When the fall session of Annual Town Meeting voted to adopt a Massachusetts law that allows the Select Board to set speed limits at 25 miles per hour on thickly settled roads, all that remained was to determine which roads qualified.
On Tuesday night, the Select Board got its answer. Peter Dorward of Still River Road told the board that using the state’s recommended geographic information software and database, he had determined that 11 Harvard road segments meet state criteria (see table below).
For a segment to qualify, the distance between houses on one side of the road must average less than 200 feet apart over a distance of a quarter mile (1,320 feet). Dorward consulted with the Department of Transportation and incorporated the agency’s advice into his search. DOT criteria, he said, allowed him to extend the calculated length of Fairbank Street and Still River Depot Road beyond the measured distance between the first and last house.
After thanking Dorward for volunteering to undertake his analysis at no cost to the town, board members voted unanimously to accept his results. The next step is to submit Dorward’s list to DOT for its approval. Once DOT gives a green light, DPW workers will install new highway signs to warn drivers when they enter a thickly settled zone where speeds are limited to 25 mph.
Meanwhile the board is continuing to work on a home-rule petition asking the Legislature and DOT to let the town to set specific speed limits elsewhere. For example, while “thickly settled” criteria will allow Harvard to lower speeds on a 2,400-foot stretch of Still River Road, the town’s petition will ask to set the speed limit on the entire length of road between the town’s center and West Bare Hill Road at 30 mph.
