Roadway Safety and Safe Streets Task Force

Formation of a local Task Force is consistent with community driven best practices recommended by both the National Highway Traffic Safety  Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) which currently fund Massachusetts highway safety agencies. The Task Force will be working closely with the DPW and related Committees to build upon already existing infrastructure projects as well as to initiate projects of its own through grant resources; the Task Force will also serve as a community awareness entity to complement Maynard PD driven enforcement actions designed to manage driver behavior.

The time for Maynard to embark on a cohesive, strategic, grass roots enabled approach to its roadway safety challenges could not be more opportune. Citizens are ready to engage with Maynard public officials to address such issues as overall walkability, risky driver behaviors, safe mobility for vulnerable users, long term infrastructure improvements, as well as ongoing day to day maintenance and upgrades of signage, traffic signals, crosswalks and ADA compliant curbs among other issues.

The mission of the new Task Force will be twofold: 1) to bring together a diverse group of citizens, community organizations and Maynard public officials to expand roadway safety program capacity, improve regional collaboration and to leverage new grant resources and 2) to complement and integrate current roadway safety efforts with new initiatives to assure meaningful impact on local roadway safety challenges.

The Task Force will consist of five voting members including an appointed Chairperson who will work with the Town Clerk in posting, implementing and reporting on monthly meetings. One of the first efforts of the Task Force will be to conduct an audit of the community's five worst intersections and to make both short- and long-term recommendations for improvement.

The Task Force will also consist of a second tier of eight appointed non-voting members who will serve as advocates. These volunteers will contribute to planning discussions, support the implementation of specific projects, provide feedback on program achievements and challenges, identify emerging safety issues, help to prioritize problems and solutions and otherwise serve as a conduit in educating the average citizen.

The Task Force will partner with other Town Committees (Fin Com, Planning Board and Capital Improvement) to assure consistency and coordination across all roadway safety initiatives.

Finally, the Task Force will network with a full range of external partners to secure expertise and resources as needed including the MADOT, EOPSS, Walk Massachusetts, the Vision Zero network and the UMASS-Amherst's Safe Roads program. We look forward to standing up this Task Force as soon as possible to begin to address Maynard's roadway safety challenges and solutions.

This body reports and advises the Town Administrator.