Mayor Peter Marchetti is asking for an ordinance that would make loitering in a median strip illegal as a public safety measure.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A conversation about median safety has risen from the grave.

Last week, the City Council referred Mayor Peter Marchetti's request to add a section in the City Code for median safety and pedestrian regulation in public roadways to the Ordinances and Rules Subcommittee.

In 2023, Marchetti requested an ordinance banning people from standing on median strips unless crossing the street. Panhandling has been a prevalent topic since the city's rise in homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this effort was said to be centered around public safety.

"As some of you may remember, I had originally proposed a similar ordinance back in 2023 as a city councilor as there have been concerns about public safety at several intersections, including West and Center, East and First, South and East Housatonic, and all intersections in Allendale and Park Square," the mayor explained during his Jan. 27 episode of One Pittsfield.

"In order to approve the safety of all of these locations, I am reintroducing the safety median ordinance for the council's review, and at the Ordinances and Rules subcommittee, we will supply the public safety data that we have in regards to these intersections."

He has proposed adding Chapter 14, Section 14-12.1 "Median Safety and Pedestrian Regulation in Public Roadways."

The ordinance states that every pedestrian has the right to use public ways in the city except where pedestrian travel is expressly or prohibited by law, regulation, signage, road closure, or other safety or emergency factors.

"Notwithstanding the right of pedestrians to use public ways within the City of Pittsfield, the City of Pittsfield has experienced an increase in public safety issues relating to pedestrian use of and entry into the public roadways identified herein, for which a significant public safety need has arisen requiring implementation of this median safety and pedestrian regulation ordinance," it reads.

This is applicable within 100 yards of the intersection of West Street and Center Street, East Street and First Street, South Street and East Housatonic Street, and all of the intersections at Allendale Shopping Center and Park Square. Any person found to violate this section would be subject to criminal and noncriminal penalties.

Under the ordinance it is unlawful for any pedestrian to:

• Walk along and upon an adjacent roadway whenever a sidewalk, median, crosswalk, center traffic island, or safety island is available for pedestrian use.
   
• Leave an available sidewalk, median, crosswalk, center traffic island, or safety island and enter the path of any motor vehicle on a roadway.
   
• Utilize a sidewalk, median, crosswalk, center traffic island, or safety island to impede traffic flow or endanger themselves, other pedestrians, or motorists.
   
• Stand, sit, or lie down in any roadway, sidewalk, median, crosswalk, center traffic island, or safety island with the intent to obstruct or hinder the free and safe passage of pedestrians or motor vehicles.

Additionally, it stipulates:

• Where sidewalks, medians, crosswalks, center traffic islands, or safety islands are unavailable, a pedestrian should use an unfinished shoulder of a roadway and avoid traveling or entering the roadway
   
• A pedestrian shall not enter a public way into the pathway of motor vehicles traveling on and along the roadway or approach within five feet of a motor vehicle or vehicles using a roadway.

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