Painting crosswalks across the ends of the streets that T into Wheeler Rd to increase visibility of pedestrians/cyclists to drivers.
Location
Wheeler Rd at Sharpe Rd, at Voss Terrace, at Jane Road and at Shuman Circle.
Map
Description / Need
*Wheeler Rd is a popular walking and biking route for Oak Hill and Brown students; there are no stop signs at the side streets as they T into Wheeler Road so vehicles usually pull all the way up to the travel lane before looking for pedestrians/cyclist; vehicles also do shallow U-turns across the area where a crosswalk would be to reverse direction on Wheeler Rd. Painting crosswalks across the end of the streets that T into Wheeler Rd will increase visibility of pedestrians/cyclists (cyclists are primarily on the sidewalks since there are no bike lanes). Sharpe St has the heaviest vehicle traffic volume but the other streets experience the shallow U-turns. This is also a concern on weekends and after school because of the playing fields at Oak Hill/Brown.
Pictures
*Sharpe Rd - vehicles pull up to the travel lane before stopping; pedestrian traffic along the sidewalk is heavy. Adding a crosswalk will increase visibility of pedestrians and indicate to drivers that they need to watch for pedestrians.
Jenn,
It’s great you brought this location up. Would you consider asking Councilors Downs or Bowman to docket or co-docket the stop sign in Traffic Council? Then, if approved, you can enter into 311 a request for a pedestrian crosswalk here. It goes directly to Isaac Prizant, and it’s my experience that they actually like to have things entered into 311. On several occasions, Jason has actually asked me to enter something like this into 311.
Jane, do the crosswalks and stop signs still have to meet the traffic volume minimums? I tried to get either added to my own street and we didn’t have the vehicular or pedestrian volume spread across the day that merited a stop sign or crosswalk, even though cars pull all the way across where a crosswalk would be before stopping to look for pedestrians and we have heavy vehicular school traffic twice a day. I’m guessing the same is true for Wheeler Rd. On these school walking routes like Wheeler it would be great to have the parallel crosswalks for the full walking route, which in this case is just the four streets that T into Wheeler.
Jenn- stop signs should be easy- nearly every stop sign at a T intersection that has come before Traffic Council has been approved. There are no warrants that apply to either require or disallow the stop sign.
Of course, these stop signs would also be within 1500 feet of a school, so you might be able to see them sooner, as the Traffic Council trial that allows regulatory changes within that radius is still ongoing.
Good point, though to make it permanent it will have to go through Traffic Council eventually. Let me see if there are incoming streets on the other major approaches within 1500’ of Oak Hill/Brown that might merit this treatment as well.
I think Councilor Downs can answer that more definitively, but my response would be that with regards to a stop sign, no, it doesn’t have to meet the traffic volume minimums. (Times have changed. TC used to be stricter.) However, there is a difference between Sharpe, which connects Dedham and Wheeler, and the other two: Voss dead ends and Jane doesn’t go through to Dedham but it does provide a connection and therefore is a “cut through” street (to avoid Parker and Wheeler). The Traffic Council seems to base their decision on additional factors these days: I think that being near a school could well be one of those factors, tht inclines them more favorably toward approving the request, and it’s worth posing it to a councilor. Maybe you want to request Sharpe & Wheeler, and Jane & Wheeler. Or just Sharpe & Wheeler. See what happens. When a location is approved for a stop sign, a stop line is automatically painted within the same general time frame. Crosswalks go through a different approval process. So I think you start with asking one of the City Councilors to docket for a stop sign, then if approved and a stop sign is installed and line is painted, and you see what the result is… I know that Councilor Bowman was successful in getting a whole bunch of stop signs approved in the area of Mason-Rice.
Then if you still see need for a crosswalk, which you well may, in particular for Sharp, if approved, is dependent on that.
FYI, Councilor Bowman and I have discussed also docketing stop sign requests along Parker Street to help with the upcoming bike lane (and also peds). On my list are Roosevelt, Kendall, Parker and Ridge. Don’t know if it makes sense to file together or separately.
This could fit with either the school COVID TC trials or tie-in with the Parker St. bike lanes. The Parker St. bike lanes also improve the pedestrian conditions on Parker St. so I expect more foot traffic on Wheeler to get to the two schools.
Right, I was just wondering whether we should file all the Parker Stop signs in the same docket item as the Wheeler Road ones. The answer may be yes there as well.
, deferred, or rejected 
.