Miles Ridge residents Ron Lanham and Robert Mustafa claim Hannah Drive is one of the most scenic and enjoyable places to walk on Madison’s hilltop but those who use it for that purpose face heavy traffic on a windy and hilly road with no sidewalks or streetlights.
They said vehicles traveling to and from the Miles Ridge Subdivision often go faster than is safe and walking along the roadway is dangerous when cars and trucks swing wide on one of the sharp curves or pop over a hill. That’s why Lanham and Mustafa asked Madison City Council on Tuesday to consider employing speed bumps or constructing a sidewalk along the west side of the roadway.
Mustafa, an engineer, said the area is already graded for the work and adding a concrete or asphalt lane at the edge of the roadway would serve walkers, bikers and those in golf carts by providing a safer alternative to traveling along the edge of the roadway.
“We just need a walking path — it’s already graded for it — and we’re just talking about a half-mile,” Mustafa, a resident of Hannah Drive, said.
He noted many people already use the road for walking and biking and that use would surely increase if there was a safer alternative. In fact, he’d like to see the former city landfill located to the northeast along Hannah Drive designated as a wildlife habitat so visitors could take walks and watch the red fox, red-winged blackbirds, deer, turkey, coyotes and rabbits that romp in fields of wildflowers.
Lanham, who lives at the corner of Miles Ridge Road and Hannah Drive, said the area not only provides a good place for exercise and recreation but it could serve as a pedestrian connection for Miles Ridge residents and the shopping centers across Clifty Drive if the state can be convinced to install a crosswalk. That could also benefit residents of surrounding neighborhoods by connecting the hilltop for walkers, bikers and golf cart drivers. With no public parks currently located in Miles Ridge, Lanham said children tend to play in the street so slowing traffic with speed bumps, enforcement and more signs is an issue of safety especially since there are no sidewalks or streetlights in Miles Ridge.
“We’ve got hundreds of kids on that road and dog walkers, bikes and golf carts and the point where cars turn from Miles Ridge onto Hannah Drive is the beginning of a race track,” Lanham said. “If we had some speed bumps it should slow people down.”
Madison Police Chief John Wallace admitted that speeding traffic is a problem on Hannah Drive and many other locations in the city and officers try to show up and provide a deterrent when they can but with so many areas in need and so many other calls to answer it is not easy to assign an officer to an area.
“I think Ron is right and it is a heavily traveled area,” Wallace said, noting that maybe MPD can locate a mobile radar unit in the area to increase awareness while monitoring the area when possible.
Mayor Bob Courtney agreed that the area is scenic and added that it was highlighted for its potential in a recently completed Parks Master Plan conducted by the city.
“Our master plan goal is to create more recreational opportunities right in that area,” Courtney said.
Courtney noted that sidewalks and streetlights are “critical to any subdivision development” but such infrastructure was not mandated in the city’s developmental regulations in the past, leaving places like Miles Ridge and Hannah Drive without sidewalks and lights. He said crosswalks and better sidewalks are a priority throughout the city and some progress is being made.
The city is currently building sidewalks and crosswalks in another hilltop neighborhood, the Oak Hill Subdivision, and there have been crosswalk improvements made downtown.
“What you have done downtown is absolutely phenomenal,” Mustafa said, “but I’d like to see some of that on the hilltop.”
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