Are one-way pairs best for Vinings?

Despite opposition from Vinings residents to the idea of creating one-way pairs on Paces Ferry and New Paces Ferry roads at the most recent Vinings Vision Plan in November, that is precisely the proposal offered by Cobb’s Community Development Planning Division's master plan to help alleviate gridlock at the Paces Mill and Paces Ferry roads intersection.

“Clearly there are transportation challenges down here,’’ District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott said at this week’s Vinings Business Association meeting. “So staff kind of came forward with a bold recommendation.”

Ott stressed that by no means is this the final proposal that would be submitted for approval and that there almost assuredly will be a fourth Vinings Vision Plan meeting, but not before February at the earliest.

“The people that live here in Vinings, they’re the ones that will come up with the plan,’’ Ott said.

Once the plan has received the Vinings community’s stamp of approval, the planning division will present it to the Planning Commission of the Board of Commissioners for final approval.

In November, Mandy Elliot, Planning Division staff, explained how the one-way pairs would work.

“You’re coming westbound on Paces Ferry Road from the Chattahoochee River as you get to the intersection of New Paces Ferry Road,” she said “Paces Ferry Road becomes one-way as you’re going northbound. People going southbound would go down New Paces Ferry Road until they get to the intersection of New Paces Ferry where it becomes two-way traffic.

“Two-way traffic would remain on Paces Ferry and Paces Mill Road and this would also require creating a left turn lane from Paces Ferry onto New Paces Ferry that would run the length al the way to the Paces Mill intersection. And this would help queue the traffic for that left-turn on to New Paces Ferry Road. It would also probably require some signalization improvements. So if you have a train coming through and people are blocked on Paces Ferry, people would still get a priority for that left turn onto New Paces Ferry Road.”

It was stressed by planning staff at the November meeting, the third in the Vinings Vision Plan process, that the one-way pairs was the only feasible option. That’s because the three historical properties at the Paces Mill-Paces Ferry intersection makes widening or a roundabout impossible.

“It’s kind of creating a rotary type thing around the (Vinings) Jubilee,’’ Ott said this week. “From a business standpoint, it really doesn’t affect the businesses, but some of the residences that live on New Paces Ferry have had concerns.”

Other transportation improvement recommendations include:

A roundabout at Cumberland Boulevard and Akers Mill Road to discourage drivers from taking a shortcut through Vinings

Triple left turn lanes from Cumberland Boulevard to Cumberland Parkway

Signage to direct traffic at several intersections

Double left turn from Paces Ferry to Cumberland Parkway

Roundabout at Paces Ferry and Woodland Brook

Oval medians on Woodland Brook

All transportation improvement recommendations can be seen at the attached pdf file

So are one-way pairs the best option for Vinings?