Hello East-siders and others,

We hope you had a great summer and are looking forward to a beautiful fall season. Over the summer, we and other EALS volunteers have remained busy on “other” projects as the Mass Ave Corridor plan has gone beyond the 25% design stage and into final design.

 One of our primary initiatives recently has been to promote walking and bicycling to the Hardy School for this fall’s term. For those unaware, the Thompson School is now closed and 3rd-4th graders from the Thompson district are now attending Hardy for the next two years. Because of this, there has been concern about exacerbating the already-congested conditions around the Hardy School with the additional 120 students. EALS has worked with the Town’s Transporation Advisory Committee (TAC), the PTO’s and Principals from both Hardy and Thompson to mitigate the additional traffic congestion. In June, EALS received a $1000 grant from the National Center for Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) to promote walking and biking to Hardy. The grant is intended to fund the design, printing and distribution of walking/biking route maps. Funds were also made available to provide free bike helmets to those in need and to potentially purchase additional “yield to pedestrians” crosswalk bollards to be installed where necessary. The attached map and safety-info brochure is in the process of being given to all Hardy families and posted in the school and at the playground. The thrust of the effort is to establish Bike Train routes throughout East Arlington that link to the school. Parent volunteers are leading small groups of kids along each colored route. The goal is to provide an additional transporation option to Hardy, to do so safely and provide a fun and active experience for the kids. In addition to the Bike Train routes, the map shows recommended walking routes, locations of the crossing guards and the newly-established remote drop-off spot on Mass Ave (intended to minimize car traffic dropping off right at the school). The Hardy SRTS effort will be the primary agenda item for this Thursday’s EALS meeting at the Fox Library at 7:30 pm.

The meeting will also includes updates of other campaigns we’re working on and upcoming events.

 Two in particular are a group bike ride to the Moving Planet climate change rally and a meeting sponsored by the MBTA to discuss potential changes to the 77 bus line.

1. September 24 (Saturday), 2:20+ pm, E Arl to Boston Bike ride roundezvous and convoy to the Moving Planet rally at Columbus Park in downtown Boston. Meet up with environmental organizations from Arlington, Lexington, Belmont and Medford and ride together to the huge rally downtown to promote awareness of climate change to demand action by the federal government. Meet at 2:20 at Jam-n-Java or 2:30 along the bike path at Thorndike Field. The intent is for a moderate paced ride of roughly 45-60 minutes to Columbus Park. More info can be found on the Sustainable Arlington group’s web site.

2. September 27 (Tues), 6:30-8 pm at Town Hall The MBTA is hosting follow-up meetings on Bus Route 77 as part of the Key Bus Route Improvement Program. Based on community feedback, preliminary recommendations have been refined to the following types of improvements: bus stop consolidation, new bus shelters, benches and trash receptacles. Bus stop consolidation will result in changes to the location of some bus stops. Bus stops may be relocated and/or eliminated in the plan