The lines have not been painted yet. This cross path gets a lot of traffic with school children that walk to Lilja School.

word is the Towns can't get paint due to the covid shutdown. I inquired about lines done on south main st and was told their is a massive back order or paint and won't be available until next spring if they are lucky.

Thank you for reporting your concern to the Town of Natick via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further. Thank you again for helping us improve our community!

A very close call at 7:10 am during the middle school bus pick up. Car at 40+miles per hour didn’t even see us crossing. It’s not just the elementary school kids who use this path/crossing but all ages as Lilja is a school bus stop. Please get the lines and possible a better more visible signal. Thank you.

This is creating a very dangerous situation for children crossing the street. Please we need a crosswalk here.

The Safety Committee does not want this crosswalk repainted , The Children should be going to the traffic light to cross where it is safe.

There’s a path there for a reason. There are signs for a reason. We are not asking for a police officer. We need the lines. You have people parking on Oakridge to get their kids to cross at the path. If those cars start parking in Arbor Cir, you’ll have car accidents as well as the road is very narrow. We pay taxes and we a say in this.

I understand why they don't want lines there. But kids and families are not going to walk 40 yards to cross and then 40 yards back. So by not putting lines you are actually making it more unsafe as kids will cross with no cross walk. Please be realistic and safe

Kids are going to cross there no matter what. It’s a natural spot to cross. Therefore this is a deliberate decision by the town to make it less safe for them to do so.

Kids have been crossing there for decades. What we don’t need is more parents driving their kids to school instead of walking. Please paint the crosswalk and maybe add some signage.

The lack of painting is pretty unsafe and continues a pattern at this cross walk. It used to be staffed by a crossing guard, but no more. It used to have a sign in the middle of the street, warning about pedestrians in the crosswalk, but no more. Now the lines aren't being maintained? The path has been used by a big chunk of the community for decades, and it is a reasonable request by anyone and everyone to get the lines repainted and a sign back in the middle of the street. The Safety Committee is out to lunch on this one and should reverse its decision ASAP.

EVERY child crosses here to get to the school bus as that path is heavily used at the peak school pick up and drop off times. Walking to the traffic lights is not always an option as the school buses more often than not are running out of schedule and therefore not always arriving when they should be. This creates panic with the children when their bus has arrived early and dart across the road to avoid missing the bus! Therefore, not having any painting is just simply unsafe and makes no sense. Please help us keep our children safe and draw some lines! It's not a difficult ask!

I think it just common sense to repaint the lines as they existed prior to the repaving. It is a heavy traffic shortcut walk path used for school and the bus stop. There are already yellow cross signs. All it needs is a little bit of paint.

Here's another picture with the existing signs

It is very concerning that the crossing lines have not been painted back yet. There are so many kids that use this crossing line to get their school bus to middle school in the morning. Myself, I have I observed several cars failing to stop for our children when they are crossing creating a very unsafe area for our students. It does not make any sense not having the crossing lines painted as it is a high traffic area and so many residents use this crossing.

I was afraid that might happen when I saw the road repaved. Our Oakridge Ave and Arbor Circle neighborhood has fought this fight before. We used to have a crossing guard at the Bacon crosswalk & they removed her, demanding we all walk to the 4-way intersection. I might have the emails from that time I can share. I felt safer crossing my kids over 2 lanes of Bacon traffic than 8 lanes at the intersection. It also doubled our walk from 0.2 miles to 0.4. Might not sound like a hardship but when you have a toddler or baby sibling or 2 in tow, it can be a challenge. Also, given that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, it is ridiculous to think that middle schoolers & high schoolers coming from the path to catch the school bus are going to take the time to head down to the light rather than simply crossing the street. And this doesn’t just impact families with school children. This impacts, young adults, empty-nesters & seniors heading out on walks or utilizing the parks & fields for exercise. Leif & Amy Hille (Oakridgers)

So many kids cross here before and after school. You are putting everyone at risk by not putting a crosswalk back there.

Kids and parents used this cross walk all the time to get to the school, playground and basketball hoops from the surrounding neighborhoods. Very dangerous situation created by not repainting the lines. Please do so before a preventable accident occurs.

Please repaint the crosswalk to keep my son safe on his walk to school. We walk from the far end of Bacon, near the Wellesley line. It is unrealistic to ask us to walk PAST Lilja to the 4-way traffic light. This practically doubles our walk to school. Not repainting the crosswalk is a tragedy waiting to happen, as kids in our neighborhood have been using the crosswalk for years and will continue to cross there. Please do the right thing, for the safety of the kids in our community.

Please repaint the crosswalk on Bacon st in front of lilja. The crosswalk has been used for many years by children of all ages. infact my son uses everyday. Kids will continue to cross there regardless of weather it is there or not. So please repaint the crosswalk walk to keep our children safe.

I second and third my neighbors here. To call themselves the “Safety Committee” and then refuse to paint crossing lines from a path that children, parents and residents take to get to school defies logic. Please repaint the lines and stop making excuses. It’s simply not safe that way it currently is.

This is very disappointing. While I can certainly appreciate the desire to improve safety, this decision will have the opposite effect.

This is a half baked execution that reduces safety. The signs to alert traffic to a cross walk remain. The curb cuts remain. If you want to deter crossing, all of those need to be removed. The removal of those will not deter the human behavior to cross here though.

The path from Oakridge to Bacon naturally directs pedestrians here and they will most certainly proceed across rather than take a large detour to the light. This will be the case in nice weather and will even more so be the case when things get icy; nobody will walk the extra distance in those conditions.

If the goal is safety, you should instead consider other solutions like adding signals like exist on Marion Street and so many other places around town.

Please re-paint the crosswalk between Lilja School and the path at Oakridge Ave. By not re-painting the crosswalk, it is only adding confusion to drivers and is NOT creating a safe environment for people who use it daily - young children, seniors, parents transporting multi children and often babies. Realistically, vulnerable populations will not walk further during poor weather conditions. There is no other direct path to the front of the school. Who are you protecting by not re-painting the crosswalk? Certainly not the residents who live in the abutting neighborhoods. There doesn’t need to be any more incentive for cars to drive over the speed limit on Bacon Street. There are almost constant traffic infractions at the Oak/Bacon street light and in my 15 years living on Oakridge, I’ve never once seen cars get ticketed for turning right on red or turning left and not yielding to oncoming traffic. The crosswalk at the path creates a natural slow-down for cars, and is an access point that remains critically needed. The town capitalized and took advantage of the street being repaved to not paint the crosswalk again. No notice to neighbors, no safety research, and frankly, it lacks total common sense. At elementary schools across the state, you find multiple crosswalks, lights flashing, and a general sense that traffic needs to be yielding to pedestrians and not the other way around. Let’s not be the one community that puts cars before kids. Please repaint it now.

What a tragedy that merely replacing the painted crosswalk across from Lila School needs to become a plea on deaf ears. I propose reducing our real estate taxes for the price of a few gallons of paint and the neighborhood will gladly paint the crosswalk ourselves.

Regardless of what the Safety Commisiion “wants” the reality is the path and crosswalk get used by parents and children of all ages at all times of the day. The Lila School is an integral part of the neighborhood and thus needs to have all access points marked in a manner that protects the students and all other Natick citizens that cross the street in front of the Lila School. This is for the safety of the community surrounding the Lila School and not painting the crosswalk by the Safety Commission’s decree is clearly negligent. I pray there will be no tragic vehicular accidents that emphasize this point.

In conclusion, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE

PAINT THE CROSSWALK!!

Please repaint the crosswalk between Gino Way Path and Lilja school. We have lived on Bacon across from Lilja for over 20 years. Our family has used that crosswalk for many years since we felt it has always been safer to cross there than at the light unless a crossing guard is present. We used it to bring our daughters to school when they went to Lilja, then my kids used it to cross to wait for the bus for middle and high school. We continue to use the crosswalk when walking our dog. The middle and high school students in our neighborhood continue to use that crosswalk in the morning to cross to wait for their buses. I believe it is safer in the early morning times when drivers are not expecting students to be crossing at the light. Over the years we have witnessed close to 10 accidents at the intersection of Bacon and Oak. We had to fight to have the no turn on red signs put back up there as well. The town should be doing everything possible to make our streets safer for residents and a crosswalk at the path is clearly needed to make sure residents in the area are safe. Please repaint the lines for the safety of not just our children but all our citizens who regularly use that crosswalk.

The crosswalk is extremely important to our neighborhood! Kids going to Lilja and taking buses to Wilson and the High School need it to be safe. We all use it to take our walks and exercise our pets. Parents with babies in strollers use it constantly.
We live on the path and have heard the screeching of tires many times when someone is not paying attention when kids are crossing. If it is not repainted that will happen a lot more and there will be a tragedy. Does the committee really want to see someone be killed there? This seems ridiculous and callous to me. How much money are you saving over the safety of residents? Please repaint to crosswalk!

Hi
I read through the comments and your responses and must say the citizens who live in Natick have valid points. I live on Oakridge Circle and cross at the crosswalk at the end of Gino path almost every day when walking my dog. It is a natural crossing point and the decision not to re-paint the cross walk is a dangerous decision. This path is cleared by the town so that students can access Lilja. Asking kids to walk away from where they want to go when it's snowing or worse raining, is not realistic. They will cross there and drivers may not expect to see them in the road because there is no longer a cross walk. For the safety of our community, please repaint the crosswalk at the end of Gino Way to Lilja. Thank you. - A. Tikofsky

Please repaint the cross walk , as I see many children crossing in that place including my kids , as others have stated , It is much safer to cross a 2 lane street then the 8 lanes near the lights. It is evident from the above comments that this path is used by adults' and kids alike, This is a big safety issue , Request you to act promptly before some one gets injured.

Please repaint this cross walk immediately. Absolute confusion at this intersection now and it’s scary to think of the repercussions this could have, when it’s a quick fix. It’s concerning to think the town is sitting on this at the risk of everyone’s safety!