and to date it has 782 members. I also have a blog on the subject for folks who are not Facebook users. This does not generate as much conversation but it is there for a wider audience to read.

I am a little confused as to why concrete plans, such as the improvement to church curve due to have started August 2010, do not have a multi-use path segment included. It seems that something already planned and budgeted for would easily accommodate including a pathway with little overall increase in expenses. Especially versus going back later.

Partial pathways is certainly a consideration. A multi-use path along the entire stretch of road is a big job and breaking it into segments, say from Baum Bay to the first bridge, is much less daunting to consider. The Blue Crab is a hassle there and rather than greatly compromise the business getting permission for an easement through their parking lot could work. Or how about a shared grant to put a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the second bridge. This would connect a few neighborhoods safely that now have no alternative means to get back and forth.

Thank you for helping with this long overdue project.

Merman says please take the survey.


Today February 8 is the LAST day so please do not tarry.

Where ever there is an other option, check the box and put Colington Road Needs a Multi-Use Path.

 Colington Road is the only major artery north of Oregon Inlet that does not have a choice for any alternate means of travel.

Over 100, 000 vehicles monthly pass through the gate at Colington Harbour (one way) during any summer month.

Colington school children need your help. It has been mandated that Safe Routes to School be implemented. This was in 2005 by our federal government. We are far behind meeting this.

Tell your friends. You do not need to live on the Outer Banks or on Colington Island to help us out. Thank You!!!