HATFIELD — New signalized crosswalks, part of a $2.16 million Massachusetts Department of Transportation project being undertaken in several area communities, are coming to Route 5 in Hatfield.

The crosswalks are part of MassDOT’s Vulnerable Road User Assessment, which has determined that a disproportionate number of pedestrian and bicyclist fatal or serious injury crashes occur within 300 feet of a bus stop.

The Select Board this week examined the completed designs, which include crosswalks on West Street at the North Hatfield intersection and near the Prospect Meadow Farm store.

Signals can be activated by pedestrians to alert drivers to their presence.

“This is being done on conjunction with bus stops that are along that portion of Route 5,” said Select Board Chairwoman Diana Szynal.

The project aims to lower risk for pedestrians, including in some places having refuge islands, flashing warning signs and other signs, and painting high-visibility crosswalks and using curb extensions.

Throughout the region, other similar improvements are happening in Deerfield, Greenfield and Whately.

Szynal said when the Select Board reviewed the plans at an earlier stage, she was worried that there would be raised traffic islands, which might impede tractor trailers, especially those trying to turn into C&S Wholesalers. Szynal compared her worry to the “island debacle” on a stretch of the same road a few miles north in South Deerfield.

In that case, in summer 2021, newly installed traffic islands on Greenfield Road added more than $110,000 to the total cost of the reconstruction project on the road, MassDOT removed them because their location in the center of the road would have stalled first responders’ efforts in the event of an emergency, with a backlog of traffic meaning fire trucks and ambulances wouldn’t have enough room to get by pulled over vehicles.

The Hatfield traffic islands will just be paint, Szynal said.