GREENFIELD — Local bicyclists are urging the state Department of Transportation to rethink plans for $4 million in safety improvements along the Mohawk Trail, which include adding crosswalks and motion-activated flashing lights to encourage drivers getting on and off Interstate 91 at the rotary to slow down for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“I feel like you guys have not biked in town,” Greenfield resident Adam Goldstein said during a public information meeting last week. “I bike everywhere in town, all the time, and I would never go through [the rotary].”
MassDOT Project Manager Jon Freeman said the project is still in the pre-25% design phase, and continued work is being done to explore options to address safety concerns along the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) from the intersection of Colrain Road to the intersection of Shelburne Road, which is an approximately 3,000-foot stretch.
He said the estimated $4 million project will be paid for primarily with Federal Highway Administration funds, and 20% of the project will be covered by MassDOT. The estimate does not include any land acquisition costs that may be required.
Design Consultant Keith Lincoln, with Chappell Engineering, said that in September 2025, a safety audit was conducted. The audit found that the existing infrastructure is deficient and lacks pedestrian and cyclist accommodations.
“The project goals are to improve road safety for all users,” Lincoln said. “Specifically, bicycle accommodations and a new sidewalk along the south side of Mohawk Trail. Furthermore, we are intending to improve bicycle and pedestrian crossing at the rotary.”
The Franklin Regional Council of Governments’ 2025 Road Safety Action Plan listed the Mohawk Trail rotary/Interstate 91 ramps as the site with the highest number of crashes in Franklin County, noting 150 crashes were reported between 2018 and 2022.
Lincoln said several options are being considered, including buffer lanes and a shared-use path. Currently, the preferred option involves installing a 10-foot-wide shared-use path on the north side of the Mohawk Trail heading from downtown to the rotary, with a 5-foot grass buffer from the roadway.
The path would impact the Newton School property, requiring the fence to be torn down and reinstalled farther away from the road, which raised concern among School Committee members in attendance at the meeting.
School Committee member Melissa McKenzie Webb said the meeting was the first she had heard of the proposal, and she is concerned that the path would push the fence too close to where the swing set is located.
“There’s a swing set there, and if you’re encroaching too far onto the property, there are guidelines within the swing set, and you probably don’t want kids swinging 10 to 20 feet … away from the current fence,” she commented. “I just see this path encroaching on a place where children play.”
Lincoln said that having the path on that side of the road is preferable because it would just impact the school, whereas, on the south side of the street, the path would impact several businesses and MassDOT would need to accommodate the various driveways. He added that, at this point in the process, no options have been fully ruled out.
In addition to the shared-use path, MassDOT representatives said the project will include shifting the crosswalks along the rotary to be farther back on the Interstate 91 on-ramp, so they are more separated from the rotary and to allow for better visibility.
“At the two key locations where the shared-use path crosses I-91 on- and off-ramps, the focus has been to create more separation of the rotary from the crossings to improve the sightline for vehicles approaching the crossings,” Lincoln said. “We are also proposing flashing beacons to alert the motorists of the presence of a pedestrian or a bicyclist in the crossing.”
He added that the rotary itself is being looked at to see if the Interstate 91 northbound on-ramp can be redesigned so it is clearer whether a vehicle intends to merge onto the highway or stay on the rotary.
Additionally, a crosswalk will be added at the intersection of Miner Street and a new traffic light will be installed at the intersection of Shelburne Road.
MassDOT representatives said permanent and temporary construction easements would be required for the project, and MassDOT will reach out to affected property owners as the project proceeds. However, the majority of residents in attendance at the meeting did not express concern about property impacts, but rather safety and feasibility.
“My major concern is the speed, because people really fly,” said John Bottomley, city councilor for Precinct 4. “I’m really concerned about speed, and especially coming off a highway ramp, seeing a pedestrian crossing flashing would be … I’ve never seen that.”
Greenfield resident Adam Goldstein said that if the goal is to make the road safer for bicyclists and pedestrians to travel from downtown to the commercial plazas on the other side of the rotary, there already is a safer path by taking the Colrain Street Bridge, but the bridge is currently closed. He suggested that fixing the bridge and improving existing bicycle infrastructure would be a better use of funding.
Greenfield resident Mary Westervelt and Colrain resident David Greenberg both agreed that even with the improvements, the rotary would not be safe for bicyclists and biking there should not be encouraged.
“It’s a terrifying proposal in my mind,” Westervelt said.
“This is not a good idea,” Greenberg said. “I bicycle into Greenfield a lot, and I used to go over the [Colrain Street] Bridge that’s down. Now I use a little bicycle path, but I would never go around the rotary.”
He added that, rotary aside, any improvements should separate bicyclists and pedestrians, as bikes move faster than people walking, and separating the two could prevent collisions.
Beth Giannini, the transportation program manager at FRCOG, said that during the safety audit, she did see multiple pedestrians, bicyclists and even one person using a wheelchair attempt to cross the rotary, and while not everyone uses the rotary to get around, there are people that do and deserve to be safe while doing so.
“I come through that way every single day, and I see people who are walking and are biking through that route,” Giannini said. “There are a lot of people who are already using that route, and this would make it safer for them.”
Freeman said as work progresses, further public outreach and informational meetings will be scheduled. He expects a preliminary design to be completed by the end of spring 2027.
Members of the public can submit comments on the project by emailing MassDOTProjectManagement@dot.state.ma.us and including the project file number 613591 in the subject line.
