Tag: speed limit

October Speed Workshop Recap

October Speed Workshop Recap

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Earlier this month, we held a 90- minute lunchtime workshop on speed limits and community advocacy around speed mitigation where we discussed the many speeding issues communities across the Commonwealth are facing. This workshop was made possible thanks to funding from the Plymouth Rock Assurance Foundation.

The slides we shared at the beginning of the workshop can be viewed here. Below we’ve summarized the breakout sessions, included links for some of the questions that were posed during the discussion so you can learn more, and added a list of funding sources that places across Massachusetts can use to improve pedestrian safety in their community. 

PROBLEMS: “What speed setting problems are you facing?”

  • Road Jurisdiction: who controls the road? State agencies (MassDOT, MassDCR) set the speed limit on roads they control, which may be at odds with what the community wants. These roads are also not subject to a community’s opt-in to 25mph speed limit. 
  • Discrepancies between design speed and posted speed limit. If when repaving or reconstructing a road the design speed selected is higher than the posted speed limit, it encourages people driving to drive faster. If a speed study is done after paving, even higher speeds may be observed, leading to a higher posted speed limit. 
  • Blanket Speed Limits that don’t match the local context and land use. If there is a blanket 25mph limit but a road is designed for higher speeds, it gives a message to people driving that the speed limit can be ignored. 
  • Only posting speed limit signs for the default 25 mph speed limit at municipal lines can be confusing. A few examples people offered:
    • A person could drive an entire trip within a community and never see a speed limit sign for the default speed, since it is not allowed to be posted anywhere other than at the municipal line.
    • Mixed messaging – there can be a sign w/ a different speed limit almost immediately after the default speed limit sign at the municipal line if that particular road had a speed study for a higher speed limit. 
    • Even when using a speed feedback sign that displays a driver’s speed, we have been told that we can’t post the white/black speed limit sign along with it to show the default speed limit. 
  • The 25 mph opt-in legislation leaves out many rural municipalities since it is meant to include ‘thickly settled areas.’ What can be done for communities that have areas that don’t fit the definition of ‘thickly settled’? 

Interventions and Strategies

  • Speed Feedback signage. Speed feedback signs can cue drivers to slow speeds, and can be periodically moved around to different areas where they may be useful. Complete Streets funding is one method to purchase speed feedback signs.  
  • Utilize speeding ticket revenue for improvements around the immediate area. In Salem, revenue generated from parking tickets issued for infractions that occur in accessible parking spaces is directed towards the disability commission. As with this example, revenue generated from speed ticketing can be used to help fund streetscape improvements that slow speeds and increase safety in the area where the infraction occurred.
  • Piggyback on upcoming investments. When changes and investments are about to be made, seize the opportunity to work with the City, DCR, MassDOT or whichever party has jurisdiction over the road, and ask for additional changes at the project site that advance best practices for traffic calming and can be made concurrently.
  • Use multiple strategies, even if low-cost. Singular built environment changes are seldom as effective as making multiple, complementary streetscape changes that provide drivers with repeated cues to slow down. In-street signage, advanced yield signs, striping, and flex posts and painted curb bump outs are all inexpensive interventions that can be affordably implemented together to slow speeds. See our report on low-cost traffic calming strategies for more. 

Advocacy

WalkBoston and MassBike comments on Waltham High School MEPA #16097

WalkBoston and MassBike comments on Waltham High School MEPA #16097

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November 26, 2019

Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
Attn: MEPA Office, Page Strysky
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston MA 02114

Dear Secretary Theoharides, 

WalkBoston and MassBike have reviewed the MEPA filing #16097 for Waltham High School located at 554 Lexington Street in Waltham, MA. 

We are concerned with changes to Lexington Street that are included in the environmental filing: in particular, a new design speed of 45 mph, the removal of bicycle lanes in order to add additional general travel lanes, and poor connectivity. The changes are at odds with the Waltham Complete Streets policy as well as the recommendations put forth in the Waltham Transportation Master Plan (TMP) from January 2017. As proposed, this project will make Lexington Street more dangerous for all Waltham residents, even motorists. The segment of Lexington Street where the changes are proposed is, in addition to an important north-south arterial for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians, a residential street lined with single-family homes and their driveways where residents turn left across oncoming traffic, and pull in and out.

Three of our major concerns from the filing:

  1. This project has set a new design speed limit of 45mph on Lexington Street near the new high school; the street previously varied between 40 mph, a 30 mph advisory speed, and 20 mph school zone. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that the average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle reaches 10% at an impact speed of 16 mph, 25% at 23 mph, 50% at 31 mph, 75% at 39 mph, and 90% at 46 mph. The TMP noted that the Waltham Police Department identified speeding “as a significant issue” on Lexington Street. However, when a speed study was conducted for the high school project, the 85th percentile speed recorded was 41mph, leading to a new design speed set at 45mph. This does not mitigate the existing problem of speeding drivers on Lexington Street, but instead, legitimizes it. The purpose of this project should not be to maximize vehicle speed and throughput. On the contrary, the goal must be to create a safe access to the new high school for all modes and ages, especially the most vulnerable.

    A community should be safe for residents to get around, whether by walking, cycling, using transit, or in a vehicle. That safety and comfort is impacted by the design of our streets and intersections. All existing elementary schools in Waltham currently participate in the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School Program, which encourages students and their parents to walk and bike to school, something they hopefully would continue through high school. Parents also need to feel comfortable allowing their children to walk or bike to school. Many students walking to and from school will have to cross Lexington Street. A speed limit of 45 mph is not consistent with safe crossing by pedestrians, yet Lexington Street has the opportunity to see more students walking and bicycling to school in the years to come: a proposed new K-8 public school may occupy the site of the existing high school. With additional vulnerable road users in this area, it is important to ensure that anyone driving on Lexington Street is doing it at a safe speed, and that safe and comfortable facilities are provided for vulnerable users. The City should consider expansion of the 20mph School Zone on Lexington Street to include all three schools, or through creating a 20 mph “Safety Zone,” which was established in 2016 under Mass General Law Chapter 90, Section 18B.

  2. Existing bicycle facilities will be converted to shared-use lanes in order to accommodate turn lanes at the proposed intersections. This is not in accordance with the TMP recommended cross section for the Lexington Street Corridor, which included sidewalks and a consistent 6’ bike lane throughout the corridor on each side of Lexington Street, and has been implemented. Additionally, the TMP recommends any redesigns consult up-to-date design guidance. It is unlikely any guidance would pair an increased speed limit with the removal of bike lanes.

  3. Lack of non-Lexington Street connections to the site. If the high school is to be constructed at the Stigmatine site, paths should be constructed connecting it with residential neighborhoods to its north, south and west. These neighborhoods are within easy walking and bicycling distance of the Stigmatine property, as long as connections are established, with an opportunity significantly to reduce traffic to the site from Lexington Street and demand for parking. The initial plans show only access via Lexington Street, but supplemental filings include letters from the Police and Fire Department that reference potential emergency access routes to Lincoln Street and Jericho Hill Road that could be used by people walking or bicycling. These should be investigated further, as they could be an important option for encouraging walking and bicycling to the site, while excluding cut-through motor traffic. 

Potential solutions at the Stigmatine site are restricted by the additional problems that will be created on Lexington Street. We are hopeful that the city can consider more ways to use this project to back up the vision put forth in the TMP: “In addition to implementing physical improvements, easing today’s congestion and minimizing the congestion encountered in the future will require mode shift, smart land use planning, and mitigation on the state, City and private partnership level.” 

We encourage the MEPA office to take a deeper look at this project: the impacts are serious enough that it may require an environmental impact report.

Thank you, 

Brendan Kearney, Deputy Director, WalkBoston
Galen Mook, Executive Director, MassBike

Comments on proposed MassDCR amendments 302 CMR 11 + 12

Comments on proposed MassDCR amendments 302 CMR 11 + 12

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July 24, 2019

Laura Dietz
Department of Conservation and Recreation
251 Causeway Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02114

Dear Ms. Dietz,

WalkBoston has reviewed the amendments to “302 CMR 11.00: Parkways, Traffic, and Pedestrian Rules” and “302 CMR 12.00: Parks and Recreation Rules,” and attended the public hearing on July 2, 2019 in Brighton.

This process should be put on hold until laws on micro-mobility and e-bikes are established by the legislature so there is cohesion between the law and regulations.

We also have some questions and comments based on our review:

  • What data are these proposed changes based on?
  • Are there any successes or failures in other states that MA is trying to emulate or avoid?
  • We have concerns about setting a limit of 20mph for shared use pathways. How was that speed limit established, and what is it based on? We need context sensitive speed limits, not one limit for all places. A 20mph limit is a speed limit that is recommended on residential streets, which include sidewalks for separation.
  • There are long section of definitions including BOULEVARD, PARKWAY, ROADWAY, STREET, but there is no definition of the different types of trails. Some of the suggested regulations describe ‘improved or natural surface trail’ vs. other types of trails; with no easy definition, this could lead to confusion.
  • Section 12.12(4) states they are ‘not permitted on improved trails less than 8 feet,’ would this mean certain sections of contiguous trails would allow/prohibit use?
    • Additionally, while we recognize the intent to create safe areas where there could be conflict, we fear that setting a regulation by width could have unintended consequences for future trail development.
  • The section on Violations/Fines/Penalties only includes info about parking.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Brendan Kearney
Communications Director

Wicked Local Saugus – “Saugus residents and stakeholders invited to town-wide speed limit analysis public meeting”

Wicked Local Saugus – “Saugus residents and stakeholders invited to town-wide speed limit analysis public meeting”

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Wicked Local Saugus: “Saugus residents and stakeholders invited to town-wide speed limit analysis public meeting”

“Last year the Town of Saugus partnered with WalkBoston, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to improving walking conditions in cities and towns across Massachusetts, to conduct an initial assessment of the community’s roadways and crossings. Residents’ concerns and comments were also shared with WalkBoston, and the organization recently completed a comprehensive report of their findings with recommended improvements for the town.

The Town of Saugus also recently received a shared grant of $1.5 million from the Baker-Polito Administration to fund trail designs for the Northern Strand Community Trail project in Saugus, Everett, Lynn, Malden, and Revere. The town has requested that safer crossings, wayfinding, and landscape amenities be major components of the improvement project. The town distributed a copy of WalkBoston’s report to the architectural firm working with the town on the design for the Northern Strand Community Trail project, Brown, Richardson + Rowe, so that it will be taken into consideration for the project’s final design.”

July 3, 2019

Walking in Manchester by the Sea

Walking in Manchester by the Sea

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Photo credit: Dan Watkins

On one of the few beautiful days this spring, WalkBoston led a walk audit in Manchester by the Sea (MBTS) to evaluate the walking routes students use to reach Manchester Memorial Elementary School and Manchester Essex Regional Middle and High Schools. Walk audit participants included the elementary and middle/high school principals, the Town Administrator, the Cape Ann Mass in Motion Coordinator, and representatives from the police department, town departments of public works and planning, and the MBTS Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee. Together, we identified areas where pedestrian safety can be improved using low-cost traffic calming strategies.

It is worth noting that MBTS instituted a 20 mph speed safety zone within 1 mile of the MBTA commuter rail station in September 2017. While we did not record speeds on our audit, it was clear that not all drivers were respecting the 20 mph limit. Setting lower speed limits and redesigning our streets are critical to safer, more walkable communities.