PITTSFIELD, Mass. — North Street's one-lane segments and new bike lanes are reportedly stirring up controversy.
A majority of the City Council rejected Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi's petition requesting Mayor Linda Tyer eliminate the new bike lanes on North Street and return to two lanes of travel for vehicles.
Morandi then withdrew his motion and the council unanimously voted to send this petition to the Public Works Committee so that Public Services and Utilities Commissioner Ricardo Morales can give a detailed explanation of the project and answer questions.
"We want our downtown to be an area that is welcoming to everyone and this idea that it's just a space for vehicles, that's actually harmful to our residents of downtown, that's harmful to our businesses downtown, it's not a productive way of looking at how we can utilize our space," Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said. "Erasing something just because it didn't work in the first three months, I think Pittsfield can do better."
The street changes are part of the Shared Streets and Spaces Project that the city received $238,826 for in September. This program will support 20 placemaking projects in the downtown corridor designed to enhance mobility for pedestrians and bicyclists, integrate additional open and public spaces for community life, and improve navigation.
The project is split into two categories: Enhanced mobility components that will take paved space typically used for car travel and altering it for more diverse use and placemaking components that draw foot traffic by creating focal points throughout the downtown to create a more inviting outdoor experience.
Part of the reasoning for this state program also was the need for safe outdoor spaces for walking and gatherings, such as dining, during the pandemic.
Many councilors expressed that they have gotten complaints from their constituents regarding the one-lane sections of North Street, claiming they are a safety hazard.
Morandi brought this petition forward because of the volume of emails and phone calls that residents and businesses sent him opposing the reconfiguration of the street.
He is concerned that the backup of traffic will hinder emergency vehicles from getting through and with the lack of signage that is placed to inform drivers of the lane shift.
"There's plenty of opportunities to ride bikes, and that's for sure, but when we're talking about public safety and changing our downtown to accommodate bicyclists," Morandi said. "Let's put North Street back the way it was, and there's plenty of opportunities for cyclists in other parts of the city."
Ward 2 Councilor Chris Connell said that along with lack of signage, there is a lack of visibility, especially in the lines on the road during the winter months. Connell reported that he felt afraid driving down the street the previous day for both himself and other drivers.
"I don't mind experimenting with things to see how they work and things like that," he said. "When we experiment we've also to be willing to take the criticism granted as long as it's right and be willing to make changes to the experiment."
Ward 3 Councilor Nicholas Caccamo changed the tone of the conversation when he urged his colleagues to reject referring this petition to Tyer. While there are some growing pains with these new traffic designs on North Street, he acknowledged that this project fits in with the work that Pittsfield is doing to promote multimodal designs across the city.
"The work on North is good for pedestrians and for those who actually bike on North Street it is significantly safer," He said.
Caccamo explained that it is good for a city to move away from the thought that a public resource like roads are for cars only when they are a public resource and cyclists, walkers, and chair riders.
Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey wished Morales had been there to explain the Shared Streets and Spaces project and how it will be integrated with different improvements to make a cohesive overall plan.
"There's quite a bit more information on our future plan," he said. "And I think we should discuss that first, and then if we decide that those future plans don't work for us maybe consider changing traffic arrangement again on North Street until we hear from the commissioner and until we hear about our plans which are already finalized I wouldn't want to move forward with changing anything."
From Kavey's sentiment, Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio suggested the petition be sent to the Public Works Committee, who could have Morales explain the plan and then send it back to the council.
Council President Peter Marchetti concluding the discussion by reminding the council that if they had given Morales seven days' notice as outlined in the charter, he could have attended the meeting and prepared content for it.
"This is exactly why I sent the email to you guys last week in regards to trying to improve the meetings, here is a petition on something to refer to the mayor and then we want to ask the commissioner of public works questions, I don't think anyone reached out to the commissioner to even let him know this was on here and that there would be questions coming forward," he said. "So this is about productive meetings and putting everyone on the same page, instead if Commissioner Morales was still on the call we would be shooting questions at him that he's not prepared for because it really was not on the agenda for him to address."
