The city is undertaking a study of the Winchester Road corridor with an eye toward making it safer and preparing the busy Lexington Gateway for anticipated growth.
Iris Dooling, a senior planner with the city, updated council leaders on the project Tuesday.
"In the future, we're expecting an increase in residential density, and so we want to try to get ahead of things and address that now," she said.
In a committee meeting, Councilman David Sevigny pressed planners on the issue of safety, citing a combination of risk factors that have made the road more dangerous for pedestrians.
"It seems like we've had a larger number of pedestrian deaths on Winchester Road," he noted. "Because there is a lack of crosswalks, people (are) just crossing wherever they can, and it's not a low-speed road."
As part of the study, planners are holding an open house to gather public input from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Charles Young Center on Thursday.