Worcester Kelley Square

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Anyone who has both driven Kelley Square in Worcester and watched Poyton Regenerated will like this thread:

Kelley Square:

Poynton, Cheshire, UK


Kelley Square Redesign project
www.mass.gov

Worcester Kelley Square Improvement Project

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the City of Worcester are working to develop a project to improve operations and safety within the general Kelley Square area of Worcester.
www.mass.gov www.mass.gov

"Peanut" / "squashed rotary" project
 
Adding this here from an earlier post in the Worc Improvements thread. I think construction start may be imminent.

Additional info on the Kelley Square redesign

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source:MassLive

Current configuration:
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source: Google maps
 
Kelley Square construction is well under way and the traffic is even more chaotic than usual. The Worcester Public Market with local fair and a Wachusett tab room is slated to be opened soon. Upstairs are some 48 “lofts”. Opening date was supposed to be Nov 1, I haven’t heard when it’s actually going to happen. I’m not a huge fan of the yellow.

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Improvement from a dirt lot, definitely. But I agree, that building is ugly!

Not a fan of MassDOT's planned "peanut" roundabout. No reason for it to be two lanes around -- that's not safe for people walking and biking. The chaos of Kelley Square right now actually helps a lot with traffic calming, mainly because drivers feel so uncertain driving through it, so they slow down organically.
 
#bancars said:
Improvement from a dirt lot, definitely. But I agree, that building is ugly!

Not a fan of MassDOT's planned "peanut" roundabout. No reason for it to be two lanes around -- that's not safe for people walking and biking. The chaos of Kelley Square right now actually helps a lot with traffic calming, mainly because drivers feel so uncertain driving through it, so they slow down organically.
Click to expand...

Locals have never slowed down through here, the mantra is "Clear a path, I'm going whether you have the right of way or not." I don't see the peanut doing much to change that.

Perhaps the future is more foot traffic-friendly, but as it stands Kelley Sq is not a big pedestrian/cyclist corridor.
 
#bancars said:
Improvement from a dirt lot, definitely. But I agree, that building is ugly!

Not a fan of MassDOT's planned "peanut" roundabout. No reason for it to be two lanes around -- that's not safe for people walking and biking. The chaos of Kelley Square right now actually helps a lot with traffic calming, mainly because drivers feel so uncertain driving through it, so they slow down organically.
Click to expand...

It's been the most fatal intersection in Massachusetts, so I think we can discount the supposed "calming" benefits of chaos.
 
Equilibria said:
It's been the most fatal intersection in Massachusetts, so I think we can discount the supposed "calming" benefits of chaos.
Click to expand...

Where are you getting that information? As far as I can tell, MassDOT data only report one fatal crash since 2013, which I presume was the incident in 2015 when an out-of-state semi-truck driver ran over a pedestrian outside the Hotel Vernon. That happened when I lived in the area.

Apparently, MassDOT does list it in its top 10 most "dangerous" intersections, though. Currently, they rank it #8. Per MassDOT, part of the reason it was ranked #1 in 2013-15 was b/c it had a huge geographic coverage area.

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Regardless, it does have a high number of minor crashes, so I agree there are calming benefits to be had. I just think a 2-lane roundabout is not a very progressive vision for the Canal District, as more people will be walking around the area with new apartments and the Polar Park complex coming online. My $.02.
 
HarvardP said:
Locals have never slowed down through here, the mantra is "Clear a path, I'm going whether you have the right of way or not." I don't see the peanut doing much to change that.

Perhaps the future is more foot traffic-friendly, but as it stands Kelley Sq is not a big pedestrian/cyclist corridor.
Click to expand...

I think the area will continue to see more pedestrian traffic w/ new development and the Polar Park complex opening up. In my experience (living there 2014-2015), it struck me as one of the most ped-traffic heavy areas of Worcester (not a high bar, admittedly). I used to walk or bike through Kelley Square on my way to work downtown, and found it less intimidating than many of the signalized intersections downtown and elsewhere in the city. Granted, you had to be a pretty aggressive pedestrian, but traffic always seemed pretty calm, ~25 mph or less, albeit heavy and frequent.
 
I saw a woman on Main South reach through the open window and slap a driver for blocking the crosswalk, and I also saw a dude dash out into traffic on Madison, roll up onto the hood of the car that hit him seconds later, then just stand up and calmly walk away. Aggressive pedestrians, indeed.
 
A very well conceived plan to establish order in place of chaos. And now that you see it in action, you wonder why it wasn't designed that way in the first place.
 
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