Springfield residents consider potential intersection safety improvements

Senior City Engineer Peter Shumway talks with a resident about intersection design, while a member of the consulting team takes notes.
Reminder post photo by Sarah Heinonen

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield is working to make its intersections and busy corridors safer, and has asked for the public’s help to do so.

On May 14, the DPW and the consulting firms it hired held the second of two public meetings to solicit feedback on changes to several vital but dangerous intersections around the city.

The meetings are part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All initiative that was established by the bipartisan Federal Infrastructure Act of 2021. The city received $15 million from the grant program, while also providing a matching 3 million dollars. The funding hired consulting firms to help redesign 10 corridors and 14 intersections and will fund the implementation of the final designs. The program initially had 15 intersections, but work on one of them was incorporated into another project.

With such a broad scope, the Safe Streets and Roads for All target areas have been divided into two sections, with intersections designated as the first to be addressed. The city contracted with Pare Corporation and Toole Design to help gather public input and come up with safer intersection designs. Separate companies will later work with DPW on corridor designs.

Amy Archer, chief engineer of Pare Corporation, explained that the aim of the program was to “prevent deaths and serious injuries”. Increasing security is the primary concern. The safety of the most vulnerable people on the road, pedestrians and cyclists, is a particular priority of the program.

Archer shared some of the data collected, showing that over the past seven years there have been 1,042 vehicle crashes at identified intersections. Although three of them resulted in deaths, there were 792 non-fatal injuries. In addition, 81 of these accidents involved a pedestrian or cyclist.

Seven of the 14 intersections affect State Street. One of these intersections, with St. James Avenue, had the highest number of accidents, more than 37% more than the intersection with the next highest accident rate. St. James Avenue and Main, Maple, Oaklands and Walnut streets are other roads with multiple intersections that should be redesigned.

“We’re going to go all over town,” Senior City Engineer Peter Shumway told the handful of residents who came to the public meeting. About a dozen people had attended the first meeting a week earlier.
Some of the common issues the team observed during the site visit include discolored, repaired and cracked crosswalks, discolored pavement markings, minimal space for bicycles, high traffic speeds and wide turns that allow high speeds. There is also a lack of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as missing handrails, pedestrian push buttons placed away from the crosswalk, and a lack of detectable warning surfaces, which are textured surfaces similar to striping. sound for vehicles on highways.

Preston Buehrer, design engineer at Toole, highlighted some of the potential solutions that can be used to increase safety at intersections. Pedestrian crossings can be clearly marked or raised, as well as shortened through the use of curb extensions that bring the sidewalk further into what would otherwise be a travel lane. Median shelters – a resting place between two lanes of traffic – can make it easier for people with reduced mobility to cross in the allotted time and allow them to check traffic in the other direction before continuing. Drivers can be alerted to the presence of cyclists and pedestrians with flashing lights. Stop signs and limiting right turns at red lights can reduce the risk of a car hitting someone in a crosswalk.

At the May 7 meeting, residents discussed the need for more bicycle facilities and roundabouts. They also asked the team to evaluate the impact of creating one lane in each direction on State Street and the impact of church attendance on weekend traffic.

More than one resident said DPW Director Christopher Cignoli has made comments in the past prioritizing traffic flow over safety. Shumway assured residents that Springfield has moved toward “smooth and safe traffic flow” as a priority.

The group divided into groups that circulated around the room, giving team members feedback on potential solutions at each of the 14 intersections. People commented on the wait times being too long at crosswalks, to which Archer said they could possibly remove the signals and raise the intersections instead. Another resident was sold on the idea of ​​a roundabout at the intersection of St. James Avenue and Magazine and Bay streets.
In response to a resident who mentioned that people have a relatively short time to cross the road, Buehrer showed a rendering of one of the potential intersections with diagonal crosswalks and signals that would stop traffic in all four directions . These would allow people to cross to the opposite corner without having to use a crosswalk in each direction of the crosswalk.

A member of the team explained to a resident that the bicycle boxes, green markings on the sidewalk at the head of the lane, designate the space reserved for bicycles, with vehicles stopping behind the box. It makes cyclists more visible and can be designed to allow for light changes as bikes enter the box.

Resident Linda Matys O’Connell appreciated the expertise needed to determine potential changes and the emphasis on safety. “When you listen to the consultants, it is clear that they have in-depth knowledge. It gives me confidence to hear the data. She added that she hoped Cignoli would follow through on his plans.

“I think they make sense,” Kiara Nazario said of the safety improvements. Nazario, who came to the meeting with her friend Yeriles Ortiz, travels around the city for work and said there is a strong need for ground markings that define whether an area is made up of one or of several routes.

Buehrer said there hasn’t been much resistance on potential safety improvements, although people have had definite opinions one way or the other on some changes, like roundabouts . “The treatments we are studying are tested and are proven safety measures,” he said, adding that he was not concerned about unintended consequences of the redesigns.

Asked about the impact of construction at so many intersections affecting State Street, Shumway said the projects are far too early in the process to know what disruptions might occur. Buehrer said, “With State Street, it’s hard to get worse.”

The design process for the intersection portion of the project will continue throughout the winter and tenders for construction companies will be issued after July 1, 2025.

Here is the complete list of intersections affected:
State Street/School Street/Spring Street
State Street/St. James Avenue/Oak Street
State Street/Concord Terrace/Montrose Street
Gaucher Street/Benton Street/State Street
Walnut Street/Union Street
Dwight Street/Maple Street/State Street
State Street/Chestnut Street/Maple Street
Street/Cortland Street/State Street
Main Street/Fremont Street/Central Street
Allen Street/Oakland Street
Pendleton Avenue/Pine Street/Walnut StreetMain Street/Taylor Street/Hampden Street
Belmont Street/Oakland Street
Saint-James Avenue/Magazine Street/Bay Street