Dallas city officials got an earful Thursday night from people who live along Ferguson Rd. It happened at a meeting, where the city unveiled plans to address traffic dangers in that location. NBC 5 Senior Investigative Reporter Scott Friedman has more from that meeting.
East Dallas residents turned out at a meeting Thursday night to express concerns about safety on Ferguson Road, including speeding, right light running and a lack of pedestrian safety.
“The cars are going 50 and 60 mph and the kids are in this skinny little median,” said Dana Pendergraft, who lives near the busy six-lane corridor.
Dallas County Commissioner Theresa Daniel was in the crowd and shared her experiences. She also lives along Ferguson Road.
“And so I hear the speeding cars that start at about 10 o’clock at night and you hear the revving of the engines,” Daniel said.
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An NBC 5 Investigates analysis of TxDOT crash data found in just the first eight weeks of 2024 there have already been at least 22 crashes on Ferguson. Four were speed-related and in one case a pedestrian was hit.
At the meeting, the city’s transportation department presented the results of a traffic study that’s supposed to address the dangers. The study showed about 1,000 traffic crashes on Ferguson Road in five years.
Assistant Transportation Director Auro Majumdar said over the next one to three years, the city hopes to install pedestrian hybrid beacons to stop traffic for pedestrians at several key locations that lack safer pedestrian crossings. This includes the intersection of Ferguson and Materhorn Drive, a location where NBC 5 Investigates saw Dallas ISD students running across six lanes of traffic. The city painted a crosswalk at that location not long after our report highlighted the dangers.
The transportation department also said it would work to remove old concrete street light bases that pose an added danger in the median.
NBC 5 Investigates saw a crash involving one on a recent trip down the road.
However, the plan presented Thursday did not include one possible solution NBC 5 Investigates has reported the city's consultants recommended.
The city is not recommending that the road be narrowed to reduce high speeds, even though NBC 5 Investigates has reported a draft from the city's consultant recommended that for parts of Ferguson Road.
Majumdar said staff is concerned it might push too much traffic into surrounding neighborhoods. But one City Council member who attended Thursday night said she will still pursue a plan to reshape the road.
“I do think that we need to work with better striping and all those things to get safety now - but am I ready to give up going to two lanes each way no,” said Paula Blackmon who represents District 9.
City staff said Thursday’s meeting was just a first discussion. They want more feedback as they finalize plans. Over the next one to three years the city plans to focus on restriping crosswalks, adding sidewalks to areas that lack them and adding pedestrian beacons. More substantial improvements would take longer, officials said.
Some neighbors who attended Thursday's meeting said they will push for a more aggressive plan.
