Great news! The City of Melrose has announced that their Complete Streets grant request to fund pedestrian/bicycle improvements to the Hoover School has been accepted. The city will be receiving $400K through the program. Complete Streets funds have most recently been used to improve safety at Howard/Green by reconfiguring the intersection into a roundabout.
The Hoover School is located in the hilly, far eastern section of Melrose, and many access roads are in poor condition and/or completely lack sidewalks. This school’s population generally draws primarily from Ward 7, and over half of students live within a half-mile of the school. Despite this, the vast majority of families choose to drive their children to school, a situation which the city seeks to improve via this grant funding. The city’s application, a copy of which can be read here, proposes to accomplish the following:
- Add school zone signage.
- Add vertical granite curbing in the area where vehicles pull onto areas where students walk and cones are needed daily to prevent this behavior.
- Add additional MUTCD ‘no idling” signage.
- Install an additional bike rack.
- Add signage to better prevent parking in the water pump station driveway adjacent to the walking path through the woods, which creates a hazard when cars back out of the driveway.
- Install MUTCD signage and refresh pavement markings to indicate circulation patterns.
- Refresh other pavement markings for crosswalks, and add hatching (‘ladder style’) to crosswalks at all side street crossings and crossings on school grounds.
- Add ‘yield to pedestrian’ signage at crosswalks.
- Change Glendower/Birch Hill intersection from a “Y” shape to a “T” shape.
- Install a sidewalk on Whitman Ave. (among other streets leading to and from the school).
- Add “No Parking Here to Corner” signs on Echo Street where the cones are currently placed (also proposing vertical granite curbing and sidewalk in this area).
We have been made aware that certain elements of this proposal may be opposed by abutters, and so encourage members who feel that school safety should be one of the community’s top priorities to make their voices heard during upcoming comment periods. We’ll keep you updated on when those will be. Alternately, you can always contact the Mayor’s Office or the City Council to express your views.
We have previously partnered with the City, Hoover staff, and with MassDOT via their Safe Routes to School liaison to promote and encourage active transportation methods, such as biking to school. Our secretary, Ryan Williams, spearheaded committee involvement in this program, which resulted in the city receiving state recognition earlier this summer.
Hat tip to Ward Seven City Councilor Cory Thomas for sharing the Complete Streets announcement via his Facebook page: