You’ve probably witnessed this scene on Main Street. Let’s say I’m driving along and I notice a car that wants to back out of a parking space.
I stop – thinking I’m being courteous – and the traffic behind me begins to stack up. The car in front of me pulls into the road, and we all start driving again from zero.
But what I’ve done here hasn’t done any favors for anyone.
The city’s engineers say there’s plenty of room for that car to back out safely, while I edge my left-most tires onto the 6-foot cobblestone median and flex the flow of traffic a few feet into that neutral zone.
The cobblestone medians present throughout the completed part of the project (and soon, throughout the southern end of Main Street, too) were built this way – level to the ground and accepting of slow, one-way traffic – in part to keep traffic moving during situations such as that one, said city traffic engineer Rob Mack.
“If they’re waiting for a parking space or something, if it looks like it’s going to be longer than a certain amount of time and you’ve got space to get around them by using that 6-foot area – and nobody is in the 6-foot-area – you certainly should feel free to use it,” Mack said.
As evidenced by a near-viral Facebook conversation this week, Concord residents are still learning how to use that space.
Concord developer Steve Duprey kicked off a conversation on the subject in a public Facebook group with nearly 5,000 members last week. It quickly amassed dozens of comments and likes.
Some people said they found the maneuver counterintuitive because drivers have to cross over a yellow line to get onto the cobblestone. The driver that Duprey passed apparently found it offensive, yelling some choice words out the window.
To be sure, there will be times when it’s better to just wait. But take this as your invitation to safely use that cobblestone when it makes sense.
“It’s a new feature. You don’t see that in the driver’s manual,” Mack said. “How it’s put together, how it’s made, is derived from the cookbook of highway design.”
There are a couple of signs along Main Street that demonstrate when to use the cobblestone median, but Mack said he understood if it’s the kind of thing that has a learning curve to it.
“It’s kind of custom-fit to do its intended purpose, not a place to drive, but a place where you have a little extra breathing room to get around traffic that might be in there,” he said.
“That particular treatment, you don’t see it everywhere. You don’t see it much, but I’ve heard from other colleagues of mine in far-away places that have come to Concord and seen it and said, ‘This is a really interesting idea.’ ”
Some commentators complained that the median space seems to be frequently occupied by delivery trucks. That wasn’t an intended use for that space by design, Mack said, but it seems to work better than having delivery trucks double-park in the way of traffic.
“I’m not sure if it’s allowed or permitted or if they just do it,” he said. “As I understand it, that may be something that has evolved as being less egregious than double-parking the UPS truck somewhere in the through lane.”
The cobblestone medians will be used similarly on South Main Street as they are on the completed section, Mack said. From Concord Street south to Storrs Street, the pavement markings will remain the same as they are in northern sections, but the 6-foot central section will be only a painted island, without cobblestone.
Mack noted that it also provides space for emergency vehicles to pass through, and for plows to store snow before it can be moved out of downtown.
Construction work continues on the holiday today.
The South Main Street work zone will and Pleasant Street intersection will get a top coat of pavement on Wednesday, according to a press release from the Main Street Project. Same goes for Hills Avenue, driveway entrances and other finishing touches. The pavement also will be striped Friday.
But that doesn’t mean the crews will be clearing out just yet. Utility and sidewalk work will continue into next week.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickBReid.)