One Way: Three Local Streets Going Single Direction

By Adam Swift

The Town Council approved a plan to make portions of Locust, Cross, and Almont streets one-way at its meeting on Tuesday night.

Under the new traffic plan, which addresses traffic backing up on the narrow streets toward Revere Street, Almont Street will be one way from Revere Street to Cross Street, Cross Street will be one way from Shirley Street to Locust Street, and Locust Street will be one-way from Cross Street to Revere Street.

The change also eliminates right turns from Almont Street onto Revere Street from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on school days.

Those recommendations were first made by the town’s Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) three years ago.

TSAC Chair Michael Diluiso noted that the streets that are impacted are all approximately 26 feet wide with parking on both sides.

“If we want two-way traffic with parking on both sides, we really need much wider streets to accommodate it,” said Diluiso.

Diluiso said the traffic is more of an issue during school hours, but has gotten worse during all times of the day.

“The only other option is to look at eliminating parking on one side of the street, and even that is not wide enough,” he said. “We understand that this is going to inconvenience the neighborhood and it’s going to have some growing pains, but I will also say that I do believe that people will adjust.”

Councilor-at-Large Rob DeMarco, who cast the lone vote against the traffic change, asked how many accidents there have been on Locust and Almont in the last year. Diluiso said there have been some close calls, but that he wasn’t aware of any accidents.

“As a council, I think we are trying to be proactive instead of reactive, we don’t want to wait for a bad situation in order to act,” said Council President James Letterie.

Precinct 3 Councilor Hannah Belcher said the town has made a good faith effort over the past several years not to inconvenience the neighborhood, but that the issue still exists. She also noted that it could be a safety issue if an emergency vehicle is trying to get down one of the narrow streets while traffic is coming in the other direction.

“Despite the inconvenience to people on those one-ways, it is improving safety and it is preserving our limited resources in parking,” said Precinct 2 Councilor John Munson.