Merrimon Avenue Road Diet

This project is managed and implemented by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), which owns and maintains Merrimon Ave. This project is not managed by the City of Asheville.

Happening Now

Safety, mobility, and volume metrics are being monitored and evaluated on the Merrimon Ave. corridor, which underwent a 4- to 3-lane conversion from W.T. Weaver Blvd. to Midland Rd. beginning in Oct 2022. This 4- to 3-lane conversion, also known as a “road diet” was part of a larger NCDOT project to resurface all of Merrimon Ave. The project became officially complete in May 2024.

In June 2024, NCDOT published a safety and mobility summary report (see archived documents section below). Several key takeaways from post-implementation preliminary data collection include:

Safety data is generally positive with reductions in reported crashes on the 4- to 3-lane conversion section.
Motor vehicle speeds were reduced on the 4- to 3-lane conversion section.
Volume data showed an increase in bicycle traffic and mixed results for pedestrians on the 4- to 3-lane conversion section.
Travel time data generally showed an increase in average travel times on the 4- to 3-lane conversion section, particularly in the PM peak. However, Merrimon to the north & south generally showed reduced travel times. When considering the whole 4-mi Merrimon corridor, average travel times at 5 PM increased by 2-14 seconds.
Adjacent routes appear to have minimal changes to average speeds and travel times. There appears to be some diversion of motor vehicle traffic, with a slight drop for the 4- to 3-lane conversion section and an increase for some adjacent routes. Safety data for several adjacent routes suggest there may not be a substantial migration of crashes, particularly for injury crashes.
Additional monitoring and evaluation will be completed.

typical section for Merrimon Avenue Road diet with two 5' bike lanes, two 10
lanes, one 10' middle turn lane, and 5' sidewalks on both sides of the street. — **Left: Merrimon Ave. Previous Conditions; Right: Merrimon Ave. Post-Implementation 4-to-3 Lane Conversion**

Before and after streetview on Merrimon Avenue. The left shows before conditions and the right shows after conditions with a three-lane road diet and bike lanes.

Background

The City’s Comprehensive Plan has a vision to make streets more walkable, comfortable, and connected. Similarly, NCDOT’s primary goal is to make transportation safer. Unfortunately, Asheville has a poor track record when it comes to street safety, as it continues to be listed in the top 10 North Carolina cities with high levels of crashes.

In this context, Merrimon Avenue is a neighborhood connector and commuter route with a documented higher-than-normal crash rate that lacks adequate bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Safety for all modes of transportation is a key factor for potential changes.

At the City’s request, the two intersection projects that were proposed for Merrimon Avenue in 2018 were removed by the NCDOT. The projects as proposed would have widened Merrimon Avenue to five lanes by adding a continuous center turn lane from south of WT Weaver Boulevard to north of Edgewood Road. The projects were listed in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) as U-5781 and U-5782.

The NCDOT held a public input meeting on the proposed intersection projects in January 2018. While a few members of the public expressed support for the proposals, a large number of those who attended the meeting and submitted comments in writing were opposed to the large scale of the proposed changes, and were concerned about the safety impacts and the insufficient facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians. Following this input, the NCDOT and the City of Asheville determined to study other alternatives.

As a result, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) assigned a consulting firm, AECOM, to conduct an “Express Design Study” of Merrimon Avenue to review the possibility of changing the configuration of the corridor to better support city and state goals. NCDOT, the City of Asheville, and the French Broad River MPO met with AECOM on Jan. 28, 2019, to kickoff this study that reviewed the corridor from I-240 to the Beaver Lake area, a distance of about 2.3 miles.

Based on feedback from previous public meetings and discussions with city staff, the NCDOT evaluation reviewed the tradeoffs to maintaining vehicle throughput with safety and equity in mobility. The study took about six months to complete and included a conceptual design, a traffic capacity analysis, and a pedestrian and bicycle report.

The City began reviewing the study at the end of 2019. In 2020, the Covid pandemic led to a near halt to this project until early 2021. On March 24, 2021, the Multimodal Transportation Commission (MMTC) entered the conversation. It was decided that representatives from the MMTC would accompany City staff to further discuss the resurfacing opportunity. During the spring through the fall of 2021, MMTC and city staff met with NCDOT to review data, challenges, and opportunities. As a result of those meetings, NCDOT agreed to reschedule the resurfacing of Merrimon Avenue to give the City more time for these discussions.

Timeline

January 2019 – Commencement of the Express Design Study

Summer 2019 – Merrimon Avenue Study documents are provided to the city

2020 – Covid challenges postpone the project

March 24, 2021 – MMTC discussion of Merrimon Avenue

Spring-Fall 2021 – City and Multimodal Transportation Commission discussions with North Carolina Department of Transportation

February 2022 – City held both an in-person open house and virtual public engagement the week of February 28 to allow the public to review the proposal in more detail, to understand potential impacts and associated data, to provide feedback, and to discuss the topic with staff from both the City and NCDOT.

March 22, 2022 – Public Merrimon Avenue Survey closed

April 2022 – Survey results shared with public

May 24, 2022 – City Council votes to support the 4/3 conversion

Summer/Fall 2022 – Scheduled implementation of Merrimon Avenue resurfacing and 4/3 conversion implementation

May 2024 – Project implementation fully complete