Pittsfield Council Sees Traffic Petitions
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Several traffic requests were made at the City Council's last meeting, including a query about the deteriorating Dalton Avenue overpass and an ask to fix the raised crosswalk on Holmes Road.
On April 14, the City Council handled petitions from Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren and Ward 2 Councilor Cameron Cunningham requesting an update on the current condition of the Dalton Avenue bridge overpass and rehabilitation plan, and a petition from Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso and Ward 3 Councilor Matthew Wrinn requesting the "timely removal" or reconfiguration of the speed bump on Holmes Road between Elm Street and William Street.
Parts of the Dalton Avenue bridge's concrete sides appear to be crumbling, exposing rusted steel supports and requiring a barrier in the eastbound lane. Warren and Cunningham's petition was referred to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which is leading the replacement.
According to the MassDOT's website, the bridge replacement over the Ashuwillticook bike trail is in the preliminary design phase and will cost more than $9 million.
A couple of years ago, a raised crosswalk was installed on the Holmes Road corridor as part of road diet improvements to slow traffic and foster safety. The councilors said they are understanding and supportive of the bump's intentions, but the current design and condition "present more significant safety concerns rather than effectively addressing them." The petition was referred to the commissioner of public works.
Wrinn said they have spoken to "many, many" constituents about it, and they feel the speed bump is pretty egregious.
"It's causing more problems than actually helping people, and we want to explore other options with something similar to Tyler Street, a brightly colored crosswalk, more signage," he explained.
Amuso's goal is to do some kind of reconfiguration, because as she has been told, it is up to code, but "when you're going up that street, and your car is coming off the road, that's not safe either."
"The goal was safety for our children, and that's what I still want that to be," she said.
Ward 7 Councilor Kathy Moody has very little patience for people who wreck their car by speeding through a speed bump. That being said, she finds the Holmes Road bump pretty aggressive and could be reconfigured.
"Otherwise, slow down. There are little kids on the street," she said.
In 2022, Melissa Rathbun's fourth-grade son was struck by a vehicle in the crosswalk coming home from school, and while he escaped serious injury, she said the situation was "nothing short of every parent's absolute worst nightmare."
While she cannot support the complete removal of the crosswalk for the safety of pedestrians who use it daily, she believes it is necessary to reconfigure by reducing its size, increasing signage, and possibly relocating it to the southern corner of Cambridge Avenue to further increase visibility.
"I was and still am hugely grateful to the many people involved, from the police department to the school superintendent, to the Commissioner of Public Works, who took my plea seriously and worked so hard to ensure the future safety of kids like my son," Rathbun said.
"All that being said, whether it's due to a lack of appropriate signage, its location at the crest of a hill, its steep grade, or sheer size, it cannot be denied that the implementation of this raised crosswalk in its current form has created as many issues as I set out to mitigate."
Ward 2 Councilor Cameron Cunningham's request to repaint Dalton Avenue's traffic lines between Harvard Street and Benedict Road, consistent with recommendations from the Pittsfield Community Design Center's Walking Audit, was referred to the commissioner of public service and utilities and the Traffic Commission, which is meeting next week.
The walk audit performed last year resulted in a recommendation that Pittsfield formalize and enforce speed limits, mark all crosswalks, establish "daylighting" at corners with on-street parking regulations to improve visibility, establish right-sized travel lanes that discourage speeding, and improve the bus stop.
Tags: bridge work, traffic safety,
