Picture Main Street

Q: I hear this project will reduce the overall number of parking spots downtown by about 57. It feels like it’s already hard to find a spot.

A: Over the years, we have commissioned several studies to look at our parking downtown, and all have agreed that the plan includes sufficient parking for downtown. The parking garage (with a bridge leading right into Thornes Market in the heart of downtown) always has spaces available, and the first hour is free. Numbers show that about 12% of the people who park there pay nothing, 20% pay just 75 cents for two hours, and another third pay $1.50 for three hours!  

Northampton offers an experience as a downtown and offers a place where people want to come and hang out. The Picture Main Street project builds on that with more space for people to hang out, dine on the sidewalk, and walk or roll side-by-side down the sidewalk.

• In 2014, Walker Parking Consultants found:

“Overall, the parking system had capacity on our survey days, and that finding is consistent with informal observations made on other visits and with information provided by staff. Our off-street, public occupancy rates were very close to counts done in 2000 for a previous study (we found 83 percent peak occupancy, whereas the earlier study found 85 percent peak occupancy)...Our counts find that under most typical conditions, a driver should be able to find parking within a few blocks.”

The recommendations of this report largely mirror many of the measures enacted by Mayor Sciarra in March 2023 to address the REAL problem - circulation (the fact that cars stayed too long in prime parking spots at the wrong times).

• In 2022, Stantec parking expert Jason Schrieber shared in his parking system analysis:

“In peak hours, Main Street is at full capacity and off-street lots are significantly below 85%. This observation can be reversed by adjusting pricing, rather than supply. When front door “Main Street” spaces are priced higher, more remote and less utilized spaces can be priced cheaper, or in times of low-demand, free.”

It was many of the recommendations of this report that were implemented in March of 2023.  

Based on feedback from parking managers, enforcement officers, and downtown visitors, Mayor Sciarra believes that Main Street parking has improved. We're now collecting data for a six-month review of the changes made in March and will soon update residents. If more modifications are necessary, the city will make them in the ongoing cycle of using data to inform good policy. 

Q2: I love the angled parking spaces. It’s too hard to parallel park.  

A2: There will be many angled parking spots on Main Street and on all of Crafts Avenue.

That said, studies show that angled parking is unsafe. This is part of why Main Street is on the list as one of the most unsafe streets in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Most cities in the USA have parallel parking in their downtowns. In fact, even in Northampton, most of our main arteries are parallel parking - upper and lower Main Street, Pleasant Street, King Street, Gothic, Center, Strong… and so on. People park in all of those locations.

There are also 1,000 front-in parking spaces in lots just off Main Street and the E.J. Gare Garage. We must embrace the idea that the city’s success is not built on being able to park directly in front of a given store on Main Street; it’s built on being a great place to visit, shop, see a show, and eat. We need to focus on what that means in the modern economy and build more of that. The Picture Main Street project is a critical, once-in-a-generation opportunity to use state funds to help us achieve what’s next. 

Q3: Angled parking is easier for visitors with disabilities.

Q3: Some definitely think so, and some prefer parallel. It depends on the individual and how their vehicle is set up to assist their disability. We’ve heard from fans of both approaches, which is why the Picture Main Street plan includes accessible spaces on Main Street that are both angled parking and parallel parking style. 

The Picture Main Street plan also increases the number of accessible parking spots on Main Street by two additional spaces.

Q4: But 57 spaces? That seems like a lot!

A4: We have tested this reduction in spaces over the past three summers. The current outdoor dining program incorporates 57 parking spaces. This is a live test of what it’s like to live without those spaces, and it’s worked to bring people back downtown since the pandemic. The outdoor dining and other vibrancy activities downtown have restored the city’s local receipts revenues, such as meal taxes - more space for more people really works!

Take a look at the following article, “Toronto’s Curbside Patios Made 49 Times More Money Than the Parking They Replaced“

Q: Why do we need bike lanes on Main Street?  

A: Since 2015, Northampton has been a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Complete Street Program. “A Complete Street is one that provides safe and accessible options for all travel modes - walking, biking, transit, and vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities.” This is already baked into Northampton’s culture and governing philosophy - and the Picture Main Street project is just implementing the latest and best in urban design to realize these worthwhile goals.

From the first survey conducted in early 2020 and after several initial community meetings, the following top 5 goals were identified for the redesign:

1. Café seating with wider sidewalks
2. Protected bike lanes
3. High-visibility crosswalks
4. Art crosswalk
5. Street closure

Dedicated bike lanes are great for everyone.  They result in fewer injuries, improved traffic flow, safer sidewalks, they’re better for the environment, and they make people healthier.

Q2: We’ve got a great bike path that goes right next to Main Street on the rail trail - why can’t cyclists just use that? 

A2: They can, and they do - but cyclists have a legal right to use Main Street (and every street) safely.

It can be hard to change our way of thinking about our roads, but we must. The fact is bicycles, pedestrians, and cars use Main Street - and each has an equal right to a safe amount of space to enjoy. Bicycles should be able to ride down the street and have a chance to pull up next to their destination on Main Street just like a car does. It’s not equitable to say they should be relegated to just the bike path.  

The good news is that there’s plenty of room for every kind of transportation people want to use. The science shows that we can accommodate separated bike lanes on Main Street without harming traffic flow.

Current and future bicycle and pedestrian access must be incorporated, and the community has overwhelmingly supported (66%) separate bike lanes on Main Street. This, coupled with the engineering analysis required for MassDOT’s pre-25% submittal that describes safety tradeoffs for different treatment types, led to the separated lane being selected above others by the traffic safety specialists. 

The Picture Main Street plan reallocates space that previously has only focused on wide, inconsistent, and dangerous vehicle lanes and assigns it to be shared with the other road users so that it’s genuinely a Main Street for everyone. Again, while today’s Main Street caters to vehicles, the redesign will ensure that Main Street is equitable, viable, and accessible for all. Numerous stakeholder meetings, surveys, and community meetings were held to evaluate interests and tradeoffs selected by residents. To see what people have shared, please go to the StoryMap, scroll down slightly, and click the "What We've Heard" link. 

In addition to the reasons stated above, in April 2023, the new Vulnerable Road Users laws went into effect in Massachusetts. These laws include a variety of measures intended to increase roadway safety in Massachusetts. In accordance with MGL c. 90 §14, in passing a vulnerable user, the operator of a motor vehicle shall pass at a safe distance of not less than 4 feet and at a reasonable and proper speed. As a result of this new law, the installation of separated bike lanes has become an imperative inclusion in the Picture Main Street design to ensure the safety of cyclists and to comply with state law.

Q3: I’ve heard that separated bike lanes aren’t safer - and that there’s a study out there that proves it.  

A3: Some have raised concerns about bicycle/pedestrian conflicts with a separate lane. The lane will elevate cyclists and make them more visible to vehicles and pedestrians. Cyclists will thus be easier to see by pedestrians than if they were in the lane of traffic blocked from view by parked cars.

Others point to an article in Forbes Magazine claiming that separated bike lanes are not safer. This article was written by a person who works at a conservative think tank focusing on energy and the environment and who has written extensively advocating for increased use of fossil fuels, more pipelines, and looser environmental regulations, including a book titled Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Destroying America's Economy. The study she cites in the article was a master’s thesis, not a peer-reviewed study. Just over a month and a half later, the same magazine - Forbes - published a story entitled, “Protected Bike Lanes Increase Safety, Save Money And Protect The Planet, New Report Finds.”

The Federal Highway Administration recently (February 2023) released a summary of its report about Crash Modification Factors (CMF) for separated bike lanes, using Cambridge, Massachusetts, as one of the study locations. The research found that, at a 99% confidence interval, separated bike lanes are expected to reduce crash rates by approximately 50% over conventional bike lanes.

In 2016, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) cited “Studies from cities across America show that adding protected bike lanes significantly increases bike ridership on those streets with rates ranging from 21% to 171%. Additionally, People for Bikes states, 'On D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue protected bike lane, bicycle volumes increased 200 percent after the facilities were installed (District Department of Transportation, 2012),' and 'The average protected bike lane sees bike counts increase 75 percent in its first year alone (National Institute for Transportation and Communities).'

Not only are protected bike lanes safer, but they also promote economic growth in many ways such as fueling redevelopment to boost real estate value, helping companies score talented workers, making workers healthier and more productive, and increasing retail visibility and sales volume. More information can be found here.

Q: This is such a huge undertaking that it’s common sense to set up a trial run to ensure this will work. 

A: We do not have the ability to conduct a demonstration project that would put all the pieces together accurately. We are moving toward 100% design details based on the volume of study, community input, community goal setting, and engineering expertise regarding road diet and safety improvements.  

There is no part of the Picture Main Street design that will be implemented for the first time with this project. These are tried and true strategies that have been tested by engineering experts all over the country. Northampton is not the first municipality to implement this type of roadway redesign. Similar implementations have occurred throughout the Commonwealth, and the design and solutions have been thoroughly tested and proven effective. 

For example, there are existing downtown streets in Northampton with greater traffic volumes than Main Street that have two lanes with parallel parking (King Street, Lower Main Street, Pleasant Street), which shows us that traffic can be accommodated and function with emergency access.

The proposed redesign is not just about physical changes to the street. The project involves interrelated measures that would be impossible to implement in a trial run. Some of these measures would require long lead times. If we only do the easy stuff and leave out important elements, a trial run will not show how the system will actually work. Rather, it will be a waste of time and money. 

Aside from the technical reasons why this won’t work, listed below, it takes time for people to get used to using a new layout and to develop new habits. The period of a trial run would be a little like the first week of actual plan implementation, only worse. Think about the roundabouts that have been successfully implemented here and elsewhere. When they were first proposed, many people were horrified and convinced they wouldn't work. And when they first went in, there was plenty of confusion as people struggled to learn how to navigate them. We all know that the roundabout at the Coolidge Bridge has forever changed Friday afternoon coming from Amherst. 

To further explain why a trial run is not simply a low-cost matter of placing cones in the street to see how it works, here are just some of the specific measures that would have to be part of a realistic trial run:

1. Signal timing - one of the main causes of congestion on Main Street is the timing of traffic lights. Changing signal timing involves engineering analysis and the acquisition and installation of new signal modules. Further, the location of some of the signals will be changing to allow for more queue space, which is also tied to the engineering of the signal timing. Such significant changes are not feasible as a trial.
2. Special zones - for loading and accessible access require approvals that would be hard to obtain and implement on a trial basis and require planned accessibility improvements that can’t be done temporarily. The plan addresses the need for safe access for people with different abilities.
3. Signage – any changes must be accompanied by clear signage. This requires significant planning and fabrication for which there is no current budget. However, this will be included in the MassDOT-funded project.  
4. Restriping for vehicles, bike/ped zones - this must be done clearly and understandably and is not possible to do as a temporary measure, as it will involve measurements based on changed road geometry.
5. To simulate the three-lane design, the median islands on Main Street would have to be removed for the trial period and then put back afterward. This would require demolition and reconstruction of infrastructure.

Thus, a trial run cannot be developed to accomplish what is intended by the Picture Main Street design. However, we have dozens of examples of these treatments being implemented successfully elsewhere. 

That being said, one component of the Picture Main Street design has been successfully tested for the last three years - see FAQ PARKING, A4. 

Q: There haven't been traffic studies to make sure this will work.

A: This is incorrect. MassDOT requires a study as part of the justification for the proposed design. In January 2021, Toole Design submitted its 967-page Functional Design Report with all the data, statistics, and analysis that form the backbone of the proposed design solution. This report is linked within the Storymap on the city’s website. MassDOT engineers spent months reviewing the submittals to ensure that the standards and design justification were met. They do not allow a project to move forward to the 25% design public hearing until this data has been fully vetted.

Q: Can two lanes handle as much traffic as four lanes?

A: Main Street doesn’t have four lanes today. Upper and lower Main Street are one lane in each direction with parallel parking on either side. It’s the width of middle Main Street where drivers create additional, undefined “lanes” and this space is used to weave in and out of other traffic which creates an unsafe condition for all other users.

The Storymap describes the pros and cons of a design alternative that defines four lanes of traffic in the section of Main Street that could accommodate this. The result is sidewalks that would be less than 5’ wide and unable to accommodate ADA-compliant restaurant use, narrower curb extensions, and fewer trees, to name a few. This would be inconsistent with all the public input supporting the goal of wider sidewalks and safer crosswalks.

Some examples:

• Cottage Street in Easthampton has higher traffic volumes (~16,000 trips) than Main Street (12,000 to 13,000) and operates with two lanes and parallel parking. 
• Concord, NH implemented a three-lane street in place of a four-lane street and also carried 12,000 vehicles per day.
• Russell Street in Hadley was approved and constructed by MassDOT to narrow from four to three lanes (turning lane) with 21,000 daily vehicle trips vs. 12-13,000 daily in Northampton.
• The lower Main Street section of Main Street (from King/Pleasant to Market/Hawley) has the highest traffic volume on Main Street (~13,000 vehicles per day) and is already mostly two lanes with parallel parking.

Of the several design alternatives developed based on public comments, surveys, and stakeholder meetings, the final alternative approved by MassDOT to move forward was selected as a compromise that met the publicly generated goals of the project to a much greater degree than the other alternatives. The analysis of the alternatives reviewed with the goals is included in the functional design report and Storymap.

Q:  Why has the city not pursued Alternative 1B, as some have asked?

A: As was discussed prior to the 25% design public hearing, each of the alternatives proposed by Toole came with its own benefits and trade-offs. However, Alternative 1B presented significantly more negative trade-offs than the selected alternative. The overwhelming support for the chosen design was largely due to the specific problems and shortcomings associated with 1B. Listed below are the following problems: 

• Implementing Alternative 1B would have required reducing the sidewalk width to less than five feet in multiple locations in order to accommodate all of the desired elements.
• At the King/Pleasant Street intersection, Alternative 1B would have increased delays for drivers, particularly for those making left turns across multiple lanes of traffic, as additional measures would be needed to maintain safe traffic operations.
• At minor intersections, left turns would become more hazardous for all users. Without dedicated turn lanes, motorists would need to navigate gaps in two lanes of oncoming traffic, while also accounting for bicyclists and pedestrians in crosswalks, all under pressure from vehicles queued behind them.
• Accommodating additional vehicle turn lanes at intersections, maintaining four continuous travel lanes, expanding sidewalks, and improving visibility at crosswalks under Alternative 1B would result in the loss of an estimated 26% of existing parking.
• There is no noted increase in vehicle capacity as traffic signals limit capacity.
• While snow storage in the center of the street could be maintained as it is today, doing so would require eliminating one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction during winter weather events.
• Alternative 1B would not provide dedicated or separated bicycle facilities due to space constraints, leaving significant safety concerns unaddressed. The mandatory four-foot passing clearance zone could not be achieved, which would violate MassDOT design standards.

Q: Narrowing the width of Main Street will cause extreme traffic congestion.

A: Traffic jams in the project area are mostly due to outdated signal timings at four key intersections. We covered this in our 25% design public hearing and it's backed by in-depth engineering studies. Lower Main Street, which has a higher traffic volume, already functions well. Our plan—adding a third turning lane, clearly marking lanes, reducing crossing distances, and updating signal timings—will manage traffic flow without reducing current capacity. Much of this congestion is created when drivers weave within the width of the roadway that is not clearly delineated. All four signalized intersections will have new signal modules and technology to manage flow in a coordinated pattern.