By Ross Saxton
Perhaps you have noticed in recent years, like I have, that traffic seems to be increasing through the Mad River Valley. Route 100 in downtown Waitsfield and Irasville is getting busier, in particular. At the same time, the number of people walking, running and biking downtown is increasing as folks are enjoying our local shops, choosing active transportation methods to get around and like to recreate outdoors.
All of this is great for business and for community health. Of course, we want to make sure we’re doing all we can to keep pedestrians and bikers as safe as possible. One of the recent improvements is the change of the speed zones on the north and south ends of town.
Fortuitously, VTrans conducted a speed study in 2021 right when local leaders and advocates were looking into options to help slow traffic through Waitsfield. VTrans found that 85% of the drivers were traveling 6 mph over the 30 mph speed limit in front of Waitsfield Elementary School and by Slow Road, and 4 mph over the 40 mph limit by Fiddlers Green.
These speeds are within the acceptable range of speed over the limit to not change the speed limit downtown, but VTrans did recommend making changes to the speed transitions to the north and south of town to help drivers adjust more naturally coming into downtown; traveling from 50 mph down to 30 mph takes some time for a driver to adjust to.
Remember the term “velocitation” from driver’s ed class? Well, maybe not, but it’s a phenomenon that a driver can experience when they are used to traveling at a fast speed for a while, and when they slow down, it feels like they’re driving slower than they actually are. This can lead to the driver driving faster than they think they are actually traveling.
So, in our case, folks are traveling 50-60 mph north or south of the downtown area, and they need to reduce their speed to 30 mph. Thus, what we have today, which was recommended by VTrans, requested by the Waitsfield Select Board and installed by VTrans, is a longer speed transition zone to the north and south of downtown. Coming into town at both ends, you’ll notice that the speed reduces from 50 mph to 40 mph sooner than before. The 30-mph zone begins in the same spot as before at the north end, right near the Waitsfield Telecom driveway. However, the 30-mph zone begins sooner coming into downtown from the south, right near the bridge over the Mill Brook. The 40-mph zone north of downtown extends to near Kenyon’s, and to the south it extends to near Hap’s.
These speed limit zones are a welcome change from the perspective of a pedestrian or biker and as someone who drives my truck through downtown almost daily, I appreciate the new help with slowing down my three-ton hunk of metal a little sooner.
Saxton is the executive director of Mad River Path.
