Williamstown Planning Board Hears Results of Sidewalk Analysis

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Two-thirds of the town-owned sidewalks got good grades in a recent analysis ordered by the Planning Board.

 

But, overall, the results were more mixed, with many of the town's less affluent neighborhoods being home to some of its more deficient sidewalks or going without sidewalks at all.

 

On Dec. 10, the Planning Board heard a report from Williams College students Ava Simunovic and Oscar Newman, who conducted the study as part of an environmental planning course. The Planning Board, as it often does, served as the client for the research project.

 

The students drove every street in town, assessing the availability and condition of its sidewalks, and consulted with town officials, including the director of the Department of Public Works.

 

"In northern Williamstown … there are not a lot of sidewalks despite there being a relatively dense population, and when there are sidewalks, they tend to be in poor condition — less than 5 feet wide and made out of asphalt," Simunovic told the board. "As we were doing our research, we began to wonder if there was a correlation between lower income neighborhoods and a lack of adequate sidewalk infrastructure.

 

"So we did a bit of digging and found that streets with lower property values on average lack adequate sidewalk infrastructure — notably on North Hoosac, White Oaks and the northern Cole Avenue area. In comparison, streets like Moorland, Southworth and Linden have higher property values and better sidewalk infrastructure."

 

Newman explained that the study included a detailed map of the town's sidewalk network with scores for networks in a given area based on six criteria: surface condition, sidewalk width, accessibility, connectivity (to the rest of the network), safety (including factors like proximity to the road) and surface material.