Selectboard Letter to Residents re Street Safety

Dear Princeton Residents,

 

We want to tell you about several  projects in Princeton to improve pedestrian and cycling safety. Many residents have indicated a strong wish for sidewalks or bike/walking lanes on the busy roads in town. We were just notified that our application to the MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces Program has been approved for $40,791.20 in funding. The Shared Streets and Spaces Program  supports projects that promote public health, safe mobility, and renewed commerce by quickly providing new or repurposed space for socially-distanced walking, bicycling, dining, retail, and bus travel. 

 

This funding will be used to create a safe walking area along Worcester Rd from Hickory Drive north to Monti’s Deli. The Highway Department will purchase temporary barriers to separate the road from the walkway.  If this is successful, we will seek funding for more permanent and aesthetic solution.  Thanks to our Town Administrator, Sherry Patch, and our Highway Superintendent, Ben Metcalf, for their work on this project.

 

Additionally, we received notice that the Town has been awarded a $37,994 technical assistance grant for development of a Complete Streets Prioritization Plan.  The Complete Streets Prioritization Plan will improve safety, mobility and/or accessibility.  The plan will identify the streets, infrastructure, cost estimate and timeline for our Complete Streets improvements and align with other local plans and roadway maintenance schedules. The town will be working with Howard Stein Hudson (HSH) Engineers and Planners on developing the Plan.  HSH has extensive experience in Complete Streets Prioritization Plans and has developed plans for several communities including the Towns of Athol, Lancaster and Leicester.

 

Princeton’s Road Advisory Committee is working with Sherry Patch and Ben Metcalf to develop a “Complete Streets Policy” for our town. Having a  Complete Streets Policy and Prioritization Plan will make us eligible for up to $400K in funding from MassDOT for projects identified in the Prioritization Plan. Eligible projects include new construction, reconstruction, some types of rehabilitation, resurfacing and changes in the allocation of pavement width on an existing roadway (e.g. removal of on-street parking or reduction in the number of travel lanes.)  A Complete Street is one that provides safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit, and motorized vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities. Designing streets with these principles contributes toward the safety, health, economic viability and quality of life in a community by improving the pedestrian and vehicular environments and providing safer, more accessible and comfortable means of travel between home, school, work, recreation and retail destinations. More broadly, embedding Complete Streets principles in policy and practice helps promote more livable communities.   

 

Many of you have noticed the freshly painted crosswalks as well as the new “yield to pedestrian” signs.  We are trying to promote driver awareness of pedestrians.  As the Selectboard regularly receives speeding complaints, we find that we are each more conscious about observing speed limit.  Sometimes this leads to lines of cars behind us and has the effect of slowing down traffic. Feel free to join us.

 

We will continue to keep you informed as we moved forward with these efforts.  We thank all the residents who have provided input into this process.