Mass DOT takes comments

Advocates for and against the rebuilding of Mass. Ave. in East Arlington went into overdrive, and comments from the public went into overtime, at a sometimes-raucous project hearing at Town Hall on April 12.

Some 400 people came to the Department of Transportation hearing on the Town’s proposed design. 79 gave comments, and many more were turned away when the hearing adjourned at 10:40.

Arlington Town Hall on Tuesday night. Not quite to capacity, but very full.

Wisdom from a bicycle advocate

He is a cyclists’s cyclist: published author on bicycle safety, expert witness in bicycle accident lawsuits, member of MassDOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, former member of the governing boards of MassBike and the League of American Bicyclists, former contributing editor at Bicycling magazine.

And many other things besides.

And in October of 2008, John Allen was at the very first public workshop that Arlington’s consultants held to redesign Mass. Ave.

Here’s what this two-wheeled Robespierre, this Lenin of the lanes, had to say about Mass. Ave. in 2008:

Mass. Highway: Bigger bike lanes, scaled-back traffic signals

Foster St. signal (Source: Town of Arlington)

Wider bicycle lanes and changes to the Thorndike and Foster traffic signals are among the suggestions made to the Town this winter by state engineers at Mass. Highway.

The agency’s written comments to the Town’s proposed 25% plans for Mass. Ave. are generally supportive and include advice and many suggestions.

The Town’s response could include changes to its plans.

Redesign foes OK with lane widths after all

Since the summer of 2009, opponents of the plan to rebuild Mass. Ave. have criticized the 11-foot travel lanes proposed by the Town as too narrow.

Eleven feet, they say in their leaflet, would be so narrow as to “increase the likelihood of accidents:” a serious charge.

Last week, however, the group’s principal spokesperson, Eric Berger, endorsed 11-foot lanes.

When four lanes are two

Mass. Ave FDR

One of the most interesting bits in Arlington’s plan to rebuild Mass. Ave. is a discussion of how drivers actually behave today, and would be likely to behave under new road designs.

It turns out that you can’t just draw lines on asphalt, post signs, and expect people to do what you say.

My slightly cynical crystal ball

Concentrate and ask again

Though I am hardly shy with my opinions, the focus here has been reporting on news of the Mass. Ave. projects and what others are saying and doing.

I depart from that for this post to make some outright predictions.

First, I think the state will approve the project, which will be built very much along the lines of the plan submitted. (My magic 8-ball is still cloudy about when.)

Second, Mass Ave. will neither become a paradise nor a parking lot. With a few important exceptions, the effect of the new design on traffic and safety will be small — for good and for ill. Here’s why.

The face of a new Mass. Ave.

Never mind the sausage factory of process and meetings and interim drafts.

If Mass. Highway approves the 25-percent plans as submitted, what will we get? What will be different?

Design evolves, at the margins

The latest iteration of plans for Mass. Ave. in East Arlington would, like previous version, introduce bicycle lanes and a three-lane configuration for much of the length of the street.

The drawings, made available to the public at a meeting of Arlington’s Mass. Ave. Review Committee at the Senior Center on August 4, largely tinker at the margins of the design. They are still drafts labeled “for discussion.”

But compared to the plans unveiled at the community meeting last June, the new version sports narrower travel lanes for cars, wider sidewalks in the business district, and a 3-foot flush buffer zone between bicycles and cars on the westbound side of the street.

Not restored in the latest version is a five-foot traversable median, flush with the street, that would provide a refuge for pedestrians.

Public views Mass. Ave. plans

About 200 Arlington residents and fellow travelers came to Town Hall last night for the seventh public hearing on much-delayed plans to refurbish Mass. Ave, which is still slated for 2012.

It was the first opportunity for the public to question the consulting engineers about the plan since April of 2009. The Board of Selectmen submitted the plans for State review last August.

New drawings were on display at the meeting

Most of the basic elements of the plan are unchanged: the lane configuration, including bicycle lanes, new pedestrian crossings, and traffic signals at Teel/Thorndike, Lake, Bates/Marion, and Linwood/Foster.

As described last week, however, the latest drawings remove a proposed traversable median from  much of Mass. Ave., widen traffic lanes, and reduce or eliminate proposed sidewalk widening in the business district around the Capitol Theater.

One sidewalk would even be narrowed in one place to accommodate the wider traffic lanes.

The engineers made these and other changes in response to criticism of the 2009 version made earlier this year by Mass. Highway District 4.

Comments and questions following a presentation by Rick Azzalina of Fay Spofford & Thorndike were wide-ranging. Azzalina repeatedly described the design as “a work in progress” that could be influenced by public comments.

However, his responses to comments mostly explained why particular changes were unlikely or inexpedient.

Azzalina said the plan is to resubmit the so-called 25% plans to Mass. Highway next month, for a formal hearing in September paving the way (through many intermediate steps) to advertise the project in December of 2011.

My notes, incomplete and unofficial as usual, follow; my personal comments are in red.

The attack of the road-eating bicycles

The width of Mass. Ave. is a finite resource, and the Town would dedicate ten feet of it to bicycles (plans here).

How did the lycra-clad elites engineer this stunning coup d’etat? I’ve got to warn you, it’s not what you think!

6/16 Meeting: bike lanes

Tuesday June 16 was the first meeting of Arlington’s Mass. Ave. Review Committee that included the ten new members added by the Selectmen the week before. We’ll meet again next Wednesday night, June 24.

The committee neither made any decisions nor tried to, but new members had the chance to ask questions and air grievances. I don’t think I can do a good job of summarizing or representing that discussion, but as a new members I learned a few things. For this my first blog entry “covering” the committee, I’ll stick to describing some of the things I learned about the proposed bike lanes. My personal comments are in red; yours are welcome.

Bicycles: State law now requires designs for roads like Mass. Ave. to include an “accommodation” for bicycles. The choices are as follows:

• a five-foot bike lane, alongside travel lanes of at least 11 feet (for a total of 16 feet of width)
• a single 15-foot travel lane (the extra width to allow cyclists to ride on the right but not too close to the doors of parked cars). Left lanes, if any, can be 11 feet wide.

If you eliminate the bike lanes, you must add space to the travel lanes. The net savings of space is only two feet (for both sides of the street).

With this requirement, a four-lane street with parking would be wider than parts of Mass. Ave. in East Arlington.

This isn’t a very complete account–only one part of the meeting–but I’m just getting warmed up.