Fall was safety season in the Merrimack Valley, as representatives from municipalities and organizations across the region gathered for three days over five weeks to attend the Massachusetts Street Design Leadership Training, a pilot program hosted by Kittelson and Associates, supported by the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (MVPC), with funding from the Barr Foundation.

The training, given by planners from Kittelson, was developed with input from MVPC to give local planners, engineers and public works employees the tools and knowledge base to advance safe streets designs in their communities.

After lectures focused on the history and theory of street design, as well as trips into the field to evaluate infrastructure in practice, attendees worked in small groups to identify safety concerns on streets in the region. They developed conceptual plans to redesign these streets with a stronger focus on safety. On the final day of the training each small group was able to present their plan to the rest of the attendees, receiving feedback and advice for implementation. Armed with the knowledge they gained in the training, attendees can now work more efficiently to make safe streets design and implementation more efficient across the Merrimack Valley.

The three-session program hosted in Haverhill is the first instance of this training being given, and feedback from attendees will be used to further refine the program going forward, for use in the region and elsewhere in the Commonwealth.