Consultant details Parker Avenue plan: 5-foot bike lanes, bike boxes and RRFB crosswalks

Patrick Downey, the traffic consultant retained by Maplewood, walked attendees through the revised Parker Avenue plan and highlighted several design features intended to improve visibility and safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

"5 foot minimum bike lanes have been provided throughout with enhanced green markings typically, oriented at the beginning and end of intersection openings," Downey said during a block-by-block review. He described bike boxes at the Valley Street and Prospect Street signalized intersections to allow cyclists to get ahead of queued vehicles, green extension markings through intersections, and a leading pedestrian interval timing change at Prospect to give pedestrians a head start on motorists.

Downey noted that where roadway width is limited some travel lanes remain 10 feet but "wherever there is room available to provide 11 foot travel lanes, that has been done." The western blocks show consistent 11-foot lanes and 5-foot bike lanes; the eastern section (near Boyden to Irvington) keeps on-street parking and uses shared-lane markings (sharrows) instead of dedicated lanes.

He also described specific safety add-ons: new high-visibility crosswalk striping, curb ramps where crosswalks are added, and rapid rectangular flashing beacons (RRFBs) at the high school approaches. In front of the Maplewood Jewish Center the plan retains north-side parking and switches the westbound facility to a shared lane for a single block to preserve parking there.

Downey and town engineers said most of the work in this scope is striping and signage with some localized concrete work for crosswalk accessibility.