Duke comes under fire from bike/ped activists over Prez's commute, architect comments

As referenced in today's Fishwrap, Messrs. Schoenfeld and Wynn -- the two Duke VPs that emerged, through a process of cell division, from the position formerly held by John Burness -- reassured City Council yesterday of Duke's strong relationship with the community, and the economic impact that the university has on the Bull City.

I don't think many bicycle and pedestrian activists showed up for the Thursday Council confab, though... and that might have been a good thing.

The bike/ped mailing list has been filled with blistering commentary this week in the wake of a Duke Chronicle story about President Richard Brodhead -- and after a rather contentious-sounding meeting between Duke architect John Pearce and the City's bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee.

First, the prez, who found himself in some hot water on the listserv after the following lede to a Chronicle article looking at his tenure to date:

Each day after leaving the Allen Building, President Brodhead hops in is Audi to head back to his Tudor home half a mile away.

Duke grad student Todd Twigg pointed out the casual story introduction, with some ironic commentary:

Hopefully that sentence contains a bit of hyperbole, if not, a thank you to author Chelsea Allison for bringing this to light. I find this information disturbing, but frankly, not surprising – ironic too considering that I commute to west campus by bike using the president’s driveway off Academy and his gated walkway toward the Athletic center.

On a related note, I noticed two weeks ago that the walkway and stone steps from the president’s house to the Academy/University intersection have been removed and replaced by evergreen trees. Hopefully, there are plans for these walkways and steps to be relocated nearby.

Hopefully also someday I’ll find President Brodhead sharing the walk to campus with me or with other students faculty and staff....

Which would have been all fine and well and good, had it not kicked off a separate thread of discussion from BPAC member Lars Trost, who just the day before had happened to attend a BPAC meeting where Duke architect John Pearce spoke on two-legged and two-wheeled connectivity on Duke's campus:

John Pearce (http://www.duke.edu/web/evp/architect/index.html) Duke’s “University Architect” was invited to discuss bike/ped issues on campus.  It seemed, however, that he was really there to complain about the UDO and the city requiring Duke to consider bicyclists and pedestrians in its development projects.... 

During our discussion of bicycle facilities on University owned and maintained roads, Mr. Pearce volunteered that Duke left the old “tire-grabbing” storm grates on campus drive when they striped it for bike lanes.  I am much more concerned about a cyclist crashing because of one of these grates than I am about students finding something to lock their bikes to.  I asked Mr. Pearce why they left the old grates in place and was told it was simply impossible to replace them, that the city would probably require that they replace every grate on campus and that it was just a monumental task that could never be achieved in one lifetime (no embellishment!).

When we discussed the aggressive driving of some Duke bus drivers who cut off cyclists at intersections (right hook), we suggested education to bring them up to date in the practice of sharing the road.  I was amazed when Mr. Pearce stated that the bus drivers probably learned to drive in North Carolina (inferring, if not overtly stating, that ALL North Carolina drivers are horrible) and there was absolutely, positively nothing that could be done....

My chief concern with cycling to campus is negotiating the entrance points, that is the point where you leave city right-of-way and enter university property.  One such point is the intersection of Anderson St. and Duke University Rd.  I asked Mr. Pearce if Duke had taken any steps to work with the city to make these intersections more bike/ped friendly.  He stated all such intersections were City and/or NCDOT maintained roads and that there was absolutely nothing Duke could do to fix them although they recognize that the Anderson/Duke University intersection and several along the Erwin Rd corridor north of campus were difficult for cyclists to negotiate.  I may be overestimating Duke’s influence but I believe they could work with the city to fix those intersections if they really wanted to.

The last point I’ll make is that Mr. Pearce professed no knowledge whatsoever regarding the debate about whether to close Maxwell and Sumter streets.  By now, nearly everyone had either tuned him out entirely or simply disengaged from the conversation so he wasn’t challenged on this point.  Thinking about this later, I was astonished to think that the “University Architect” would have no knowledge of the proposed Smith Warehouse development and the conflict regarding the closure of Maxwell and Sumter.  As University Architect, Mr. Pearce reports to Tallman Trask, the person most directly responsible for the effort to close Maxwell and Sumter, how could he possibly not know?

This kicked off an even longer discussion on the listserv, with elected officials Ed Harrison of Chapel Hill's town council (and a Durham Co. resident) and Mike Woodard.

Harrison noted sardonically that Pearce "has been involved in regional transportation discussions in the past, and we were always struck by the fact that he seemed to know nothing about what Tallman Trask was saying to the rest of the world," while Woodard found the irony in the timing between the Schoenfeld/Wynn presentation and Pearce's comments:

An interesting timing coincidence:
1) BPAC presents its [annual] report to the City Council tomorrow.
2) Duke VPs Wynn and Schoenfeld come to talk about Duke's commitment to Durham.

Wonder if a council member we know could ask about the 1/2-mile ride home, Pearce's tirade (sorry I missed that), and the possibility of a Duke BPAC? ;-)

Much of the discussion veered off into the need for a bike and ped committee on Duke's campus to provide better feedback to the administration on bicyclist's needs. One correspondent did point out, though, that Duke's in the middle of building what it's noting is a LEED-certified parking deck -- when it should, to her mind, be thinking of spending its funds on bicycle improvements to obviate the need to have just so many cars streaming into and out of Duke's campus daily.

(Speaking of which, as one who works downtown but found himself trying to get from Duke's West Campus onto 15-501 southbound at Cameron yesterday: just bypass the left turn lane, do a single revolution around the Erwin Rd. traffic circle -- or two or three of 'em if you want to freak out other drivers -- then make a right onto 15-501. Most handy.)

Comments

[durhamwalkingdog]

It's unfortunate that the people who are working at Duke on alternative transit aren't the ones you hear from.

The transit guys are fantastic and really care about getting people out of their cars. For one, it is $$$$ to build garages/provide parking, Duke would much rather employees and students walk, take the bus or bike. But the reality is the majority of folks come from far away. For them, there has been a huge push to increase car-pooling and vanshares. It just hasn't been met with much enthusiasm.

Changing the mindset is the biggest obstacle.

[Toby]

I was at the BPAC meeting on Thursday. I remarked to my wife (after a pleasant bike ride home from City Hall), "I'm amazed that Duke lets that guy (Pearce) out in public! I suspect the Duke person in charge of community relations would not be too happy with how he represented the university tonight."

And I'll add one more tidbit to Lars' recounting of Pearce's presentation to BPAC: he started out by noting the fact that in a previous life he was a semi-pro hockey, and is a devoted 'Canes fan. And given that they had a playoff game that night, he didn't intend to spend one extra minute talking with the commission. Talk about comin' out swingin'!!

[Todd Twigg]

Thank you to all who through their actions or comments are helping to remove the obstacles that separate Duke from Durham.

Some relevant images and Google Earth layers (a collaborative work in progress) can be found here http://www.duke.edu/~rwt14/

Todd Twigg
~Tuscaloosa-Lakewood resident
~Duke Biology grad student

[Lance Armstrong Uses 'Roids]

Interesting discussion. One point of disagreement: I personally don't think how Prez Brodhead chooses to commute to work has any relevance to the bike/ped discussion. It's ironic that he is getting slammed for not biking when he lives a half-mile from his office. I'm glad his round-trip car commute is just a mile and couldn't care less how he gets to his office each day. Would it be better for him to live farther away to "justify" his choice to use a car? As Charlie Brown says, "Good grief."

[Lars Trost]

Some members of Durham's Bicyle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission thought I should clarify that my comments about John Pearce’s presentation were my own and not an official record or transcript of the meeting on Tuesday night. Other commissioners may have interpreted his comments differently and I hope those individuals will post their thoughts on the meeting as well. I stand behind everything I wrote.

I also want to invite readers to view the excellent resource another BPAC member, Greg Garneau, created on the www.bikewalkdurham.org web site. You can access that resource directly using the following url:

http://www.bikewalkdurham.org/BPAC_maps.html#DukeAccess

Lars Trost

[Betsy Morris]

My guess is that President Brodhead drives his car 1/2 mile to work each day because he will need his car throughout the day to attend meetings or other functions at off-site locations - not because he would be unwilling to walk or bike to work.

[Erik]

@Betsy: That's probably true, but if he wanted to walk or bike for his own personal enjoyment or to set an example for the rest of campus, I'm sure he could make it work. Duke no doubt has fleet vehicles he could use when going to functions off-site...maybe he'd get bad press for not using his own vehicle, but he could then point out that he walks or bikes to work everyday.

@Lance Armstrong (it really is OK to use your real name everybody): The house that President Broadhead lives in was not his choice...it is used for ANY Duke president, so he does not deserve any kudos for where he lives.

I certainly can't speak for all ped/bike advocates, but I think it's a bit unfortunate that he doesn't walk or bike for these reasons four:

1. It really would set a good example for the rest of campus. I'm not saying it would change the travel behavior of every person at Duke, but it would at least allow him to show that he "walks the walk" (pun intended) if he were to speak on ped/bike issues. And given the fact that having to add more parking to campus is both expensive and makes campus less attractive and less walkable, pushing that type of travel behavior actually makes economic sense to the university (not the mention rising obesity, air pollution, traffic congestion, etc.).

2. While he doesn't have far to drive, starting your car up after it has been turned off for over an hour or two emits the most emissions of any other aspect of automobile usage. So don't count out the air pollution aspect of using your car for short trips. Also, most trips people make in a day are short. If the majority of those shorts trips were made walking or biking, it would have an enormous effect on all of the negative consequences of driving.

3. It would build goodwill with the Duke community. Driving creates a barrier to real interaction with the world - Mike Dukakis used to take the subway everywhere in Boston and I remember as a young adult being very impressed that someone with power would do that and just be a "common man". It would also make him more accessible, something I feel Duke desperately needs more of. That ivory tower stereotype doesn't come out of nowhere.

4. Perhaps most importantly, he would gain a better sense of the current barriers to pedestrian and bicyclists on campus. When people in power go out and really experience what most people experience on a day-to-day basis, that's often when change occurs (sad but true). If he had to walk along the side of a busy road for half his walk to campus, you better believe something would change...and quickly.

[Tim]

Just to point out, having read that Chronicle article also, that two paragraphs in past the lede is:

"There have been days in Brodhead's five years, of course, when it might have been good to get away. From the paperwork, from the frustration, from the noise. But instead they *walk* through it. From Hart House, by the Gothic buildings, to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, and all the way back."

So my guess is that, while Broadhead no doubt drives his Audi to campus from time to time, the much-maligned first sentence of that article is yet another example of sub-par reporting at the Chronicle.

[Christine]

Actually, Pres. Broadhead did choose that house instead of the Terry Sanford house Nan Keohane lived in on Pinecrest, supposedly b/c he wanted to be as close as possible to campus. In the case of either home, it would be an easy bike commute or walk.

No matter how the Pres. decides to commute, bike/ped access needs to be improved. Pearce needs to get on a bike to see what we're up against instead of watching so much hockey.