Worcester Councilors May Sideswipe Mill Street Redesign With New Orders

WORCESTER, MA — If a car crashes on Mill Street, the sound reverberates through city council chambers.

Two Worcester city councilors filed orders this week to potentially change or erase the new layout of Mill Street — and possibly future projects just like it. The dueling orders come after months of complaints from residents near and around Mill Street who believe the new design is dangerous.

The redesigned Mill Street created the first parking-protected bike lane in Worcester, putting the bike lane between parking spaces and the curb. Conventional bike lanes in Worcester thread a narrow space between parked cars and traffic, a design that can expose cyclists to getting doored. Parking-protected bike lanes are considered safer than conventional bike lanes for cyclists, and provide ancillary benefits, like making it hard for drivers to double-park in bike lanes.

Mill Street has seen multiple high-profile crashes — although not necessarily more crashes — since the redesign was completed at the end of November. Earlier this month, a motorcyclist collided with a parked Toyota Prius, creating a messy crash scene that was photographed and posted on neighborhood Facebook pages. The crash also renewed calls to remove the new design. The motorcyclist, Worcester police have said, was driving recklessly before he crashed.

At-Large Councilor Moe Bergman first called for returning Mill Street to its previous design at a budget hearing last week. For this week's council agenda, he has forwarded the following items to the city manager:

• Hire an independent traffic engineer to assess the safety of the new Mill Street design
• Require hearings in the council's Traffic and Parking Committee for all future projects similar to Mill Street
• And, put Mill Street parking back at the curb, removing the parking-protected bike lane

Bergman has also asked for an estimate for how much it would cost to return Mill Street to its previous configuration. That order came out of the May 16 budget hearing.

Worcester's Department of Transportation and Mobility (DTM) targeted Mill Street for a redesign due to excessive speeding. Before the redesign, Mill Street was two wide driving lanes, giving drivers the room to hit the gas, earning the roadway the nickname "the speedway." Residents along the street often parked on the sidewalks, and there were no bike lanes.

The redesign has cut the road down to one lane in both directions. But some drivers have continued to speed, using the new parking lane to pass slower drivers. In some cases, drivers have crashed into parked cars.

According to DTM, there were 17 crashes along the redesigned stretch of Mill Street between December and April. Of those, three drivers were injured, including Daniel Abraham, 90, who crashed into parked cars in late February and died in early March.

Of the 17 crashes, five involved parked cars, and speeding or distracted driving was a factor in two, snow and ice in another. The Mill Street corridor, historically, has seen between three and five crashes per month.

Transportation planners have said the Mill Street redesign is an interim step. Earlier this year, DTM won a $2 million federal grant to create a plan for Mill Street that would include new sidewalks and a potential separated multi-use path along the road.

King's order asks city administrators to appropriate $2 million to rule "in or out the

potential for elevating protected bike lanes and the widening sidewalks with a dedicated walkway" along Mill Street. King's order only specifies "federal funding," and does not refer directly to the grant the city has received for design work. The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, however, listed that grant as for planning and design, not construction. Elevated bike lanes are the gold standard for safety, but are costly, with even at-grade protected bike lanes costing $133,000 per mile on the very low end, according to some estimates.

The new Mill Street orders will be on the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting.

Related: Rainy Mill Street Bike Ride Tests Bike Lanes