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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — Going from the adoption of Safe Streets For All Action Plan to innovative ideas, including the use of motorcycles from the Clemmons community policing force, the Village Council noted the positive impact in dealing with the ever-increasing traffic on the roads in Monday night’s meeting.

The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office traffic update given by Dep. David Pilcher offered some insight into ideas to address issues that have become more problematic.

“I was fortunate enough to be a member of the Vision Zero Task Force, and one of the things that Dep. (Jeff) Boysel and I have been trying to do is gain more insight and have a focus and direction in measures to enforce actions.”

Pilcher said that the main areas where they have been seeing traffic collisions have been at the major intersections of Clemmons Road and Lewisville-Clemmons Road, Towncenter Drive and Allegacy Way at those crossroads, and Lewisville-Clemmons Road and Peace Haven Road.  

Then there’s one non-intersection that has risen to the top over the past year — the exit from the Lowes Foods Shopping Center at Chick-fil-A.

“What’s occurring is traffic going northbound, there are two lanes, and you have a center lane and two lanes going south,” Pilcher said. “So some of them will stop in the far right lane of L-C Road to allow them to come out. What’s occurring is people are using that center turn lane to go by traffic in one direction or the other, and it’s creating a lot of problems there.”

Pilcher said that the sheriff’s office has a motorcycle unit and that he’s actually assigned to that unit in addition to being a traffic officer.

“I can’t use it on a full-time basis because there are five members of the team and only three bikes, but what I’ve been able to do with this is strategically placing the locations at these intersections where you can’t use a car,” he said. “So I can get up on the sidewalk or the corner of a hill, and I can watch these intersections and when I see these violations occur, it’s a lot easier to get the bike out and get through that intersection than to catch them with a car.”

Pilcher added that another priority area for the traffic unit is addressing speeding in neighborhoods, including areas such as Clemmons West, Old Mill, Waterford, Springfield Farms and Haywood Street. 

“Some of these, we are using the bike for,” Pilcher said. “If I take a marked car, it works fantastic because you go through there, you see the marked car, and it causes traffic to slow down. The problem is when they don’t see the car, it’s OK to speed.

“That’s what I’ve done with this bike in the neighborhoods. I’ve been able to talk to a lot of citizens, especially those who have complained, and asked, ‘Can I use your driveway?’ And they say ‘absolutely,’ so I just back up in the driveway and catch them because they don’t see me. So now when they go through, just because they don’t see a car doesn’t mean they’re not slowing down. So it takes both sides to work that. So we’re just trying to take different approaches to trying to keep the streets safer, trying to keep citizens safer.”

Council member Michelle Barson said it was easy to see “the power behind the motorcycle and just what a difference it can make. Motorcycles look like they’re really fun, but they’re actually a uniquely used tool in traffic enforcement and safety. And we’re really happy to have you and doing that work.”

Earlier in the meeting, the council heard from planner Doug Moore and received a report on the Safe Streets For All Safety Action Plan from Liz Byrom from Kittleson & Associates.

“We’re very excited about having the action plan completed,” Moore said. “This project was expedited to bring it in line with our original grant agreement, which says we’ll have a safety action plan adopted this month.”

Byrom said this isn’t just driven by the data but also what the community perceives as unsafe. “Throughout this process, we developed a vision and goals,” she said. “We looked at the data, what the crash data was telling you, where those locations that are challenging from a traffic/safety perspective, develop strategies and an implementation plan, and summarized in a safety action plan.”

Council member Mike Combest said he wanted to include more information to address “some significant changes potentially to our current transportation structure and driving options. 

“For example, the plan recommends that the village consider the elimination of drive-throughs for restaurants and pharmacies, etc. Also recommended or considering the elimination of right-turn options in key intersections like Lewisville-Clemmons Road and U.S. 158, South Peace Haven, etc.”

Byrom said that the plan provides flexibility to look at such issues. “We can pick and choose what works best for you,” she said.

Also in Monday night’s meeting, the council heard from Jack Frazier, the village’s representative on the Triad Municipal ABC Board.

Frazier said that the year-to-date sales numbers through May is $3,893,000 and mixed beverage sales (restaurant and bar sales) is $703,703 for a year-to-date gross sales of $4,597,109.

He said that of the 16 ABC stores in Forsyth County, Clemmons ranked fourth in sales. Frazier added that he had been told that sales overall in the state are remaining relatively flat, which is very similar to last year, with potential increases possibly coming later this year with tariffs coming into play.