Smith College capstone pitches nine safer bike routes linking 50 city services; team says modest time penalty yields fewer crashes

Seychelles Brainerd, Lucy Hartley and John Rosenthal presented a Smith College capstone to Northampton municipal commissioners proposing nine safer bike routes that link 50 city services and about 15.5 miles of connected paths.

The students said the project was prompted by the city’s Main Street redesign and a shortage of time and funds for permanent protected lanes. "Biking is a really great alternative to carbon centered transportation," one presenter said, framing the proposal as a low-cost, equity-minded way to improve safety and access.

Why it matters: presenters cited city crash data and national modal trends. They reported Northampton averages 15.3 bike-related crashes a year and said a 20-year count shows roughly 250 cyclist-involved incidents. Their analysis compared the proposed safer routes with direct routes recommended by Google Maps and found a 19.6% increase in distance (about 0.2 miles, or 0.76 minutes) but a 36.4% reduction in crashes on the safer routes (an estimated 1.6 fewer crashes).

Method and evidence: the team used the National Household Travel Survey and a city 'housing and human services' list to identify destinations (hospitals, parks, schools, libraries and other community centers), layered crash and traffic data, drafted nine routes in Google My Maps, and then refined those routes through car and bicycle site visits. They said the Friends of the Northampton Rail Trail provided limited counter data covering two days.

The students also overlaid EPA environmental-justice data with existing ValleyBike docks and found docks in two of three EJ sectors but none in the Meadowbrook Apartments area; they recommended siting docks in low-income neighborhoods to improve equitable access.

Limitations and next steps: presenters cautioned that some corridors — notably King Street, the Cooley Dickinson area, Elm Street and connections to Bay State Village — remain high-traffic and narrow and will require permanent protected infrastructure when budgets permit. The students recommended additional qualitative work (surveys, interviews), permanent counters, GPS tracking and community workshops to validate routes and user preferences.

Commission response: commissioners praised the project and asked for the full report. Eric Winkler requested a copy of the presentation; the team said, "We'll be happy to share all of our report findings," and the moderator said the work would be shared with the city’s TPC. No formal action was taken at the meeting.

What’s next: the student team will finalize their paper and slides for distribution to city staff and commissioners, and the commission indicated interest in further study and community engagement before any permanent infrastructure decisions.