Brookline Public Hearing To Discuss Adding A Handicap Space, Crosswalk

BROOKLINE, MA – The Brookline Transportation Board is set to discuss adding a curbside handicap parking space at 1581 Beacon Street and marked crosswalks at the Winthrop Road and Gardner Road intersection in a public meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. over Zoom.

The board will discuss the changes after Kyle Neuner of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis submitted a request for a designated curbside handicap parking space in front of the School of Psychoanalysis at 1581 Beacon St., according to the meeting packet.

The School “has multiple faculty members and patients who have disabled persons parking placards and are often unable to find a nearby parking spot (though there is one reserved disabled spot very nearby),” wrote Neuner in an email to Transportation Division of DPW administrative assistants Hanna Mansfield and Priscilla Ayati.

In a memorandum to the transportation board, Robert T King, the director of engineering and transportation for Brookline, said he is supportive of Neuner’s request and recommends that the Transportation Board vote to alter the traffic rules and regulations to add a designated curbside handicap parking space in front of the School.

In addition to the handicap space, Transportation Board members will also discuss a request from Brookline resident Ned Sebelius to install crosswalks and stop signs at the Gardner Road, Winthrop Road, and Welland Road intersection to increase pedestrian safety.

In an email to Transportation Administrator Todd Kirrane, Sebelius wrote that there are “a number of children on our block who have to cross that intersection to walk to Pierce [Elementary School]. The five-way intersection there has only two stop signs and we get a lot of speeding traffic with no safe place to cross.”

Transportation Division staff conducted an “All-Way Stop Study” to determine if crosswalks or all-way stop controls are needed at the five-way intersection, and “recommends favorable action” for three crosswalks to be installed on Gardner Road between Welland and Winthrop, and on the Winthrop and Welland legs of the intersection, according to the meeting packet.

In addition to crosswalks, “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” signs are recommended for the Welland and Winthrop intersections, and “No Parking” signs are recommended within the intersection.

The timeline for the sidewalk installation depends on available funding through the Department’s sidewalk contract, said King in the packet.