The Melrose Pedestrian Bicycle Committee (PBC) provides both an open forum and technical expertise to help Melrose residents address their concerns about pedestrian and bicycle safety in the City. We work closely with City staff and elected officials to develop and review proposals that can be realistically implemented. We encourage residents who have concerns about safety in their neighborhoods, or citywide, to participate in our monthly meetings (7-8:30 PM, first Wednesday of the month, currently hosted over Zoom – reach out to us for details) or contact members of the Committee.
Melrose residents continue to express concern about traffic speeds and pedestrian/bicyclist safety in their neighborhoods. Many residential streets are experiencing “cut-through” traffic and distracted driving that raise safety concerns and discourage walking and bicycling. Many requests to the City, however, focus on two options; stop signs and enforcement. Stop signs are subject to criteria defined by the Traffic Engineering profession and in many situations, these criteria are not met. Implementation of stop signs where not warranted can create a greater safety than existed before. Enforcement can be effective, but is subject to resource constraints. The limited number of police officers on duty at any given time can cover only a small portion of the City.
Fortunately there are numerous alternatives available to mitigate the impacts of traffic congestion and speeding. The City has taken a number of recent actions to address these concerns including implementation of a citywide 25 mph speed limit, improvements at numerous crosswalks throughout the City, narrowing of travel lanes and implementation of bicycles routes with exclusive lanes and painted boxes at intersections. These fall under the umbrella known as “traffic calming”. The city has an annual capital program for street and sidewalk improvements. This provides and opportunity to incorporate traffic calming measures at lower cost. The DPW’s latest roadway capital improvement program can be found here.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) document Traffic Calming: State of the Practice (1999) defined Traffic Calming as “the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behavior, and improve conditions for non-motorized street users.” A more extensive definition is included in a document prepared by the ITE New England Chapter and specifically tailored to this region Traffic Calming Guidelines (2016).
“Traffic calming involves the planning, design, and implementation of self-enforcing traffic control devices or geometric/landscape design features with features on public ways to reduce running travel speeds of motorized street users and make them more aware of the circulation needs of non-motorized street users. Traffic calming measures will encourage physical activity within a neighborhood or on a street in ways that enhance health, safety, and quality of life of neighborhood residents and visitors. Only in rare circumstances should traffic calming measures be used to divert traffic volumes and only where traffic volume diversions are broadly acceptable. Implemented traffic calming measures must comply with applicable Federal and State laws and regulations and design guidelines.”
State and federal guidelines cited include:
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
- Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices
Traffic calming covers a wide range of possible actions. Residents are encouraged to browse the following resources listed below to generate ideas and are free to contact PBC for further discussion:
- The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) offers a guide to improving pedestrian/bicycle safety and access to different categories of urban streets.
- The ITE offers a set of single page sheets that describe different traffic calming measures, their approximate costs, and issues related to implementation.
- The New England chapter of ITE prepared a set of guidelines for traffic calming including both background and specific measures.
Several caveats are important to remember when proposing traffic calming options:
- With tight budgets and many streets in need of repair it is important that proposals be fiscally realistic. As noted above, implementation within the existing capital plan is desirable. It is possible to implement demonstration projects at lower cost, however.
- Public safety access for police and fire needs to be maintained. Review and concurrence by first responders is key to successful implementation.
- As noted in some of the quotes above, neighborhood consensus is important to success. Simply moving a problem from one area to another is not a desirable outcome.