Just below is Phil’s recent email to the EALS list summarizing the recent developments with the Mass Ave Plan.  If you would like to be added to our email list, please fire a note to ealscoalition@gmail.com.
For those not yet aware, the Mass Ave Project Advisory committee has recently expanded to include ten new members (in addition to the previous 10 appointed last fall), appointed by each Selectman in pairs. The committee has met twice in the last two weeks and has reviewed the newest round of traffic counts and analysis. At our meeting last Wednesday, the committee voted 12-4, with one abstention, to recommend that the current plan be approved by the Town and sent to Masshighway for their “25% complete” review. The large majority of the committee felt that the Town and its consultants have developed the best plan possible for the 1-mile corridor, a plan that includes:

• two lanes eastbound from Bates Street to Rt. 16
• one lane eastbound from Pond Lane to Bates Street with left turn lanes to side streets
• one lane westbound from Pond Land to Rt. 16 with left turn lanes to Lake Street and other side streets
• a 5′-6′ wide 1/2 lane in the center of the road to provide additional space for emergency vehicles and space to wait for left turns w/o backing up traffic
• bike lanes in both directions
• wider sidewalks on some blocks in the core of the business district and 4-5′ wider grass strips on a handful of other blocks west of Lake Street
• bump outs and shorter crosswalk distances in most locations WITHOUT a traffic signal
• all three existing traffic signals to remain in their current location (Teel, Lake, Linwood) and a new light at Bates
• retention of nearly all legal parking spaces with at least five new ones added

This plan is likely to be voted on by the Board of Selectman at their next meeting in July. Those of us on this e-mail list must be ready to mobilize ourselves to show up at the Selectman’s meeting (or any other) to show our support. Those who in the past opposed to the plan continue to do so, despite the changes in the plan that have added additional traffic capacity in the eastbound direction and the decision to leave the existing traffic lights as is. SOME residents and business interests support a plan by the Concerned Citizen’s Committee which calls for the federal money to be used to repave Mass Ave with four wide lanes with no bike accommodations, no sidewalk widenings, no new traffic signals, no bump outs or other pedestrian safety improvements and no new landscape improvements or new trees. In others words a smoother version of the status quo. Much of their concern lies on the distrust of the multiple versions of traffic counts/analysis and the fear that one west bound traffic lane will create enough congestion that drivers will cut through on side streets even more than they do already. Those who speak for the group are also pationately against providing a bike lane.

I and presumably the other 11 voting for the current plan are indeed concerned about cut-thru and speeding on side streets but are confident that the 3 1/2 lane Mass Ave plan can comfortably accommodate even rush hour traffic and that cut-thru will be no worse than it is today. EALS wants to work with the Town to develop a plan for cut-thru traffic but feels that it needs to be a separate process that should begin soon after the Mass Ave planning is complete. To hold up the plan now–potentially delaying its implementation and funding two or more years–due to the fear of some potential cut thru traffic that is likely to never materialize is not logical to me.

Anyways, please stay tuned for further updates on the plan and details about the next Board of Selectman meeting when their official vote is likely to take place.

For more detailed analysis of the committee meeting last week, please see Adam Auster’s blog at:

http://wordonstreet.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/commitee-sends-plans-to-selectmen/#more-35