Willson Street Bike Lane Data
This past fall, the city of Salem created bike lanes on Willson Street, from Highland Avenue to Laurent Road. The project was funded by a grant from the MassDOT, under the Safe Routes to School program. Willson Street is the home of two of the city’s schools: Salem High School and the Horace Mann Laboratory School.
Willson Street is part of a vibrant neighborhood, with homes on the street dating back as far as 1880. This neighborhood was home to French Canadian immigrants for decades. Over the years, the street has gone from a quiet winding road, to a well traveled connector between Highland Avenue and Jefferson Avenue.
Neighbors have complained about speeding for years. The road is wide starting at Highland Avenue, and opens up even more at the intersection with Laurent Road, contributing to high speeds. The road then curves to the right and quickly narrows heading towards Jefferson Avenue. Residents are concerned about the safety of backing out of their driveways, the inability to park on the street between Laurent Road and Jefferson Avenue without being clipped by cars traveling too fast, and the safety of pedestrians. Residents, especially those who live near Laurent Road, don’t feel safe on the sidewalks in front of their own homes.
The primary goal in the creation of the bike lanes is to provide a safe space for bicyclists, especially those using the bike lanes to go to and from school. Making students safer is always an important goal. By creating the painted bike lanes, and separating them from the car lanes with flex posts, drivers are forced to slow down and share the road. Reducing speeds allows drivers to react more quickly and stop faster. And by reducing vehicle speeds, we reduce fatalities, as seen in the chart below from the National Traffic Safety Board.
The Parking and Traffic Department, with help from the Salem Police Department Traffic Unit, measured speeds on Willson Street:
Before the bike lanes were created
While the white flex posts were installed to separate the painted bike lanes from the car lanes
After the flex posts were removed for the winter
The chart above shows the breakdown of speeds:
all cars traveling over 25 MPH
all cars traveling over 30 MPH
all cars traveling over 40 MPH.
This section of road is posted at 25 MPH, as it is a school zone. Almost all cars travel over the limit, and a very significant number of cars travel at 5+ miles per hour over the speed limit. Looking at the pink bars, you can see how the separated bike lanes reduced speeds. In fact, 20% fewer cars were speeding at 5+ MPH over the posted speed limit. Comparing the before speeds in blue and the speeds after the flex posts were removed, in green, you will see that speeds picked up again - to rates seen before the lanes were created. So the fact that the painted lanes alone exist on the road is not enough to slow down traffic. In fact, the percentage of cars traveling over 40 MPH actually INCREASED when the flex posts were removed.
This chart illustrates three different data points:
Average Speed on Willson Street
85th Percentile speed
The Highest Speed recorded
Focusing on the pink bars, which is the period of time when the bike lanes were separated by the flex posts, you can see the reduction in the average speed, the lower 85th percentile speed, and the lower high speed. The recorded high speed of 65 MPH after the flex posts were removed is alarming!
As residents, we need to drive more slowly throughout the city, and be aware of our surroundings. By speeding on Willson Street, are you really getting to your destination more quickly? Would you want to see speeds like these in front of your house, or in your neighborhood? The residents in this neighborhood deserve our respect, and our students deserve a safe route to school. Because you can’t prioritize both safety and speed.
The flex posts will be reinstalled soon, as the warmer weather settles in. The posts will be spread out more, and will be adjusted near intersections to help with safety of the cars turning onto Willson Street. That is the benefit of using paint and posts: the city can study the design and make adjustments before making permanent installations.
By creating safer bike lanes, more residents will be encouraged to leave their cars at home. Reducing the number of cars on the road will reduce congestion and will improve air quality in our neighborhoods. The city will continue to create safe biking paths as outlined in Bicycle Master Plan, to ensure the safety of all residents.
