Quick-build projects are underway, along with the installation of raised crosswalks and increased efforts to educate the community.

By Ronni Newton

Town leaders are hopeful that by the time students return to school late next month, safety measures on crosswalks along some of the busier roadways will be bumped up – literally.

West Hartford already has three raised crosswalks – on Boulevard at Wardwell Road, Tunxis Road at Spring Lane, and Fern Street at Morley Elementary School – but the during the week of June 30 there are plans to add nine more raised crosswalks as well as three speed humps throughout town, many in areas heavily traveled by pedestrians on the way to and from school. By the time students return to school in late August, the town hopes to be able to add two more raised crosswalks.

Both speed humps and raised crosswalks are three to four inches high and are measures to slow down traffic. The raised crosswalks act as speed humps and are designed to make pedestrians more visible. Many of the locations where raised crosswalks are being installed in West Hartford already have Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFB) in place – devices also intended to increase pedestrian safety.

“We’re looking forward to accomplishing even more than we did last year,” Town Manager Rick Ledwith said during his report to the Town Council at the June 24 meeting.

As part of his update, Ledwith also highlighted completion of the first quick-build project of the season – the installation of bollards to create curb extensions at all four corners of the intersection of South Quaker Lane and Kingswood Road.

“We brought a snow plow out to ensure they could get around the corner,” Ledwith told We-Ha.com, and before completing the installation modified the plan slightly so the plow maneuver the turns.

Town Engineer Greg Sommer, along with Parker Sorenson – who worked as a consultant helping create the Vision Zero Action Plan and is now employed as an engineer with the town directly involved with the implementation – said quick-builds are a priority and 25 projects were highlighted in a supplement to the 2024 Vision Zero Annual Report.

That supplement states: “Quick-Builds allow the Town of West Hartford to implement highly-visible safety improvements at fraction of the cost and with a greater speed than traditional capital projects. Quick-Build projects can be implemented prior to long-term capital projects and be used to evaluate and modify potential designs. For example, a Quick-Build Neighborhood Traffic Circle could be modified (or removed) if it is found to not accommodate typical vehicles found at the given intersection.”

The curb extensions at South Quaker and Kingswood will be left up indefinitely to see how they perform during the winter, and how difficult it may be for public works crews to maintain them, Sommer told We-Ha.com.

Curb extensions are intended to slow vehicle turning speeds, improve sight lines, create additional waiting space for pedestrians, and shorten crossing distances, and with school out of session for the summer and rehabilitation scheduled for a portion of Sedgwick Road, crews will also be working on creating curb extensions at five locations on Sedgwick Road near Sedgwick Middle School and in locations where students also walk to nearby Duffy Elementary School. Other updates to a stretch of Sedgwick Road are also planned for this summer.

Two locations on Park Road will also receive curb extensions as part of a reconstruction project, according to town officials.

Curb extensions are most often utilized on wide street, and are intended to slow vehicle turning speeds, improve sight lines, create additional waiting space for pedestrians, and shorten crossing distances.

“We want to make sure we do it right,” Sorenson told We-Ha.com, and utilizing a quick-build method provides a good test of the feasibility of later creating more permanent structures. “These are going to have to be. maintained,” he said, and it’s important to see how they hold up in the winter weather.

The curb extensions are being installed by crews from the town’s Public Works Department, and Ledwith said that now that they have worked through installing the first one, the others will go much faster.

Neighborhood traffic circles and many roundabouts are also quick-build projects utilizing painted pavement markings and delineators that the town plans to implement this year. Director of Community Development Duane Martin said earlier this month that as part of the reconstruction of King Philip Drive now underway, a roundabout is being designed for the intersection of Old Meadow Road. A traffic circle will also be tested at the intersection of Elmfield and Somerset. Sommer and Sorenson noted that a neighborhood traffic circle is “more compact than a roundabout,” and will be tested as a quick-build in that interaction – which currently has stop signs just for drivers on Somerset – where there have been multiple crashes.

A mini-roundabout is being planned for Mohegan Drive at Brewster, Sommer said. While it will still be temporary, “that intersection has quite a bit of space and lends itself” to the concept.

Cameras

The Town of West Hartford has received a $669,007 federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant for the speed management pilot program, and the Town Council passed an ordinance this spring permitting automated enforcement of speeding as well as red light violations.

The installation of 15 speed enforcement cameras will come first, and the town has announced tentative plans to hold the first of two public information meetings in July.

“Our consultant, VHB & VN Engineers, will provide an overview, solicit feedback, and answer questions,” the town said in a news release. The initial public information session is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Town Hall Auditorium, but will not include a list of the planned locations for the cameras. The town will also be creating a web page to keep the public informed of the project.

VHB will be meeting with the Vision Zero Advisory Committee in advance of the public information session, to provide an update on their role in the project and plans to create the town’s Automated Traffic Enforcement Safety Devices (ATESD) Plan.

Once the plan is drafted and recommendations for camera locations are finalized, a second public forum will be held – tentatively planned for Wednesday, Sept. 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sedgwick Middle School Auditorium.

Pedestrian safety

Another effort related to pedestrian safety for the community as a whole is the installation of accessible pedestrian signals (APS), which are in the process of being installed at four locations this summer.

“Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) are devices that provide auditory, visual, and vibrotactile information to pedestrians who are blind or who have low vision, who may also have hearing loss, so they can know when they should begin to cross at a signalized intersection. The devices communicate WALK and DON’T WALK at signalized intersections in non-visual formats to pedestrians,” the town said in an announcement last week, accompanied by a photo of crews installing conduit for the system at the South Main Street entrance to the Town Hall parking lot.

Equipment will also be installed at the following locations this summer:

• Farmington Avenue at Quaker Lane South
• South Quaker Lane at Boulevard
• Raymond Road at Isham Road
• Trout Brook Drive at Boulevard

Education and branding

In the past month, there have been two fatal pedestrian crashes on West Hartford roads, and two vigils organized by Bike West Hartford, a local, volunteer-led nonprofit advocating for safer streets for everyone – “whether you bike, walk, or roll,” Board member Katie Lance said at the most recent vigil held on June 18 on South Main Street.

While the incidents that most recently led to the death of John Marczak and two weeks earlier took the life of Stephen Mendelsohn remain under investigation, Lance said that Bike West Hartford recognizes “that any fatality or serious injury on our roadways is one too many.”

Ledwith, Marton, Mayor Shari Cantor, and Police Chief Vernon Riddick, all attended the vigil and spoke with reporters about the measures the town is taking to implement the short- and long-term goals of the Vision Zero Action Plan.

“We’ve been working on it,” Cantor said at the June 18 vigil. “We did almost 80 projects, we have another 70 to 80 coming, and then we will keep going.” The town has received about $5 million in grants after developing a Vision Zero Action Plan, she said, and although one of the largest grants was stuck in limbo it’s now in the process of being approved.

“There is a lot that is going to be happening in the next 6 to 12 months, and a really critical component is the speed cameras,” which were approved for use in the state by the legislature in the 2024 session and approved this year by the West Hartford Town Council, Cantor said. “There are going to be a lot of changes in West Hartford,” she said, including road design changes.

One of the challenges that does remain in terms of education, Cantor noted, is that the majority of the drivers involved in fatal crashes are not from West Hartford, nor in some cases are the pedestrians. “Education, regionally, I think is a very important component that we need to talk about – changing driver behavior regionally, not just in one municipality or another municipality.” She said there are issues in every single town.

West Hartford was the first municipality in the state to adopt a Vision Zero Action Plan – a plan that Ledwith said “focuses on making data driven decisions, redesigning our streets for our most vulnerable users, centering equity in all of our decisions, and engaging our entire community and focusing on accountability.”

Education and outreach has been recently ramped up, and through the list serve the town has been informing the community about the addition of safety measures, and also sending out messages about how residents can do their part.

“Each year, motor vehicle accidents are attributed to overgrown shrubbery on street corners and intersections. Here is a test to determine if you need to trim back your shrubbery,” stated a recent email. “Drive up to the white line on the road, located before the stop sign, and look to ensure you can see oncoming traffic and pedestrians without having to roll forward. If you have to roll forward, it’s time to get out your hedge clippers.”

The need to maintain sight lines is a town ordinance (West Hartford Code: Chapter 177-24), but the goal of the reminder, the town said, is not intended as a burden to property owners, “but instead to raise awareness of the responsibilities of maintaining your property so that West Hartford is a safe and enjoyable community.”

The town has also started adding signage at projects that are part of the Vision Zero initiative, to ensure that residents as well as visitors know why that particular project is being undertaken.

The goal

The goal of Vision Zero is zero deaths and zero serious injuries as a result of traffic crashes within 10 years – which in the case of West Hartford is by 2033. Everyone wants the town to be safer immediately, but while incremental changes can – and are – being made, everything can’t be fixed  overnight.

The Town’s Vision Zero Initiative, posted on a webpage on the town’s website supports the following five principles:

• Deaths and serious injuries caused by traffic crashes are preventable;
• Human life and health should be prioritized in all transportation systems and in all aspects of transportation planning and design;
• Human error is inevitable and transportation systems should be forgiving;
• Transportation planning should focus on system-level changes to influence all individual’s behavior; and
• Speed is a highly important factor in crash severity

“We need to change the culture. Speed cameras, enforcement, everything that we are doing will start to change that culture – will change the driver mentality, hopefully slow people down, stop looking at their phones,” Ledwith said at the June 18 vigil.

Earlier this year, the town established a Vision Zero Pledge, and has been distributing reflective arm bands to those who have signed it – for safety as a pedestrian as well as to further spread the message of the initiative. There are now magnets that Ed Pawlak, who chairs the town’s Pedestrian & Bicycle Commission and is also a member of the Vision Zero Advisory Committee, hopes will play an important role in changing the culture.

“If you sign the pledge and you’ve displayed the decal, you’re going to notice,” Pawlak told We-Ha.com in a recent phone interview. It serves as a visual reminder each time you get into the car, and also encourages good behavior. “None of us likes to be seen as a hypocrite,” he said. “I really do think it holds people to the pledge.”

When others see the magnet on someone’s car, it can have an impact, but it also serves as a “team uniform,” Pawlak said. “They’re on the ‘safe driving team’ also. I think it has the potential to form a community of safe drivers.”

While the pledge is an online form, without a visible symbol recidivism is likely, said Pawlak, and he hopes it will be one of the measures that will contribute to safer roadways.

Pawlak acknowledges that many of the crashes in town, including the drivers and the pedestrians involved in the two recent fatalities, involve non-residents. Traffic-stop data also shows that a majority of those who are stopped are not residents, but you have to start somewhere.

The roads are designed for speed, for passing through town quickly, but everyone needs to do their part for safety.

The pledge (click on the image above) includes the following along with descriptions of why each component matters:

1. Stay Focused – Avoid Distracted Driving
2. Drive the Speed Limit
3. Yield to Pedestrians at Crosswalks
4. Stop at Stop Signs and Red Lights
5. Maintain a safe distance between my car and the one in front of me
6. Give Cyclists at least 3 feet of space when passing

“Unless  we can change the unsafe driving culture, we’ll never be able to reach Vision Zero,” he said. While there are challenges, and it can be lonely being a safe driver these days, “I do strongly believe you can achieve some critical mass of safe drivers in town … especially driving the speed limit … and you’re then modeling that safe driving behavior, stopping at stop signs, it then becomes the norm,” Pawlak said.

“I really do think that’s achievable, not a dream,” said Pawlak. “It happens one driver at a time, one pedestrian at a time.”

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