“High Crash Locations” are the target of a new effort by the Department of Transportation, starting with three between MIT and Central Square.
After seven deaths in the last four years, the city’s taking new steps to fix its most dangerous intersections, starting with Mass Ave at Albany Street.
That intersection is at the top of Cambridge’s list of High Crash Locations (HCLs), as measured by the number and severity of crashes and whether those crashes involved people walking or biking. Although the Cambridge Department of Transportation (CDOT) has previously reviewed intersections for safety problems, this new program creates a formal process that will be updated every two years. At higher-ranked intersections, transportation staff will examine crash trends, travel patterns, conditions at the site and any recent or planned changes before determining what safety improvement measures to apply.
Jackie McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Cambridge Department of Transportation (CDOT), said the impetus behind the program came from concerns by city council and others, “especially after some of the fatalities that unfortunately happened and we were trying to identify and formalize the process.”
The program is part of the city’s ongoing Vision Zero effort to eliminate fatal and serious-injury crashes. Somerville has achieved zero road deaths for four years running. Cambridge has had seven fatalities in that same timeframe.
In addition to Mass Ave at Albany, the city has also selected two other intersections for safety review, Mass Ave at Vassar Street and Hampshire Street at Prospect Street. CDOT uses crash data to produce its list of High Crash Locations. Each intersection receives a score based on the number and severity of crashes and whether those crashes involved people walking or biking. The source data comes from the Mass DOT’s database and cross referenced with the Cambridge Police Department’s crash dataset. Severity is the nature of the damage — monetary value, injury degree and if an ambulance or a hospitalization was involved. The score is also weighted for crashes involving vulnerable road users (primarily bikes and pedestrians as defined by Massachusetts law). Intersections with the highest scores are prioritized and evaluated first.
Most improvements will be quick-build projects that target changes to traffic signals and addition of flex posts, signs and/or pavement markings. The measures are part of the department’s tool kit to calm or slow vehicle speeds, improve visibility and alter traffic flow. Some intersections could require broader changes or even reconstruction.
Newish tools in the toolbox are bumblebee strips and corner islands that make turns sharper and force the driver to slow and look. The bumblebee strips —named for their yellow and black markings — replace flex posts in the mouth of the intersection so vehicles with wide turn ratios like buses and fire engines can navigate and traverse the obstacle more easily. The project’s page includes a complete listing of the measures used in traffic calming and mitigation.
Leah Grodstein, a CDOT Street Design Project Manager, said the list of measures used would likely change over time as best practices for road safety at the federal (Federal Highway Administration) and local levels evolve.
Grodstein said that safety review and improvements installation at all three locations will begin this year, although schedules have not yet been finalized. As part of the process, Grodstein said that SeeClickFix/311 data, on-street observation and traffic pattern analysis would all be part of the design cycle. The Mass. Ave.-Albany project page is already online, with pages for the other two expected later.
The program will also make smaller targeted safety improvements at other higher-crash intersections without requiring a lengthy design process. An interactive map available on the Intersection Safety Program’s home page details HCL rankings, project status and information about planned, ongoing and completed improvements.
“We’re glad to see Cambridge taking a systematic approach to intersection safety, particularly as so many new people are walking and biking,” said Chris Cassa, an organizer with Cambridge Bicycle Safety. “The concentration of dangerous intersections along our main roads and squares makes it clear that we need improvements along entire corridors.”
Cassa noted that the program does not address intersections with state roads such as Memorial Drive, Fresh Pond Parkway, and the McGrath Highway. He called on city officials and state legislators “to work together to press MassDOT and DCR to make these crossings safer.”
Safety updates and notifications can be signed up for at the project’s web page. There will also be an ongoing social media campaign to help inform, educate and communicate progress.
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