$195,000 report gives Worcester this message: Make sure the streets are safe

WORCESTER — Safety on the roads is the top priority in the city's long-range transportation plan.

The Worcester Mobility Action Plan, at a cost of $195,690, was released this week. The city is taking public comments through the end of May before a final version is expected in June.

While the report noted safety at the top of the list of transportation priorities, the draft didn’t mention how much it will cost to implement the plan’s 46 recommended strategies, or how long it will take to do the work.

Cost and timelines will come later, said Betsy Goodrich, a transportation planning manager for the city. She explained the plan is a broad approach with strategies to tackle the city's transportation challenges. The next step is implementation, which will lead to funding sources.

“Now it requires (the city) to dig deeper to implement (strategies) in a fiscally responsible way and a responsible timeline,” said Goodrich.

'Fan favorites'

She highlighted two of the plan's safety strategies, "fan favorites" she called them. One is providing well-maintained sidewalks that meet federal requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Goodrich noted the city gets calls from residents who use wheelchairs that can't easily navigate because some areas don't have ramps. As a result, some in wheelchairs use driveways to access streets, where they travel in busy streets to reach their destinations.

"It's important for people to safely get around the city," she said.

Another fan favorite is reducing the number of vehicle crashes. The city is already engaged in this work through an international program to eliminate crash deaths and serious injuries called Vision Zero. Goodrich noted it's separate from the Mobility Action Plan, but it's mentioned several times in the draft document.

Not enough money

The study noted there’s not enough money in the budget to take on all 46 strategies at once, so the top priorities will be tackled as funds become available. When that happens, the report made it clear the dollars will be spent on making streets safer.

“Safety on the streets was the No. 1 priority and overarching theme throughout conversations with the public,” reads the draft plan.

To highlight the challenge, the report noted 44 deaths and nearly 500 serious injuries in Worcester from vehicle crashes over the past five years. Speeding was a major factor in the crashes, said the study, and the City Council is looking at a proposal to lower the city’s speed limit from its current 30 mph to 25 mph.

"We heard over and over again from residents asking for safety improvements. We hear their frustration,” said Goodrich. “Now that there’s a plan with strategies and action items, we are starting to act. We’re here to respond to the needs (that residents) told us.”

Bike/walk veteran feels unsafe

Karin Valentine Goins was part of a group of community leaders and city staff that helped developed the Mobility Action Plan. Goins co-founded WalkBike Worcester to promote walking and biking in the city, and said she usually feels unsafe over the 30 years she’s biked and walked in Worcester.

She called the city's transportation plan “thorough” and “exciting,” and said all plans of this type have to start with keeping people safe. "We have to have safe streets to keep people alive and promote livability of communities. We have to start with safety as the basis," she said.

Enough community input?

Work on the plan started a year ago and public input was solicited from 13 focus groups attended by 178 people, nine community events that attracted more than 350 participants, and an online multilingual survey completed by approximately 300 residents.

In a city of 207,000 residents, some might wonder if there was enough community input built into the plan.

Goodrich believes the city put in a solid effort. “We did a lot to reach people where they are in different ways." Besides the online survey and focus groups, Goodrich said the city had representatives at community events that catered to a wide swath of the population.

“I feel we did a good job,” she said, adding more community input will be sought as strategies expand in the future.

Connectivity/sustainability/equity

Besides improved safety, the plan mentioned three additional primary goals. One is connectivity, meaning various modes of transportation (bikes, buses and walking routes) are linked to create increased efficiency. Another is sustainability, including moving away from transportation options that rely on fossil fuels. Plus, investments in green infrastructure, like planting more trees to improve air quality and lower temperatures in the city’s inner core that suffers from the heat-island effect.

Equity is also a primary objective in the Mobility Action Plan, with an emphasis on efforts to improve transportation access in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Those communities have historically been left out of the loop in transportation decision making and resources.

“The fact that the city is looking at equity, I congratulate them on it,” said Stephen Teasdale, executive director of the Main South Community Development Corp..

Teasdale said the city reached out to his nonprofit as it gathered input for the plan. In a dense neighborhood like Main South, Teasdale said it’s important to develop ways to stop the problem of cars cutting through residential streets to avoid traffic congestion on Main Street. He mentioned Worcester’s inner core needs safe bike routes, plus access to public transit and electric charging stations.

Top of the list

Of the 46 recommended priorities, the need to develop a bike and mobility network scored at the top of the list. Worcester has 7 miles of on-street bike lanes and 3 miles of off-street paths, but the Mobility Action Plan noted it’s tough getting around the city on a bike because many of those lanes aren’t connected.

Goins believes the city will achieve an interconnected bike system, but “it’s going to take awhile. The key is implementation and adjustment to changes."

Other goals that scored at the top of the plan's priority list include expanding safe transportation routes to schools and incorporating Age- and Dementia-friendly Design Guidance in City Code and Design Manuals. On that last point, the report said sidewalks need to be compliant with all requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, crosswalks must have push-button technology and timers that allow enough time to safely cross streets, and curb ramps that include tactile elements for the visually impaired.

Worcester hired two consultants, Nelson/Nygaard and Utile Architecture and Planning, to lead efforts to develop the Mobility Action Plan that cost $195,690. Most of the total was paid to Nelson/Nygaard, according to Stephen Rolle, commissioner of the city's Department of Transportation and Mobility. His department's budget provided roughly $45,000 of the consultants' fees. The rest came from a Climate Mitigation Revolving Fund tied to the city's Department of Sustainability and Resilience.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester Mobility Action Plan outlines strategies for safer streets