New School Zone Speed Signs Arrive Near Lynch School

The good news is that school zone 20MPH signs with flashing yellow lights and radar speed display went up in the last day or so. This alone is worth applauding. [Applause]

The bad news is that people are still driving fast -- well over 20 MPH during the school zone hours. Here are my recommendations:

• While the yellow flashing lights are only on during the school zone hours, we should leave the radar speed display operating 24hrs. The speed you are traveling should flash if you are traveling more than 20 MPH during the school zone hours (when the yellow lights are flashing). It should do the same when drivers are traveling over 30MPH during non school hours.
• We should have frequent police ticket writing campaigns -- we could pay for the officer with the ticket revenue. We need a lot of tickets to be issued in the beginning to send a message and then random ticketing over time (once people know that the police often enforce the school zone).
• Let's add a camera to the sign, disintermediate the ticket writing officer, and have the tickets mailed directly to violators.

Need a Parking Lane -- People Don't Know Where to Park

Prior to the sidewalk construction project, I confirmed with the town manager and the board of selectment that parking would continue to be permitted along Pond Street after the new curbs were installed. In fact, I have learned in subsequent conversations with Winchester Police officers that all four wheeles should be on the asphalt -- not up on the sidewalk or our lawn.

Unfortunately, most people seem unwilling to park on the street and instead choose to drive over the curb and park on the sidewalk or on the grassy strips -- despite the reflective posts on each end, this car parked right on my strip where I am trying to re-grow the grass.
It seemd that a simple solution to the ambiguity about where to park that will not only keep our sidewalks and grassy strips clear of cars but will also help calm traffic on Pond Street, would be to add a parking lane on the south side wherever the road is wide enough. It is certiainly wide enough in the streatch in front of our house (see my prior post on adding a parking lane). It would also cut down on people honking at our guests who park as they should on the street.

Here are a few other examples of how confused people are about parking...

When did Pond Street get reclassified as a Double Yellow Road?

Glad to see the lines on Pond Street were repainted, BUT, when/why was the road reclassified as a double yellow line road? If you look at photos from earlier this year (below) you will see that Pond has been a single yellow line road (as recently as April 20th). And, you'll notice that when you cross into Woburn, it becomes single yellow again.

The double yellow line gives drivers the impression that Pond is a higher volume/higher speed road than it is. I have also heard that home appraisers value homes on roads with double yellow lines less than with single yellow so (if true) there are real economic damages as well as the safety issues. I imagine that that the line reclassification was a mistake rather than a conscious decision to make the road feel like more of a highway (Note that no notice of this change was given to Pond Street residents).

I also should note that the new lines are a little premature considering that the Board of Selectmen are considering "re-striping" to add a bike (or parking) lane as part of traffic calming measures.

I don't want to be too critical, but would prefer to see the paint go to the missing crosswalk across Chesterford at Pond Street and hold off on making new "line policy" particularly when that policy (line locations) is under consideration for change.

Solar Crosswalk Sign

Check out this solar powered crosswalk sign (located near Progress Software in Bedford). It has little LED lights around the sign that flash continuously to catch a driver's attention. Cost effective as it does not have to be connected to municipal power.

Time to get out the paint...

UPDATE 4/15/10: Existing crosswalk locations have been recently repainted but locations that were missing crosswalks (ie Chesterford at Pond Street) still do not have painted crosswalks.

When the sidewalks were re-done on Pond Street, really nice ADA crosswalk ramps were added, but many of the crosswalks were never painted (photo above is Chesterford Street with only a stop line, no painted crosswalk).

The new crosswalk accross Pond Street to the Horn Pond recreation area is faded and needs re-painting. Other towns use a textured paint that is raised and reflective (see Woburn's crosswalk just down the road). Seems like this would stand up to the wear and tear of snow and ice. A raised crosswalk would too, of course.

Innovative Speed Bump

I saw this innovative speed bump technology outside MGH and thought that something like this might be good for the Chesterford crosswalk accross Pond Street. While probably more expensive than asphalt, it looks like it would be easy to install. The crosswalk is faded already...

Big 18-Wheeler Truck Turns Onto Pond Street

I was getting gas at the Hess station when I saw this 18-wheeler turn onto Pond Street. While the street is a "no heavy truck" road, it is only marked at the Lake Street end in Woburn.

I also recently noticed that the "yeild to pedestrians" sign in the middle of the crosswalk at Chesterford looks like it has been run over.

I suspect that either a truck like this ran over it (as he likely could not have made it around the sign) or one of the really fast cars/trucks took it out. Bottom line is that more needs to be done to calm traffic and enforce existing laws. In this case, a raised crosswalk with center median would do the trick.