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Resident frames traffic safety as a long‑term cost of development, urges stricter trip accounting
Summary
During public comment Chelsea Hill urged the Planning Board to include long‑term traffic and safety costs in project reviews, citing local pedestrian deaths and arguing developers sometimes avoid connectivity solutions.
Chelsea Hill, a resident of Bradley Street, used the Planning Board's public comment period to press for broader consideration of traffic safety when the board evaluates development proposals. Hill urged the board to think of traffic safety as a "stranded cost" the community bears when open space is developed and pedestrian and biking connections are not provided.
Hill referenced two recent pedestrian fatalities in the area and cited Federal Highway Administration figures for the social cost of a traffic fatality. She said reviewers and developers are not adequately quantifying the operational and safety costs that fall to the city after a project is built and warned that missed connections — for example to the nearby Eastern Trail — can be the result of uncreative design choices.
Hill asked the board to prioritize long‑term mobility and safety when weighing benefits promised by developers, and to press applicants for feasible pedestrian and cycling connections rather than accept claims that links are "impossible." The board did not act on the comment; it was taken as public input for members to consider during project reviews.
