Completed Work
- Click here to view our final designed and constructed parklet
- Click here to learn more about the city’s “Slow Streets” program.
Background
In June of 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) launched their Shared Streets and Spaces Grant Program. This “quick-launch/quick-build” program, which was launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on local communities, provided grants up to $300,000 for cities and towns to quickly implement or expand improvements to sidewalks, curbs, streets, on-street parking spaces and off-street parking lots in support of public health, safe mobility, and renewed commerce.
The City of Melrose applied for grant funding in July, based on a series of proposals developed in coordination with the Melrose Ped/Bike Committee as well as the Chamber of Commerce. This proposal, which was fully funded by MassDOT, asked for approximately $60k to implement two separate concepts:
- Build and install a series of public parklets within Melrose’s commercial districts. These parklets, which would be open to anyone in the community to use, would provide additional safe outdoor seating proximate to community businesses as well as, in many cases, public transit. The parklets will be owned by the city and can be redeployed annually into the future.
- Purchase materials and signage to allow the City, or local neighborhoods, to deploy quick-build “slow streets” projects for the purposes of creating safer pedestrian/bicycle access and slower vehicular traffic. While the materials and signage will be owned by the city and can be used for years to come, each project is designed to be temporary in nature, with the city soliciting feedback on what worked and what didn’t.
Parklets
Simultaneous to the grant approval, the City utilized DPW funding to purchase and install temporary “placeholder parklets” along Main Street (by the VFW and Starbucks), West Emerson (by Bohemian Coffeehouse and Alfredo’s), and Wyoming Hill (by Lisa’s Pizza, The Bangkok, Theo’s, and West Wyoming Market). The City is then using grant funds to purchase materials to allow a crew of volunteers to assemble modular parket units which the city can deploy for years to come.
Slow Streets
The City began soliciting interest from neighborhoods in August for planning and installation of “Slow Streets” projects. The first project to be installed was put in place on October 2nd, on Lynde Street and Walnut Street between Main and Linwood. This installation:
- Narrowed the entrance to Lynde off Main. This engineering of this entrance is extremely wide, which encourages vehicles heading north on Main Street to make the turn onto Lynde without slowing.
- Created “chicanes” using traffic cones; this effectively reduces the width of each travel lane to 8ft, which is sufficient for passing vehicles but creates discouraging conditions for speeding.
- Creates temporary double-wide “sidewalk” lanes using traffic cones, allowing pedestrian refuge and/or permitting pedestrians to pass one another going opposite directions on the same side of the road while maintaining physical distance.
Residents of Lynde were extremely enthusiastic about the project and the Ped/Bike Committee, which helped to create the initial design for the street, congratulates them on their advocacy for safe streets!
