Deskripsyon
I have to open a ticket again because nothing has been done about the previous one. There is still absolutely no safety for Reingold school walkers living on or next to Depot Street. There are no pedestrian crossings, no speed control devices, nothing. Cars keep speeding up and down the road and sometimes no one stops for kids trying to cross for a long time. It's an accident waiting to happen and I don't know what the city is waiting for, when a child gets injured or killed? There must be either a pedestrian crossing somewhere next to intersection with Appleton circle and Hannigan Court, or speed control devices such as speed bumps. This is child endangerment and it must be corrected.
5 Komentos
City of Fitchburg, MA (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
Mike East (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
The request you are making requires at the least. The Fitchburg Police dept. approval and or city council. I would direct you to your ward councilor for further help.
Roman (Rehistradong User)
Nick Erickson (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
Roman,
SeeClickFix is not intended for capital requests such as this. It is intended to report maintenance issues that the DPW needs to address, such as fixing potholes, re-painting an existing crosswalk that has faded, reporting a street light outage, etc. The proper way to address this issue would be to submit a petition to City Council, where it will be reviewed, discussed, and voted on by the Public Works Committee.
That being said, it is not as easy to simply add a crosswalk as you might think. I certainly understand your frustration here, but by putting in a crosswalk, the City is saying "this spot here is safe to cross", and this needs an engineering study before the City can assume that liability. Here's an excellent crosswalk design guide from the Town of Concord: https://www.concordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/244/Crosswalk-Policy-PDF. Some of the factors that need to be considered include:
- Speed and traffic volume
- Pedestrian volume, age, and level of mobility (mostly kids in this case, but they can move slowly and not pay attention)
- Existing pedestrian crossing patterns
- Existing sidewalks and ADA ramps (or lack thereof)
- Adequacy of sight distances
- Available right-of-way space
- Street characteristics including grade, curvature, pavement widths
- Location of adjacent driveways (looks like there are two potentially conflicting driveways)
- On-street parking
- Street lighting (there is a light on the utility pole at the intersection)
- Location of drainage structures and utility poles (ADA has required clearances for these)
- Potential for rear-end accidents
Unfortunately engineering studies cost money, usually $20,000 or so for something like this. Then assuming the engineering study shows this to be a viable crossing location, the question then becomes how does the City fund construction? It will require paint, signage, ADA ramps for both ends of the crosswalk, labor, etc. I would estimate $50,0000 or more depending on how much sidewalk work is done and if RRFB's are added.
All that being said, the City is aware of the concerns in this location, and we are working on a grant to address these issues and more on Franklin Road. These things unfortunately take time to accomplish.
Isinara Mike East (Beripikadong Opisiyal)