Confusion in Roxboro over the necessity of… a crosswalk sign?

“I’m gonna go ahead and tell you what I did today!” said Cheryl Cavalier when she pulled up to her friend Kim Brann’s house on a July afternoon in 2021. 

Cheryl took Kim around to the back of the truck she was driving to show her a little scratch on the bumper. 

Cheryl had run over the crosswalk sign in front of the Person County Public Library. 

Kim burst out in laughter when Cheryl told her what had happened. 

Steve Cavalier, Cheryl’s husband, met his wife there and shook his head as if to say “Lord have mercy!” 

The crosswalk sign is used to this kind of treatment. It stands at the intersection of East Barden Street and South Main Street. A seemingly simple metal base bolted to the beginning of the yellow line on South Main Street with 4-foot-tall sign also made of metal with neon yellow paint as well as a picture of a red octagonal stop sign and a pedestrian figure. The message reads, “State law: Stop for pedestrians within crosswalk.” 

It’s hard to miss. Yet it’s covered in scratches, tire marks and can occasionally be found lying on the side of the road after a bad run in with a vehicle. 

Cheryl exited onto West Barden Street after leaving Rolling Hills Garden Center on the day of the incident. She was driving her husband’s Chevrolet Silverado, something she’s not used to as she drives a minivan typically. In the bed of the truck was a magnolia tree she had just bought as a birthday gift for Kim.

As she made her way onto East Barden Street, the street home to the parking lots for the Person County Public Library (PCPL) and the only park maintained by the city, everything was normal, although the radio was quiet as Cheryl focused on driving. 

Cheryl came to the stop sign on East Barden Street, waited for any potential traffic with the crosswalk sign in sight, and then turned left onto South Main Street, not thinking of the width of the truck she’s not used to driving or the blind spots she’s not used to checking. 

She crossed over the line, crossed into the opposite lane of traffic, and crossed her fingers she missed the sign.

At once Cheryl could hear several loud thwacks coming from underneath her truck. It was the crosswalk sign hitting against the undercarriage, going the entire length of the truck. She said, “Then as I look back, I see the sign flopping in the air after I hit it and I said, ‘Okay well at least I didn’t break it all the way down.’” 

The crosswalk sign has been knocked all the way down before though. Roxboro City Manager Brooks Lockhart said the sign has been completely replaced, base and metal sign included, four times in the three years it’s been installed. This cost taxpayers around $2,300 overall. 

Citizens such as Amber Carver don’t completely understand the need for the sign on South Main Street. Carver is a librarian at PCPL. The security cameras for the library also give view to that part of the road and Carver has watched people brush, bustle or batter the sign several times in the almost three years she has worked there.  

Carver’s co-workers at the PCPL have not been the ones to complain about traffic issues on their place of work’s street. If anything, they are more confused as to why the sign is there in the first place as that spot on South Main Street does not see much foot traffic. 

“Most people aren’t mad about it,” said Carver, “Most people are just like, ‘Why is this even here?’” Understanding what should be a straightforward sign is knowledge afforded to very few. 

The Roxboro City Council has the responsibility of defining speed limits and collaborates with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to look at proper signage and upkeep for roads within the city limits.

Traffic concerns though are brought to the city council by citizens frequently whether at in person meetings or online. 

City council member Tim Chandler responded to comments on Person County citizen Tim Bowes’ Facebook post about the crosswalk sign where another citizen, Janice Hall, said the sign was “stupid” and “not needed.”

Councilman Chandler responded saying the sign was, “implemented to try and control speeding issues where children are often playing,” and was, “unanimously approved by city council in an effort to meet safety concerns that were presented by citizens.” 

South Main Street’s speed limit is already 20 miles per hour, so after numerous complaints from citizens about speeding the city council voted on a Traffic Calming Measure adapted from the Federal Highway Administration. Their policies recommend other options to promote safety when lowering the speed limit has been exhausted.  

One of the first options recommended is to narrow a roadway. When drivers see a large, open road they naturally speed up, but if there is a restriction placed in the roadway - like the crosswalk sign - can be a natural way to encourage drivers to slow down. The sign serves a dual purpose in that it is a signal to give pedestrians the right of way and to slow down in general.

Lockhart has personally witnessed the crosswalk sign be hit by a FedEx driver on their way to the post office a few times, so he knows how the sign suffers. At present though the sign is still needed and the city council as well as the city manager has seen the number of complaints significantly decrease since the installation even if the number of times the sign must be replaced continues to increase. 

They didn’t need to replace the crosswalk sign after Cheryl Cavalier ran over it. No one from the city saw Cheryl or if they did, they didn’t care to say anything or issue a fine.

When the crosswalk sign came out from under the car, the top scraped the back bumper causing cosmetic damage, but nothing more. That may have scared her. She may have said some words she wouldn’t want children to hear. But she didn’t pull over. She didn’t even stop for a moment. Cheryl kept on trucking.