Recent guest columns by Joel Russell and Ben Weil give the impression that the Main Street redesign will make Northampton better with zero downsides [“Support the Main Street makeover,” Sept. 7; and “‘Downtown designed for people,’” Aug. 30]. No doubt, adding pedestrian amenities would make our downtown more attractive, but pretending the changes won’t require trade-offs is misleading, and ignoring them will lead to a disaster.
I’ll focus on just one issue: concern about downtown congestion. As Weil writes, “traffic congestion and delays either remain the same or are reduced when lanes are removed.” It’s true that congestion rarely gets worse when cities go on a “road diet.” But congestion is a red herring: The real issue is that the redesign will reduce mobility. Congestion doesn’t get worse because fewer people are using the road.
Consequently, there are fewer trips to see friends and family, fewer people buying things downtown, and less tax revenue. I love pedestrian-friendly cities like Burlington, Eugene and Madison, but Northampton cannot just copy-paste their designs, because our transit needs are different. For better or worse, Main Street is our primary corridor, and compromising it is going to make daily life worse for commuters, visitors, and adjacent neighborhoods.
Northampton should expand pedestrian and cyclist mobility, but not at the expense of our downtown core.
Jeff Sternal
Northampton