NORTHAMPTON — Strong Towns Northampton, a local civic organization primarily focusing on transportation and housing, released a walking and biking study that analyzes the progress of the city’s 2021 Sustainable Northampton Pedestrian & Bicycle Plan.
The study, released in October, shines a light on the city’s priorities and planning delineated in its 2021 Sustainable Pedestrian & Bicycle Plan, where some priorities stand and what is still lacking four years later.
In 2021, the city identified and updated its recommendations to address 13 “hot spots” extracted from the previous comprehensive plan.
Powered by Smith College summer interns, the Strong Towns Northampton study focused on road safety at the 13 “hot spot” locations around the city, and details progress that has since been made in pedestrian safety upgrades, traffic calming measures, bike network expansion, ADA and sidewalk improvements and community connectivity. The study also details the remaining challenges, including gaps in sidewalks and bike lanes, inconsistent design standards and unclear future priorities.
In addition, recommendations for effective action were made for the city to consider as it makes its long-term plans.
Strong Towns Northampton started in February 2024 as a “local conversation” chapter of the National Strong Towns organization with a focus on bringing together people that are interested in urban development to build community.
“We advocate for smart public investments that make the community financially strong, ending car-centered development in favor of people-centered development, and making the city safer, more walkable and bikeable, with quality green spaces, and with more good quality housing,” said Danielle McKahn, a member of Strong Towns Northampton. “It is important to us to be a partner to the city in achieving shared goals. It is also important to make connections to this space — biking groups, housing groups, etc. Since we started, we have grown to about 100 email list members and we have around 200 Facebook followers.”
The new report details varied progress across different sites and hihlights the remaining work still needed to create safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists.
Of particular interest is the inclusion of Locust Street on Route 9 from Cooley Dickinson Hospital to Straw Avenue, as the city recently received a $500,000 grant toward work in that area.
“Locust Street is particularly high, high, high priority in my view because it compromises a large portion of the connection between Downtown Northampton and Florence Center, and there are really critical destinations along Locust Street — Smith Vocational School, the hospital — and near it on Elm Street — Northampton High School,” explained McKahn.
She added that grant funds are a great way to help kickstart a project and allow the city to incorporate more public input and design processes into critical projects, but funding like this can’t be relied upon to help with all critical locations.
In the future, McKahn said it would be great to see the city address other major roads that connect into downtown, including South Street, State Street and Bridge Street.
“Grant funds are great but won’t take us the distance, we’ll need to use local funds to improve the safety of our street network,” added McKahn.
As far as successes go, McKahn said the city has done “an excellent job” improving pedestrian and cycling conditions and safety along Pleasant Street.
“The specific recommendation here has been completed, with a speed table installed at the rail trail crossing,” the plan states. “In general, there is a consistent sidewalk from beginning to end, as well as curb extensions, a raised crosswalk and a pedestrian island. There are curb extensions at Michelman Avenue, Kingsley Avenue, Hampton Avenue and Railroad Avenue. Raised crosswalks are present at Railroad Avenue and Kingsley Aveneue, and a pedestrian island is located at the Hockanum Road intersection. There is a bike lane from the roundabout until Holyoke Street, from which it discontinues. On the opposite side, there is a bike lane from Michelman Avenue to the roundabout.”
McKahn said this work is an example of the city finding success in these projects and getting pedestrian and cycling safety measures implemented.
McKahn added that progress at other locations has been slow but still moving. One location in the plan is the West and Green streets intersection. She said work is expected to be completed there to address the concerns of speeding cars and long crossing.
Another priority the study identifies is the overall connection between downtown Northampton and Florence Center.
“It’s a long connection and a couple of these areas are highlighted in the plan. From downtown you go up Elm Street, then you connect to Locust Street, and then you get to Florence Center,” said McKahn. “We’ve been pushing really hard for these designs to be more pedestrian and cycling friendly as possible.”
McKahn said the study advocates for the city to switch how they approach designs regarding car speeds and car count.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, the chance of a pedestrian being severely injured or killed increases from about 18% when cars are going 20 miles per hour to 50% when cars are at at 30 miles per hour. This threshold has become crucial in planning and design for traffic calming measures, according to McKahn.
“There is a really critical speed that we are focusing on and that is 30 miles per hour with the caveat that when you put a 30 miles-per-hour speed limit, a lot of your vehicles are actually traveling above 30 miles per hour,” said McKahn. “We’re actually trying to design roads, and the goal is to post lower speed limits in critical locations, then design the roads so people are traveling slower in the flow.”
McKahn added if the city focused on pedestrians and cyclists first during its design process, it will lead to a more efficient process, thus leading to a better end result for overall safety. It can also be a less expensive process.
Overall, McKahn hopes the city takes into consideration these findings and recommendations from the study in an effort to prioritize safety for pedestrians and cyclists on the streets of Northampton.
“We hope the city will create a prioritized plan that includes locations for safety improvements as well as establishing the desired speed limit and street type for all streets,” McKahn said. “For many streets, lower speed limits than what we have today are appropriate. For streets where higher speed limits make sense — e.g. 25 miles per hour and above — extra measures for cyclist protection and safe
pedestrian crossings should be undertaken,” said McKahn.
She added, “In general, a future plan should look at the whole network and pedestrian and cycling continuity and safety, especially along critical identified walking and biking routes. We hope that the city will also revisit its Complete Streets policy with an eye toward enhanced and more nuanced implementation, with improvement being the goal of every street project. We hope the city will continue and renew its commitment to safe streets and will aggressively move these priorities forward.”
The full report can be accessed and downloaded at drive.google.com/file/d/1M66KwOVlI3k40rm-ravcWDBxnpsR9aOZ/view?usp=sharing.
