BRATTLEBORO — Michael Bosworth clapped politely and let out a wan cheer with the six or seven others of the audience as the Selectboard approved a scoping study that recommends adding bike lanes and widening sidewalks to both sides of Western Avenue between Academy School and Greenleaf Street.
The vote, cast at the Nov. 18 Selectboard meeting, followed a consultant's slideshow on road changes in the area, and years of mounting municipal and voter concern about bicycle and pedestrian safety.
“There is certainly widespread agreement that safety improvements along this section of Western Avenue are really needed. […] I support this study in general because it's a necessary step prior to any actual physical improvements,”
Bosworth told the board in the lead-up to the vote, which was unanimous.
The West Brattleboro Bicycle Pedestrian Scoping Study, funded through the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), identifies issues and potential improvements to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure along Western Avenue in West Brattleboro.
The Nov. 18 meeting was the final public-comment period of this part of the process. The next step - which could take years, officials said - is to secure grants to pursue these general plans. The project is estimated at $800,000 to $950,000.
The study, Highway and Utilities Superintendent Hannah O'Connell said at the meeting, gives the town “ideas of what we can do with the space we have and how can we make it better.”
Officials agreed the area under review is a starting point: that there is much more that should be done to tame town east and west of the project site for its flow of traffic, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
According to RSG Senior Engineer Dirk Grotenhuis, who presented on the study's background, findings, and preferred alternative, flanking Western Avenue with five-foot bike lanes and five-foot sidewalks would relieve congestion and help pedestrians and bicyclists make their way more safely.
The study also looked at widening the street median and drawing a path for pedestrians and bicyclists behind the houses on Western Avenue.
“There's still an eye toward looking at what's going to happen from Melrose toward the Creamery Bridge. There's a vision there also for a build-out,” Grotenhuis said.
Grotenhuis said the town could tackle the project in, say, three phases as state and federal funds becomes available.
“A document like this helps,” he told selectmen and, through the auspices of BCTV, the television audience. “It really does put you up into a higher level of award possibilities.”
Bosworth, who had read the scoping study's recommendations in advance of the meeting, read from prepared remarks. He agreed with the report's preferred alternative: widening the sidewalks and having bike lanes on either side.
He also agreed that, “until such time as the Melrose Street Bridge actually gets replaced, having a temporary, prefabricated pedestrian bridge on the south side will make walking there easier.”
And he said he liked the solution to “the too-complicated South Street/Bonnyville Road/Glenn Street intersection - the solution that calls for closing off one of the two arms of South Street - will also provide the community more green space.”
That said, he called for a closer look at a few of the scoping study's points, particularly saying the details of the Greenleaf intersection should be revisited, the details of turning into George Miller Drive when headed eastbound should be revisited, and getting rid of parking spaces along the north side of the road in the area of the Stockwell Building “should be avoided if possible.”
Stewart McDermet, also of the WBA, also asked that the Selectboard endorse the plan.
“It's a step in the right direction,” he said.