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Burlington is expanding its “Shared Streets for Social Distancing” initiative ahead of the weekend to encourage those outside to keep appropriate distance from others to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The program limits some streets to local traffic only, limits parking on others and designates some as “shared streets” where there is no change to traffic patterns, but streets will be open to pedestrians so they can keep enough space between themselves and others.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger announced the expansion at his daily update and said the signs on the “shared streets” are meant to remind pedestrians and motorists to be aware of each other.
“There will be signage going up to remind everyone that people are outside, that some people are walking in the street so as to give space and distance to people who are using the sidewalk and not having people coming into immediate contact with each other,” Weinberger said.
Parking has been removed on Pine Street, a major artery in the South End, as part of the program. A number of streets in the South End and Old North End will be local traffic only or shared streets, according to a map released by the city.
In the New North End, North Avenue, the area’s main corridor, will be a shared street. Other streets in the New North End that will be “shared” include Shore Road, Institute Road and Ethan Allen Parkway. The full map can be found on the city’s website.
The city launched the program in a limited fashion last weekend, and it will be expanded in stages. Chapin Spencer, the director of the Department of Public Works, said his department would be focusing on implementing the program in the Old North End this weekend.
“As we know, the Old North End has some of our more dense housing stock, and the land use is such that it can be more difficult to get the social distancing than in other places in the city,” he said.
Weinberger also said that the city had distributed 1,050 masks to a wide range of “essential workers” in the city. The city purchased “bull denim” from local fabric store Rags & Riches and partnered with a handful of local organizations to produce the masks.
Masks have been distributed to local senior centers, including St. Joe’s Senior Center, Heineberg Senior Center and Burlington Health & Rehab, the site of an outbreak of the disease. Essential city employees have also received masks, as have City Market and Feeding Chittenden Food Shelf, among others.
Editor’s note: A link to the full map of “shared” streets in this story was initially incorrect and has been updated.
