On Saturday, August 16th, Colchester resident Michael Pickering was killed after being struck by a car on Mallets Bay Avenue. This is a tragedy for everyone involved — and it was entirely avoidable.

It was avoidable because Mallets Bay Avenue is a dangerous road.

This stretch is designed exclusively for cars, despite running through a neighborhood where people live, walk dogs, collect mail, garden, exercise, and greet their neighbors. It transitions abruptly from a country road into a residential area with no design elements to slow drivers down or alert them to the presence of pedestrians.

It lacks continuous sidewalks and shoulders, forcing anyone walking, biking, or rolling into traffic. It lacks safe crossings. It lacks adequate lighting. The road divides a neighborhood with a high-speed corridor, with no protection for the people who live and move here. Without protection, our neighbors are at risk whenever they use this street. There is little margin of error for drivers - any mistake can lead to another tragedy.

Mallets Bay Avenue connects Winooski and Colchester. In 2024, the Winooski Walk/Bike Master Plan identified Mallets Bay Avenue as a top priority for safety improvements. Over the past five years, more than 75 crashes have been reported along this corridor, resulting in more than 15 injuries, and now a death. 

Still, our towns are not making changes we need to make fast enough to save lives. According to a WCAX article about Michael’s death, “Town officials say they are planning to install a sidewalk in the area…in 2029”. 

Two days after Michael Pickering’s death, Strong Towns published an article arguing that such tragedies are “statistically inevitable outcomes of building a place where human life outside of a car has no real value in the design.” And, when tragedies happen, we must have a public conversation that says, 

“This place killed someone. Here’s why, and here’s how we stop it from happening again.”

Mallets Bay Avenue killed Michael Pickering. And if nothing changes, it will happen again.

So the question now is: how are we going to stop it?

We already know how to prevent tragedies like this; what we need is the public will to make it happen. Advocate for safer streets in your community:

Join your local walk/bike group

Two upcoming events directly address this issue:

• September 8 at 5:00 PM — Winooski Infrastructure Ride
  Local Motion and the Winooski Bike Gang will lead a community ride departing from Winooski Wheels. With high-vis gear, safety lights, and strength in numbers, we’ll take over some of the least bike-friendly streets in Winooski — including Mallets Bay Avenue — and discuss the changes we need.
  
  
• September 9 — Critical Mass Ride to the Colchester Selectboard Meeting
  Join a group ride to the Selectboard meeting to demand safer infrastructure and real action on Mallets Bay Avenue. Details will be posted on the Local Motion calendar.