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Residents press for protected bike lanes as city readies Locust Street design
Summary
Residents and bicycling advocates urged Northampton officials to include physical separation for people on bikes in the Locust Street Complete Streets design. The city has a $500,000 MassDOT Complete Streets grant for design work but officials said full implementation will require additional paving and capital funding.
Northampton — Residents and bicycle advocates urged the Transportation Parking Commission on Oct. 21 to require protected, low‑stress bicycle facilities as the city begins design work for the Locust Street Complete Streets project.
Advocates said Locust Street is a critical link between Florence and destinations including Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Smith College and Northampton High School and urged the city to add physical separation for people biking. “Complete Streets is about creating infrastructure for all ages and abilities,” said Alex Bowman of Northampton during the public comment period. “We need a low stress bike network that's more than just the rail trail.”
The commission and city staff said the Locust Street work is in the preliminary design stage. Donna Lascaglia, director of public works and chair of the commission, told the panel the city received a $500,000 Complete Streets grant and has engaged Fussen O'Neil as the design engineering firm. “We will be devoting a future meeting to discussion with this, and I will have our engineering firm here to talk about the design, which is really in the preliminary stages,” Lascaglia said.
City staff and speakers noted the grant funds design and some improvement planning but not full roadway reconstruction. Lascaglia said the roadway is in poor condition and that “nothing's going to be able to be implemented unless we have funding to actually pave the roadway.” She said milling and overlay of the Route 9 section will be required before a new striping layout or separated bike facilities could be installed and that any construction funding would need to go through the city's capital planning process.
Multiple commenters suggested specific design approaches. George Kohout, president of Friends of the Northampton Trails, suggested physical barriers and lane narrowing to reduce vehicle speeds; Strong Towns Northampton representatives urged the commission and the BikePed committee to review their submitted proposal. Other speakers recommended two‑way shared use paths on one side, intersection redesigns such as roundabouts, and short trial installations to test physical separators.
City staff acknowledged tradeoffs: winter maintenance of separated facilities, bench locations, and coordination with PVTA and other infrastructure needs. Lascaglia and Planning staff said the city will bring the engineering firm to a future meeting to show preliminary plans and solicit more public input.
Next steps: the commission said it will schedule a dedicated discussion with Fussen O'Neil to review designs and public proposals, and the DPW indicated the need to identify capital funding to repave Route 9 before construction of many Complete Streets elements could proceed.
