SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – The Monday night, Sept. 11, meeting of the Springfield Selectboard started at 6 p.m., for the purpose of conducting a public meeting on the Clinton Street road diet proposal. “This is a preliminary discussion,” explained Board Chair Kristi Morris, before asking Israel Maynard from engineering firm Stantec to go through the proposed plan.
Maynard was in attendance to present the purpose of the proposal, review the existing conditions, and define the scope of the project. The idea was first presented within the 2017 town master plan, and at the time, the recommendation was to implement a road diet – a reduction in the number of lanes, a solution that has been proven to significantly reduce the amount of accidents once implemented.
Maynard explained that a road diet, in an area that sees less than 20,000 cars per day, “works very well.” The statistics for this section of Clinton Street, between Main and Bridge streets, has an average daily traffic flow of around 10,000 vehicles. “We will dig deeper into that with our study, as this progresses.” Maynard said. “Traffic analysis will come into play more in the next phase. We don’t want to spend the money on something if people don’t want it.”
Resident Mike Schmidt, a member of the planning commission, commented that they were in the process of rewriting the town’s master plan, and questioned if the commission had been made aware that this project was potentially moving forward.
Board member Walter Martone mentioned that the planning commission was aware of the plan back in 2017, so it should not come as a surprise that they are furthering the discussion.
Maynard invited the residents attending the meeting to voice any concerns regarding safety, pedestrian accessibility, and bicycle travel.
Scott Darrell, Springfield resident, brought up the issue of traffic backing up. “Right now we have two lanes going through there, but if you close that up, you don’t think that will be an issue?”
Maynard assured, “There is plenty of room for traffic growth, even with a road diet on Clinton Street.”
Jessica Martin from Springfield on the Move, who lives in Northern Springfield, said she loves the idea of a two left turning lane proposal, but doesn’t agree that the bike lane should share space with a pedestrian walkway. “How do we make that smoother, a safer intersection?” Martin asked. “There seemed to be quite a few crashes there, at South Street and Clinton Street. There used to be a light, which is still there, but is not used. Traffic backs up, particularly during school let-out.”
Town manager Jeff Mobus explained that this project’s scope does not include the intersection of South and Clinton streets, so revising the traffic pattern at that intersection would fall under a separate project.
Morris reported that the Mount Ascutney Planning Commission is also studying traffic flow, along with 11 other towns which are collecting data on crash sites, including the intersection of South and Clinton in Springfield. He mentioned that at one point there had been a rotary in that location, and that might be something to consider again. Morris said that the Transportation Advisory Board had been looking into that option for a number of years.
Library director Sue Dowdell asked, “Do you guys have any studies on what the actual speed is in that area? Hoping this road diet will help reduce the speeding.”
Maynard said that this plan would reduce speeding, since the installation of two-way left turn lanes will provide the opportunity to create an island for pedestrian crossing and cause “traffic calming.”
Springfield resident and publisher of The Vermont Journal & The Shopper Newspaper Shawntae Webb was in attendance via Zoon, and asked, “I’m curious, do you have the accident report? They say you don’t need to fix what’s not broken, and I tend to lean toward the two-lanes in each direction. The flow of traffic is working, so I’m curious to see a traffic report to see if this will reduce those accidents.”
Citing the VTrans Public Crash Data Query Tool, Maynard said studying the data will provide the analysis used to determine if the road diet will solve these issues. “Generally speaking,” Maynard explained, “the road diet results in a 17-47% reduction in crashes after the implementation, and the severity of the crashes is being reduced.”
“People don’t like change,” Webb remarked. “Recently the town repainted turn lanes incorrectly, and it almost caused more accidents because people were familiar with how it used to be. Some may not transition well to that change.”
Maynard said that with a road diet, it is “pretty easy to do pilot projects. So, if this was a solution that the town wanted to move forward on, we could do it with temporary paint, try it for 6 months to a year, without moving any curbs, and if it doesn’t work, and people hate it, you put the paint back the way it was. If people do like it, then we can move the curbs, build the pedestrian path, bike lanes, landscaping, and make the changes permanent.”
Morris asked Maynard if he had data from other towns that have tried this approach.
Maynard said there had been a number of case studies done, and he would make those available for analysis. “Every situation is a bit unique,” Maynard commented, “but this has definitely been implemented in other areas with good results.”
Discussion continued on how and where the bike lane would connect with the Toonerville Trail, without making cyclists cross the busy street, how this could improve pedestrian traffic between the businesses in the area, and ultimately the temporary paint solution was mentioned again, with board member Everett Hammond reiterating that that might be the best way forward. “Paint the changes first, and see how it works, before committing money to move sidewalks, etcetera.”
Martin reiterated, “Doing the temp painting pilot project would be fantastic. Flesh out the issues before greater expense is taken on.”
The cost of the project will be primarily covered by grants, but as Mobus said, most grants require the town to cover about 20% of the funding, so that would impact tax payers.
As part of the cost-benefit analysis, they would evaluate any adverse affects on snow removal, emergency vehicle access, and storm drainage. Fire Chief Paul Stagner mentioned that area has been known to flood, which could be more of a probem with fewer lanes for traffic.
“It’s been my experience that things of this level move at a glacial pace,” stated vice chair Michael Martin. “That’s why we’re talking about this now, this process, and the funding can take months or years, to accomplish that.”
Maynard said he appreciated the town’s interest and involvement in the project. “We will review, regroup with team members, and get back to the town and the selectboard with the next steps,” Maynard concluded.