Nashua Downtown Master Plan
render a number of land parcels into
unusable fragments. Such land
gained in excess of real footprint is
not suitable for other uses, such as
park land or an adjacent trail. The
intersections (particularly at Ledge
Street, with its seven-lane approach)
are notably larger than anything now
existing on any surface street within
the City of Nashua.
* Neighborhood Impact The pro-
posed Broad Street Parkway design
terminates in the Tree Streets neigh-
borhood. More accurately, it obliter-
ates a good part of a neighborhood
by terminating there.
* Unimodal The proposed design is
heavily oriented toward moving the
maximum possible volume of vehi-
cles, at the highest reasonable speed.
‘Travel by other modes — bicycling
and walking — do not appear to be a
serious consideration in the design.
The design does not appear to inte-
grate the regional walking and bicy-
cling system, despite the fact that the
new design constitutes a major
acquisition of new land and provides
a new river crossing.
The Master Plan team, in realization of
the challenges associated with the cur-
rently proposed Broad Street Parkway,
proposes the following modifications to
the plan:
* Road Type In contrast to the cur-
rently proposed limited access road, 79
the master plan recommends a con-
trolled access street. On such a street,
high-value fronting properties are
encouraged, and are given vehicular
access under controlled conditions
(carefully planned driveway spacing,
rear alley connections, etc.). Rather
than minimizing the number of
intersections, the preferred alterna-
tive would seek to maximize intersec-
tions. Specifically, to the south of the
Nashua River, the preferred alterna-
tive would be carefully woven into
the fabric of five or six local streets,
rather than obliterating them and
imposing a new single intersection.
Design Speed The preferred Broad
Street Parkway has a design speed of
25-30 miles per hour, appropriate for
a new arterial street in an urban area.
The lower design speed permits more
compact geometric design of the
street, smaller intersections, reduced
sight distance requirements, makes
on-street parking more feasible,
greatly improves the pedestrian
atmosphere, permits plantings and
street furniture to be placed closer to
the street, and generally reflects the
desirable traits of existing streets in
Nashua.
Number of Lanes The preferred
alternative should have two through
Janes (i.e., a single through lane in
each direction). At intersections, a
third left-turn lane should be pro-
vided. Right-turn auxiliary lanes
