Still inconsistent, but has speed humps: Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan 2018

The little-known Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan drives development in Lowndes County. With no public notice and no public hearing. the Commissioners voted on it Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Probably you only heard that would happen if you looked at their agenda late last week, or you happened to read what I wrote about it Monday.

Lowndes County Road Map

Obtained through open records request, it’s on the LAKE website now.

Like the 2009 plan, which was the last one I could find on the county’s website, this 2018 revision includes a bicycle route map, which is good.

Bicycle Routes

If I’d known in advance they were doing this update, I might have suggested also a water trails map.

The response from County Clerk Paige Dukes noted:

The plan has not been updated since 2009. The “the Thoroughfare Plan has been revised numerous times” statement is referring to the updates that took place prior to 2009.

The current updates appear to be adding dirt roads and speed tables (speed humps), and a map of designated truck routes.

Lowndes County Truck Routes

The map of the overall road system does not match the classifications of specific roads,

Hagan Bridge Road to Radar Site Road

which do not match the “Roadway Classifications” table,

Roadway Classifications Table page 1 of 2

which does not match this text on page 2:

Collectors are designated as roads that convey daily traffic volumes in the range of 1,500 to 6,000 vehicles per day (vpd).

Page 2 says “Speed Tables — The purpose of speed tables on roads in platted subdivisions….” But nowhere does the document say speed tables cannot be installed on other roads in the county.

Traffic Logix Rubber Speed Humps

Thank you County Clerk Paige Dukes and County Engineer Mike Fletcher for responding to my open records request within hours, before the Commission voted.

I hope further revisions can be made to this plan, for example to fix inappropriate road classifications.

Meanwhile, thanks, Lowndes County, for revising the Thoroughfare Plan to make speed humps available on all paved roads in the county!

-jsq

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