Crosswalks and the West Dover Village Bridge

This page is a discussion of how to make crosswalks safe for the West Dover Village Bridge. Go HERE to find the general discussion and other issues about the bridge.

The Problem

One of the recurring objections about the bridge mentioned by select board members at the 2023 Reorganization meeting was the thought that putting a crosswalk in at the end of the existing Valley Trail to get to pedestrians to and from the bridge would be dangerous.

Evidence to support this objection includes:

• The observation that cars tend to break the law by speeding through the center of town.

• The observation that many drivers choose to break the law by driving through the existing crosswalk at the north end of the West Dover Village.

• The observation that drivers who approach the intersection from the North frequently attempt to endanger pedestrians and other drivers by shooting out in front of cars traveling north in order to make the turn before a line of cars.

• The thought that putting in a crosswalk or two would lead more pedestrians to cross the road, who may feel entitled to cross the road, and potentially put them in harm's way.

Towards a Solution

I believe all of these objections can be addressed, although some will likely require further evidence and commitments. 

The first thing to note is that all these objections essentially concede that the West Dover Village is dangerous for pedestrians. That is not a status quo that should be preserved. 

• Drivers should not be allowed to break the law by speeding through a pedestrian area. 

• Drivers should not be allowed to break the law by refusing to stop at crosswalks.

• Drivers should be encouraged to slow down before the turn to avoid hitting pedestrians.

• Pedestrians should feel entitled to cross the road, because they have the right of way in crosswalks. 

I don't think anyone can object to any of the principles above as they are reflective of the legal obligations of drivers and pedestrians in the state of Vermont. The weight of the objections instead depend on the thought that this situation cannot be improved. However, it can, municipalities all over Vermont have managed to do so, and the longer we wait to embrace a future safe for pedestrians, the more dangerous our town will become. We should address the underlying issues:

• The crosswalk on the north end of West Dover Village is the only crosswalk in the 25.3 miles from the lights of Wilmington to Jamaica. It needs to be made more prominent because drivers may not be looking for it. This is likely one of the reasons that the The 2012 Landscape Plan importantly recognized the need not for one crosswalk, but for two crosswalks in the village (Final report, page 12), and for using trees, curbs and other changes to signal to drivers that they should slow down.

• There may be a deeper level to this issue, however, and it may be that Dover is encountering its first stroad problem. The term was coined by Charles Marohn—the engineer who started the Strong Towns program that recently awarded the top award to Brattleboro—as a term for roads that try to be streets and vice versa. A road is designed for fast traffic with minimal interruption, and is a way for quickly moving drivers from point A to point B. On roads, drivers frequently speed and seldom have to stop for anything. A street is designed as a place where people stroll, shop, play, walk their dogs and eat, and consequently people are given priority over automobiles, which frequently have to stop. Dover (population 1798) has always been a town of roads without streets. This is likely why so many retail businesses that have attempted to get a foot hold in the West Dover Village have failed over the last decade, except for the West Dover Inn and 1846 Tavern, which have managed to become a destinations and benefit from a slightly more visible parking lot. Presently, the Village is designed to discourage people from stopping with no obvious roadside parking and parking lots hidden behind buildings (witness the number of cars that turn around in the Kersten's driveway after missing the turn off to the 1846 Tavern). One of the great insights of the 2012 Landscape Plan is its prescient recognition of that this road-centric model needs to change. And other towns in southern Vermont have effectively changed. In this respect,  Dover is an outlier among nearly all similar-sized towns in southern Vermont including Wilmington (population 2255), Newfane (population 1645), Jamaica (population 1,005), and Whitingham (population 1344), which had all adopted the infrastructure of sidewalks, lower speed limits, and visual cues to drivers they are entering a town many decades ago. Dover could delay this transition because it was so Mt. Snow-centered. This is less the case now with the development of the Valley Trail, and the increase in year-round residents in the pandemic and AirBnB guests and visitors since. This is all to say that just because Dover has not needed street-based infrastructure in the past does not mean we won't need it in the future.

• It is also imperative to recognize that there is no easy way to go backwards. Removing the existing crosswalk will not prevent people from crossing the street between the Valley Trail and the West Dover Village, it will just make it more dangerous for pedestrians. By building the Valley Trail, by being committed to making Dover not just a skiing destination, but also a year-round destination, and by allowing more and more residents to move to our town, we have already made the decision to be more pedestrian-friendly. The only thing we can do now is make it safer.

Solutions

Some obvious steps that could possibly be taken with VTrans approval to make our crosswalks safer:

• Enforce the law. Police should stop speeders and people who don't yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.

• Get state approval to place pre-crossing signs at either end of West Dover Village to let drivers know they are approaching a pedestrian zone. See illustration below.

• Request that the state consider putting in rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB), or if not, at least mount signs on the existing posts that face both directions so drivers are not likely to miss the crosswalk by looking off in one direction.  See illustration below for the latter approach.

• Create infrastructure that emphasizes the pedestrian-friendly nature of the town and marks the stretch of Route 100 from Crosstown Rd. to Bogle Rd., and possibly as far as Dover Green Rd. as a pedestrian-friendly street. As illustrated above, merely seeing town pedestrian infrastructure and people walking changes the character of the town, making it seem more friendly, inviting, and a place where people want to stop. Far from being merely a beautification feature, the bridge, a path that is visible before you enter the town, and the additional signs are worth more than the sum of their parts in how they make West Dover Village safer and more prosperous.

• As a possible corollary to the prior bullet, it seems very likely that putting in a crosswalk on Route 100 before Dorr Fitch Rd will make the intersection with Dorr Fitch Rd. safer, helping solve a traffic issue along with the pedestrian issue. 

  • First, To see this, observe that the issue is not caused by northbound traffic. Northbound traffic either goes straight, or makes a right-hand turn onto Dorr Fitch Rd., neither of which would require bolting in front of a line of traffic or a pedestrian. 

  • Secondly, for southbound traffic there is no issue of visibility: southbound drivers would encounter one crosswalk already at Crosstown Rd. as a warning, and then see the second crosswalk at least 1,000 feet ahead of time on a straight road, and the second crosswalk would provide a further indication to  drivers that they might need to stop before turning onto Dorr Fitch Rd. 

  • Third, by diverting pedestrians to the western side of Route 100 away from Dorr Fitch Rd., we would be discouraging pedestrians from crossing Dorr Fitch Rd. when they want to walk south on Route 100. This is important because the real danger for pedestrians in the bolting scenario is not on Route 100—southbound cars have to slow down to make the turn, after all, and pedestrians in the additional crosswalk scenario would only have to cross a ~30 foot section of Route 100. No, the danger is having a driver miss seeing a pedestrian on the significantly longer ~60 foot opening onto Dorr Fitch Rd, already begin the bolting turn and only then see the pedestrian mid turn. As an aside, the author of this post has been involved in an accident that matches this scenario exactly, when I lived in Chicago. I was heading north on a bike on Michigan Avenue (biking north on route 100 in a Dover version of this story), approaching an intersection with a green light, when a southbound car attempted to make a left-hand turn onto a side street in front of me. At precisely that moment, a pedestrian stepped out into the side street crosswalk (Dorr Fitch Rd. in a Dover version) forcing the car to screech to a halt. I ended up riding my bike into the car and flipping over the trunk. (I still have a bike with a different color fork on the front because of this accident. I was fortunately OK, and there just happened to be a bicycle repair shop across the street, which proved very helpful!) I relate that anecdote because the reason we have a dangerous turn at Dorr Fitch Rd in the bolting scenario is precisely because pedestrians might cross Dorr Fitch Rd. A crosswalk with a bridge would likely help fix the issue, not make it worse. 

Consequently, there is a very good argument that the precise reason why the Dorr Fitch Rd intersection is dangerous is the lack of a crosswalk and bridge.

Next Steps

Next steps to convincing the town to adopt this vision could include:

• Find scientific studies on the impact of multiple crosswalks vs. single crosswalks. Is their effect additive or multiplicative. Because of the observations above I imagine it is multiplicative, but I have not found a sound study on this. If such studies have not been done, consider offering West Dover Village as a test case with some reimbursement for the expense.

• Find out what changes are possible to improve crosswalk safety in Dover. The state offers guidelines in the report VTrans report Guidelines for pedestrian crossing, August 2019. The reason, presumably, we have single signs on either side of the current crosswalk is that it is a 35mph road with 2 lanes, and what we have is the recommended configuration for that space. However, the report specifies that this arrangement "may be appropriate," but does not indicate it is a requirement.  In fact, if the specifications are slightly different, namely 5 mph higher, then the Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) is recommended. I think Dover has a fairly good argument that such a device should be installed on the current crosswalk and at any additional crosswalks on Route 100. The current sidewalk is at the border of a 40 to 35 mph zone, is located at the end of a public walking trail, and although our AADT is in the middle of the lowest range in which crosswalks are recommended, due to the the highly seasonal nature of our—traffic is significantly higher during winter months, when we are likely easily in the 9,000 to 12,000 range on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. This is also a scenario in which RRFBs are encouraged. All of these suggest that further crosswalk enhancements are appropriate. The question is whether we can have this approved by VTrans. Doing so would like reassure many of the objectors to this project.

If you would like to help make this bridge a reality, please consider joining our Facebook Group or send your questions and comments to john@dvpsa.org.