A Main Street that is ‘truly for everyone’

We’re a gaggle of “mother and pop” retailers, eating places, cafes, galleries, jewelers, tattoo artists, stylists, aestheticians, artists, designers, architects, challenge managers, analysts and extra — all with a collective stake in the way forward for downtown Northampton. And we consider that an amazing a part of what makes Northampton vibrant and enticing is our small companies.

We might like to have extra bike lanes, improved pedestrian and biking security, higher accessibility, extra tree cowl and greenery, and to encourage environmentally-friendly decisions by all. We wish a protected and vibrant downtown for everybody, not solely those that can stroll or bike to Primary Avenue.

We’re involved that Choice 3, a redesign that features a main narrowing of Primary Avenue, which metropolis planners have determined to pursue, makes downtown much less accessible to nearly all of our neighborhood — those that must drive into city and search protected and handy parking. We wish everybody to concentrate on what Choice 3 entails and the way the plan will be improved.

Choice 3 has many interesting facets, together with extra bike lanes, wider sidewalks, inexperienced area and different pedestrian-friendly options. As well as, an amazing element in its present type is that it retains a lot of the angled parking, which is preferable to parallel parking in a number of necessary methods:

■Angled parking permits people with bodily points (or kids in tow) to simply exit the car, with out exiting into oncoming visitors.

■Parallel parking creates visitors bottlenecks, made worse by the difficulties many drivers have executing parallel parking simply, particularly with the stress of visitors behind them. (Two current surveys present that about 50% of individuals have a worry of parallel parking and can hold driving to keep away from it.)

■Angled parking retains accessibility by permitting for extra handy parking spots the place they’re needed most. (As is, Choice 3 already reduces Primary Avenue parking by virtually 20%.)

Not everybody can bike or stroll to city. Our neighborhood contains many who can’t simply stroll far — those that have younger kids, are aged, or are disabled — a lot of whom don’t have handicapped parking accessibility. We serve all of those individuals, in addition to residents from the farther factors of Northampton, Florence, Easthampton, Hatfield, the Hilltowns, Greenfield, Hadley, Amherst, Holyoke, and so forth., to not point out many from the remainder of the Northeast.

The overwhelming majority of our neighborhood will proceed to drive into city and search protected and handy parking — particularly throughout our lengthy winter season, which brings freezing rain, snow and ice. To ensure that downtown’s small companies to outlive, we’d like what our neighborhood wants. We’d like Primary Avenue to be accessible for everybody.

We’re involved that Choice 3 will create visitors and security issues by primarily lowering the street to just one lane every approach. Every time somebody pulls out of a parking spot, visitors will halt (or alternatively, they gained’t have the ability to pull out), a whole lot of occasions a day.

Moreover, Choice 3 doesn’t tackle snow elimination. If snow continues to be piled up in the course of the thoroughfare, with fewer lanes to place it in, the road will likely be additional congested. Most worrisome, visitors congestion may trigger difficulties for emergency automobiles, which have already got bother at occasions getting by way of.

Final August the town did a check run of a two-lane (one-lane in every path) Primary Avenue, and it didn’t go effectively. We instantly heard from our constituents that it was too tough to cope with a narrowed downtown. This prompted greater than 60 companies to request that the town revert to a four-lane Primary Avenue. Whereas we would want Choice 3 retained 4 lanes in some components, we’re relieved that the plan not less than maintains a 3rd lane of visitors in locations.

We perceive that the present setup of 4 lanes with none lane markings, with out adequate crosswalk visibility or signage, and with lengthy crosswalks, decreases pedestrian and biker security. This issues us, too.

Readers might not be conscious, however there have been two research commissioned by the town of Northampton relating to security. Many of the (inexpensive) security measures really useful haven’t been carried out: enhancements like curb cut-outs to make the crosswalks shorter (like we now have on Elm Avenue close to Smith Faculty), clearly demarcated lanes, improved crosswalk visibility and higher signage.

As planning round Choice 3 progresses, we ask the Metropolis to make these security enhancements now moderately than ready the four-plus years the brand new plan would require to roll out, and moderately than pushing by way of a redesign that reduces accessibility. Moreover, we ask {that a} snow elimination plan be made, for assurances that emergency automobiles can simply perform, that visitors stream is prioritized, and that angled parking be retained.

We wish a Primary Avenue that’s really for everybody — not solely the lucky minority that reside close to downtown and are bodily capable of stroll or bike.

The column was written by Maintain Primary Avenue Accessible For All, and signed by downtown enterprise house owners: Katie Renney, 25 Central; Mark Rosenzweig, Acme Surplus; Ananda Khalsa, Ananda Khalsa Jewellery; Maya MacLachlan, Beryl; Brian Megliola, Coldwell Banker Neighborhood Realtors; Steve Weber, Offers & Steals; Konstantinos Sierros, Filos Greek Taverna; Wealthy Madowitz, Hampshire Property Mgt Group; Cynthia Kernicki, Hannoush; Judy Herrell and Stephan Wurmbrand, Herrell’s; Andrew Forehead, Intellectual; James Winston, James B. Winston Regulation Workplace; Jesse Adams, Jesse Adams Regulation; Eliza Jane Bradley, Kestrel; Cathie Walz, Little Blue; Tristram Metcalfe, Metcalfe Associates Structure; Linda Daniels, Northampton Wools; Fernando Teixeira, Pascucci, Teixeira & Co., PC; Ronnie Hazel, Penny Lane; Jena Sujat, Pinch; Ronnie Hazel, Store Remedy; Anna Bowen, Strada; Gary Tateosian and Mike Tateosian, Synergy; Cathie Walz, The Blue Marble; Ronnie Hazel, The Vault; Jenny Wu, Uya; Will Baczek, William Baczek High quality Arts; Vicky Sheikh, Zephyr Rugs; and extra