Crosswalks Again Planned

For Queen/Glover Area

By Andrew Gorosko

To enhance pedestrian safety in a heavily traveled area, the town plans to install two “raised crosswalks” near Newtown Middle School in the coming weeks, according to Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

Those raised crosswalks would be installed on Queen Street, near its intersection with Lorraine Drive, and on Glover Avenue, near its intersection with Meadow Road. Mr Hurley said the town plans to install the portable, hard-rubber devices by late September or early October.

State law requires motorists to stop and yield to pedestrians who are in crosswalks.

Last September, the town installed such a device on Glover Avenue in an experiment to test whether the presence of a raised crosswalk would improve pedestrian safety. Such raised crosswalks function as broad speed bumps known as “speed tables,” which act to slow motorists traveling through the area.

But in early December 2008, the blade of a town snowplow traveling over the raised crosswalk on Glover Avenue broke the bolts that connected the device to the street. The town then dismantled the raised crosswalk, rather than have it pose a traffic hazard in the wintertime.

Also, the town was on the verge of installing another raised crosswalk on Queen Street late last year but encountered technical problems. After the Glover Avenue raised crosswalk was dismantled, the town halted work on installing the raised crosswalk on Queen Street. 

Areas with raised crosswalks have painted pavement markings warning motorists of their presence. Also, many warning signs are posted nearby alerting drivers of the elevated road surfaces.

The push for raised crosswalks near Newtown Middle School followed parents’ concerns over the safety of pedestrian schoolchildren who walk to and from Newtown Middle School.

Mr Hurley said that the planned installation of raised crosswalks on Queen Street and Glover Avenue will again be “experimental.” He said he hopes the devices can be kept in place until the coming winter season to test their effectiveness.

That testing involves reviewing traffic statistics for the area to learn whether the presence of raised crosswalks causes motorists to take alternate routes in their travels to avoid traveling over the raised crosswalks, he said. Also, the testing would gauge whether raised crosswalks slow traffic in the areas designated for crossing the street, he said.

Mr Hurley estimated that the town has spent approximately $15,000 for the two raised crosswalks. The manufacturers of the portable devices do not guarantee those units’ performance for wintertime use, Mr Hurley said, adding that the town does not plan to leave the devices in place during the winter.

He said that the presence of raised crosswalks near Newtown Middle School would not be a permanent solution for traffic congestion problems and pedestrian safety issues in that area. Reconfiguring and improving the triangular intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue would be a more effective way to address those longstanding problems, he said.

After the upcoming test of the two portable raised crosswalks is complete, the town would consider whether permanent raised crosswalks should be installed on Queen Street and Glover Avenue, Mr Hurley said. Such devices are constructed of permanent road materials, such as asphalt and concrete.

The public works director also has suggested that the town install textured concrete crosswalks on Queen Street and Glover Avenue. Although such crosswalks are not “raised,” they do create a visually and texturally different surface than the adjacent roadway, making them more visible to motorists than conventional crosswalks.

The public works director suggested the possible use of pedestrian-activated controls which would switch on flashing warning lights at crosswalks, alerting drivers that a pedestrian was at the crosswalk and was ready to use it to cross the street. Such warning lights could be used at any type of crosswalk, according to Mr Hurley.

At a Police Commission session earlier this year, Police Chief Michael Kehoe warned commission members that the presence of any type of crosswalk poses a “level of risk” to pedestrians wherever they are installed. Although state law requires that motorists stop and yield to pedestrians who are in crosswalks, pedestrians cannot necessarily expect that motorists will stop and yield to them, according to the police chief.

At a past session, the Police Commission, which is the local traffic authority, endorsed the installation of portable raised crosswalks on Queen Street and Glover Avenue to learn the effectiveness of such devices in slowing traffic and providing a sanctioned place for people, especially schoolchildren, to cross the street.