SB Residents Seek to Transform Williston Road
Posted by Chapin on Feb 15 2012
Tags: Bicycling, complete streets, redesign, South Burlington, Vermont, walking
On a rainy February night, 10 visionary South Burlington residents gathered at Rick Hubbard’s house to consider a big idea. They want to turn a four lane section of Williston Road into a three lane ‘complete street’.
Williston Road will be repaved this summer and residents want to have the City try a Complete Street demonstration. Between Hinesburg Road (Rt 116) and Ace Hardware (past the Airport), the proposed design would take the 4 lane road and turn it into a 3 lane road with two bike lanes. If the demonstration 3 lane design works (two travel lanes and a center two-way turn lane), the City of South Burlington will be able to create a much safer pedestrian culture along the road as well.
Amazingly, 3 lane reconfigurations can handle nearly as much traffic as their four lane predecessors — with greater safety for all modes. Essex Junction has had a success with their reconfiguration of Route 15 by the Fairgrounds and Burlington has had its success with Colchester Avenue. This is South Burlington’s first attempt at such a reconfiguration.
Many of the attendees lived in the Williston Road neighborhood and they want to figure out how to make the road more friendly to those who live nearby.
Are you South Burlington resident? Get involved! Attend the Tuesday, February 21st South Burlington City Council meeting at Marcotte Central School.
For more information, contact Rick Hubbard.
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2 Responses to “SB Residents Seek to Transform Williston Road”
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on 17 Feb 2012 at 12:04 pm 1.Annie said …
It's about time…I ride the sidewalk as I frequently shop on Williston Road. It's way too narrow and scary for me to pedal there. Complete Streets reconfiguration helped Colchester Avenue, why not Williston Road?
on 23 Feb 2012 at 11:41 am 2.Matt Boulanger said …
So how did it go? It was on the agenda the same night as IZ, so i imagine that got top billing. Still, I'd love to see this go forward. Williston road is a huge transportation corridor and should not be set up solely for cars. The proposed road diet section has no business being 4 lanes anyway, not if you want the speed limits actually adhered to.