This would clearly make the campus safer for pedestrians, for although there has been no major accident on the street, many consider this to be due to luck or just a quick student body. It also would do a lot towards attracting students, faculty and staff to WPI, as current plans look for a tree-lined area, similar to Freeman Plaza.
There has been a lot of concern with the neighborhood's acceptance of this idea. But there is hope that closing the street will not overly inconvenience people. Currently, about half of the cars which travel on West are WPI-bound. It is those others who would have to change their driving patterns.
While the traffic engineers hired to study the area and determine the possible effects of the closure feel that it would actually reduce through traffic on many of the surrounding streets, a few might see an increase. These include the major through streets, Park and Salisbury as well as Lancaster, which are meant to handle the traffic, as well as Dean and Boynton. One current thought is that WPI "would be willing to consider improvements to the street [Boynton], including an extra lane to enter Salisbury Street from Boynton Street."
Salisbury and Park would see a small increase in traffic (2-3%), but this was incorporated into the study. A re-timing of the lights at the intersection of the two roads would more than improve the time spent waiting in traffic, which would reduce waiting times from 33-50%.
Emergency vehicle access is a concern, but the area would be designed to allow access and WPI has been told that "West Street, because of its configuration, is not a street used by the Fire Department for access to any address in the area."
Currently, WPI is circulating a petition which supports the closure and it is expected that there will be six to seven hundred signatures when WPI is ready to submit the proposal. As of last Friday, around four-hundred-and-fifty signatures had been solicited.
The proposal is scheduled to be submitted sometime during this spring, but WPI would like to be sure that this is something which is not only good for the college, but also for the neighborhood, before going to City Council. As both Clark University and Worcester Academy have closed streets which ran through their campuses in the last twenty years, WPI has also looked to their cases as well.
There were short term concerns with changes in driving patterns, but in the long-run, they both appear to have benefited the respective institutions. It is hoped that this will be the case with West Street as well. A more attractive campus means more interest in WPI and this brings business to the neighborhood as well as the college.