Comments for “Portsmouth Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan”
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There is a cross walk located here that I find difficult and sometimes unsafe to cross. From the North side of the cross walk (coming from the Music Hall), there are parking spots up to the cross walk, so cars driving are often unable to see pedestrians approaching on the left side (from the driver's perspective) of the crosswalk. Sometimes this is compounded by the fact State Street here is two lanes of traffic going one way, so it has happened where a car in one lane sees me but not the second lane, which creates an unsafe crossing.
There is sometimes a Pedestrian Crossing Sign placed in the crosswalk; however, there is none there now (as of July 5th) given the most recent sign was hit by a car and destroyed.
Would it be possible to have a crossing here like the one further down State Street near Pickwick's that has flashing lights when a pedestrian presses a button to cross? It feels like sometimes cars are trying to catch the light at State Street & Fleet and may not be paying close attention for the crosswalk. This seems to be a very high traffic cross walk as many people use it coming from parking at Parrott Avenue, the Middle School, Library, and African Burial Ground Memorial. -
I live on Maplewood Ave. We love the bike path until it just ends when you try to get downtown. My kids would try to bike to the middle school but navigating the downtown corridor with cars was dangerous. When they tried to share the road on the way home cars would beep at them and tell them to get off the road. Also, the new rail trail is great but Islington St is so narrow it’s challenging to get downtown. The town redid this street to look great but should have made it bike accessible so you can get back to Maplewood.
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I live in the Maple Haven neighborhood. The only way to access the rail trail from my neighborhood is biking along Ocean Road. That section is narrow, no sidewalk, is windy and goes and up and down which makes it difficult for cars to pass bikers because of potential oncoming traffic and is therefore not safe.
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Woodbury Ave is an essential corridor to bike to jobs, shopping, and housing, but multiple lanes of fast traffic make it very unsafe. We should prioritize separated bike facilities here.
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With a new path being built along Elwyn Rd through Urban Forestry there should be a better connection to Tuckers Cove to allow bikers and walkers to continue toward town on low-stress streets, and residents of Tuckers Cove to access UFC. This could be along the utility or water ROW. The existing path is narrow, muddy, and eroded.
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St Patricks was to provide a walking easement from Community Campus, but then put up a fence with barbed wire. You can walk past the end of the fence but there should be a path connecting the existing Campus paths to Banfield as intended.
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When the new athletic field was proposed the plan included a walking and biking path directly from Peverly Hill Rd, and although the dirt road was built for emergency vehicles it is not open to the public. This access should be granted before the Peverly Hill project is done. A short multi use path along the Pike entrance would be necessary.
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There are no sidewalks to this bus stop, and no place to wait on the outbound side.
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Most of the sidewalks from Elwyn to Lafayette are in very poor shape, especially a the Sagamore bridge, and are right beside high speed traffic. Drivers take high speed turns at the frequent curb cuts.
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I bike here, and take my life in my hands. So do many others to get to jobs and shopping. There is a plan to add a multi use path south of Wilson, but this portion from Wilson to the High School/ Lafayette lanes is in critical need of bike improvements.
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This part of Maplewood is far too wide with too many car lanes, some over 15’ wide. It needs a bike lane to form a central spine to the bike network. It should be a top priority to connect the outer Maplewood lanes to the outer Middle St lanes, and reducing driving lanes here (and maybe even adding in on-street parking) would turn this into a much more comfortable downtown street for pedestrians as well. Ideally bike lanes should be buffered here. This is a critical route to the Middle and High Schools, etc for several neighborhoods.
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“Door zone” bike lanes here are not ideal. There was a detailed “complete streets” plan in 2018 which was not implemented to make bike and sidewalk improvements here.
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Outer Maplewood buffered bike lanes end and do not connect to the “door zone” lanes further down. Improvements need to be made especially between Dennett and the Bypass where the road narrows. It is difficult for cyclists to “take the lane” when climbing the hill here.
Maplewood should be a critical spine for the bike network. -
Middle St bike lanes end before connecting to Court, State, or Maplewood, and alternate routes are not at all direct. It should be a top priority to create a high quality buffered bike lane here to create a “spine” for the bike network along with Maplewood Ave.