Slow down. Residents from another Framingham street want city intervention
FRAMINGHAM — Millwood Street residents are seeking city intervention in getting drivers to slow down while on their roadway.
Residents last week went before the Traffic Commission to express concern about speeding and traffic on Millwood Street, which runs along Callahan State Park, somewhat parallel to Grove Street — a fairly straight way with one end at the park and the other connecting with Belknap Road.
More: Need for (less) speed: Framingham mulls 'traffic calming measures' for various city roads
“We are also looking at other parts of that northwest quadrant,” said Traffic Commission Chair Brinsley Fuller during Monday's meeting. “Hopefully, the data reflects what we’re looking for and we can make some informed decisions from there.”
This is not the first time Framingham residents have asked city officials to step in. Grove Street, another area where residents have pushed for traffic calming measures, will have speed humps installed later this year.
Other options were explored for Grove Street before speed humps were selected as the solution; once they're installed, the area will be monitored to determine the effectiveness.
“One of the things we talk about in this commission is sometimes we’re limited, because changing people’s behaviors (in regards to speeding) is probably where we meet our biggest roadblocks,” Fuller said.
Ellen Funk, who has lived on Millwood Street for almost 40 years, said traffic has “gotten basically out of control,” recently. She said she’s often observed drivers ignoring the stop sign at Belknap and then speeding up Millwood.
There’s been a lot of turnover in the neighborhood since the Funks moved in “and there are now a lot of young families with young kids,” Funk said. “We’d like to have something to slow down the traffic.”
She said it's especially bad on weekends, and during the afternoon and evening.
Even if data does not support Funk’s claim that drivers are far exceeding the speed limit, drivers don’t have to be going very fast to cause harm. For pedestrians, the estimated risk for severe injury at 31 mph is 50%.
The speed limit on the road is 30 mph.
Nationally, more than 7,000 pedestrians died last year — a 40-year high — and pedestrians comprised more than half of traffic fatalities between 2010 and 2020. At the same time, the number of driver fatalities decreased.
Traffic Commission Vice Chair and Chief Engineer of Public Works William Sedewitz acknowledged there is “some burden” on the part of neighborhood residents for traffic calming measures to be adopted if traffic data indicates drivers need additional incentives to slow down.
“The expectation is the residents would come together and sign a petition requesting it,” Sedewitz said. “Upon that receipt, we’ll bring it back to the commission and have a discussion on whether we need to engage some help to look at what might be done.”
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Millwood Street residents Framingham want drivers to slow down
