The advisory board of EALS was stunned to learn last week of changes to the design for Mass. Ave. that undo much of the good work the Town has done to make the street safer, especially for pedestrians.

Your participation is badly needed to restore the plan that was discussed at least year’s hearing. We urge you to take 15 minutes of your time between 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Wednesday and come to the Hardy School cafeteria to tell the Town and consultants that you want to see the traffic lane and crosswalk configuration from the 25% plan restored.

Here is what is going on:

• Two crosswalks at Milton and Marathon streets–both with safety bump outs and the latter with a refuge island–have been consolidated into a single crosswalk at Melrose Street without a pedestrian island and only one bump out. This design generally retains the unnerving and dangerous conditions of today’s crosswalks on Mass Ave.

• In the 25% plans, the Wyman Street crosswalk included a wide median refuge that allowed pedestrians to cross a single traffic lane (and bike lane) in two separate stages. The refuge has been eliminated and the addition of another east-bound traffic lane (from Pond Ave to Linwood) would require pedestrians to cross three traffic lanes (and the bike lanes) in a single stage, increasing their exposure to oncoming traffic significantly.

It is critical that many of you attend this “open house-style” meeting (not a public hearing) to voice your opinions of the latest iteration of the plan, i.e. the 75% submission. This will be an informal event with no microphones or debate, but there will be an opportunity to tell the planners individually that changes of this magnitude are not acceptable and that the 25% plan should be restored. For those not able to make the open house, please e-mail Laura Wiener atLWiener@town.arlington.ma.us

The new drawings can be downloaded from the Town’s website athttp://www.town.arlington.ma.us/public_documents/ArlingtonMA_Planning/MassAve/index

Though less dramatic than changes to the walking environment, the 75% designs have compromised the effectiveness of the bike lanes as well:

• the addition of a second east-bound traffic lane requires the removal of roughly 150′ of bike lane striping at Pond Lane (replaced by shared lane markings, which ideally should be included from the edge of the Corridor project to Minuteman Path crossing of Mass Ave and Rt. 60)

• the visual extension of the bike lanes through each intersection using dashed lines from the 25% plan has been removed, leaving a no-man’s land in the center of each intersection

While we hope you can also find the time to provide comments on the streetscape and landscaping, we urge you to make clear your strong preference to return to the core elements in the 25% plan for the corridor.  This may be the only opportunity for you to weigh on this issue, so we hope you can drop in, even if for only a short period of time. EALS will, of course, continue to seek pedestrian and bike-safety improvements as the plan continues to move forward. Beyond April 4th, we hope to discuss our concerns formally with TAC (the Transportation Advisory Committee), the Board of Selectmen and MassDOT, if necessary.

Not only will the tree grow up to beautify your street but it will increase the value of your home. If you are interested, please go to the link below and look for “trees” near the bottom. Unfortunately, I believe you need to have an account with the town, but it only take a minute to get a log-in and password.

You can read the memo here.

Paul Lukez started the discussion with a presentation on what it means to be sustainable and some examples of sustainable towns or cities and also some sustainable freestanding buildings. Arlington differs from many of the examples given because it is a well established town, as opposed to a planned, sustainable community. Arlington is inherently sustainable because its proximity to the city, public transportation, and the three business districts allow one to walk from almost any part of town to a business center. This last point was brought up by an attendee when Mr. Lukez stated that one of the reasons for Arlington’s lack of identity is that it has three different “nodes”. He agreed that there are definitely advantages to the three separate business districts but chose to highlight Arlington Center as needing a more defined identity. During the discussion, the Mass Ave project did come up and Mr. Lukez was asked to comment on it, but he declined saying he has not looked at the plans in any detail. That being said, many of the comments made by both speakers, Mr. Lukez and Davit Witford, have been paraphrased in discussion in support of the Mass Ave project. Many people felt that too many people drive through town from elsewhere and have no reason or desire to stop. Arlingtonians, themselves, do less driving and the larger thoroughfares actually create barriers, rather than tie the community together. There was collective agreement that more should be done for walkers safety and enjoyment of the town in order to create a sense of place and to bind the community.

In order to accomplish the goals of sustainability, Lukez said a Sustainability Master Plan for the town should be established. To accomplish this, he said, strong leadership backed by a community/neighborhood group is required.

Hi All -  please join us for the EALS Coalition’s next community meeting on Thursday, Oct 20 at 7:30 pm. (Because of a scheduling conflict at the Fox, the event will be held at the Arlington Center for the Arts off Mass Ave between Tufts and Foster Street.) Please stop by to meet your neighbors, learn about EALS, enjoy free home-made refreshments and watch/listen to an interesting presentation about a livability-related topic.

Our special guest will be the General Manager of Boston’s bike share system, Hubway. Scott Mullen–an East Arlington resident–from Alta Bike Share will have a presentation that includes a brief history of the bike share movement globally, planning the system in Boston, Hubway’s great success in its first year, and its expansion to Cambridge, Somerville and elsewhere in the near future. Scott will have one of the Hubway bikes with him so those who haven’t seen one in downtown Boston will be able to kick the tires. This is a rare opportunity to learn about how the community has quickly gotten on board the bike share concept and why Hubway has the real potential to enhance transportation options throughout Greater Boston.

This event represents EALS’ fall community meeting, which we host semi-annually. The next meeting and presentation is scheduled for April 2012.

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

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. Passengers on non-Key Bus Routes will benefit from improvements, and be affected by changes made, at Key Bus Route stops. Bus Route 77 operates between Arlington Heights and Harvard Square via Arlington Center, Porter Square and Massachusetts Avenue. This route also provides service to important destinations such as Harvard University, Capitol Theatre and Arlington High School. This route provides connections to the Red Line as well as many bus routes including Key Bus Routes 1, 66, 71 and 73 and the following local routes – 62, 67, 68, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 83, 86, 87, 96 and 350.

The following meetings will discuss potential improvements to Bus Route 77:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Arlington Town Hall Auditorium 730 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington