During the Pittsfield City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 23rd, city officials engaged in a discussion, while also hearing in on a presentation of the matter, regarding the potential redesign of North Street. Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales delivered an analysis of various angled parking configurations for one of Pittsfield’s busiest roads.
The report unveiled during the meeting outlined four distinct alternatives, each with its own implications for the streets layout. Option number four described as “maintaining parallel parking while expanding pedestrian zones and adding protected bike lanes,” emerged as the favored choice following detailed evaluation and consideration. Said Morales, “after evaluating angled parking, we looked at what other options could there be on parking arrangements keeping the keeping in the same theme of providing safe mobility for all users. We decided to look at what parallel parking with a protected bike lane looks like. And in this iteration, it provides ample space with parking and moving travel lane occupying about 19 feet, and the rest being dedicated for pedestrians and cyclists, what we would call active mobility.”
Morales’ presentation delved into the existing conditions of North Street’s design, particularly focusing on the integration of bike lanes and sidewalk space. Alternatives range from front in 30 degree angle parking, with the bike lane situated between angled parking in the travel lane, to front in 45 degree angle parking with raised sidewalk level separated bike lanes. Notably, alternative number four, which proposes keeping the parallel parking by adding raised sidewalk level separated bike lanes, garnered significant attention for its potential benefits including the creation of additional parking spaces.
Continuing his presentation, Morales said “w,hat we see with the very impactful 45 degree angle which eliminates a lot of the space we have on the road, for little use for other things, it does generate significant number of additional parking spaces at that cost, with elimination of any other use for for other things.”
Councilor Persip raised the question regarding emergency vehicle access under the proposed redesign plan which was originally presented by Morales, prompting a discussion on the matter. Addressing Morales, Councilor Persip asked “How would you address, and I guess maybe this is preliminary stages, but something should be thought of, emergency vehicles parking outside an address on North Street?” In response, Morales answered “what we need to think about, and we have already started a conversation with the Fire Department, is what happens to secondary responders to that same location…So that is something we’re looking at right now.”
Councilor Kavey expressed support for alternative 4B which maintains parallel parking while situating the bike lane at street level. Kavey also brought up the question of whether the proposed design would require surfacing of North Street. “When you implement this plan, if you end up implementing one of these plans, will you be resurfacing the road?” Morales answered “Yes, this would come with a resurfacing of the road.” In response, Kavey said “I think that on our main street, it makes sense for us to have wide sidewalks. I do think it makes sense for us to have a protected separated bike lane. I like the landscaping buffer you have in between the bike lane and where people would be parallel parking.”
Members of the public took advantage of the open microphone portion to voice their support for the redesign, including Rebecca Breen, Director of Downtown Pittsfield Inc. or DPI. She said that DPI was the original petitioner requesting the change of North Street to diagonal parking. Based on the proposals, Brien said “DPI would like to withdraw its request, in order to support the proposed design. Based on the key takeaways from the report, we agree that this option most strongly promotes a welcoming downtown by providing slower traffic, wider sidewalks and safe path for bicycles.”
Commissioner Morales made clear that there will be public input sessions on the redesign to “refine our approach,” particularly focusing on intersection designs which is slated for a 2025 reconstruction. Following deliberations, the council unanimously agreed to accept the presentation and place it on file, signaling no immediate action on the proposed redesign.
