November 17, 2025 By Carol Britton Meyer
This week’s select board agenda (Tuesday, Nov. 18) includes consideration of a proposed traffic control change at the intersection of Main, Middle, and Short Street in Hingham Centre to address longtime serious safety concerns.
The Traffic Committee – which makes recommendations to the select board — reviewed the proposed design for improvements to that dangerous intersection in September – at which time, a roundabout was the preferred option.
The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization has been reviewing the design alternatives as part of their technical assistance program.
Their recommendation is expected to be presented Tuesday night.
The current layout is a four-way, unsignalized intersection under a two-way stop control, with a stop sign on Middle Street westbound and the Main Street eastbound approaches.
MPO reviewed and evaluated a range of design alternatives to address the intersection’s “operational and safety challenges,” including the following:
- unsignalized all-way stop control
- signalized control only (with an exclusive pedestrian phase)
- signalized control only (with a concurrent pedestrian phase)
- signalized control (with Short Street left-turn lane; exclusive pedestrian phase)
- signalized control (with Short Street left-turn lane; concurrent pedestrian phase)
- roundabout control
- unsignalized control with directional traffic pattern changes
“Concurrent pedestrian phasing” is where both pedestrians and vehicular traffic are directed to move in the same directions at the same time. This type of pedestrian phasing requires that drivers and pedestrians be more aware of potential conflict.
With “exclusive pedestrian phasing,” all vehicular traffic is stopped and pedestrians are given their own signal phase to traverse the intersection across any of the approaches.
For more details, go to https://www.hinghamanchor.com/roundabout-proposed-for-dangerous-middle-main-short-street-intersection.