Safety Audit Released

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by Bobby Blair 10/21/12

In short order, Department of Transportation returns safety audit of downtown Holliston...

Unlike the Classification & Compensation Study which residents voted for at town meeting and which has been only partially completed by Stone Consulting Inc, a new safety audit by the state's Department of Transportation (MassDOT) arrived back in town in under two weeks and cost the town ziltch.

Prior to the audit report from MassDOT, the Holliston Police Department conducted two crash analyis studies in the downtown area between 725 Washington Street (Congregational Church) and 830 Washington Street (Middlesex Saving Bank). The crash data provided by the police department stated that the area between Washington Street and Hollis Street put the area within the top 5% of high crash locations within the Metropolitan Area Planning Council region.

The Department of Transportation Safety Audit is lengthy, 27 pages with numerous suggestions and considerations for those in local government to consider. The suggestions are broken down into safety pay-offs, time frames and costs. The suggestions are further broken down into locations. As an example: Location #5: Hollis Street/Charles Street/Washington Street Intersection.

Consider installing "Do Not Block Intersection" signs and pavement markings to prevent queued traffic on Washington Street from "blocking the box". This should be considered carefully, as concern was expressed that this may result in an increase in "courtesy crashes".

Consider a change in traffic control at the intersection. Possible changes could include a roundabout or a traffic signal. A study should be undertaken that considers all three intersections along the corridor to determine what configuration would be optimal to improve safety without adversely impacting capacity.

While the Department of Transportation has addressed traffic signals downtown, the audit appears to suggest rather than mandate traffic lights at Hollis and Washington and Central and Washington. The ball regarding downtown safety is now in the town's court. In the "Responsibility" column supplied by the DOT, the onus comes down to the Town of Holliston.

Posted in Police/Fire, News.

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Comments (13)

Why not make central street and exchange street each one way? All traffic heading west stays on central, all traffic heading east go on exchange. connect the two using the parking lot and land beside the fire station or maybe union street. It expands our downtown to include more parcels on exchange and solves pretty much all of the issues at washington and central.

- Jeff | 10/26/12 11:12 AM

Nooo! No roundabouts. That would only make things worse. I sincerely hope we go with a traffic light.

- Andrea | 10/24/12 6:00 PM

Suppressing Washington and central streets into tunnels would allow for all of downtown being connected via a beautiful greenway all the way to the gazebo and eliminate the traffic issues.

- Mike | 10/24/12 9:32 AM

Obviously there's a big problem with trying to turn left from Hollis onto Washington during rush hours. One issue is visibility. It's hard to see if Washington is clear on the right side because the cars in the right hand lane of Hollis keep inching forward to see if they can go (turn right). This forces the car on the left hand side of Hollis to inch forward as well. Neither car can see with the other in the way, so they both keep up this battle of inching forward into the crosswalk, on an on. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I almost wonder if somehow forcing cars to stay in one lane on Hollis (rather than allowing them to split into a right-turn/left-turn side at the intersection) would help improve both safety and traffic flow. It might be worth a thought.

- Adam | 10/24/12 9:18 AM

Chief Moore - We used to have officers in the square during night rush hour. Can we try this again at least as a trial for a week or two? I've heard the reason for removing the officer because you are too "busy" but if they should park in front of Gulf station maybe or even in the center of the intersection they could respond fairly quickly. It worked then, why wouldn't it work now? Give it a try at least!

- Brett | 10/24/12 6:48 AM

Well, i think that the hard hats are part of their uniform. Also a roundabout would destroy downtown as an entity. If we installed that it would ruin the look of downtown as well as cause even worse traffic. I personally think that a traffic light could fix thing. Or we could move the crosswalk that connects fiskes to Superette. that is the real problem.

- Andrew Mades | 10/24/12 6:41 AM

If there is no traffic light to be put up, how about at least a couple of police officers downtown during the rush hours. At least then drivers could safely make turns when needed.

- Yvonne Giargiari | 10/24/12 4:43 AM

They are wearing hard hats because they don't want a head injury when they get hit by a car in the crosswalk while conducting their investigation!

- Pat Duffey | 10/23/12 6:56 PM

Is this document available to the public?

- Brett | 10/23/12 3:23 PM

I never understood why those people in the pictures were wearing hard hats. Was this a construction site? Were hailstorms predicted? Low-flying birds?

- David Bastille | 10/23/12 10:22 AM

I am glad that the town is carefully considering options at this intersection. I am concerned about a traffic circle as I find that the one in downtown Framingham shows that few people know what the traffic rules are for circles (roundabouts). It is a very hard decision but clearly the walk lights downtown do not work as they are too high up for cars that are close to the pedestrian walkways. And of course all decisions are part financial which makes it even harder.

- Shelley | 10/23/12 7:23 AM

OK, so now that the DOT has recommended either a roundabout or a traffic light, let's see what we can get done. I don't know if there's room for a roundabout without modifying some of the buildings at the intersection of Central and Washington, and it still won't fix anything at the intersection of Hollis and Washington, but a TRAFFIC LIGHT sure would. Just a couple of years ago people cried about the traffic light proposed at Woodland/High/Washington interection, and now I think we can all see how nicely it works there. So let's Light It Up downtown!

- Light Up My Life | 10/23/12 6:06 AM

I find it not so surprising that the findings are as such. I mean, really folks...ultimately who's responsibility is downtown safety? It is the whole town's. If you want to prevent crashes, slow down, get off your cell phones, let cars get in and out of the main line of traffic, yes, I know you are in a hurry, so is everyone else. But isn't a little courtesy in the long run a far better use of your time that filing a crash report with the police? Pay attention- stop hitting pedestrians! Pedestrians... stay in the cross walks. Yes, the are still not the safest but they are much safer than dashing out from between cars across a dangerous road. I am not sure why the town government is taking the risk of injury and death to pedestrians by not putting in a full service traffic light or two. I think years back it had to do with the historic standing of the downtown. But that historic look was blown out of the water at the building of a big self service gas station. So go ahead and modernize the rest of the area, make it safe, make it tasteful. To put all this work and energy into an almighty third party audit is a colossal waste of time on everyone's part. Nothing new was revealed. Holliston, put on your big girl panties and fix it. Norfolk has tiny rotaries that slow people down. Holliston's main street is one of the widest ones in existence I believe. There is room for this kind of rotary at Hollis/Washington. Make Washington/Central a no left hand turn area during rush hours from both directions. People will adjust if they have to go down a block in order to make the turn. They will only make the mistake of forgetting this rule once or twice before learning to go another way. This is of course if the town is not convinced traffic signals are not worth the investment in our safety... I guess I just don't get why it is still a mystery to solve.

- Kate Lamontagne | 10/23/12 5:57 AM

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