BRATTLEBORO — With respect to the issue of pedestrian safety, I agree with one point that the town administration and Selectboard has made with respect to this issue: the positive role that education can play in improving the safety in town for pedestrians.
However, I believe that the education most needed is in that of the town leadership responsible for finding meaningful solutions.
Since moving to Brattleboro nine years ago, I have repeatedly seen an outdated perspective regarding the balance between motor vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians, both in statements made by town leaders and in programs or work plans implemented by the Department of Public Works.
Many citizens gain understanding of traffic issues from the town leadership, which continues to make clear that the number-one priority will be the fast and efficient movement of motor vehicles through town.
Any proposals to improve the balance of power of the pedestrian to the motor vehicle are often defeated or ignored by the leadership.
Here are two examples:
• In reaction to a convenience store placing a cone in Western Avenue as a traffic-calming device, a Selectboard member ordered the store owners to remove it due to a perception that traffic was being slowed down.
• An expensive traffic-signal system was installed with the intent to move motor vehicles through downtown more efficiently.
In the first example, the store might not have followed protocol when placing the cone in the street. However, would working through the official channels have resulted in any improvements for Western Avenue?
I doubt it, given the obvious goal to keep traffic moving as quickly and efficiently as possible.
With respect to the second example, it is clear to me and everyone that I've spoken with that the downtown is much less pedestrian friendly with the “improved” signal system than it was with the “outdated” system.
Northampton, Mass., has, in the last 10 years, in contrast, created a different power balance between pedestrians and drivers through its strategic plan to improve the safety of the pedestrian crossings.
Many techniques are very common and inexpensive (signs and pavement markings). Others are more or much more expensive (bump-outs, reconfiguring intersections, solar pedestrian-actuated crossing signs, pavement-embedded pedestrian-actuated lights).
I feel strongly that some of the more expensive techniques are well worth the investment. Two intersections long considered for reconfiguration are Western Avenue at Green Street and Western Avenue at Union and Cedar streets.
Tightening the entrance into Green Street would make pedestrian crossing safer, and traffic speeds would necessarily be slowed. Additionally, most vehicles would not regain the speed at which cars typically travel through there today. This needed change has been long recognized in discussion, but the town continues to wait for a state or federal grant.
Improvements to the Union Hill intersection were developed and approved by the Traffic Safety Committee and Selectboard in 2004 and 2005. Why haven't these been made?
But what disturbs me the most is the ongoing choice not to implement the least-expensive improvements.
The Canal Street pedestrian crossing near where Gary Lumbra was recently hit and killed is known as a mid-block location, the most dangerous types, which engineers avoid creating unless there are no nearby locations that would be more intuitive for a driver to expect pedestrians. A new handicap ramp is part of this crossing, so obviously the state or town placed it here with much forethought.
When placing a mid-block crossing, having pedestrian crossing signs is a bare minimum. There are standard additional pavement markings that would also usually be used for mid-block crossings. None of these are at this location.
I believe the town leaders need to explain to both residents, and to the family of the man killed, why no additional standard safety features are at this crossing.
The town also uses extremely-low-quality pavement markings. They wear off in less than six months and they have no (or much less) retroreflective material than higher-quality markings.
At a minimum, all pedestrian crossings in this town should have high-quality pavement markings and proper signage.
I recognize that Northampton has more residents and a bigger DPW budget. Thus, the town can have an employee dedicated to traffic calming. That community has implemented many innovative pedestrian crossings with great results.
Every state and many countries have adopted the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devises to guide their decisions related to traffic (pavement markings, signs, etc.). Free downloads are available from the Federal Highway Administration at mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/2009/pdf_index.htm.
Pedestrian crossings from the low-cost perspective (pavement markings and signs) alone would move Brattleboro ahead light years. I'm not proposing anything innovative, just implementing existing traffic standards.
But again and again, we keep seeing a primary focus on getting the most cars through an area as efficiently as possible. This thinking was abandoned 15 years ago for most every urbanized community in the developed world.
I understand that the higher-cost initiatives will need to be studied and discussed. But the minimal-cost initiatives must be implemented in the short term.
A town employee can be tasked with developing a work plan for pavement markings and signs associated with pedestrian crossings, and we can have implementation this spring or summer.
It really is as easy as a mindset change that reflects what the rest of the world has already adopted long ago.
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I've been hearing “there is nothing we can do” since I moved to Brattleboro. Why is it that so many municipalities realize there is much that can be done to make pedestrian crossings safer, and pursue those options?
The problem is not the pedestrians. The problem is the drivers in this area, but only to a small degree.
Primarily, the responsibility lies with the leadership of the town, but leaders issue statements that take absolutely no responsibility.
Susan Press, Gary Lumbra, and Bernard Crosby each had their lives prematurely ended on Brattleboro streets. Their family and friends have been devastated. Some have blamed these individuals for their own deaths while saying there is nothing more that the “town” can do to make our streets and crosswalks safer, suggestions that are truly offensive.
Is the problem Brattleboro's implicit lack of current knowledge regarding safe pedestrian crossings, or reluctance by political processes and players in town to implement changes based on that knowledge?
Either way, the town leadership must deal with the root cause of the problem, whether it's internal to the executive branch or within one of their departments.
Education is the first step. Education of the motor vehicle drivers could be successful.
But only after changes within the town and implementation of a Safe Crossing Program.