Drivers and bikers in Rutland City will see big changes along parts of Routes 4 and 7

Motorists in Rutland are about to see big changes in traffic patterns along parts of Routes 4 and 7 in the city.

Over the next several days, paving crews will complete a reconfiguration of North Main Street and Woodstock Avenue that will turn four lanes of car traffic into three — one in each direction with a shared left-turn lane down the middle. New bike lanes will be added on either side. New signage and upgraded traffic lights will also be added.

See the whole plan here.

A similar design was tried briefly on Woodstock Avenue in 2014. Rutland Mayor Michael Doenges said that effort, which didn’t last, was not well-executed. At the time, local leaders felt there had not been enough preparation or driver education, and safety concerns were raised about the bike lanes. Many local business owners also complained.

This time, Doenges has pledged to give the traffic change more time.

Ethan Pepin, a transportation planner for the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, says residents should see improved safety with the changes. He says the new traffic pattern will reduce speeding and crashes as well as improve accessibility, especially near Rutland High School. Pepin says that stretch of Woodstock Avenue has been designated by the Vermont Agency of Transportation as a high crash area.

Local leaders say speeding is common with the current traffic configuration, which has two lanes in either direction and a 35 mile per hour limit.

Pepin says many of the accidents are caused by left turning motorists who are struck by traffic that doesn't stop behind them. Additionally, with two lanes of traffic to cross when turning left, he says there's double the possibility for a problem.

"And left turning crashes are some of the most deadly," he added. "Because cars are designed with crumple zones in the front and back which absorb the force of the impact. But if you're struck from the side, there's very little separating you from the force that's coming at you."

By providing a shared center lane for left turns, Pepin says crashes can be reduced by an average of 30-40%. It's a traffic configuration that he says has been around since the 1980s and '90s and extensively studied. In some cases, he says, this type of "road diet" design has reduced crashes by as much as 47%.

"Seeing that significant a reduction is pretty dramatic, especially for a treatment that only involves changing the painted lines on the road and the signs and the actual lights, without changing the geometry,” he said.

Other parts of the state have incorporated this type of traffic pattern. Pepin says portions of South Main Street (Route 7) in Rutland, which is more heavily trafficked than North Main, already has a shared center lane. So, the concept will not be entirely new to area motorists.

Pepin says this type of road diet has a proven track record for reducing speeding as well, and with the addition of bike lanes, he says accessibility is improved and emissions are reduced.

"I walk to work every day and I see a lot of people biking in and around the downtown," said Pepin. "Rutland has a really compact sort of downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods that are really well suited to biking."

Not everyone is excited about the changes. Ellie Ghio, a 23-year-old Rutland resident, thinks going from two lanes to one will create long traffic jams in the morning and frustration for drivers.

"It's a stupid idea," she said. "There's a lot of delays and people have a lot of road rage. I could foresee it going terrible that way, where somebody might get out and try to harm somebody that's not driving the way that they want to be driving because of the long wait times."

She and others also worry about how the new traffic configuration will impact businesses, like her father's automotive repair shop, that are located along the routes.

"Because nobody's going to want to try to pull in and out to any of those businesses," Ghio said. "It's just not smart."

Some residents worry cars will use side streets to avoid the new traffic pattern altogether. Rutland resident Scott Patch has driven a tow truck in the city for 15 years. He worries about how emergency response vehicles will be impacted.

"You know, tow trucks, being able to get there, to clear the roadway faster, to be able to get traffic flowing again. I just don't think it's going to work for us," he said. "I really don't."

But Pepin, the transportation planner, says data shows otherwise. He says in communities that have made similar traffic changes, emergency response times were often the same or better.

Unlike his daughter Ellie, Chris Ghio, who owns North Main Automotive, is taking a more wait and see approach.

"I'm not against it," he said in his shop this week. "Being right on North Main Street, it could affect [us], and I'm hoping it doesn't. But I want to see the results first, before I make a judgement on it."

While paving was initially going to begin Friday night at 7 p.m., crews are now scheduled to finish lane markings on Woodstock Avenue on Sunday night and on North Main Street Monday night. New signage and changes to stoplights will also be completed then. Pepin says updated streetlights that can adjust their timing to traffic volume will be added at a later date.

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