Montague Center residents push for changes to traffic-calming designs

MONTAGUE CENTER — Residents want traffic-calming designs for the village to head back to the drawing board, as some are concerned about the location of proposed raised crosswalks and their effectiveness in targeting speeding in the village’s northern end.

More than 30 people joined the Montague Selectboard on Zoom on Monday night to hear about updated designs for the Montague Center Complete Streets project. Paul Furgal of Bowman Engineering presented some of the design changes from the original 2024 proposal crafted by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB).

At the northern portion of Main Street, the western intersection with Center Street along the common has been changed from a Y-shaped intersection to a 90-degree turn, with crosswalks across Main and Center streets. Additionally, a new traffic island would narrow the roadway in an effort to reduce vehicle speeds.

The same changes are planned at the southern end of the common at the intersection of North and Main streets, with a crosswalk proposed at the southern end of North Street.

Another change includes moving a Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) bus shelter farther north along Main Street to avoid any issues with the two raised crosswalks at Union and Station streets. Improvements to stormwater drainage and extending private residence driveways are also planned, though the latter idea would require Town Meeting approval.

While feedback varied, a prominent concern from residents was the two raised crosswalks proposed near Station and Union streets. Residents worried these would not slow speeding vehicles traveling north along Main Street.

The designs presented by Bowman Engineering build on previous draft designs that were first presented to residents by VHB in September 2024, before the town received a $499,682 Complete Streets grant from the state Department of Transportation for the construction in early 2025. The goal of improving roadway safety in Montague Center was identified in a 2018 Complete Streets Prioritization Plan.

The residents, who hope for another in-road traffic-calming measure farther north on Main Street, have concerns about speeding in front of Court Square and School Street, as well as by The Montague Bookmill, which sits just outside of the project area.

“I feel like this whole design pretty much should be scrapped,” resident Ariel Elan said, explaining that the designs don’t address the speeds of vehicles traveling north.

“Sometimes they slow down a little bit passing Court Square, and then just barrel through the village center, and it’s a much more urgent need to slow traffic that’s coming from the north than from the south,” she added.

While hearing these concerns, Selectboard Chair Matt Lord explained that there are limits to the project scope.

“We are not eligible for Complete Streets grant money for that section where the speeding happens, because we already got money to reconfigure the Court [Square] intersection earlier,” Lord said. “We just can’t go back there yet.”

Assistant Town Administrator Chris Nolan-Zeller clarified for residents that the information session was designed to collect public feedback about the draft designs that can be reinvestigated with Bowman Engineering.

“Obviously, not all adjustments are possible, or within the scope or budget allowed for the funding sources that we have,” he said. “But I think our goal, in doing this exercise right now, [is] we would love to be able to take the comments that we receive and either make them happen, or look into them and then explain why they might not be possible.”

Echoing Elan’s comments, resident Emily Monosson asked about how much change can be made to the designs to accommodate community feedback.

“We have been asking for this … since the beginning, and so it’s just not clear to us, or to me, why that isn’t part of this plan,” Monosson said, while noting there may be limitations. “But it’s hard to imagine that there’s not another spot for a speed table farther north.”

Outside of the desire for speed tables — which are flat-topped speed humps with room for the entire wheelbase of a passenger car to rest on top — located farther north in the project region, residents also want to limit the number of extra signs along the roadway; allocate more funding toward speeding mitigation on Main Street itself, rather than considering changes to side streets where speeding is perceived to be less problematic; and implement strong stormwater drainage infrastructure, among other points.

Plans for the Montague Center Complete Streets project can be viewed at tinyurl.com/tj342425.