Traffic safety and congestion in Londonderry was addressed at the Town Council meeting on July 1 in a proposal from the town’s Traffic Management Working Group (TMWG).
“Our charge was to evaluate traffic conditions, coordinate departmental efforts, coordinate solutions, leverage technology and data, advise the leadership, and promote public safety,” explained Director of Engineering & Environmental Services John Trottier. “The town needs to conduct corridor studies on three major corridors: Pillsbury Road East, Auburn Road, and lastly Lichfield Road.”
The TMWG’s research included 46 areas in need of improvement, with 17 deemed “critical” priorities.
“These roads that you’ve all picked out, are you going to prioritize them from worst to worst? Is there going to be a priority list?” asked Town Councilor Deb Paul. “Putting them in some order, breaking them down into subcategories, so in other words, roads A, B, C, D, and F have the highest amount of accidents, and then have those accents broken down into things like impaired driving.”
GIS Manager Mike Bazegian claimed that such a list was not being included, though subcategories were being used and some corridors were already seen as more problematic than others. He stated that too many categories ran into problems, including the difficulty in comparing roads being monitored primarily for congestion reasons to roads being monitored primarily for safety reasons.
“Even for the 46, I guarantee you there are a number of people who say ‘My street should be added to this too,’ and they’re probably right,” he said. “But we’ve got to focus on some, and work our way through them.”
Data collection for these studies was already underway, as several high-congestion intersections, like Pillsbury and Hardy Road, had been identified as congestion concerns. Other intersections, like Route 102 and Buttrick Road, were identified as safety concerns.
The Londonderry Police Department was involved in the TMWG to coordinate enforcement of any new strategies, such as possible lower speed limits in some areas.
“When we get data printouts, it gives us a lot of information. It measures average speeds, 85-percentile speeds, those that are really high, percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit, and traffic patterns throughout the day,” said Captain Alvin Bettencourt. “It allows us to deploy resources more effectively. We can then assign a shift or specific officers to certain locations at certain times knowing that those are high-speed areas. It also provides a baseline to measure whether enforcement efforts and other traffic safety initiatives are producing results.”
Lieutenant Chris Olson called for a combination of “visible” and “targeted” enforcement traffic regulations as part of the TMWG’s overall plan.
“A speeding ticket is a specific deterrent; it’s not a general deterrent. If we get some of these speed signs out there, it becomes a more general deterrent,” he said. “If people see a flashing speed sign in one of these high-risk areas, they’re going to say ‘Wow, I was actually going 47 miles-per-hour, I didn’t realize I was going that fast.’ That becomes a more general deterrent.”
The hope was to combine enforcement with engineering, more visible signs to improve driver education and public awareness. The TMWG intended to acquire new equipment, such as radar speed limit signs that alert driver of their speed.
Reactions from the Town Council on the plan and the TMWG effort were generally positive, despite a few questions on some of the finer details.
“What’s the difference between how we’ve done it before and how it’s changed?” asked Vice-Chair Shawn Faber.
According to the TMWG, developers and third-party contractors still gather data, with town officials taking a more proactive role in determining what corridors need to be studied.
“I love the fact that we’re going to get this information. We’ve got all of this development going on in town,” said Councilor Dan Bouchard, who stated that previous attempts at data collection often fell short, making it difficult to measure the impact population growth has had on Londonderry streets over the past few years. “It just adds more to everything. I think it’s great the way they’re getting data for the accidents and with the way we can look at the increase on the traffic.”
Town officials wanted to rely on non-taxpayer sources, including corridor and developer funding, to support the traffic and safety studies in the coming years.