July 13, 2010
Secretary Ian Bowles
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
MEPA Office
Attn: Holly Johnson, MEPA Analyst
EEA #13886
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston, MA 02114
Fax: 617-626-1181
Email: Holly.S.Johnson@state.ma.us
Re: Extension of the MBTA Green Line
Dear Secretary Bowles:
The East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition is a neighborhood-based advocacy organization founded in 2008. EALS has over 170 supporters on our e-mail list, over 400 fans on our Facebook page and we aspire to become the neighborhood’s voice on transportation and livability-related issues. Residents throughout East Arlington have been strong supporters of the Green Line Extension (GLX) project through Somerville.
I am writing to express our group’s concerns that the project, as currently designed, does not meet the transportation needs of the hundreds of residents of East Arlington that rely on transit or those who wish to incorporate bicycle transportation into their lives. EALS urges the Commonwealth to make the following changes to the project as currently proposed:
- Design AND build the Community Path concurrently with the GLX
- Currently connecting Alewife Station to Davis Square, the multi-use path’s extension through Somerville to Lechmere and beyond to downtown Boston will likely be used by thousands of cyclists instead of driving.
- Combined with enhanced bike parking at GLX stations, the Community Path will increase ridership without necessitating expensive park-and-ride lots and garages
- Without the concurrent construction, it may be ten or twenty years until the Community Path design is implemented, an intolerable delay for such an important transportation and recreational project.
- Build the Rt. 16 terminus as part of Phase I
- Because the proposed Phase II terminus at Rt. 16 lies only a few hundred feet from the town line, dozens or East Arlington residents would be able to walk to transit and hundreds more could bike; the College Avenue station is “out of sight, out of mind” for Arlingtonians and will be underutilized
- DCR’s Alewife Brook trail, currently under construction, provides the perfect multi-modal connection to the GLX station at Rt. 16 while no such off-street connection exists for the College Avenue station
- While the extension to Rt. 16 is proposed for Phase II, EALS is concerned that this final section will never be built because of the higher cost of later-phase construction and loss of political momentum after the Phase I construction
Many of us have followed the Green Line Extension planning process from day one. We feel excited that the day has finally come for the rail transit to be developed in Somerville after many years of delay. However, the GLX has the potential to be a significant enhancement for the thousands of East Arlington residents who would like to take a one seat transit ride into East Cambridge or downtown Boston or bicycle to these same destinations along an off-street path.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Chad Gibson, Co-chair
Cc:
Jeffrey Mullan, Secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Senator Ken Donnelley, Massachusetts State Senator
Representative Sean Garballey, State House of Representatives
Representative Will Brownsberger, State House of Representatives
Ed Starr, Transportation Advisory Committee Chair
Brian Sullivan, Arlington Town Manager
Carole Kowalski, Director of Community Planning
Help to pass House Bill 4728 to reduce the prevailing speed limit in Massachusetts urban areas from 30mph to 25mph. Safety advocates have long supported efforts to decrease the speed limit, and this is the closest it has ever been to passing! This bill, originally sponsored by Representative Denise Provost (Somerville), would significantly increase pedestrian safety in neighborhood settings by slowing vehicle traffic to speeds safer for walkers and cyclists. It is currently in the House Committee on Bills in Third Reading, and when it reaches the Senate, it will be on the fast track, so please take action to support this bill by calling or emailing TODAY.
Note that East Arlington Representatives Sean Garballey seangarballey@hotmail.com and Will Brownsberger willbrownsberger@gmail.com are among the co-sponsors of the bill. Email them to thank them for co-sponsoring the bill and ask them to push it forward.
Why is this bill important? This is an important safety measure because bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities from crashes with automobiles are directly related to speed: When struck by a vehicle going 40 mph, 90% of bicyclists and pedestrians die, as compared to only 5% when the vehicle is going 20 mph. Massachusetts’ prevailing speed limit of 30 mph is too fast for local roads in densely developed areas, and 25 mph is the safer standard, which has been adopted by many other states across the country. Massachusetts should join these states in protecting the safety of all our residents and visitors.
Two new bike racks were installed to support the growing number of students and faculty that are using sustainable transportation to get to school. The racks will play a key roll in supporting the fledgling Safe Routes to School volunteer led program that will enter its third year this fall. Let’s bike safe and fill them up this fall!
 Hardy Bike Rack 
The Hardy Elementary School celebrated the culmination of Human Power month on Monday, June 7, with a mountain of prizes for participants who turned in their Green Human Power May/June Calendar. The calendar marked days kids either walked or biked to school and added up their mileage. Here are the stats for 2010.
HUMAN POWER MONTH FINAL STATS 2010
Total # of kids that participated: 85
Total # of miles: 1,090
Total # of miles walked: 951.5
Total # of miles biked: 138.5
Farthest Total distance: 33.6 miles
Average distance walked/biked: .56 miles
Average Kid Distance for month: 12.82 miles
We wish to thank, first of all, the kids for their effort and enthusiasm in this important awareness-building activity. Huge thanks also go to Lauren Hefferon who is dedicated to bike awareness and the Safe Routes to School program all year around, not just in May and June. Did you know Safe Routes to School has its own website? Please check it out at http://sites.google.com/site/hardyschoolsaferoutes/Home, and find out the safest routes for walking and biking to school. You are sure to make friends along the way! Let’s also show some appreciation for the new bike rack Hardy will be installing by filling it up with bikes! More volunteers are needed to help create awareness around this program in 2010-11. If you are interested, please get in touch with Lauren Hefferon at Lauren@ciclismoclassico.com. This year’s volunteers also included Chad Gibson and Nawwaf Kaba of East Arlington Liveable Streets Coalition, Suma Greenwald, Ray Jones and Stephanie Marlin-Curiel.
Finally, we wish to thank our donors for the cornucopia of prizes we were able to offer the kids. By virtue of their generosity, we were able to read every name and award a prize to each child who participated and turned in a calendar. Donors included: Ciclismo Classico, Lauren Hefferon, Leader Bank, Cambridge Savings Bank, Maxima Gift Shop, Francesca’s Kitchen, and Artbeat. Business donors are true partners in our community and remember, shopping local is another way of going green. Please remember Maxima’s Shop for Our School program. When you sign up, they donate 5% of proceeds to Hardy School!
Sustainable Arlington and the East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition support the placement of bus shelters in Arlington to encourage the use of public transportation and reduce the Town’s overall carbon footprint. It is our groups’ understanding that the Town has secured funding from the State, as part of the Mass. Ave redesign, to provide up to seven bus shelters along Mass. Ave. in East Arlington and we wish to weigh in on this issue that is important to our membership. According to the MBTA, Arlington is served by 11 MBTA routes with over 7,100 people boarding T buses here each day. There are 163 bus stops in Town but only five (3%) currently have shelters. In East Arlington, dozens of people wait every weekday for each of the morning rush-hour buses but there is not a single place to remain dry or sit down along Broadway or Mass Avenue. More shelters would provide an important public service.
Providing a place to sit with a roof overhead is a simple amenity that bus riders in Arlington deserve, especially the elderly, those with disabilities, and families with young children. Shelters should be well lit as well. In Boston and elsewhere, shelters funded by the MBTA have solar panels to power their lights. We see this as a free and visible opportunity to educate the public about the viability of solar power as a source of renewable energy. The shelters are cleaned with 100% organic products which is another plus.
Our groups support the installation of bus shelters without a change in the law that prohibits free-standing advertising. Among other things, it would mean quicker installation and probably less contention from the community. However, if a change in this policy turns out to be necessary, we request that the Planning Department recommend to the Arlington Redevelopment Board a change in the Zoning Bylaw to permit freestanding advertising exclusively on bus shelters. Unlike billboards which serve only to advertise, bus shelters provide the public with an important service and should be considered differently. In addition, as indicated, use of solar panels on the shelters would be educational.
We understand that there are bus shelters in the budget for the redesign of Mass. Ave. in East Arlington, but these would be paid for and maintained by the Town at an added expense. Use of a private vendor would save the Town both installation and maintenance costs, allowing the funds to be used for other worthy projects. Boston, Cambridge and Watertown, among others, have shelters installed, paid for, and maintained by a company called Cemusa. Jeff Rosenblum of Cambridge’s Community Development Department reports that they are very pleased with Cemusa’s shelters which are well-maintained, clean and well lit by solar-powered lighting. Cemusa would return some percent of the price of its advertising to the Town, adding much needed revenue. If engaged in a contract, Cemusa would be able to install bus shelters much sooner than if we wait until the Town is able to put its plan into effect. (Please note that neither group has investments or other ties to this company. Therefore we have no conflict of interest.)
Thank you for your consideration. We hope that it will be possible to find an efficient way to provide some of Arlington’s bus routes with shelters.
Boston officials say they’ve gotten state and federal approvals to install bike lanes on Massachusetts Avenue, a key downtown artery, from Boston Medical Center to Symphony Hall. The lanes will be added as part of an $18 million reconstruction of the avenue, the mayor’s office said The project will be 80 percent federally-funded and 20 percent state-funded. Plans call for it to be completed by fall 2011. “This is a big win for Boston’s biking community,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement. “Massachusetts Avenue is one of the busiest and most heavily traveled streets in our city and this project provides an opportunity to accommodate all modes of transportation without compromising safety.” Menino announced the new bike lanes at the Boston Bike Festival, the final event of the first statewide bike week. People today joined convoys of bikers in Boston and various close-in suburbs and were guided in convoys into the downtown, where they were treated to the festival on City Hall Plaza, which included a free breakfast and various other freebies.
I got the chance to visit Portland Oregon last week for business and was really excited to spend an afternoon seeing for myself the city that many people hold up as a model for sustainable transportation. I’ve wanted to visit for many years and my expectations on what I would see included something like this: great sidewalks, street life, bikes everywhere, sleek efficient public transit, a vibrant community. Pretty tall order, I thought I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much. It is Oregon not Europe.
Well, in the end I was extremely impressed. I spent most of the afternoon downtown. The streets were beautiful, extremely clean, wide sidewalks, lots of outdoor seating. The bus shelters on the street were sleek and modern, well kept, and even had flat panel real time bus arrival information! The trams (think larger, quieter, cleaner versions of the MBTA green line) criss-crossed the downtown area, seemingly on almost every other street. I rode on one in the city center which was free in that zone and was impressed on how well kept and well used they were. Walking around the city was extremely easy, I never felt threatened by an automobile, and noticed that the system was set up so well, there was a lot less jay walking than here in Boston.
Bikes, yes there were a lot of bikes. There were some areas that had taken out a couple of parking spots to put on street racks, which were full with upwards of 20 bikes. Tons of dispersed bike racks throughout the city. I don’t remember seeing illegally locked bikes and noticed that almost all bike riders were respecting the rules of the road, as if their accommodation had prompted them to not have to circumvent the law for their own safety or convenience.
I think the thing that was most interesting and different which I didn’t expect was the quietness, the utter harmony of all these transportation options. I never heard a car honk, a pedestrian yell, a transit official upset. It was kind of wierd, maybe it was the nice weather? It was so pleasant being downtown, there weren’t long lines of cars waiting to get through lights, tail pipe fumes at every corner, the start-stop-start-stop of being a pedestrian in most large cities (Portland is about half the size of metro Boston).
I left thinking that Portland had figured something out and is now 50-75 years ahead of most of the rest of us. It was really cool and inspiring. I didn’t take my camera so here are some images I found on the web that brings home the livable streets.
Cheers, Chad
 
If you plan to bicycle during Bay State Bike Week, May 17-21, 2010,
may I encourage you to register for the 2010 MassCommuter Challenge.
We need your Arlington miles!
http://www.masscommuterchallenge.org/register/
Arlington is currently the town with the fifth most miles pledged,
just behind Somerville. Spread the word, and let’s see if we can
catch Newton, Cambridge and Boston as well!
The Challenge is a friendly competition amongst employers, cities and
towns and individuals to try bicycling for short, regular trips, like
a commute, errands, social events, exercise or just for fun.
If you have not made a plan to bicycle, we encourage you to give it a
try. One trip, one mile! Make a start, this year.
Most people who cycle regularly find it convenient, swift, fun, and an
easy way to add some much needed exercise into a busy schedule during
a trip or trips that are going to be made anyway.
We’ll recognize the Challenge winners at the Bike Bash on Wednesday,
May 26 at Flattop Johnny’s (owned and operated by an Arlington
resident) at One Kendall Square, Cambridge. Included in the fabulous
door prizes are brimming collections of bicycle goodies from local
bike shops, including Arlington’s Quad Cycles.
Other Events of Note:
1. Please join the Charles River Transportation
Management Association, for a bicycle breakfast at the end of the
Minuteman Bikeway near Alewife Station Tuesday, May 18 7:00 AM- 9:00
AM. Sponsored by The Bulfinch Companies, Inc. and Cambridge Discovery
Park. Show us your helmet for coffee and a pastry.
Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee will attend, and will have some
great tips for safe riding.
(Still hungry and cycling into town? Visit us at University Park near
Central Square, Cambridge on Monday, and Cambridge Center in Kendall
Square, Cambridge on Thursday for breakfast as well!)
2. Also of note is the Minuteman Bikeway Commuter Convoy to the
Friday, May 21 Boston Bike Festival Here’s where and when you can join
the ride:
a. Lexington Minuteman Trail Entrance- Mass Ave and Hancock St (7:00am)
b. Arlington Center- Mass Ave and Swan Pl (7:20am)
c. Thorndike Field- Margaret St (7:35am)
d. Alewife T-Stop Entrance (7:40am)
More about City of Boston events:
http://www.bostonbikes.org/the-events/bike-week/
3. For a full calendar of events across the Commonwealth during Bay
State Bike Week , see
http://www.masscommute.org/calendar/
4. Ciclismo Classico of Arlington is sponsoring a Bicycle Film
Festival right in town at the Capital Theater on Thursday, May 20.
http://www.zvents.com/arlington-ma/events/show/118459785-ciclismo-classicos-first-annual-bicycle-film-festival
for details.
Great interview with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on NPR’s All Things Considered.
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