The city of Concord doesn’t exactly rush into things. Take the plan to address Loudon Road, the street with more traffic accidents than any other.
Earlier this month, the city council decided to hold two public meetings in September to give residents the opportunity to voice their opinion about the project. The heart of that proposal, to reduce the crowded four-lane commercial strip to two travel lanes, a central turning lane and bike lanes, remains controversial.
In fact, it seems downright unpopular with Heights residents, whose opposition caused Mayor Jim Bouley and Heights Councilors Candace Bouchard and Gail Matson to have second thoughts.
The three-lane solution isn’t new. It was the choice of the traffic experts who conducted a corridor study to reduce accidents on the road in 2001.
Fifteen years has allowed plenty of time for thumb-sucking. It’s time to move on.
The council should approve the engineering department’s lane-reduction plan, which will qualify the city for $1.4 million in federal safety grants that would cover the bulk of the cost of repaving the worn-out road and make it safer. Concord taxpayers, under that scenario, would pay just a few hundred thousand dollars for a sorely needed improvement.
The alternate plan, to repave the road at taxpayer expense, is a bad idea.
At $1.1 million plus the cost of unspecified traffic-calming measures, it would add noticeably to the tax rate. And the traffic-calming measures installed and then removed in the South End suggest they are no sure thing.
Speed is already an issue on the crowded road, which is traveled by 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day. Paving the road will increase rather than decrease speeds. Nor does the alternate plan do much to reduce the 70-some driveways that feed cars into the road. The accident rate of some 100 per year, one-third with injuries, probably wouldn’t change.
The redesign of Main Street has been a big success. Travel times on the road, as computer models predicted, have not increased and pedestrian safety has improved.
As Councilor Keith Nyhan, a self-described skeptic known to be frugal with public money, said recently, the engineering department has proven itself with the success of Main Street and the roundabouts. They’re almost certain to be right again.
We applaud the mayor and Heights councilors for giving great consideration to voter sentiments, but believe their fears are overblown.
Loudon Road will not become a parking lot. Cars will not crash into each other willy-nilly in the center turning lane. The Main Street change, and the use of turning lanes elsewhere, prove that. And as with the reconfigured Main Street, if traffic proceeds at the same speed as now, or even faster, motorists will have little reason to cut through neighborhoods to save time.
The computer simulation of traffic flow on Main Street that proved accurate was done by the engineering department. A similar, but simplified, model of Loudon Road with three lanes is being updated. It will portray a Loudon Road minus 17 of the 83 driveways and intersections on the 1.6-mile stretch between Hazen Drive and the mall. Crosswalks with median refuge islands, push-button signals and accessibility ramps will improve pedestrian safety.
If, in the unlikely event three-lane opponents are right and traffic safety isn’t improved, the city could, with little trouble and expense, revert to the four-lane configuration. We’re confident that won’t be necessary.