This fall, four Vermont communities are using paint, straw bales, planters, and cones to try out street changes before anyone commits to permanent changes.

In Shelburne, two crosswalks on Marsett Road were painted red and straw bales decorated the corner where Maplewood meets Marsett to slow traffic for pedestrians. On South Union Street in Burlington, neighbors set out a line of short rubber cones called “armadillos” through the middle of the street during their block party to start a conversation about how their street space could be used to create a protected bike lane all the way to the elementary and middle school down the road.

These are demonstration projects: temporary versions of a street design, built from materials that take an hour to set up and come down just as quickly. They let a community try a change on the real street, with real traffic and real neighbors, before deciding to make it permanent.

Usually, street design reaches the public as sterile plan drawings that show a simplified top down view of the road. But these types of plans ask the community to imagine how the street might feel without actually knowing. And designs like this often rely on assumptions that might not hold up to how the street actually gets used.

Street design starts with a question. Will a tighter corner slow turning cars? Does this crosswalk need to be more visible for cars to yield to pedestrians? Could a bike lane really fit here? Answers to these questions are exactly what a community needs to know before the paving crew shows up, and they are exactly the type of question demonstration projects are designed to answer.

Marsett Road, Shelburne

Can paint, planters, and a tighter corner get drivers to slow down and yield to people walking?

Marsett Road runs through one of Shelburne's densest neighborhoods. It’s how many residents walk and bike to the Village, library, and school. It’s also a popular route for commuters on Route 7, and neighbors have raised concerns about the speed and volume of cars, and how infrequently they stop at the  crosswalks.

With the Select Board’s endorsement, the Village Pedestrian Safety Group (VPSG) spent six months designing a two-week test and talking with neighbors about it. Each element of the design targets a specific behavior. The red crosswalks with white outlines are meant to catch a driver’s eye and remind them to yield. At the Maplewood intersection, drivers had been cutting through the crosswalk at speed on a wide turn, right where people walking might be waiting to cross. Straw bales help to narrow the lane there so drivers have to slow down. 

The faux-stone bollards and flower-filled planters that frame the brick-red crossing came straight from community feedback. Shelburne residents didn't want their neighborhood to look like a construction zone, and these easy adaptations helped to make the demonstration project look more like a finished design.

Temporary Marsett Rd changes in place.

The project came at no cost to the town. Local Motion’s technical assistance was funded by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, and the local donations covered materials. The timing also lined up with the town’s regularly scheduled crosswalk repainting, so the red paint was easy to include.

Honking Tunnel, St. Johnsbury

What would a safe, inviting connection between the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and downtown look like?

The Honking Tunnel is a small, historic one-lane underpass on Bay Street that links downtown, near Railroad Street and Depot Square, to the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail (LVRT). Making that link work for people on foot and bike has been a community priority for well over a decade, named in plans from 2011, 2017, and 2025, and the 2015 Vermont Council on Rural Development’s community visit. This spring the town bought four properties in the area to start taking real steps to support development and connectivity.

"Honking tunnel", picture from the Caledonian Record.

St. Johnsbury's demonstration project is still being designed, and the community is shaping that design in public. The town's Recreation Department applied for technical assistance through Local Motion's LVRT Community Mobility & Access Technical Assistance program. After an early call to map the main safety concerns, the town and Local Motion ran a community survey.

On October 11, Local Motion will be at the Discover Fall festival with a preliminary design based on those survey responses. We’ll also lead small groups on walk and bike rides through the area to look at problem spots firsthand. With the feedback we receive, we’ll present a plan for a possible demonstration project to the town that we hope to implement next year.

Main Street, Poultney

Can bump-outs make Main Street shorter to cross, easier to be seen on, and slower for traffic turning onto Maple?

Poultney's project started on foot. Last year, Local Motion joined residents and AARP for a walk audit of Main Street, where participants walked the street together and noted where it falls short for people walking and rolling. The group kept running into the same problems. The crossings felt very wide, traffic moved fast, and visibility was poor for both people waiting to cross and drivers approaching them.

Poultney residents take part in a walk audit of Main St.

This year, Local Motion worked with the town and the Rutland Regional Planning Commission to design a demonstration project that responds directly to those findings. Bump-outs were created to extend the curb into the street using materials from Local Motion’s pop-up demonstration trailer: paint, cones, and planters filled with fall mums. Each bump-out is aimed at one of the problems the walk audit identified. A shorter crossing means less time spent in the roadway. Bringing people waiting to cross out past parked cars puts them where drivers can see them, and lets them see oncoming traffic. At the corner of Maple, the bump-out tightens the turning radius so drivers have to slow down to make the turn.

As you’re walking through Poultney this month, see how it feels. When the demonstration project comes down on October 17th, the town will have a better idea whether bump-outs work on Main Street, having had the chance to test the road geometry before pouring any permanent concrete curbs.

South Union Street, Burlington

Does a protected two-way bike lane actually fit on South Union Street?

South Union is a dense residential street, home to longtime homeowners alongside short- and long-term renters. Drivers coming off Shelburne Road (Rte 7) are able to turn onto the road without slowing down because of a highway style “slip lane”. Residents describe speeding cars and uncomfortable conditions for biking. Burlington’s 2017 Walk/Bike Master Plan called for a protected bike lane on South Union within 10 years, and with the street scheduled to be repaved next year, the neighbors saw this as an opportunity to take the design off the shelf and present it to the City as a neighborhood initiative. 

Neighbors chose the lightest-weight version of a demonstration project. They had already closed the street to cars for a Labor Day block party, so the test needed no formal approval or extra permits. A crowd of neighbors would also already be on the street to experience and discuss the bike lane. Using cones, they laid out a two-way bike lane, measuring as they went to make sure the car lane could be wide enough, while ensuring bikes could pass each other.

South Union St closed for a block party, with a temporary two-way bike lane pictured on the left.

South Union runs 29 to 31 feet curb to curb. On paper, that’s enough room for a row of parking, a travel lane wide enough for large vehicles, and a protected two-way bike lane — but presented that way, the design is a series of numbers and a top down view of the street. Without actually seeing it in person, neighbors were concerned about having enough space for a travel lane and a safe bike lane.

Now, after testing the design on the ground, neighbors are using what they learned and the conversations the project generated to bring the design to the city.

Bring a demonstration project to your street

There’s no single way to do a demonstration project. Each one takes the shape of the street and community they take place in. These four projects ranged from a single afternoon to more than a year of planning, a single intersection to an entire road, in small towns and big cities.

• Start with the question: what feels unsafe, and what change could fix it?

• Look for something already happening: Marsett Road paired their project with a crosswalk repainting, South Union used a block party to test their idea and are looking towards an upcoming paving project. An existing event or maintenance cycle can make a demonstration project easier to implement.

• Make it a community conversation: demonstration projects should come from community concerns and be responsive to the community as the design gets tested. Getting neighbors and businesses on board early is a great way to have a successful project.

• Plan how you’ll learn: before the demonstration happens, figure out what success will look like. Slower speeds? More bike traffic? Survey responses saying people walking felt safer crossing?

Local Motion's Complete Streets team offers technical assistance to Vermont communities planning demonstration projects, from scoping the question to designing the test and gathering feedback.

If there's a street in your town you'd like to see work differently, reach out to us at [email protected].