Sunday, June 5, 2022

BTV's Main Street Needs Light Rail to Return to a Great Street of Early 1900s

 


Some Reflections on the Burlington Main Street Project—   

         Between South Union and Battery Street

 

Carcentricity over the decades strangled our City core—Downtown and Old North End/King Maple neighborhoods. You know, the areas with 25 mph streets which host the majority of the 20 Vermont high crash intersections, the center of pedestrian, bicyclist and car occupant injuries, many serious and some fatal.  Walkable and bikable still remain out of reach for our urban core—safety must rule for all modes!  

 

Now with traffic calming and led by roundabouts there is an antidote to continued decline and hope to shift many current core trips from car to transit and walk/bike, building out from our sacred pedestrian Marketplace.  The opening of our first roundabouts this summer is a harbinger of the kind of change to transform our streets.

 

The subject of safety and walkabiity for our core streets could not be more timely as upwards of 530 apartments/condos alone either under construction including the 430 City Place nearing a start! 

 

We escaped the “ring road,” the interstate roadway from I-189 through the South End, the waterfront, through ONE to the belt line and final connection via Colchester, Essex and Williston to I-89—that last section, the Circ died after a US District Court fight in the early 2000s.  The other ring road vestige from the 1950s, the Champlain Parkway after a 3-year delay by the City finally reaches the US District Court where carcentricity in Burlington may finally be laid to rest.

 

The high traffic and crash rates in Downtown/King Maple/IONE show in history how transportation, however well intentioned, ends up in racial and low-income injustice as all these areas—nor surprisingly—are the epicenter of our lowest income residents and our largest community of color. 

 

The Main Street project is put forth as part of a transformation but this project lacks clarity, particularly in the area of safety.

 

On the $20 million+ Main Street project from a number of standpoints there remain lots of questions and about lack of public discussion, engagement and outreach on the Main Street project.  And absolutely no analytics!

 

The project approved by the voters was opposed by those with three major concerns: (1) lack of attention to the four of seven high crash intersections which now generate about 70 injuries per decade at a value of about $3.5 million, almost two injuries per intersection per year; a questionable financing source, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which can put all Burlington taxpayers at risk; and (3) questionable sewer improvement in the “ravine” rejected in the past as not passing benefit cost tests versus alternatives and spreading public benefit to private interests.  These questions remain.  The vote did not impact these questions other than make them more important.

 

The “Great Streets” brand got inserted in the Burlington Transportation Plan competed in 2011.  Few realize it dates to that time.  

 

The first question might be where is there a Great Street of the this brand for any to see or look up to look into ones completed? 

 

Main Street has only one short reasonably level block-and-a-half section between Prospect Street and Union Station—it starts at So. Winooski and ends at about the Flynn where the grade, again, increases.

 

Second, one has to look at the larger aspect of Burlington’s Main Street.  Main Street by geography presents a challenge not addressed in any way by the project—it is a long hill with sharp grades except for the So. Winooski-Church Street block. This means absent a compensatory support like light rail which did operate from about 1890 through 1929—modes like walking and bicycling conditions have less potential than flat streets like North, North Winooski, and Church Streets to reach “great” status.

 

Actually Vermont features one "Great Street" today which anyone and visit and enjoy--Main Street Manchester Center!  This street got to "great" status in 2012 with completion of two roundabouts (one a mini-roundabout and one really a "bridgeabout" over the Battenkill River) so when added to 1997 third roundabout Main Street reached greatness as the first roundabout corridor in Vermont.  Already touting itself as the "5th Avenue of the Mountains," Manchester Center along the roundabout area features an unending tourist shopping and dining choices, incomparable scenic quality of the surrounding mountain heights, and yes the river with a now meandering pedestrian trail from Main/Depot roundabout eastward along Depot Street, the other main shopping leg being designed to move up to "great" street with roundabouts status.  Other downtowns and and village centers would be adivsed to copy the Manchester Center 1995 plan which created the blueprint coming to reality today. 

 

Few recognize the importance of the College Street free shuttle continuing today on the economics of businesses from the waterfront to the UVM Common—think of the YMCA, the Marketplace, and all retail and service businesses along its length.  The free shuttle with reasonably frequencies acts to flatten College Street—there is no similar route on Main Street other than the University Mall very frequent run—but it only goes down hill from So. Union to Battery on Main Street—so of minor benefit.  A similar renewal of pedestrian and bicycle access along Main Street (light rail today would include a car with walk-on bike corrals) with a return of light rail last studied in the 1990s with either College or Main Street the initial first routing between the waterfront and UVM/Medical center for first phase.  It is important in any change to Main Street to retain vehicle travel way width to accommodate a standard light rail vehicle and space on either side for a motor vehicle to pass.  

 

Again, only a frequent bus or light rail vehicle can Main Street reach it former status early in the 20th century as a “great street.” Consider what cable cars do to flatten California, Mson and Hyde Streets in San Francisco—clearly high grades than Main Street but reflective of the principles at work.  

 

Also consider the advocacy of Rep. Curt McCormack and many other residents for a cable car oriented to tourists between the waterfront (likely Union Station) up Main Street to the UVM campus. Such a service can work side by side with light rail and both need to be kept feasible in any Main Street redesign. 

 

Local Motion properly identified the need for uninterrupted bicycle facilities in the current design.  Now there are 2-way bike lanes on both sides of Main Street except for the south side between So. Union (at Edmunds public schools complex) and South Winooski.  Am fully supportive of their concerns.  A petition can be found here:  

 

But this raises a question—why 2-way bike lanes on each side of street, why not one lane on one side, 2-way on the other and reallocate the about five feet for plaza/pedestrian business use?

 

Since bicycling up or down Main Street for any distance is unlikely to generate the flow of College Street  (less traffic, few signals today), then why is this street a high priory other than to have safety addressed at its high crash intersections and obsolete signals replaced on a priority basis over time. 

 

Note that the current signals versus roundabouts increase green house gas emissions by about a third.  And unfriendly signals depress both walking and bicycling potential.  Signals delay everyone compared to a roundabout and build up much longer queues which hinder emergency vehicle movements.  

 

It is clear now we need to reduce speeds on many of our urban streets to 20 mph in order reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes.  Most of our high crash intersections are on 25 mph streets in downtown and ONE.  Enabling the setting of 20 mph speed limits will require Legislature approval and a change in minimum speed limit setting by town and cities dating likely from before World War II. 

 

 

Tony Redington

Walk Safety Advocate

TonyRVT99@gmail.com

@TonyRVT60 TonyRVT.blogspot.com


Thursday, May 19, 2022

Pine Street Coalition $125 Parkway Update May 18--Rally Events June 11 and June 18!

 Pine Street Coalition Update on the Now $125 Million Fatally Flawed Champlain Parkway—May 18, 2022

WCAX covers Pine Street Coalition lawsuit May 10—report by Melissa Cooney https://www.wcax.com/2022/05/10/champlain-pkwy-opponents-seek-injunction-stop-june-construction/  Coalition injunction to stop July construction. Tony Redington interviewed.

Note 1: Burlington no longer has an obligation to pay back even a postage stamp to Federal Highway Administration in regard to Champlain Parkway now the Infrastructure Act signed by President Biden in November removes power to force state or locality of payback.  In fact it appears even under the old law we did not owe a dime. The Federal Highway and VTrans threat was a false flag! The Coalition has asked the City Council Transportation Committee to look into this and obtain a detailed legal opinion.
Note 2: Champlain Parkway which among other elements cuts King Maple neighborhood in two, lacks an inch of safe bicycle accommodation, lacks a single inch of sidewalk now reaches a cost of $125 million!  Construction cost about double long term estimates. See attached estimation.  Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) another $26 million! RIGHTway cut Parkway cost by millions!

In this update:

Pine Street Coalition Files Amended Complaint, First Steps of Injunction to Stop Any Parkway Construction as US District Court Lawsuit Begins May 16!

Call to Action Time to Take to the Streets!—Mark the Dates: Noon Saturday June 11 at File Case Sculpture/Flynn Coop Housing; and Noon Saturday June 18 for a King Maple, a “Honk and Wave” at Pine St/Maple St Intersection

Youth Movement—Champlain Elementary Englesby Brook Study Students Support RIGHTway’s Saving Acres of Trees, Englesby Brook and Natural Areas Preservation/Protection—May Testify at US District Court

Infrastructure Act signed last November deleted language allowing Federal Highway to seek any payback from Burlington for Parkway expenditures

                                   ———————————-

Pine Street Coalition Files Amended Complaint, First Steps of Injunction to Stop Any Parkway Construction as US District Court Lawsuit Begins May 16! Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) filings at US District Court this week were the first paper to move since we filed June 6, 2019. Papers were filed Monday, May 16, and include first steps for an injunction on any Parkway construction now set for July 1 until litigation ends.  The almost three year delay occurred as the City/VTrans through the now known totally empty and insulting steps to apply new Environmental Justice rules.  Yes City/VTrans ignored all the lengthy comments, meetings, etc. The City/VTrans concluded—though they had totally failed to meet the letter and spirit of the new rules (our position)—the box they checked in 2009,13 years ago, continued to be sufficient!  The 2 1/2 year process did in fact certify King Maple neighborhood a community of color but no need to change a whisker of design change. Then City/VTrans went lickety split to bid and OK’d construction ($45 million, about double budgeted) the single bid less than four months later!  An unfortunate example of government reenforcing distrust in it performance!

Call to Action Time to Take to the Streets!—Mark the Dates: Noon Saturday June 11 at File Case Sculpture/Flynn Coop Housing; and Noon Saturday June 18 for a King Maple, a “Honk and Wave” at Pine St/Maple St Intersection Let’s gather to express our opinion on the Parkway at two June Saturday events as the US District Court mulls action to stop the July 1 Parkway construction!  We have just gone through 3 years delay as the City/VTrans went through the nothing burger on the deeply serious Environmental Justice regulations—King Maple is a blatant example of transport racial injustice!  Low-income injustice too!  Let the Court know what our community thinks of the current design of the Champlain Parkway!

    Saturday June 11—Flynn Ave at Filecase Sculpture Opposite Coop

We will have speakers and exchange views and ideas on the Parkway
across from City Market South End on Flynn Ave at the Filecase Sculpture.  Consider bringing a sign, help us let our District Court know we do not want this harmful, hurtful and 1950s design in an era when we want to preserve our natural areas, stop installing unsafe signals and roadway, keep our connection to SBTV, etc.  We actually thinks a sidewalk and separate and safe bicycle accommodation would be a good idea a la Vermont’s Complete Streets law (not an inch of either on the Parkway!)!  Hope to see you there!  More to come on this. Will need some volunteers to make signs, organize, etc.

    Saturday June 18—King Maple Neighborhood—Pine St/Maple St
         Intersection

A good old fashioned “honk and wave” event.  With this all-way-stop intersection we can all be reasonably safe as pedestrians—each car at the stop signs can read our signs like “No Parkway through King Maple,” “No Way for Parkway Transport Racism in King Maple!,”  “No 22% and 37% Parkway traffic jump!”  We will need some sign makers—four signs allows us to give the message to all four approaching vehicle streams!!  Parkway installs a traffic signals at this and the next intersection at King upping speeds, forcing kids to push a button and wait around to cross streets, colored lights all day and night onto adjacent housing, etc., etc.   

Youth Movement—Champlain Elementary Englesby Brook Study Students Support RIGHTway’s Saving Acres of Trees, Englesby Brook and Natural Areas Preservation/Protection—May Testify at US District Court An expert in natural areas who instructs in schools, Judy Dow who is Abenaki, has been working with group of 5th graders on scientific learning experience with adjacent Englesby Brook including how wildlife cannot traverse the Pine Street tunnel—similar to what is in the Parkway.  They students want to testify at the Court on the importance of the RIGHTway keeping Englesby out of another pipe, preservation and protection of the Brook floodway and the roughly one mile narrow natural corridor enabled by a scaled back road design between Home Ave and Lakeside Ave.


Infrastructure Act signed last November deleted language allowing Federal Highway to seek any payback from Burlington for Parkway expenditures The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill deleted language that in the past allowed Federal Highway Administration to on a discretionary basis seek repayment of federal transportation from states but only to the point of completing right-of-way purchases.  Since about 2012 Federal Highway (FHWA) and VTrans have threatened payback demand if the Champlain Parkway did not go forward—even though opponents have always sought making the project safe, climate positive, and avoid cutting King Maple neighborhood in two (to cite just three changes the Coalition seeks!).  In fact, the base right of way for the project from Shelburne Road through to Lakeside Ave was mostly obtained in the 1980s and all expenditures one planning and engineering since are not eligible for repayment!  That issue is moot since the new law deletes the power of FHWA to obtain payback of any funds spent on highway projects.


Thank you all for your continued support and counsel!


      Tony Redington
      Walk Safety Advocate
      for the Pine Street Coalition

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Pine Street Coalition May 1 Champlain Parkway Update

 
    Injunction Against Parkway Construction at US District Court
    May 16!

The first US District Court papers and motions since the Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) first filing since June 6, 2019 due by May 16, and the Coalition will file a motion for an immediate injunction on any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  

    Fortieth Burlington Joins in Coalition Lawsuit!

Fortieth Burlington LLC (40th) which owns the major modernized office space in the historic cotton mill, Innovation Center on Lakeside Ave, joins shoulder to shoulder with your Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) in the US District Court Champlain Parkway lawsuit calling for a strong supplemental environmental document process or an entirely new one--the current 2009 document clearly now obsolete and stale.  

The Coalition and 40th immediately seek an injunction against any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major Environmental Impact Statement update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the transportation reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”  That reality includes seriously addressing safety, climate change, racial and low income environmental justice, community economics, and major changes in practically all rules, laws, regulations and practices as well as changes on the ground since the final public hearing on the project almost 16 years ago!  

    Disappointing City Council Action

Certainly we are disappointed—but not discouraged—by the City Council action approving a contract for part of the Parkway from the sole bidder at a cost of $45 million, a figure about 100% higher than budgeted by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. This shows overall construction costs at about twice the $35 million full Parkway construction estimate!  Note the Pine Street Coalition/VT Racial Justice RIGHTway would cut about $8 million in the required tax dollars!  

    The Lawsuit

The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major 2009 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”

The stale, obsolete 2009 EIS contains not one sentence on addressing climate change, not a paragraph addressing safety for users, and identifies no issue of racial and low-income equity.  Yet, even after a three year Environmental Justice new rules application the City and VTrans (not a whisker of Parkway change!) utterly failed in application of the rules and ignored unanimous opposition at the one public hearing on the Parkway cutting in two the King Maple community of color, also designated low-income by Gov. Scott.

We all know the basics of the lawsuit

The threat of payback required of the City never made sense as such a requirement still remains discretionary on the part of the Federal Highway Administration—no law absolutely requires it.  That the City Council operated out of fear rather than the best interests and safety of its residents and businesses is troubling.  Much less the issues of racial and low income justice, air quality and climate change, Englesby Brook protection, a newly found endangered species (including the Northern Long Eared bat), and simple waste—all inherently negative in the current harmful Parkway design.

An example of waste is the building of two streets instead of one, Briggs Street and Parkway for an entire block.  Add a sidewalk to a “new” Briggs (now the mud flats), the Parkway and shared use path (mixes 20 mph ebikes and pedestrians including toddlers, those with canes and walkers, etc.)—there are upwards of 125 to 150 feet width of pavement!  This is twice what is needed!  This section is so bizarre Petra Cliffs and perhaps even our City Market Coop have been quietly informed that the City will just put in a driveway across the “new” useless Briggs Street directly onto the Parkway!  Public Works Director Chapin Spencer in the 2016 presentation to the neighborhood where not a word was allowed spoken by the 100 attending could not have been more correct when he said if the project were designed to today it would be different—those words resonate even more today, six years later!

The Flynn Avenue/Briggs Street/Parkway intersection analyzed by the now adjacent City Market Coop also fails with an average vehicle delay almost two minutes (110 seconds) at afternoon peak.  Pine Street Coalition focuses changes on the ground and numerous changed laws and regulations as the basis of its case to call for discarding the current obsolete design. But there is also substantial waste with about 1.75 lane miles of no longer needed roadway and ongoing maintenance costs which would be added to the capital costs of the Parkway.

Unfortunately our Department of Public Works retains little credibility on the Parkway safety or safety on our streets with its decade long record of no serious attention to even one of the City’s twenty high crash intersections on VTrans current list.  All but one of those 20 intersections are signalized and three lie on the edge of the low-income/people of color King Maple neighborhood. With almost one in five of the Vermont high crash intersections on our mostly 25 mph streets, Burlington streets are among the most dangerous in Vermont to walk, bike or travel by car.  About weekly a pedestrian or cyclist is injured along two car occupants.

We can and must do better when spending $130 million now and counting for our South End.  We must “do it right the first time” and install a street, almost a corridor long dedicated pedestrian only sidewalk, and a “bikes only” 2-way bikeway—in short, a roadway we can love!

Informed and focused efforts to alter a major roadway project succeeded early this century in the City supported fight against the Circumferential Highway, and in the Keene, NH citizen battle against a $80 million bypass expansion which was converted to three roundabouts with even better safety and service!

Thank you all for your continued support and counsel!

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Expanding Church Street Marketplace Walkability

 
            A Downtown Burlington Proposal: Four Mini-
     Roundabouts Adjacent Church Street Marketplace—
   Providing Comfort to Pedestrians, Aiding Climate Change   
       Emissions Reductions and Freeing Vehicle Traffic

    …Extending Church Street Marketplace walkability
    two blocks west along Bank and College Streets to Pine Street

Recently at a family luncheon at Burlington’s Friendly Toast on Saint Paul Street three members were shaken up when crossing the all-way stop Saint Paul/College intersection as a vehicle failed to properly yield almost hitting them. One moved by a walker. This spurred some thinking about the four all-way-stop intersections immediately west of the Marketplace and how inexpensive mini-roundabouts could transform the block of Saint Paul/College/Pine/Bank Streets into a much more comfortable and less stressful walking environment for both pedestrians and drivers at very little cost using mini-roundabouts.

While “normal” roundabouts with central islands can cost up to a million dollars or more each, the mini-roundabouts price is often in the tens of thousands of dollars, really reflecting their listing as a traffic calming measure.  Also, Burlington has historically employed all-way stop intersections which traffic engineers will testify are the safest for pedestrians.  The mini-like its senior regular roundabout—both dating from their inception in the 1960s in the UK—also provide equivalent safety to the all—way-stop intersections while providing some very important additional benefits: reduced delay for cars and trucks, less stress for pedestrians, greater capacity for traffic and climate change and other pollutants reductions of up to 20-30%.  The cut in emissions alone can amount to annual thousands of gallons of fuel consumed from the simple act of reduced stopping and then accelerating to speed when no cars or pedestrians are present at the intersection. 


When two or more vehicles arrive at stop signs about the same time at an all-way stop intersections, not only does this cause some “who got there first” issues for drivers to figure out before moving through the intersection, but a similar an even more uncomfortable situation for pedestrians who can must deal with cars literally able to invade their crossing from all directions before the plus vehicles approaching towards the crossing they are to negotiate. The mini-roundabout solves all these conflicts—cars yield to pedestrians immediately in front and yield only to a car already in the circular travel way.  Mini roundabouts will in many cases also provide the pedestrian with a small median space, a refuge. between lanes so only one lane of traffic is dealt with at a time.

In the case of Burlington, while it boasts mostly 25 mph streets, as a practical matter it has 20 high crash intersections (19 signalized) or almost one in five on the Vermont Agency of Transportation current high crash list of 111! Unfortunately it is, perhaps, the most dangerous City in Vermont to walk, bike and travel by car.  It experiences weekly about two vehicle occupant injures and one pedestrian or cyclist injury. At its intersections, seven have died since 1998—three pedestrians, three vehicle occupants and one cyclist.

The intersections bordering the Marketplace and downtown are especially problematic.  The east side border is South Winooski Avenue which has the reputation among engineering consultants as “death valley” with both Pearl Street and Main Street on the high crash list (Main Street the number one high crash intersection in Vermont!).  Another Marketplace adjacent intersection along Main St at Saint Paul St not only is on the Vermont high crash list but also the site of a T-bone fatality not many years ago.

On the west side of the Marketplace there is an opportunity to provide safe, comfortable for all, and high level of service mini-roundabouts to enhance the context for the many businesses and services there, accommodate hundreds residents of new apartments (some 100 under construction and about 400 slated for City Place), and make the trips of thousands of tourists who chug up and down the hill on College St between the waterfront and the Marketplace just  more enjoyable.

Vermont already has one mini-roundabout built almost a decade ago in Manchester Center—it is part of the first Vermont “roundabout corridor” composed of three roundabouts.  The AARP sponsored Pine Street Workshop in 2014 identified mini-roundabouts as the preferred choice for intersections up and down the corridor in great part because of right-of-way constraints which prevent the installation of full service roundabouts with central islands.  The Department of Public Works (DPW) in recent years considered a mini-roundabout demonstration at North St/North Winooski (a Vermont high crash intersection) and a second a block away at North Winooski/North Union/Decatur.   

Each mini roundabout will offer benefits.  First, every mini roundabout enables a vehicle to reverse direction, a very important feature with so many tourists trying to find their way around downtown.  Second, the mini-roundabout not only calms traffic with a raised center area and horizontal diversion (no straight line vehicle movement through the intersection possible) but it also discourages stop/rapid acceleration movements since there is little or no delay between intersections—and of course, no stop required if no pedestrian is present and no car in the circular travel way.  Ease of travel for larger trucks and regular Green Mountain Transit buses are responsible for for particularly higher emission cuts and benefits from mini-roundabouts versus all way stop or signals. Note traffic signals have a markedly poorer record in injury generation for all modes as well as higher injury severity levels than all-way-stop or roundabout intersection.   

Consider for a moment each mini suggested here.  For the Saint Paul/College the mini will enable easy access/egress to the parking lot at the southwest corner (former Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop) and, again, comfort to the regular and tourist traffic up and down College St.  Ditto at College/Pine intersection where movements in an out of the Key Bank ATM on the northeast corner along with parking traffic adjacent will be easier.  The Pine/Bank intersection awaits a third leg of Pine St north as part of the City Place development. This intersection now is a two-way corner where pedestrian movement is particularly uncomfortable and a mini will help define two pedestrian crossings as well as car movements.  About 100 apartments on the west side of Pine Street—49 apartments set for occupancy this December built by Nedde Real Estate in a new building and about 50 apartments on the west side within the People’s United Bank, also under construction.

The other intersection—Bank/Saint Paul—is a 3-way stop with a fourth leg entry/exit to NBT Bank building parking areas—eventually the continuation of Saint Paul St to Cherry St as part of City Place development. There is considerable pedestrian traffic with banks, restaurants and service businesses along all four streets. Currently the pedestrian traffic includes considerable traffic connected Burlington High School housed at the former Macy’s store.

The cost of mini-roundabouts is small. Generally they do not require moving any significant amount of existing curbing.  Relocation of crosswalks may be done and, of course, circular raised central areas installed.  Mini-roundabouts share the current US and Canadian now about 9,000 roundabouts remarkable pedestrian safety record—not a single pedestrian has ever been killed on a marked roundabout crosswalk through 2020. Here in Burlington at it 75 traffic signals two pedestrians have died since 1998 on marked crosswalks. Here in Vermont our five downtown roundabouts in 52 years experienced only a single pedestrian injury resulting in just bumps and bruises.  Overall, our five downtown roundabouts average one injury per decade, 0.1 injury per year. The 20 Burlington high crash intersections average 1.4 injuries per year!   Roundabouts reduce speeds and speeds are the enemy of pedestrian safety!

It takes little time to design and install mini-roundabouts. Using competent designers, involving the community, and installation can be measured in months, not years. Note that too often advocates for bicycle and pedestrians end up unnecessary constraining vehicle travel.   

Note the proposal for use of mini-roundabouts along the first five of six cross streets intersections on west end of North St in the Old North End, all five on the Vermont high crash list.  The “Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Community Street to Safest with Roundabouts” also employs mini-roundabouts (see blog February 28, 2022 at TonyRVT.blogspot.com ).

Finally, the effect of the four downtown mini-roundabouts is magnified by the fact that on both Bank and College Streets at Saint Paul to the east there is just one block to the Marketplace which itself slows traffic to a crawl and reenforces the traffic calming by the four mini-roundabouts—and vice versa, the Marketplace intersections at Bank and College benefit from slow approaching traffic from the west and
 drivers traveling west through the Marketplace mostly aware of the ease of movement once past Church Street.  


Tony Redington
Walk Safety Advocate
TonyRVT99@gmail.com  @TonyRVT60
TonyRVT.blogspot.com

4/30/2022

Photo of Manchester Center, VT mini-roundabout on Main St


Thursday, April 14, 2022

Burlington Sidewalks are "Shared Paths"

 
Burlington Sidewalks are “Shared Paths”—Aim for Ped Only
                                Sidewalks!

    —The differences: North Ave Plan, Champlain Parkway and
     Parkway RIGHTway

Confusion exists on what is a sidewalk, a bikeway and a shared-use path here in Burlington.

Actually with only one exception all Burlington sidewalks are shared-use paths as bikes are allowed to travel there along with pedestrians.  As a senior most of my bike riding has been on sidewalks as there are practically no protected bike lanes (cycle track) yet in the City.  Streets with painted bike lanes are not safe in general, and prohibitively unsafe for less skilled and older/younger cyclist who all are consigned to the sidewalk system.

Note we can exclude here any discussion of the Burlington Bikepath and similar pathways.  The Bikepath is a recreation path—it is not a transportation facility, a facility marked by being lit and maintained year round.

The one exception in the City to bicyclist use of sidewalks technically are the adjacent streets of the Marketplace, South Winooski Ave from Pearl to Main Streets, Main St from South Winooski Ave to Saint Paul St, Saint Paul St from Main St to Bank St, Pearl St from Saint Paul St to South Winooski Ave. Add to this the Marketplace itself, though cyclists do use the Marketplace in the early a.m. when service vehicles and trucks are allowed from Pearl St to Main St.




      North Avenue Plan (2014) Creates the Mold

While not intended, the North Avenue Plan (North St to Plattsburgh Ave) created the mold of how to define the role of sidewalks and bike accommodations on our City streets. With a goal of “highest safety for all modes” the Plan calls for cycle track end-end-to-end along with a separate sidewalk while employing safest-for-all-modes roundabouts at key intersections.  Cycle track would be in the form of a 5 foot wide lane on each side of the Avenue with either a curb or other physical separation from the vehicle lanes.  

What was not discussed by the Advisory Committee in the North Avenue plan process or the plan document was the implication that cyclists would with few exceptions would be expected to use the cycle track and the sidewalk—instead of being shared-use—becomes a dedicated pedestrian sidewalk.  The term used in addition to “complete” street in accordance to the Vermont complete streets statute during the North Ave plan was “equality street.”  Equality street described each mode—pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle—being provided its own dedicated, safe, mobility space.  

So when the cycle track and roundabouts complete the renewal, nay transformation, of North Avenue the sidewalk there is no longer “shared-use” but dedicated pedestrian space with cycling mostly prohibited.

    Champlain Parkway/Champlain RIGHTway and Shared-use

The grassroots Pine Street Coalition arose in 2015 while the Burlington Walk Bike Council reviewed reviewed the complete lack of basic walk and bicycle accommodation in the Champlain Parkway design.  Pine Street adopted the reasoning of the Walk Bike Council and in 2016 the Walk Bike Council endorsed the Pine Street “Redesign Guidelines.”  

The Pine Street design, now its “Champlain RIGHTway” (RIGHTway) design features a dedicated two-way bikeway and sidewalk from Queen City Park Rd through to Kilburn Street/Curtis Lumber, about two miles.  Pine Street and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance (VRJA) position on the current design of the Parkway is leave Pine Street from Kilburn Street to Main Street alone, and instead bypass King Maple via the railyard to Battery Street Extension, now the $20 million federally funded Rail Enterprise Project (REP).  Pine Street and VJRA RIGHTway extends the sidewalk and dedicated bikeway along the REP to connect to the Bikepath at Maple St.

In addition to the dedicated bikeway, RIGHTway recommends additionally cycle track along the Parkway route.

What has not generally recognized is the RIGHTway dedicated two-way bikeway means no pedestrians!  And the RIGHTway sidewalk adjacent the bikeway does not allow cyclists!  This design approach copies the mold first set in the 2014 North Avenue Plan.

The RIGHTway approach follows the highest level of safety approach in the North Avenue Plan, a “complete” and “equality” for all modes street.  This mirrors the new US Department of Transportation Roadway Safety System Strategy, our national Vision 0 approach to no serious and fatal injuries.  The national strategy requires addressing racial and low income equity and climate change as part and parcel of safety infrastructure investments. The strategy includes a “Safe System Approach” and “Safe System Intersections” when investing in roads and streets.  The point here is that the current Parkway “shared-use path” pales in comparison to a dedicated sidewalk and dedicated two-way bikeway in RIGHTway.  

         Pedestrian and Bicycle Classification

There is no readily available pedestrian and bicycle facility classification in general use today.

A sidewalk classification might be: Class 1—Pedestrian Only and Class 2—Pedestrian Shared Use.  For cycling: Class 1—Bicyclist Only (bikeway or cycle track) and Class 2—Bicyclist Shared with pedestrians.

Intersections are critical for safety, the roundabout being the standard as it cuts serious and fatal injuries by about 90%.  The only other intersection which provides equivalent safety is the all-way stop.  Signals are to be considered only where a roundabout is unfeasible.


Tony Redington
Walk Safety Advocate
TonyRVT99@gmail.com






 




Sunday, April 3, 2022

Champlain Parkway Update--Court Starts, Racial Equity Ignored, Price Doubles?, Private Group Joins Lawsuit

 Pine Street Parkway US District Court Lawsuit Begins,
     Finally, May16

City Ignores King Maple Neighborhood Certified
      Community of Color with Zero Change in Parkway     
      Blatant Environmental Injustice Design After
      Almost 3 Years Public Review

City Quietly Puts Parkway to Bid—Only One Bid  
     Received Two Weeks Ago, About Doubles the
     Overall VTrans/City Estimated Total from $30
     million to as much as $60 million! (Yes, Pine Street
     RIGHTway would cut project construction costs by
     about one quarter!)

Fortieth Burlington, LLC Owner of Major Lakeside
     Office Complex, Innovation Center, joins Pine
     Street in Litigation at Vermont’s US District Court


April 2, 2022


Good Day Pine Street Grassroots Members:

Please note recent highlights as the Champlain Parkway moves from an almost three year delay to apply new Environmental  Justice regulations (not a whisker of change in the harmful Parkway design!) to the Pine Street US District Court lawsuit filed June 6, 2019 (D-Day).  And the apparent ill-timed rush to Parkway construction by the Mayor Weinberger administration. The one bid received March 18 signals a doubling of estimated construction costs!  The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and VTrans estimates of $30 million for construction based on a partial Parkway construction bid of $40.1 million suggests construction costs doubling to about $60 million!

If you have not yet signed the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance petition to support our joint Champlain RIGHTway, please take a moment to visit the petition site provided at the end of this message.  And continue to encourage our City Councilors and Legislative representatives to push for the exciting RIGHTway and its benefits (and save up to 25% of the construction estimate!) instead of the current harmful to the South End design!

When asked the question of who makes the decisions on the Parkway, one is reminded of a conversation between then former Secretary of Transportation Sue Minter following a campaign appearance in her campaign for governor when she told Pine Street leader Jack Daggitt in response to questions about the Parkway design, she responded simply “this is a City project!”  Minter herself is said to have nixed roundabouts in the project in a 2015 meeting.  Still, the point she makes is the Mayor of Burlington is the key person in decisions making regarding the Champlain Parkway.  The Parkway is a City project!!

    Tony Redington
        Walk Safety Advocate
    for the Pine Street Coalition
 


Pine Street Parkway US District Court Lawsuit Begins,
     Finally, May16


Grassroots volunteer Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) filed at US District Court here in Burlington on D-Day June 6, 2019 with the purpose of stopping the obsolete, harmful Champlain Parkway design and obtaining a re-design which responds to safety for all modes, addresses climate change, and most important, relieves not adds to the overburden for King Maple neighborhood.  The City now opposes and always has the current design cutting in two the now certified community of color King Maple and adding 22-37% more traffic and installing two injury generating traffic signals to an already overburdened low-income, community of color area.  

Now the plaintiffs, Pine Street and Fortieth Burlington, LLC, Innovation Center owner face off with the City, VTrans and Federal Highway Administration with first legal brief filings due by May 16.   

City Ignores King Maple Neighborhood Certified
      Community of Color with Zero Change in Parkway     
      Blatant Environmental Injustice Design After Almost 3
      Years Public Review

It remains puzzling after almost three years and a unanimous strong public hearing opposition and comments against the Parkway cutting through the now certified King Maple neighborhood as a community of color—just why not a whisker of design change in this overburdened neighborhood where 32% of residents have no car access and are pedestrian dependent?

A major change this year is the National Roadway Safety Strategy document from the US Department of Transportation (January 2022)

https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS

This policy document calls for a “Safe System Approach” and “Safe System Intersections” (primarily roundabouts) to transport funding to address “preventable” serious and fatal roadway injuries—there are at least 21,000 preventable fatalities each year on US roads, about 30 in Vermont.  (US plunged from first in world road safety in 1990 to18th today, ped deaths up 51% since 2010 with two recorded in Burlington.)

The new national strategy expressly makes both racial/low-income equity and climate change the two vital companion objectives in safety spending. The National Roadway Safety Strategy ties directly to 2021 Executive Orders https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafetyEquityClimate  EO 13985 on Equity and EO 14008 on Climate Change.

It is difficult to conceive of a roadway investment in Vermont which could be more damaging to racial and low income equity and the climate than the current design of the Champlain Parkway!

City Quietly Puts Parkway to Bid—Only One Bid  
     Received Two Weeks Ago, About Doubles the
     Overall VTrans/City Estimated Total from $30 million to
     as much as $60 million! (Yes, Pine Street RIGHTway
     would cut project construction costs by about one
     quarter!)


On March 18, Burlington opened the one bid for construction of just part of the Champlain Parkway between Main Street and Home Avenue—that bid, reportedly $40.1 million alone exceeds the $30 million City estimates on the books for about three years.  The $40.1 million when added some time in the future of the balance of the Parkway from Shelburne Rd to Home Ave (“Road to Nowhere”) means the current Parkway design will double to about $60 million the current estimates.  

This number also calls into question the $20 million estimate for the Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) which just about all in the City favor being built first to bypass the King Maple neighborhood already overburdened with traffic, pollution, and social disruption of high traffic volumes.  The City is responsible for 100% of REP costs over $20 million.

Some say the Weinberger administration ill-timed bid maneuver was to avoid facing the court challenge and avoid a possible injunction stopping construction.  That occurred at US District Court in the Circumferential Highway lawsuit when VTrans let contracts followed by the Court rejected the environmental document and the project died—same issue here with the Parkway?  

Fortieth Burlington, LLC Owner of Major Lakeside Office
     Complex, Innovation Center, joins Pine Street in
     Litigation at Vermont’s US District Court


It is news that the owner of Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue took action recently to also oppose at US District Court the current Parkway design and seek a quality, modern South End transport facility which is safe, addresses climate change (Efficiency Vermont was a longtime tenant) and corrects the overburden for the low-income and community of color King Maple neighborhood.
Pine Street and Innovation Center have worked closely in the past in regulatory and State courts to obtain a responsible Parkway design.

Attached please note a simple example of a street, a dedicated bikeway, and sidewalk.  This is the type of design Pine Street and Vermont Racial Justice Alliance call for between Queen City Park Rd to Home Avenue and from Home Avenue to Flynn Ave.  It is the RIGHTway!  It is “doing it right the first time!”

Please stay safe!

    Yours truly,


    Tony Redington
    for the Pine Street Coalition

 

What can you do?

Sign the Stop the Champlain Parkway Project and Choose the Champlain RIGHTway Petition: http://chng.it/tS9Ts5FjDx   SafeStreetsBurlington.com

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Communuty Street to Safest with Roundabouts

 September 1, 2021 Rev. 3 February 28, 2022


Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Communuty Street to Safest with Roundabouts



Historic Old North End North Street: Low Cost Conversion of the Most Unsafe and DangerouS  Vermont Community Street to Vermonts Most Safe, Low Speed, Pedestrian Friendly Street!


                                                  Summary 


One thing parents well know, there is no safe route to Sustainability Academy/Barnes Elementary School along North Street in Burlington. 


This policy analysis recommends mini roundabouts along Vermonts most unsafe and dangerous street right here in Burlington—North Street from North Avenue to the west to North Union to the east with five of six cross intersections on the states high crash list of 111 statewide. The roundabout is the only intersection type on the Federal Highway short list of pedestrian safety proven countermeasures.” A mini roundabout, is the most likely application in most of the North Street intersections meaning about one injury crash per intersection every few years versus 0.6 injuries per year per intersection now in the most recent tabulation. North Street roundabouts might approach the record of the other five downtown roundabouts of one injury per 50 years (half century) per intersection. And injuries at a roundabout are less severe than at signals. Right now the five high crash intersections total expanded to a decade of an estimated 32 injuries compares to one injury per decade tabulated at the five downtown roundabouts!


The five Vermont downtown roundabouts with the 52 years of data in Manchester Center {3}, Middlebury and Montpelier averaged just one injury per decade—0.8 car occupant injury, 0.2 pedestrian injury, 0.0 bike injury—none serious. Roundabouts can be expensive as costly utility work often is involved in a project unrelated to the roundabout itself. However, with mini roundabouts used where there are right-of-way constraints, a factor present on North Street, the mini can often be installed with the same safety performance of the bigger sibling for as little as $50,000.  The mini roundabout cost is in the neighborhood of traffic calming.  It is not far from the cost of three sets of one concrete cylinder flower pot and two white plastic stakes ($17,000) installed at several Burlington intersections. Besides you do not have to tend to the flowers at a mini roundabout! 

 

pastedGraphic.png



For the historic Old North End (ONE) dating from the early 19th century, North Street remains the most active community centered street featuring numerous retail, business and institutional land uses. Sustainable Academy (Barnes) Elementary School is just a block from the now Old North End Community Center, formerly Saint Josephs Elementary School. A variety of restaurants, convenience stores, residential buildings, ethnic retail markets,Vantage Press, Dion Locksmith and Bissonette Properties, as well as the locked Elmwood Cemetery are all found between along North Street between North Avenue and North Union Street. As well, there are four high crash intersections—all four cross intersections located between North Avenue (west terminus of North Street) and North Union Street to the east. Of the six intersections North Avenue, Park Avenue, North Champlain Street, Elmwood, North Winooski and North Union Street are on the VTrans latest high crash intersection list—the only cross intersection along the stretch not on the State list? Elmwood/Intervale and Park Avenue both considered a problem intersection in the neighborhood. 

North Street Important Demographics A key to understanding the dilemma of North Street lies in great part to the unusual demographics of Burlington. In a state with 71% of households owning their home and 29% renters, Burlington is almost the opposite 36% owning their home, 64% renter households. VT Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski and Rep. Curt McCormack who has headed the House Natural Resources and Transportation Committees represent the poorest in the City including practically all the ONE and some of King Maple neighborhoods which contain the only census tracts with excess of 80% with low and moderate incomes, King Maple with the highest concentration of persons with brown and black skins in the state—and the 30% representative district households have no car access and therefore are pedestrian and transit dependent for their transportation. The safety on streets like North Street is absolutely essential. In fact Burlington overall has 26% of its households with poverty level incomes with King Maple and ONE along with Winooski (29% of households with poverty level incomes) together representing the historic economic engine of Vermont, now a corridor of poverty. (A poor family of four means a weekly income at most of about $500.) North Street—Site of Many Injury and Non-injury Vehicle Crashes The four high crash intersections in a five year period averaged 3.8 injuries a year all four intersections in five years (19 injuries all four intersections over five years) plus 3.2 reportable fender bender crashes (Property Damage Only” or PDO) (64 all four intersections PDO crashes in five years). See table 1. North Street clearly is a victim of the growth of the New North End (NNE) which sent increasing numbers of vehicles destined for downtown, mostly via North Ave, Park Avenue and North Champlain Street. North Winooski and North Union intersections carry the historic traffic continuing today between downtown Burlington and Winooski, a route dating from the days of Ethan and Ira Allen. 


The North Winooski Avenue-Riverside Avenue was not only the Allens era route, it was the route of the first trolley line built in the 1880s and continued in operation until 1929. With North Street featuring four of just 111 high crash intersections in the Vermont list, clearly it is a prime candidate for being the most unsafe and dangerous community street in Vermont! ONE leaders have been concerned about safety along North Street. It was a discussion item act the Arts and Business Network ( https://www.oneabn.org/ ) several years ago but it had to wait in line for the Winooski Corridor study now completed. In 2020 a Department of Public Works draft plan included a demonstration of a mini roundabout at the high crash North St/No. Winooski Ave intersection along with a second at Decatur/No. Union/No. Winooski. That demonstration was cancelled for the current construction year from lack of funds, reportedly, and a Public Works representative said there is no consideration of a North Street corridor study. 


Why Traffic Signals which Generate Crashes, Congestion and Delay? All five cross intersections along the west end of North Street (North Ave, Park Ave, North Champlain and Elmwood/Intervale, and North Winooski) are signalized while North Union is a three-way, all-way stop (North Union is one way northbound). Historically as vehicle traffic surged post World War II urban streets quickly became locations of congestion and the only choice to relieve the congestion which handled more traffic than simple signs: the now ubiquitous traffic signal. Traffic engineers had little choice as traffic increased, the traffic signal or limitless congestion and endless queues. But there was a price to shifting from signs to signals—injury crashes increase, particularly for the vulnerable—those who walk and bike—would increase as would car occupant injuries. 


Prime factors in increased injuries and crashes—signals versus all way stop intersections, for example—include higher speeds of vehicles traveling through on green and vehicle which fail to stop which cause, for example, the deadly T-bone crash. For pedestrians the high speeds at signals contribute to the 20% higher pedestrian casualty rate at signals versus all-way stop control and equally safe roundabouts (source, FHWA). So, careful protocols were established to minimize the tradeoff of safety and mobility, called signal warrants.” This was the status of traffic management until the advent of the modern roundabout which began to make its appearance in the United States (and Vermont) in the 1990s, getting its start in 1966 in the U.K. While slow to become the standard it is today, NY State Department of Transportation and two Canadian Provincial Ministries of Transport (British Columbia and Alberta), for examples adopted regulatory roundabouts first” policies between 2005 (NY) and 2010. A U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) definitive study in 2001 determined American roundabouts cut serious and fatal injuries by about 90%.”


A half century of Vermont downtown roundabouts found a single pedestrian injury (not serious), four non-serious car occupant injuries and 0 bicyclist injuries. Consider the five injuries in a half century of service for downtown Vermont roundabouts versus four North Street intersections generating 3.8 injuries a year! As important the stunning tabulation this year of record of now 9,000 roundabouts in US and Canada has yet to experience a single pedestrian death on a marked roundabout crosswalk!  This compares to Burlington during just the the 1998-2020 period at just 75 signalized intersections, 2 pedestrian hit in crosswalks were killed (Barrett St crossing at Dominos and Shelburne Street crosswalk at Home Ave). 


As important, Burlington, Vermont and the nation have been falling behind in road safety to a terrible degree. When the first roundabout in the US was built in 1990, the US and UK were safest in road fatalities per mile of travel in the world—UK still remains at the top—while the US has dropped to 18th with 21,000 pandemic level of excess road deaths yearly. Even in covid 2020 when travel miles dropped 12%, fatalities per mile of travel increased 8%! As concerning is the trend since 2010 in pedestrian deaths—up 50% with Hispanics 50% more likely to die per population than white, Black people almost twice that of white-non-Hispanic. 


The two Burlington pedestrian deaths during 2010-2021 (and continuing in 2021) contributed to the upturn in national pedestrian deaths—up 46% in the latest reports. The US Congress, statestransportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations like Vermont single one, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) are well aware of the dismal road death pandemic and in 2013 U.S. laws required all federally funded highway projects to reduce fatal and serious injuries, mandating state and CCRPC to adopt five year objectives for reductions, revised during subsequent five year intervals. Unfortunately for Federal Highway Administration as well as most states and metros (including VTrans and CCRPC) with about two years of the first five year reduction targets in face of the surge of deaths and serious injuries in 2020 while vehicle miles declined 13%, most all will likely fail their first five year targets! 


Note that all neutral and advocate groups for safety—American Automobile Association (AAA), American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and GEICO—have as first on their list or near the top of actions for safety, the installation of roundabouts and conversion of existing traffic signals to roundabouts. The new Vermont road death factor: an estimated 22 deaths per year from long term exposure to allowed tailpipe admissions. While road fatalities in recent years about 60 per year, we have learned recently in University of North Carolina research that there is another set of road deaths directly related to long term exposure to tailpipe emissions. ( https://ie.unc.edu/2021/06/08/new-study-identifies-leading-source-of-health-damages-from-vehicle-pollution-in-12-states-and-washington-d-c ). As a summary of the report states: states experienced substantial health impacts from vehicle emissions and can gain health benefits from local action.” The recent study involving a number of northeastern US state identified the numbers by state and the annual loss of life in Vermont, 22 deaths, expands the annual Vermont road death number by about a third to about 80 deaths yearly. 


While electric cars, hopefully, will be the dominant vehicle type years from now, certainly for a generation the long term deaths from internal combustion cars will continue to exact a toll on Vermonters. It is very likely that built up urban areas—like Burlingtons ONE and King Maple neighborhoods—with congestion and vehicle delay causes a higher level of long term exposure fatalities than living and/or working in a country setting in Charlotte. Since roundabouts cut intersection emissions from vehicles up to one third, the roundabout aids in reducing the pollution load to residents and workers in our admittedly congested city streets. 


An Affordable Investment Quickly Makes North Street a Model of a Safe Community Street —Applying the lessons learned from the AARP Vermont Pine Street Workshop (2014) and Environmental Justice Process in the Champlain Parkway (2019 to date)


First and foremost the North Street intersections in question are best served by roundabouts, likely a mini roundabout like Vermonts first and only one in Manchester Center. The mini roundabout has the same, or even better, safety record for all modes. Second, any consideration of roundabouts along North Street needs to have all six intersections evaluated in a reasonably short corridor study—the study is not to make signals better, it is to establish roundabout feasibility and utilize experienced (read national practitioners) as part of the consultant team. Actual design of roundabouts for the corridor could be done in a matter of weeks, certainly within a 12-month period. 


An analysis of 5-year and 1-year injury and "Property Damage Only" (PDO) crashes at the five North Street intersections is instructive. This can be calculated easily from the 5-year recent VTrans High Crash Location Report series, 2012-2016. The cost of a fatality used is $1.5 million, $88,500 for an injury and $11,300 for a PDO. Since mini roundabouts are cheap, crash cuts and injury cuts (72% injury cuts alone) with an overall well over $1 million for all five intersections in a year more than covers the five intersections made walkable and safe!  This ignores the real benefits of tens of thousands of hours of reduced vehicle and pedestrian delay (real dollars for business trip delay), stress on all users, and increased economic activity enabled for nearby businesses. Add to this the traffic signal caused excessive climate heating emissions and the now known 25 yearly estimated Vermont deaths from a lifetime of vehicle exhaust pollutants.   









Table 1: Vermont Agency of Transportation High Crash Location Report 2012-2016 Data on the Five North Street Burlington State High Crash Intersections


#23 [Place on list of 111 Vermont high crash intersection list—1 worst, 111 least worst] North St/North Champlain St 0.220 [intersection name and milepost] 5 years/21 crashes/5 injuries/17 PDO [years of data recorded, total crashes, total injuries, property only crashes {PDO}] ($30,219–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 21(4.25); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $635,000 ($126,900 per year) 


#40 Park St/North St 0.280 5 years/19 crashes/4 injuries/16 PDO ($28,147\–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 19 (3.8); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $535,000 ($107,000 per year)


#46 North Winooski (Alternate 7)/North St 1.620 5 years/19 crashes/3 injuries/16 PDO ($23,489–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 19 (3.8); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $446,000_($89,200 per year) 


#87 North Union St/North St 0.300 5 years/15 crashes/0 injuries/15 PDO (3-way-stop) ($11,300–estimated cost per crash) Total Crashes (per year): 15 (3.0); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $170,000_($34,000 per year)


#110 North Ave/North St 0.180 5 years/20 crashes/4 injuries/17 PDO ($27,305 estimated cost per crash) Total Crashes (per year): 20 (4.0);  Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $546,100 ($109,220 per year)



Cost really is not a significant factor as roundabouts at the five high crash intersections would certainly reduce crash/injury costs by about half in a five year period, a $2,177,000 value based on half the total cost estimates, above. A set of roundabouts would likely cost as little as $50,000 each, certainly far less than $2,177,000 million. As analyzed elsewhere a roundabout replacing a high crash intersection on the 20 Burlington intersections in the VTrans list would conservatively result in one less injury per year, a saving of $88,500 and two less PDO crashes, a saving of $22,600—or $111,100 per converted intersection per year. An installation of a mini roundabout on a high crash North Street intersection would easily be paid for in savings in about a year, assuming about $50,000 base cost for a roundabout. Some of those savings are to police department costs of incident management, reports, etc., and other City savings include the trips by emergency equipment and personnel to crashes and then to UVMMC. 

Table 2: Summary Data on All Five North Street High Crash intersections (2012-2016) 


Total Crashes 90 total all five intersections:


18.0 crashes per year all five intersections


3.6 crashes per intersection per year —16 injuries in five years, 3.2 injuries per year all five intersections, 0.64 injuries per year per intersection


84 property damage only (PDO) crashes, 16.8 PDO crashes per year all five intersection, 3.4 per PDO crash per intersection per year


Total estimated crash cost for 5 years all four intersections: $2,177,000 ($435,000 per year), $87,000 per intersection per year


Note: There are many crashes involving no injury which never “reportable,” i.e., never enter the crash counts by police departments and the state.  If estimated total crash is $3,000 or below, no reports are necessary. 


  


Tony Redington February 28, 2022 TonyRVT99@gmail.com