Crash data belies Erie Boulevard plans

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Accident data for Erie Boulevard call into question one of the key reasons given for the controversial roundabout proposal: improving safety.

Three years of data show that the most dangerous area on Erie Boulevard stretches from State Street to Union Street, as many pedestrians have told the Schenectady City Council.

But the city’s multimillion dollar street project is supposed to be on the last block of Erie Boulevard, just before Interstate 890. Further, the accident data show that the city has picked the least dangerous intersection on the boulevard for its controversial roundabout.

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To review safety and accident data provided by Clough Harbour & Associates, click here.

The data may come as no surprise to the business owners on that block, who have united in opposition to the roundabout. They have insisted that their block is not unusually dangerous and that the roundabout would imperil their businesses by blocking access to several stores.

Project designers from Clough Harbour, who provided the accident data, said there was a simple explanation for their decision to put the roundabout at the safest intersection on the street: They didn’t propose a roundabout to improve safety.

“It wasn’t that we identified safety. It was to create a ‘boulevard,’ ” said Dave Kahlbaugh, senior transportation planner at Clough Harbour. “The roundabout really came about from the desire to have the ability for people to turn around in a boulevard and to address those people who are currently making U-turns in the middle of the street.”

Mayor Brian U. Stratton vehemently disagreed, saying safety was a primary focus in the $14 million project, which is largely funded by state and federal grants.

“Safety is a key issue,” he said. “The accident rate is 2.5 times the normal rate. Obviously safety is something we’re very concerned about.”

Stratton also wants to transform the Erie Boulevard “sea of asphalt” into an attractive city entrance.

But Kahlbaugh said the engineering firm began discussing a roundabout because engineers could see no other way to get large trucks across the divided highway. They needed to find a solution to that problem because they had been hired by the city to find a way to turn that block of Erie into a divided highway.

“There was originally a planning study done by someone else that articulated a vision of a ‘boulevard,’ ” Kahlbaugh said. “So the design task is to say, ‘OK, we have this vision. How do we implement that and how do we address issues like access to the businesses?’ ”

After designing several options, including a roundabout, Clough Harbour gathered accident data and studied traffic flows.

“We used the data to evaluate design options,” he said, adding that he was pleased to see that the data indicated a divided highway would improve safety.

“The types of accidents that occur are largely rear-end, left turn and side-swipe types,” he said. “You have poor access-management controls. The striped area isn’t wide enough to totally accommodate a vehicle. These types of accidents are typically associated with these types of features.”

Almost half of the accidents on the last block of Erie fit his description, although just as many happened during right turns, from cars turning right into a parking lot or side street and being hit from behind.

The Daily Gazette asked the city for Clough Harbour’s detailed report on the three-year accident study, which was provided this week. A review indicates that the vast majority of the crashes occur farther up Erie Boulevard, at the intersections of State Street, Liberty Street and Union Street. Only 28 accidents occurred over three years on the last block of Erie Boulevard, and only six of those accidents involved an injury. There were no fatalities, just one head-on crash, and just one accident involving a left turn.

STRATTON’S VIEW

That doesn’t jibe with city officials’ repeated descriptions of the dangers in that area. They have argued that a divided highway is necessary because too many cars are hit while trying to cross to the other side of the road.

“It’s a very dangerous situation for people who have to cross, who have to turn,” Stratton said Friday, repeating comments he has made many times.

He and Clough Harbour officials have also insisted that a roundabout is necessary to slow down traffic exiting Interstate 890.

When publicly announcing the roundabout last year, Clough Harbour landscape architect Scott Lewendon said it was the only effective way to slow down drivers. He said then that many cars were reaching speeds in excess of 60 mph, and argued that a roundabout would slow everyone down to 40 mph.

But his firm’s traffic study, which was done before the 2007 public meeting, shows that the average speed on the road already hovers between 31 mph and 40 mph. Some cars reached 45 mph around 6 p.m. Only five of 16,000 vehicles reached 55 mph, according to the study.

That doesn’t mean that most cars aren’t speeding. The limit there is 30 mph.

But the accident data show that the true dangers are at the intersections of State Street, Liberty Street and Union Street — where many pedestrians have complained about the difficulty of crossing safely. Those three blocks of Erie are roughly the same distance as the last block of the boulevard.

In three years, there were 31 accidents at the Erie-State Street intersection, 29 at Liberty and 28 at Union. Four of the crashes resulted in injuries.

None of the crashes were head-on, nine involved a left turn and six involved pedestrians. By comparison, there was just one pedestrian-related accident on the last block of Erie during the same time period.

The accident rate for both stretches of Erie is higher than the norm for New York state. The rate for the last block of Erie is 7 accidents per 1 million cars; past State Street, the accident rate is 12 crashes per 1 million cars. The statewide average is 2.7 crashes per million.

Kahlbaugh said Clough Harbour is now “brainstorming” alternatives that would allow easier access to businesses that will be blocked by the roundabout. Most business owners on the street have banded together to fight the project.

Although they say they want Clough Harbour to get rid of the roundabout, Kahlbaugh said that’s not likely.

“We’re still evaluating it,” he added. “I don’t know what we’ll be presenting. We’re considering everything seriously.”