Vinson-Owen Elementary School Safe Routes to School, Winchester

Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Winchester, Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program targets both elementary and middle schools with the aim of improving the health, safety, and physical activity of students while reducing air pollution and traffic congestion near schools. This SRTS project provided intersection improvements at the intersection of Johnson Road and Ridge Street, as well as additional sidewalk and safe crossings. The Vinson-Owen Elementary School is in the northeast quadrant of the Johnson Road and Ridge Street intersection. When the project began, this intersection was stop controlled with Johnson Road as the free approach and Ridge Street as the stop-controlled approach. To improve safety and operations at this intersection, the Town installed a temporary signal while they waited for the project to advance into design and construction. This design project formalized that signalized intersection, and provided new signage and pavement markings, five-foot bicycle accommodating shoulders, a new 350-feet of sidewalk on Olde Village Drive, and a new crosswalk with a rapid rectangular beacon on Ridge Street at the intersection with Coolidge Road.