InFocus featuring Gary Roux (PVPC Intersections Study)

From the 22 News Plus Studio, this is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Barry. Hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of In Focus. I'm your host, Patrick Barry. If you're a driver like I am, most of you probably are, you travel our roadways, our highways, our back roads throughout Western Mass all the time. There is an organization here in the Pioneer Valley called the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. They do a whole host of things which we'll learn about, but one of the biggest things that they do is they analyze our roadways for safety purposes. Joining me across the desk today from the PVPC is Gary Rue. He is the Director of Transportation Planning for the PVPC. Gary, thank you again so very much for joining me today. I really appreciate you giving me some of your time. Let's start with the bigger picture before we get into specifically what you do and how you look at our roadways. What is the PVPC? Give me the 40,000 foot view, as I say. Sure, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is the regional planning agency for Hamden and Hampshire County, 43 cities and towns that comprise our region. We are one of 13 such agencies in Massachusetts, and our job is to provide planning assistance to our member communities. We have staff that provide environmental and land use planning assistance. We have a community development department and economic development department. Of course, my department would be transportation planning. And really, it's our goal to, at the request of a community, to give them that higher level planning assistance that they might need in order to advance quality of life studies, economic development studies, in my case, traffic-related studies, which can not only be safety-related, but also advance pedestrian needs, do something more along the lines of roadway improvements, a variety of transportation studies that we can do. Is the PVPC a state-run organization? Is it a nonprofit? What is the organization? That is the tough question. We have a variety of funding sources. So in many cases, a lot of our staff is funded by a competitive grant process. In transportation, it's a federally funded process. The majority of our funding comes from the federal government through the federal transportation bill. And that money is matched by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Interesting, all right. So, but your focus, I mean, there's a lot of people employed at the PVPC, but your focus and the group you work with, you look at transportation, our road. Is it just our roadways, or do you look at like buses, rail trails, trains? Do you look at all types of transportation or just the surface roadways? No, it's all modes of transportation. In the case of something like transit vehicles, we are working under contract with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority. They have hired our staff to provide some planning assistance. And we work closely with them to help advance planning that addresses their needs. But in terms of freight movement, trains, like you discussed, advancing transportation improvement projects that are receiving federal funding, these are just a few of our responsibilities. So were you involved, whether personally or as the PVPC as an organization, in the East West Rail Project? Yes, we are. We're working closely with Mass.Division of Rail and Transit, and we are providing planning assistance when necessary to assist in that endeavor. Fantastic, that's not why you're here, but I just figured I'd ask the question. Earlier in 2026, you guys, you can correct the language if I say it wrong, you were commissioned to do a study of the safety of our roadways. Did I shorten that? Yes, you did. But it's really the whole goal of this study is safety. Where this came about is out of the current federal transportation bill, which is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, I-I-J-A. We love our acronyms in planning. The, had included a competitive grant process called Safe Streets and Roads for All. We call that SS4A, rolls off the tongue better. But what we really are concerned with this is over the last five plus years, we've seen a disturbing upward rising trend in fatal crashes and serious injury crashes, not just in the Pioneer Valley region, across the nation. And the goal of this grant program is to reverse that trend. And it starts with planning and the development of what the feds are calling a regional safety action plan. And that's what Pioneer Valley Safe Streets is. Okay, so I'm going to pull up an image now on your sheets over there at slide number two. And this is really the project goals, right? Yes, yes. And it's really intended to show that it's not just the data that you're looking at. There's a lot of facets to planning for safety. And it's a combination of identifying the data and the trends that are happening, but then talking to the people that are experiencing the problems, getting a real sense of what they're finding on a day-to-day basis. So is the PVPC, or is it MassDOT, the organization? Sometimes when I'm driving on streets, there are these rubber things that go across the street. I guess it counts how many cars or how many vehicles go by. Is that data you guys capture to utilize in some of your research? That would be a daily traffic counter. We, yep, PVPC does collect that data. MassDOT does as well. The cities and towns have their own equipment. The roadway tubes can measure the volume of traffic. We can classify that by specific intervals and give you hourly breakdowns by direction. But more importantly, what a lot of people don't realize is we can also get speed data from those tubes, and we can also get the classification of the vehicle. Is it a truck? Is it a really large truck? Is it even bicycles? A motorcycle, a car versus a vehicle? All of those things can be classified from those counters if you set them up properly. So how long, and I'm going to go back to this sheet here. How long did it take for this intersection study to come about, the safety study? We are actually, believe it or not, in year four of this program. Pioneer Valley received their funding in year two. Okay. It took a little while to go through the contracting process. And then, of course, we had a procurement process and we hired a consultant team. I got to get the plug in for them. It's a VHB with IMAG, I-M-E-G, and they've done a fantastic job on compiling this safety action plan. But their work really began last fall. Okay, in the fall of 2025. Yeah. Very good. We are up on our first commercial break. We've got plenty more to talk about. We're going to dig into the data of what Gary and his team have found. So stay with us. We're back in just a minute. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back, everyone, to this edition of In Focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry. Sitting across the desk from me today in the hot seat is Gary Ruh. He is from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. The first part of this conversation, we talked broadly about what the PVPC is, what they do. And then we started to dive into a recent report that Gary and his team had done. He's in the transportation side of the PVPC. Really, basically, a road safety study. That kind of narrows it down. Yeah, it's correct. In simplistic terms. Absolutely correct, yeah. So let's dive now into the data. You said this project has been going on for really about four years. The fall of 2025 really started the data analysis side of it. And then the spring 2026, your first edition of the report. It's a two-part project for us in the region. And the first part is the development of the regional safety action plan. Once that is done, it will go to our partners at Federal Highway and Federal Transit, and they'll review the document, hopefully approve it. But we will then go into what we're calling a demonstration project phase. And that's going to take an in-depth look at the traffic signals in the region. Okay. And get a sense of, from a standpoint of the older traffic signals, which aren't really complying to modern standards. What impact are they having on safety? All right, so some of those traffic signals that, I think modern signals now are either, they're triggered by either camera or sensors in the ground, right? So you're talking the older ones were just, they were on a timer. It wouldn't just be that. If you think of an older signal, often an older signal can be, it sticks out like a sore thumb because it doesn't have any overhead component to it. Okay. So visual, being able to pick up the visual signal itself, when you don't have that mast arm with this signal above the traffic lanes, it becomes a little bit more of a challenge. Okay, all right. So this study looked at, because the PVPC you said covers 40 some odd towns here in Western Mass. 43, 43. But the study didn't look at all 43, right? It did not. And it's not because we don't like those communities. It's because they received their own funding under this federal program. All right, that makes sense. So it was important not to duplicate efforts. Okay. So the study looked at, you started to look at just traffic lights or is that one element of the whole study? That'll be the next step. Okay. The first step was really a data-driven process in where are the crashes happening? Okay. What types of crashes are they? And more importantly, where are people either suffering a very serious injury or perhaps dying as a result of a motor vehicle crash? I'm going to pull up a slide now, which is, it talks about the observed crash trends. Sure. Talk to me about this data. I mean, I love data. It just, data doesn't lie, which is why I like it. Right. Tell me about the data that we and the viewers are looking at right now. So the total crash trends is just that. The total number of crashes that were experienced in the 38 communities that were participating as part of this regional safety action plan. What we would want to see is these numbers decreasing instead of increasing. So right off the bat, we know we have a problem. We're seeing an increase in crashes, but then as we get into the severity of the crash, how many people perhaps died or how many people were seriously injured, unfortunately, we're seeing the same rising trend or at least not enough of a decline that makes us comfortable with that. So, but the study that you do will recommend implementations to our local communities to reduce those numbers, right? Yes, and it's not just necessarily an engineering project. It could be an educational component of a project. It could be more enforcement. It's recognizing that everybody has a role in advancing safety, and it's going to be a combination of different techniques that are really going to get us those numbers reduced. Okay, you just made a comment. Everyone has a role. What do you mean by that? So it's not just our city and town engineers and men and women in uniform in front of the police department, it's us as the everyday drivers and pedestrians, we- Absolutely. If you think of it, driving is a privilege. We are, we're required to take an exam to show we're qualified to operate a vehicle effectively. And really what I believe is unsaid is what we're supposed to continue to keep those skills at a level, understand the traffic laws and take responsibly driving that vehicle. Right. So that makes a very good point is, you know, we need to stay fresh on rules of the road. What drives me nuts is people's lack of use of a turn signal. We won't go there, but you're right. It's a privilege to drive. It's not a right to drive. And we need to make sure we understand the rules of the road. And if we all do that, we're all safe. Common sense. It certainly helps. You know, our speed is a big factor in whether somebody might possibly be injured. So speed truly is a factor. Correct. The higher the operational speed of the vehicle, the tendency is there's more likely or a greater chance for an injury or fatality as a result of that crash. Okay. So it's funny because I thought I read an article once where it analyzed the dangerousness of someone going 5, 10, 15, 20 miles an hour over the speed limit versus someone going 5, 10, 15, 20 miles an hour under the speed limit. And the under was significantly more dangerous than the over just because the way they described it was, you know, think of yourself, you're buzzing along the highway at 55 miles an hour and you come across somebody doing 40, you know, or you're buzzing along at 55 miles an hour and somebody goes by you at 70, just not as, it just doesn't seem as dangerous. But your point, you know, if I'm zooming down a side street and 15 miles an hour over the speed limit and I lose control, much greater chance of dying in that incident than if I was doing the speed limit or less. Correct. And then I take it to the next level. You have a pedestrian or bicyclist that unfortunately is struck by a vehicle. The slower that vehicle's moving, the greater the chances of that person not having a serious injury. Right. Yeah, I'm going to send it to break a little bit early this time because I do want to ask a question then run a little long. So folks stay with us. When we come back, we'll look at some of the fatality data and then some of the results of what Gary and his team have been working on. Stay with us. We're back in just a minute. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back, everyone, to this edition of In Focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry. Today, we are talking about the safety of our roads. Most of you, like myself, you're a driver driving four wheels, two wheels, whether it's a motorcycle, an e-bike, a regular bicycle or whatever, a pedestrian, maybe just walking along our sidewalks and streets, but the safety on our roads is paramount for all of us. So none of us get injured or anything like that. But sitting across the desk from me today is Gary Roof. He's from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. He is part of the transportation planning side of the PVPC. Gary, thank you for giving me your time. We talked about a study that has been conducted over the last few years. A moment ago, we were looking at total crash data, both fatal and injury crash data. Let me back up a second. Over the years, has the number of incidents, I'm not even gonna say fatal or injurious incidents, just the number of incidents, been reduced because of changes to our roadways or has it kind of remained flat? Or is that hard to say? It's been fluctuating, if I'm being honest, it's been fluctuating. And when we begin to see a nice positive downward trend in those numbers, unfortunately, you might see an uptick in another year. And I believe that's a function of the number of variable factors that could be part of the influence of why we might have a crash. But it really comes down to, we have to look at these crashes as unacceptable. Oh, absolutely. We have to make it a priority to get this number down. And I mentioned earlier, it's a team effort to get this to happen. But I believe highlighting where they're happening and the severity of where they're happening is just the first step in that process. So I'm going to bring up the next slide, talk about where they're happening and the severity of where they're happening. I gotta put my cheaters on so I can read this. This is fatalities. So this is across Hampton, Hampshire County, every one of those little red triangles you see is a fatality. Man, there's some fatalities in some strange spots. I would think, granted, the concentration is basically from North Hampton to Agawam Long Meadow, that corridor there, just because that's where the population base is. But they're like Ludlow, Wilbraham, Palmer, it just, there seems to be, East Long Meadow, there seems to be some pockets. Are there, are those specific intersections that you guys have looked at that are causing those problems? It can be. One of the planning services that we'll perform every few years is we'll identify the top 100 high crash intersections in our region. The East Long Meadow Rotary's gotta be one of them. We actually treat the Rotary's separately just because they traditionally have more crashes than a traditional intersection. But it's funny, we're putting in more and more Rotaries now. Well, they're a roundabout, it's different. Wait, a roundabout, all right, now we're sidetracking. A Rotary and a roundabout are two different things? Two different things, and it's the physical size. A roundabout- They're the same thing, just different size. Well, they operate the same, I have to agree with you on that. But the difference being that when you enter a roundabout, you're doing so at a much lower speed, and you have to drive through it at a much lower speed because of the size of the roundabout, it's smaller. Whereas the Rotary, the traditional Rotary's, you can usually go through at a much higher speed and you don't have that angle of deflection that forces you to slow down before you enter. So the studies remove Rotaries and roundabouts and look at, I would call them normal intersections. We will look at, we'll separate them because we recognize they have different characteristics. But by identifying these locations where we're having a high number of crashes, we can begin to identify, number one, well, what's being done about it? Is there a project or a planning study in the works? And if not, should there be? Okay. Is that something we can advance with a city or town and begin to identify recommendations for improvement? So when the PVPC, and I say you, I mean the organization, when you make recommendations, are they always followed up on by the local cities and towns? Or is it a budget constraint? Like, hey, Gary, that's a great idea, but we don't have $40 million to do X. Yeah, it's not only budget, but sometimes they just don't happen to agree with us. In certain cases, the community feels like, no, this is going to be different, change the character of our community and we may want to try something else. But really, it's not only the cost to build the improvement, but the community has to bear the cost to design the improvement as well. You pick up a very good point. How involved is the general citizenry versus a local town's elected officials? Where we take our marching orders at the planning commission is from the chief elected official of a given community. So what we like to encourage is that there's a local process that identifies what the problem is. And then the community makes the decision of, well, perhaps we can handle this on our own, or perhaps we need some assistance. And PVPC is one potential ally that can provide that assistance. Oh, interesting. All right, the last slide I'm going to bring up is something called the safety compass. Tell me more about this one. Safety compass is a report we've been doing. This is, I believe, our fourth or fifth iteration of the safety compass. And it's a recognition that the high crash locations aren't the entire problem. We've had communities tell us, after we've done that top 100 list of planning, hey, what about our community? We have problem locations too. And as a staff, we agreed with them and realized we should be painting the picture for each individual community of what their safety priority should be. What are the safety problems they're experiencing? And how can we give them the information on what's happening and perhaps some recommendations and statistics to help improve safety at a variety level? So you're getting input from a lot of stakeholders in the different communities to determine the areas that need safety improvement. We try to. When we're looking at some of the data we're talking about today, that comes from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. They do a great job of disseminating the information. And we use that for our high-level planning. But when we get into the specific analysis, we're really relying on the local police department and their records. And that helps give us even more information on the specific problems that might be encountered at a given location. Fantastic. Gary, the work that you do is absolutely fascinating to me. It's interesting to think that there's an organization right here in the Pioneer Valley that is really in just your part of the PVPC, which is the transportation side of it. Just what you and your teammates are doing to make our roadways safer. Kudos to all of you. And thank you so much for giving me some of your time today. We just kind of skimmed really the top of what you guys are doing. But if people wanna dig more into the report, is there, do you guys have a website? You can track it down? Sure. The easy one is pvpc.org. That's the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission website, but we have a specific website for this report, which is pioneervalleysafestreets.com. Fantastic. There you go, folks. Track down those reports, read them over of the 43 communities? 43 cities and towns, yes. Fantastic. Gary, thanks for your time. Wonderful chatting with you. Thank you. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry.