North Pleasant Street Closed From McLellan To Triangle On August 22
Photo: amherstma.gov
Source: amherstma.gov
Public Works Crews will reconfigure North Pleasant Street, converting it to one way northbound between McClellan Street and Triangle Street on August 22. The work will take place between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. On-Street Parking will be moved from the west side of the road to the east side of the road.
- No on-street parking on Monday
- Vehicles will be towed
- Southbound traffic will be prohibited
- Follow new signs and traffic patterns
- Local traffic only during reconfiguration
For questions or additional information concerning this project contact the Amherst Department of Public Works at 413-259-3050 or at publicworks@amherstma.gov
Time to paint-your-own southbound bike lane there?! 😉
Rob: There are numerous examples of low-volume streets where motorized vehicle traffic is one-way and bike traffic is allowed two-way and it’s not necessary for there to be marked bike lanes for the contraflow bike traffic for these streets to be safe for bicyclists. Liza Burkin wrote on this topic for her M.S. thesis at Tufts (link to her thesis here: https://www.proquest.com/openview/e662afdead5bbe60f20b09d37329875a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y) and there have been other studies as well.
A main concern I have at the moment about the N. Pleasant Street change to one-way northbound for the McClellan-Triangle Sts section is that even though there are signs on the north end alerting drivers to not drive southbound through that section, some drivers apparently don’t see them and turn and go southbound anyway. I saw some drivers do so yesterday — yikes! Change can take a while to get used to, but hopefully publicity and outreach, including when college students move back to town for the fall semester, will help.
Great, Tracy, but is there any indication (sign?) that southbound cycling is OK there? How will northbound motorists react to such a cyclist? How will the “authorities” react?