The consultant suggested reducing lanes from 4 to 3, and adding a center turning land and bicycle track.
Jason Schreiber from Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates of Boston presented proposals to improve King and Main streets in Northampton to a crowd of more than four dozen Wednesday night.NORTHAMPTON - One way to ease congestion on King Street and accommodate the more than 40,000 vehicles that use it each day would be to reduce the number of lanes from four to three, and add a center turning land and bicycle track.
That was one of the proposals Jason Schreiber from Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates of Boston presented to a crowd of more than four dozen people Wednesday evening. The company was in town for three days to meet with residents, city officials, business owners and to talk about ways to improve traffic on King and Main streets.
This was the first comprehensive look at traffic in decades. With limited funding, the city focused on these streets because what happens on them affects what happens throughout the city, Wayne M. Feiden, director of planning and development, said.
Other proposals include extending sidewalks along Main Street and the south end of King Street, shortening crosswalks to make crossing faster and reducing the timing of traffic signals to move traffic through more quickly.
Another recommendation is to employ reverse-angle parking, an experiment the city attempted several years ago but abandoned.
In 2007, the city tried reverse-angle parking on Main Street with spaces between Gothic and Center streets. Schrieber said the sample was much too small to see the effectiveness of it. He said more communities are adopting it across the country. Feiden said he was pleased with the recommendations that will be included in a report to the city. He said it helps city officials measure the changes in other parts of the city against them.
He said, though, the changes won’t come quickly. They city will need to build consensus and then look for money, which is not readily available. He said the city will likely work on one project at a time.
He said officials planned to go to the Community Preservation Act Committee on Wednesday night after the traffic meeting to seek $100,000 to create a park in front of City Hall. That, he said, fits right in with what consultants recommended in terms of shortening crosswalks. The park would shorten the crosswalk across from City Hall and reduce the curve of traffic from Main onto Crafts Avenue.
Resident David Ruderman said he liked all aspects of the proposals. “I’m a Northampton resident, I bike, I drive.” He said what was proposed on King Street made sense. “Nothing can solve everything,” he said.
“It’s all good ideas for us to think about,” said former public works committee member and former Ward 3 councilor Robert C. Reckman. He too liked everything about the proposal.