From One Citizen to Another: Pleasant St. Roundabout

By Guest

Dear Editor:

I am deeply concerned about the proposed roundabout to be located at Pleasant Street, Bolivar Street, and Lincolnshire Drive. The town estimates this project will cost approximately $350,000. The town of Canton has framed this issue as one of public safety; however, vehicle accidents and pedestrian injuries are exceedingly rare events at this location. The selectmen have discussed this roundabout in terms including an “experiment” and a “luxury item.” To many residents it appears the town is in search of an expensive solution to a non-existent problem.

The main point of contention stems from the Town of Canton Roundabout Evaluation Report of April 28 commissioned by the Department of Public Works (DPW). An observer physically counted vehicles on one day in April 2014 for only four hours. In short, a single day does not adequately represent traffic patterns over months and years. Are we as a community comfortable spending $350,000 on four hours’ worth of data?

Pleasant Street residents feel they were denied the opportunity to thoughtfully respond to this proposal. Abutters were not directly notified, and many residents only learned of the project when greenery was removed from the existing island. The Board of Selectmen repeatedly stated that direct abutter notification was not necessary as no trees would be removed with consideration to the town’s Scenic Way bylaws. However, DPW employees removed a tree from the island bordering Pleasant Street, which clearly falls under the parameters of the bylaw. The town administrator is investigating this breech in protocol as the Planning Board should have been notified.

On June 10, when DPW Superintendent Michael Trotta proposed the roundabout, he stated that delays would occur on Pleasant Street during peak traffic times as the traffic level of service would decline from an A rating to a C rating on a scale of A-F. However, when questioned about the issue on June 24, Mr. Trotta stated that with the roundabout in place, “level of service on Pleasant Street at rush hour would be essentially the same as it is currently” and that delays would not be significant. Mr. Trotta did not bring any statistical material to the meeting to back up his assertion. It seems implausible to believe that a decline in the level of service for Pleasant Street will have no impact on traffic congestion.

For many of us, the most difficult portion of our commute is leaving the town of Canton, and this roundabout proposal promises to increase commute times. Residents directly adjacent to the roundabout will likely be exposed to increased noise with braking and accelerating traffic and increased air pollution. The placement of crosswalks concerns me as they would now occur where drivers are mostly likely to accelerate. If the goal is one of public safety, then I fail to see where potentially increasing pedestrian risk meets that goal.

Residents of Pleasant Street and adjacent areas were planning to request that the Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, August 26, reconsider their plans to move this project forward until an accurate traffic study can be conducted. We believe the town should perform its due diligence prior to taking on a “luxury” project costing taxpayers well over a quarter million dollars.

Respectfully,

Matthew and Colleen Osborne

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