Share: 

Milton traffic calming committee holds walking tours

Audits to be held through June 10
June 8, 2021

A Milton committee is holding walking audit tours of the town that will allow citizens to view areas they noted as problems in responses to a town-wide survey.

The Traffic Calming Ad Hoc Committee is holding the audits through Thursday, June 10. Those wishing to take part can select one of eight zones to walk. Councilwoman Randi Meredith, committee chair, said scheduling details are still being worked out, but the walk audits will cover the entire town.

“A lot of the problems we are seeing now aren’t new, but they have been exacerbated by the increase in population,” Meredith said. “We all like that Milton is a small town, but the town is growing. In order to maintain that small-town vibe we all love, we need to address traffic now; reducing the speed but not the flow, and modernizing as much as we can, including how we think about traffic.”

She said traffic is more than just motor vehicles – it also includes bikes, pedestrians, wheelchairs, pets, strollers and runners. Meredith said that kind of traffic can happen without cars, but only with the right infrastructure in place.  

A walk audit is when town officials and citizens hike around a particular area to determine how walkable it is. An audit allows citizens to provide input and public officials to see what the conditions of a given area look like on the ground. 

The ad hoc committee was formed by town council in January as a response to citizen concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety along with increased speeding through town. The committee has been meeting every month, with its first major item being a town-wide traffic survey. From that, the committee devised the walk audit, with the zones being areas identified by residents as possibly needing improvement. 

Meredith encouraged citizens to walk in areas that are not in their neighborhood. 

“We’ve divided the areas of concern, as directed by our survey results, into eight small zones, with a committee member as the leader for each zone. We’d like to get at least five people to walk each zone as a group and assess how the town works for all users, not just vehicles,” she said. 

The eight zones break down as follows:

  • Zone 1: Mulberry Street from Rt. 16 to Lavinia Street
  • Zone 2: Union Street from Rt. 16 to Broad Street
  • Zone 3: Lavinia Street from Mulberry Street to Wagamon’s West Shores
  • Zone 4: Federal Street from Sand Hill Road to Mulberry Street
  • Zone 5: Chestnut Street from Harbeson Road to Wharton/Atlantic
  • Zone 6: Union Street from Broad Street to intersection of Chestnut and Front streets
  • Zone 7: Mulberry Street from Lavinia Street to Federal, and Federal Street from Mulberry Street to Coulter Street
  • Zone 8: Bay Avenue and Atlantic Avenue from Union Street to Country Road

Those interested in taking or volunteering for a walk audit should contact Councilwoman Randi Meredith at councilwomanmeredith@ci.milton.de.us for times and locations.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter