Harmony Lanes is grateful to announce that thanks to advocacy on our part and collaboration with the Town of Boone, Hardin Park Elementary, NCDOT, and several private landowners, there are now fully functioning sidewalks and a very safe HAWK (High intensity Activated crossWalK) crosswalk on NC194 at Hardin Park Elementary. HAWK crosswalks are signalized crosswalks that stop vehicle traffic in both directions when activated by the pedestrian. This is a big advance in safety for the hundreds of students and their families who can now more easily access the school without needing to come in a car or bus.
For decades families have had to scurry for their safety in order to walk or bike across NC194 into the front entrance of the school. Cars and trucks routinely blow past at 45mph and higher in what should be a 25 mph school zone. We’ve witnessed many uncomfortably close calls at this intersection and there has been at least one adult pedestrian death on NC 194. Harmony Lanes talked with families who wanted this fixed in the 1980s and since to no avail. In 2018 Harmony Lanes organized, forming a 501c3 non-profit to get safety problems like this addressed. Our mission is to create safe, inclusive, multi-modal transportation opportunities. This is our first finished paved project. We are very grateful to the Boone Town Council, NCDOT, the school, and the private landowners who donated easements to the Town to get this project done. We are saving lives!
In particular, we would like to thank John Ward, Boone’s Town Manager, who shares our vision of Boone as a bike and walk-friendly town with a network of quality greenways and sidewalks. John’s tireless diplomacy and skill brought this project together more quickly than we hoped. We also thank the town and NCDOT crews who built the sidewalks and crosswalks, working under a deadline to get these finished by the start of school this year. We appreciate you!
If you think Boone should be a comfortable, safe place for young and old citizens to walk, run, scoot, skate, and bike we invite you to join Harmony Lanes at https://harmonylanes.org/membership/. We’re building a community network of people who care to get more of these safety problems fixed.
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