AC

I'd like to raise a few issues along Central Avenue between the Fellsway and Spring Street. I'm new to this neighborhood and probably not the first to bring these up - I would be happy to talk about the past, present, and future conditions in this area with anyone from the City who can assist.

My main concerns are pedestrian safety and noise. From what I can tell, this stretch serves as a cut-through, and it runs along Morrison Park/Playground, where the lack of parked cars along road (leaving wide open space) encourages a burst of speed between the traffic lights at Spring and the Fellsway.

I haven't seen a posted speed limit, but suspect it's 30 mph, which as a pedestrian and a resident just feels too fast. It looks like a speed bump was once installed near the intersection with Chipman St. (there are lines of empty bolts), but I imagine that this caused additional noise as people either sped over it or accelerated right after crossing it. It may also have caused an issue for snow removal through the winter.

So I'm wondering if a 20 mph speed limit could be enforced with some combination of road markings, timing the lights, maybe a speed monitor, and/or pedestrian bump-outs at the Chipman St. crosswalk to the park, to signal to cars that pedestrians might be crossing. 20 mph seems sensible along the park, as the difference between 30 and 20 mph to pedestrian safety has been demonstrated. And the stop lights at the intersections really negate time saved by speeding through anyway.

Also, large trucks often cross along Central Avenue, although there are signs indicating No Heavy Trucking at the intersections. I'm not sure what the cutoff is for "heavy" trucking, but they certainly seem over-sized for this neighborhood, particularly when there are larger roads surrounding it that seem like alternate routes designed for them.

Last, it seems like one of the manhole covers outside of 159-161 Central is loose - this might just be the sound of cars over a manhole, but it makes a loud ka-thunk every time someone drives over it.

Thanks in advance.