Pond Avenue Crosswalk Plan

Pond Avenue and High Street Safety Improvement Meeting
Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 7pm
Town Hall, Room 103

Pond Avenue and High Street Revised Plan (pdf).

More treatments on High Street and elimination of advance crosswalk/advisory speed signage from every location on Pond Avenue except the entry to the corridor from either side as requested by the residents who attended the first meeting. (see below for initial plan)

There were many questions about the initial proposal and many felt that concerns about traffic and safety along High Street were left unaddressed. Todd Kirrane, Brookline Transportation Administrator, said his department would gather data and schedule another neighborhood input session to answer our questions and continue the conversation.

Traffic Study/Pond Avenue Update

On April 8 the Town Transportation Division held a neighborhood input meeting to discuss recommendations from a traffic study to install 5 raised crosswalks on Pond Avenue. There was a very good turnout and there was a lot of discussion.

A brief summary:

Most everyone thinks that the four-way stop at High and Allerton has been effective and should be made permanent.
Many, after hearing that they are the "only effective solution which would slow traffic sufficiently on Pond and provide the increased level of safety for pedestrians," seemed to be in favor of some raised crosswalks.
However, many expressed their concern that the proposed signage along historic Olmsted Park is excessive.
Some wondered if there were alternate, less obtrusive, solutions that could looked at.
There were concerns that crosswalks on Pond would increase traffic on High Street.
Many felt that the Town had not addressed the neighborhood's request to study traffic and pedestrian crossings along the rest of High Street, especially at the intersection of Highland Road.
Some expressed concern that the crosswalk on High at Irving should be maintained.
Transportation Administrator Todd Kirrane asserted that he saw this first meeting as the beginning of a discussion with the neighborhood and promised that residents would be engaged to develop acceptable solutions.

A few days ago Rob Daves asked Todd to describe the next steps. Here is his response:

Here are the next steps from the Town's point of view with regards to the Pond Avenue/High Street Safety Improvement Plan:

Pond Avenue:

1) The town plans to complete a full existing sign inventory on Pond Avenue to develop a mock visual plan for the corridor showing the location and type of sign after the revised staff plan is installed. Our goal is to consolidate and/or eliminate existing and proposed signage to see the total net gain or loss of signage on the street without jeopardizing safety.

High Street:

1) The town plans to install speed and traffic volume counters on High Street at the top of the hill and in the vicinity of Highland Road to get better traffic data for this particular area. From that we will develop appropriate ideas of how best to improve pedestrian safety at that crosswalk.

2) The town will look to better locate the existing crosswalk at Irving in a place that can be made ADA compliant and improve sightlines to ensure continued service of pedestrians crossing High Street from Cumberland Avenue and adjacent areas.

After this is completed we will invite interested community members to sit down with us, review the plan and data, review federal/state/local/industry governing guidelines/principles/best practices and move the process to the Transportation Board.

It is Rob's understanding that the money for this project will be included in the warrant before Town Meeting at the end of May but it is very important that the neighborhood and the Town finalize the proposal within the next two months or so in order that construction can begin ASAP. Rob will ask Todd Kirrane to schedule the next discussion as soon as possible.

Rollover on Pond Avenue (Brookline TAB Blog, April 29, 2010).

High Street Hill Safety Improvement Community Meeting
Thursday, April 8, 2010, 7pm
Room 111, first floor, Town Hall

The High Street Hill Association has been lobbying for years to

enforce the Town's promise (made at the time of the park restoration) to keep good pedestrian connections to Olmsted Park and
to reduce traffic speed on Pond Avenue.

And more recently, after the series of accidents at the intersection of High and Allerton Streets, the Town promised the neighborhood they would do a study of traffic conditions in the Pond, High, Allerton and Cumberland area.

The Brookline Transportation Administrator, Todd Kirrane, has scheduled a neighborhood input meeting to present the results and recommendations of that traffic study and gather input from the neighborhood.

The most prominent recommendation is the installation of 5 raised crosswalks on Pond Avenue designed reduce traffic speed.

Initial Draft Plan (pdf) including new signs for raised crosswalks on Pond Avenue and a painted crosswalk on High Street.

Prior initial plan showing existing but not new signs:

Location 1 at Jamaica Road (pdf)
Location 2 at Highland Road (pdf)
Location 3 at Cumberland Avenue (pdf)
Location 4 at Allerton Street (pdf)
Location 5 at Brook House (pdf)

This is a major traffic calming proposal for the town and our neighborhood, costing approximately $60,000 and scheduled to be completed next year (2011). The Capital Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee considered including this proposal in the town budget which will go before Town Meeting on May 4 but they have postponed the vote until after our input meeting.

As happy as we are to see progress on this important topic, we must carefully consider this proposal. As we learned with traffic calming on Walnut Street, we need to fully envision the proposed changes with respect to signage, lighting, noise and predicted behavior of traffic. There is no question that a response to Pond Avenue's woes is now due and that it is possible that the solution lies within this proposal.

It is very important that residents attend this meeting.

Included below is the content of an email exchange with Todd Kirrane in which he answers some important questions and gives locations of similar crosswalks in Newton (these would be the first crosswalks of this design in Brookline).

From: Todd Kirrane
To: Robert Daves
Date: March 17, 2010 1:14:44 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Pond Ave Initial Plan

Q (Rob). Are all 5 of these crosswalks "raised?"
A (Todd). Yes.

Q. Is the projected construction 2011?
A. Provided it is funded in this years CIP construction will be either Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. This currently in question. Next years CIP will be dedicated to the Runkle School which will be prioritized before anything else.

Q. Are there a detailed drawings of the crosswalks showing cross section, size, height, etc?
A. Not at this time. They will be available by the neighborhood meeting. Attached is the spec from the Newton crosswalk we are modeling it after.

Auburn Street Newton P1 (pdf)
Auburn Street Newton P2 (pdf)

Q. At the AC meeting I heard you or Peter say that these would be modeled after existing installations in Newton. Can you provide us with their locations so we can take a "field trip?"
A. Intersection of Auburn Street and Evergreen Avenue in Auburndale.

Auburn Street Newton Crosswalk (closeup)

Q. Are the signs that you are proposing installed locally? Can you give me a location I can refer people to?
A. They are standard MUTCD Pedestrian in Crosswalk signs (W11a-2) as called for in our Crosswalk Policy. The other signage are chevron warning signs placed at curvatures in the roadway. They can be seen on most streets included Goddard Ave and Heath Street. The pavement markings are the same as the ones leading upto the crosswalk on Goddard Avenue and the signage is the same as well minus the in-street pedestrian crossing stanchion which is not used on raised elements.

Q. Will the input session be solely about the Pond Avenue crosswalks or will there be presentation of data and discussion about the other areas addressed in the study, specifically, the High and Allerton intersection and traffic patterns along Cumberland and Allerton?
A. The meeting will cover a summary of the data collected including the destination study of cut-through traffic, the Pond Avenue raised crosswalks, and the crosswalk on High Street at Allerton. The goal is to get feedback from the residents, see if we missed anything, and move the process forward.