Unfortunately the Town is still waiting for one of the departments at MassDOT to submit their comments on the 25% design drawings for the Mass Ave Corridor plan. While its unlikely these comments will be anything but positive, this is creating further delays in scheduling the 25% public hearing at Town Hall. Its still possible it may be scheduled in April but it may need to be held during Town Meeting (late April, May and potentially June) when there are only a few free evenings at Town Hall. As we’ve said before…please sit tight and we’ll let you know when this important hearing date is set. Speaking of important, please make sure you’ve marked your calendars for Town Election Day on Saturday April 2nd. If you are new to Town, you have until March 14th to register to vote. Registration forms can be picked up at the Town Clerk’s office at 730 Mass Ave (Town Hall, 2nd flr) or you may call them at 781-316-3070. While the office typically closes at 4pm, it will be open until 8pm this Thursday and on Monday the 14th. To us, the Mass Ave Corridor plan plays a significant role in this year’s Town election, as most of the Board of Selectmen candidates have a clear record on the subject or have stated a preference:

Joe Curran (running for one-year term) – to our knowledge has not expressed an opinion on the project

Annie LaCourt (running for one-year term) – one of the four Selectmen voting in favor of the current plan that EALS supports (Jack Hurd, running for Town Clerk, also voted in favor)

Dan Dunn (running for three-year term) – when meeting with the EALS Board recently, expressed support for the current plan

Diane Mahon (running for three-year term) – was the lone Board of Selectman vote against the current plan; also…at a recent BoS meeting, she was dismissive of community concerns about safety for walkers and bus riders not able to negotiate large snow banks and unshoveled bus stops on Mass Ave

Maria Romano (running for three-year term) – founder and leader of the Concerned Citizens Committee (CCC), the neighborhood group that was fought to either stop the project entirely and/or has lobbied strongly against the elements that EALS sees as the primary safety features of the plan: a 3-lane configuration, turn lanes, wider sidewalks, bike lanes and bump outs. The CCC’s leaders have spent over $60,000 fighting the plan and have threatened on the A-list and on the Advocate web site to shut down the 25% hearing, using civil disobedience if necessary.

We hope you will consider the record and statements of all of the candidates before casting your vote on April 2nd.

Finally, if anyone is interested in being a Town Meeting member, there are several uncontested vacancies. Specifically, Precinct 2 has one vacancy for a 3 year term, Precinct 4 has one vacancy for a 3 year term and Precinct 6 has one vacancy for a 2 year term and 2 vacancies for a one year term. It’s too late to get on the ballot, so a write-in campaign is necessary and and can be done quite easily. Since the seats are uncontested, securing the write-in votes of 10 of your neighborhoods will nearly guarantee you victory.

In the last 5-6 snowy weeks, traffic in the Cambridge-bound direction–especially in the morning–has backed up more than usual for one primary reason. There is currently a left-turn lane to Rt.16 and a SINGLE thru-lane/right-turn lane into Cambridge, rather than the typical left-turn lane and two thru-lanes.  Fewer cars are able to pass through that intersection as a result, causing longer queues along Mass Ave. As far as we could tell, traffic in the west-bound direction flowed as it would normally.

The recent conditions on Mass Ave are not a valid test of traffic flow on Mass Ave after its reconstructed in the next few years. The recent snow build-up on both sides of Mass Ave resulted in the narrowing of the roadway equally on both sides. This constricted Mass Ave to an approximate width of 1.5 lanes in each direction (when cars were parked curb side) and only two lanes feeding the Rt. 16 intersection, as described above. The Town’s current plan calls for two Cambridge bound lanes, one Arlington bound lane, bike lanes and a three lane approach to Rt. 16. After a series of snow storms in the future, there will still be two Cambridge-bound lanes and one Arlington-bound lane, instead of 1.5 in each direction because the actual center line of the street will be moved towards the one westbound lane leaving more room for two full inbound lanes. Bike lanes will provide the extra buffer for snow build up and help to maintain traffic flow and curb side parking on both sides of the street. If the Town can keep the three lane approach to Rt.16 clear (questionable perhaps?), back-ups would be no worse than they are throughout other times of the year.

The Mass Ave corridor planning effort took an important, though not unexpected, step this week. MassDOT submitted their comments on the Town’s revised 25% plan and there appears to be no major stumbling blocks to moving the plan forward towards the 75% final design stage. The only set of comments still outstanding is from the Federal Highway Administration, which the State and the Town hope to receive soon. When those are in, the required 25% public hearing will be scheduled. For all intents and purposes, this hearing is the last opportunity for the community to weigh in on the core elements of the plan (all of which have now passed muster with numerous planners and engineers with the Town, the design consultants and with MassDOT).

 The “core” elements include the three lane configuration, turn lanes, bike lanes, traffic signal locations, crosswalks and wider sidewalks at 3-4 blocks in the business district.

Those interested in the nitty grity can download DOT’s comments posted on the Advocate’s web site (look for the PDF at lower right): http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/news/x1403225299/Arlington-receives-comments-on-Mass-Ave-Corridor-Project

 The Maria Romano/Eric Berger-lead Concerned Citizens Committee is in a near panic over the continued advancement of the plan. Comments posted on the Advocate web site by Eric Berger within hours of the DOT comments being posted are interesting:

 ”I’m still confident the DOT will not force this plan with travel lanes removed down our throats. If the DOT tries to do that, then it’s aligned itself against the majority of the people and thereby put itself right in the middle of this battle, and on the wrong side. I’ll go to court, and we’ll organize civil disobedience marches and rallies.” (full comments can be read at the bottom of the Advocate link above.) Mr. Berger, by his own admission, has already spent $60,000 trying to stop the project against the wishes of a silent majority of neighborhood residents and now threatens to take the Town to court and disrupt if not shut down the public process with civil disobedience. We collectively can stop this foolishness by ensuring that our voices are heard at the public hearing and by expressing our support for the project through our letters and e-mails to DOT. For those who have yet to write to DOT’s chief engineercheck out our other blog post for all the information you’ll need. Thanks and expect to hear back from us when the 25% hearing is finally schedule (we’re hoping March before Town elections and Town Meeting)

East Arlington residents – as some of you know, the extension of the Green Line T is currently in design phase and will be complete by 2016. Currently, the plan is for the trolley to extend out to Tufts in phase I and to Rt 16 in a second phase. This will place it within a short walk for many East Arlingtonians. If you are interested in the project, there is a community mtg being held on Feb 16 in Medford. See the announcement below for more details.

Dear Green Line Friends,

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is pleased to announce the kick-off of a community visioning process exploring potential land use changes and benefits and impacts associated with the possible extension of the Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway.

The first public outreach meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, February 16, 2011 from 6pm-8pm at the Brooks Elementary School in Medford.  The first public forum will provide information on the scope and timeline for the process, as well as providing an opportunity for public input on community-wide concerns.

Attached to this email is a public outreach flyer which provides additional details on the kick-off meeting. Please feel free to distribute this flyer to other groups or individuals who you think may be interested in attending this meeting.

For more information on this meeting and the overall Green Line Extension process, please visit:

www.greenlineextension.org or

http://www.mapc.org/smart-growth/green-line-extension

“Be careful what you wish for.”

That’s the warning an East Arlington group has for those calling for
four travel lanes and extra-wide parking lanes for the Mass. Ave.
redesign, charging that those demands exceed the width of the street
and would cost 100 parking spaces.

A study released this week by the East Arlington Livable Streets
(EALS) Coalition finds that changes proposed by the opposition group
East Arlington Concerned Citizens Committee (CCC) exceed the existing
curb-to-curb width of the street by at least 8 feet.

“The only way to meet those demands would be to remove curbside
parking from one side of the street,” the study concludes–an outcome
it criticizes.

The Town of Arlington is seeking state and federal funds to restore
Mass. Ave. in East Arlington, despite opposition by the CCC. The study
authors say the opponents’ concerns are groundless.

“The CCC has not thought things through,” said Chad Gibson, an author
of the study and a co-chair of EALS. “They want four extra-wide travel
lanes with extra-wide parking. They piled on extras that exceed the
width of the street.”

The Town has proposed three standard-width 11-foot travel lanes, turn
lanes, bike lanes, and parking lanes on both sides of the street.

Mass. Ave. is 66 feet wide, curb-to-curb, for most of its length, but
the EALS study, “Be Careful What You Wish For: How a Four-Lane Mass.
Ave. Would Eliminate Parking and Harm Businesses in East Arlington,”
finds demands by the CCC totaling at least 37 feet on each side of the
avenue or 74 feet of total curb-to-curb width.

The study quotes CCC Spokesperson Eric Berger and others demanding:

*      Parking lanes of at least 11 feet

*     Travel lanes of at least 12 feet

*      Shared travel lanes in place of proposed bicycle lanes. MassDOT
requires such shared lanes to be at least 14-15 feet wide.

Combined, these exceed the curb-to-curb width by 8 feet, the study finds.

“That kills parking on one side of the street,” according to Adam
Auster, a co-author of the study. “Losing that parking would radically
change Mass. Ave for the worse, for businesses and residents both.”

About 100 parking spots are at stake, the study finds. Gibson calls
the elimination of so much parking “unthinkable.”

Gibson and Auster decline to accuse the CCC of deliberately plotting
against curbside parking on Mass. Ave. “Maybe it’s just a mistake,”
Auster said. “But you can’t fit 74 feet into 66. Something’s got to
give.”

The study sheds light on the many tradeoffs involved in planning for
Mass. Ave.’s reconstruction, which the authors say are complex. “There
are some tough choices,” Gibson said, “but the Town’s priorities,
which are pro-parking, pro-safety, and pro-community, are much better
for East Arlington than the CCC’s.”

The study also:

*      cites multiple traffic studies since 2001 that conclude a
three-lane design “could easily accommodate traffic volumes now and in
the future”

*      asserts that the “ loss of more than 100 legal parking spaces
[the opposition group’s plan] would clearly harm the Capitol Square
business district”

*      finds that State design guidelines have changed so much in the
last 30 years that the current layout for Mass. Ave “would not pass
muster today”

*      asks whether opponents are “willing to sacrifice curb-side
parking for an additional traffic lane that all studies have
determined is unnecessary”

The East Arlington Livable Streets Coalition is a community group
active in transportation and quality-of-life issues in East Arlington.
The group has more than 200 supporters and over 400 Facebook fans and
meets monthly at the Fox Library.

The study is available for download at the group’s web page, here.

This came today from the City of Boston

Dear Friends,

City of Boston is conducting a brief 2010 year-end survey of people who bicycle in Boston. If you ride a bike in Boston–rarely, occasionally or perhaps every single day–please take a moment to complete this important survey. We will ask questions about your riding habits and ask for your feedback on our events. To take the survey go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BostonBikes.

 Please forward this to anyone else you know who bikes in Boston. Thank you very much for your input and have a safe and happy holiday season!

 Sincerely,

The Boston Bikes Team

 Please consider donating your old bike to Roll it Forward: collecting, repairing, and distributing up to 1,000 bikes to deserving Boston families. Your bike can serve as a family’s first step in adopting cycling as an ongoing activity for health and convenience. Learn more at: www.rollitforward.org.

December 1, 2010

John F. Bean, Director

Arlington DPW

51 Grove Street

Arlington, MA 02476

CC: Brian Sullivan, Laura Wiener, Carol Kowalski, Jack Hurd, Donna Janis

Re: Non-working Street Light on Mass Ave in East Arlington

John:

The East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition has identified six streetlights in East Arlington that are not working. Four of these are at pedestrian crossings, which are consequently not illuminated after dark.  Many of these lights have been inoperable since last winter when this issue was previously brought up in the Advocate by a local resident.  We are concerned about the negative impact that these inoperable lights have on pedestrian safety.

The area surveyed is Mass. Ave. from Route 16 to Grafton St.–Orvis Rd and the streetlights are described in the table below.

Unfortunately, none of the poles that bear these lights are identified with a tag showing the number of the pole, although there is one pole with old-style metal letters that may be complete and may correspond to today’s numbering scheme.  Nonetheless the table describes the location of each pole in sufficient detail to be easily identified.

For the sake of pedestrian safety along a street that has experienced vehicle-pedestrian collisions and fatalities in the past, the EALS Coalition recommends restoring these streetlights to full service, especially those at crosswalks. This would occur ideally in the next few weeks as walkers and bus commuters are returning home for the evening and crossing Mass Ave in darkness. We look forward to hearing your response to this important safety issue.

Sincerely,

EALS Board Members

State Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly

State House

Room 416-A     

Boston, MA  02133

Re: Please support Bill H4728 for lower speed limits in urbanized areas

Dear Senator Donnelly,

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 and over 400 fans on our Facebook page.  We are quickly becoming the neighborhood’s voice on transportation and livability-related issues. We are writing to let you know that we support lower speed limits in urbanized areas for improved pedestrian safety in East Arlington and across Massachusetts. We ask that you support H4728 and ask Speaker DeLeo to move H4728 forward.

As you may know, H4728 would reduce the prevailing speed limit in urbanized areas from 30 mph to 25 mph, improving pedestrian safety. Fatalities from pedestrian-automobile crashes are directly related to speed: When struck by a vehicle going 40 mph, 90% of 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.

Sincerely,

Phil Goff, Co-chair      

Cc:
Representative Sean Garballey, State House of Representatives
Representative Will Brownsberger, State House of Representative

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.