Some of the Island’s most notorious stretches of asphalt are coming under scrutiny as Vineyard planners attempt to make roads safer. 

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is looking into ways to cut down on the number of vehicle crashes on the Island, with the goal of ultimately eliminating roadway deaths altogether. 

The project is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Safe Streets and Roads for All program, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

The commission held a public hearing this week to go over reams of data compiled by a consultant and consider changes. Commission senior planner Bill Veno presented the findings on some of the most dangerous intersections and roads, and asked for people’s experiences across the Island. 

Island planners hope to come up with ways to reduce traffic deaths.

Ray Ewing

Island planners hope to come up with ways to reduce traffic deaths.

Ray Ewing

“The emphasis is more on safely moving people about, whether they’re in vehicles, walking, bicyclists, [or] transit,” he said Wednesday. “The safety action plans will allow communities to assess their problem areas, and identify and prioritize where they want to make improvements.” 

Between 2018 and 2022, there were 928 crashes reported on the Island, including 187 that involved injuries. Of those, 31 were suspected to be serious injuries and five proved fatal. 

There were 12 moped crashes and 13 motorcycle crashes in that time period, two of which resulted in fatalies. Although only six per cent of crashes involved walkers and bikers, 28 per cent of all crashes with serious or fatal injuries involved the two groups. 

During the five years of data collection, which included the wide fluctuations of traffic during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, several problematic sections of roadway emerged. Many were spots well known to Island drivers and pedestrians. 

For intersections, Five Corners in Tisbury was found to have the most severe vehicle crashes of any intersection on the Island, according to the consultant’s report, published in August. 

The intersection, a major crossroads for Island traffic, was followed by Franklin street and Woodlawn avenue in Tisbury, Edgartown-West Tisbury Road and Barnes Road in Edgartown, Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and Pilgrim Road in Edgartown, and Upper Main Street and Pinehurst Road in Edgartown as some of the most dangerous intersections. 

The top 20 intersections were all in the three down-Island towns, with the exception of State Road and Old Courthouse Road in West Tisbury. That doesn’t mean the more rural up-Island roads were without incident. Up-Island crashes were more sparse, but no less severe, said Zack Gavel, a transportation planner who was aiding the commission in its study.

“Many of those fatal crashes...are on those rural roads that are up-Island,” he said. 

Portions of Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, North Road in Chilmark and West Tisbury and Old County Road in West Tisbury were all cited as some of the corridors with the most severe crashes on the Island. 

Topping the roadway list were the two miles of State Road and Beach Road, starting at the Edgartown Road intersection in Tisbury and ending near the hospital. The commission’s consultants took the number of crashes on sections of roads and intersections, tallied them up and weighted crashes with severe or fatal injuries to come up with its rankings. 

Navigating Franklin and Woodlawn avenues poses a challenge.

Ray Ewing

Navigating Franklin and Woodlawn avenues poses a challenge.

Ray Ewing

“The biggest trend that we’re seeing is that the majority of crashes on the Island are only involving a single vehicle, and that’s also disproportionately the types of crashes that are represented in the most serious outcomes,” said Mr. Gavel. 

And while Islanders may complain about the driving of confused tourists in the summer, when the most crashes happen throughout the year, the off-season crashes are comparable to the statewide average in severity. 

“While the total number of crashes is up in the summer, that does not mean that we’re sort of off the hook for the months that are the shoulder season for tourism or the off season,” said Mr. Gavel. “There are still serious incidents that are happening during that time.”

Drivers under 25 were involved in 40 per cent of the severe and fatal crashes. Crashes on the Island that resulted in fatality or injury were nearly twice as likely to involve alcohol or drugs when compared to crashes statewide.

The consultants offered several potential options to make the roads safer for everyone, including adding turning lanes at some intersections, making better shared-use paths to separate drivers from pedestrians, installing rumble strips and converting some crossings into roundabouts. 

Mr. Veno said there is even a possibility to consider traffic lights, a modern convenience the Vineyard has not implemented, with the exception of the Lagoon Pond drawbridge. 

“That may work, it may not work as well,” Mr. Veno said in an interview.

None of the suggestions were cited for specific locations during Wednesday’s presentation. Those will likely come as the commission progresses with its plan. The commission has been collaborating with Nantucket and Franklin County on the mainland as part of a federal grant won in 2023, and hopes to publish recommendations by July. 

The commission is seeking more public input, and has a survey and comment section on its website. Mr. Veno said it is essential to get feedback, in part, because the Vineyard’s crash dataset is so small.

Islanders’ deep knowledge of the roads can go a long way to think of solutions, he said.

“Unfortunately, nothing happens until something bad happens,” Mr. Veno said. “This is trying to get out in front of that.”