[Jack Buckley]: You're welcome everybody to the city of Medford traffic commission. Today's date is April 11th, 2023. And the time is now 5 0 8 p.m. Uh, this meeting will now come to order. I'll look into the roll call with the commissioners, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven here.
[Unidentified]: Commissioner hunt here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Bosinski.
[Jack Buckley]: Mr. business he is away on business he has an excused absence will not be present this evening.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: Chief Buckley presence. We also have one vacant public employee appointee, but the commissioners present, we do represent a quorum. forward. Also present with us this evening, I have Sergeant Larry Rogers and Sergeant Jordan Canaveral of the Metro Police Department's Traffic Commission. I mean, sorry, Traffic Department. Albert Erickson, Secretary to the Traffic Commission. And I believe Todd Blake, who is the Director of Traffic and Transportation, is on or will be joining us at some point this evening. To the commissioners, the minutes of the March 21st Traffic Commission meeting were distributed If the commissioners have read them and approve of their content, I'll accept the motion to enter the minutes into the record. Albert is reminding me that it's also the February traffic commission meetings that will go forward in February or March. Minutes of the February or March. The commissioners have read them. Do they approve of them? Move approval.
[Alicia Hunt]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner McGiven, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a roll call vote to approve the minutes of the February and March traffic commission meetings.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. The motion is passed, the minutes have been accepted. Before we begin new business, I just want to remind everybody that tonight is a larger issue. We have to get through. at least three items before we get to the table business. The chat room is on. I ask everybody to be courteous. I do want to remind people we are not taking public comments from the chat. We will reserve that if somebody possibly has audio problems and we can direct them to use that. In tonight's meeting, you will be requested to indicate if you want to speak to us by raising your hands in some fashion, and we will ask you to unmute. We will limit comments from each participant to about a minute, maybe a minute and a half as we move forward. And with that, we'll begin new business. 2023-18, Handicap Parking Signs, Immacula Pia, 26 Columbia Road. Alva, do we have all the paperwork in order and has it been distributed?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, all the paperwork is in order. I did not distribute it to the commissioners, because of the privacy.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, the privacy. Is someone here present to speak on behalf of the petitioner? Raise your hand. Let me try. Have you been notified to be present, Alba? Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: And there's two others that were also notified. from table to business.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, we're getting to that. Sergeant Rogers, did you review the? Chief, I did. I go down. I went down. I spoke to Mrs. Pierre. Her husband has a commercial plate on a vehicle. I believe it's registered out of a church. He, because of the commercial plate violation, has to park in the driveway. Therefore, Ms. Beyer has to park on the street. She is handicapped. Many times, there was no parking in front of her house due to the businesses on Main Street. And that is why she's requesting a handicapped parking space. Okay. I have not seen any hands raised. Sergeant Canava reports that we do not see anyone indicating they are present here speaking on behalf of the petitioner. I'll defer to the commissioners first on this. Often when the petitioner has indicated that it will be present and it is not present, we table the items, but I will leave that to the commissioner. Commissioner McGibbon, comments?
[Tim McGivern]: You know, we'd normally ask the petitioner, why, especially if they have a driveway, which is the case here. And it sounds like Sergeant Rogers got some information about a commercial plate. If I understood that correctly, her husband uses the commercial plate for the driveway, which puts her car on the street. Is this a permit parking street? Must be.
[Jack Buckley]: No, it's not.
[Tim McGivern]: No, it's not, so if commercial plates can't be on the street? Correct.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. That's another issue we need to address, but yes. Can you, I just wanted to make sure that, sorry, because I've met the applicant, so I just wanted to make sure, so you said they do have handicapped plates and a handicapped tag, and they're aware of that, and it's for their use?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, and you all confirm that with the documentation. Thank you.
[Tim McGivern]: I didn't realize that she seemed to understand that anybody could park that has a handicap, handicap placards in this space.
[Jack Buckley]: And she did I did explain that to her. I'm not so sure she understood. I told her to be on zoom. When I mentioned it, she kind of looked at me. So she may not have clearly understood the part of Zoom and the meeting. But yeah, I did explain that I went to park in that space.
[Tim McGivern]: And then my last question would be, is there anybody here that opposes this?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, well, to the commissioners, let's just do this. Anybody else in the public forum wish to speak in favor of this petition? Raise your hand, wave wildly. Seeing none, is there anyone present who wishes to speak against this petition?
[Unidentified]: Seeing none, I will refer back to the commissioners.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will say that I feel better when we can actually speak to the applicant, make sure that they fully understand how this works and that it's not for their exclusive use. Um, because that's what I'm hearing. Is it, she needs to be able to park and there's not always parking in front of her house. Um, and that other people could use the handicap spot.
[Jack Buckley]: Um, Alicia, I'll go back down tomorrow and not explain it to her again. And if it's, if it's approved.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, if you need translation, the Outreach and Prevention Office may be able to help with that. As I mentioned, I've met the applicant, so if that's an issue.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. The other thing too, it's pretty close to, what is that, Mystic Avenue?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, it's on the Mystic outside.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, so I wouldn't be opposed to having a handicapped spot like this close, you know, relatively close to Mystic Avenue. It's not too, too close, but there are a few businesses nearby that might take advantage of it if needed. So I'd be okay with that. With that said, I would move approval unless, you know, Alicia, you see some need to.
[Alicia Hunt]: No, it's fine. I'm sticking it.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so am I understanding Commissioner McGiven a motion to approve petition 2023-18? Do I have a second?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Sergeant Rogers, you'll be down there to speak with her and advise her. On 2023-19, handicap parking sign, Fernando Rodriguez, 42 Willard Ave. Is the paperwork in order, Alvin?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, it is.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Is the petitioner present or someone on behalf of the petitioner present to speak? Here we go. Jason Rodriguez. Welcome to the Traffic Commission meeting. I appreciate your attendance. The floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_37]: So yeah, I'm representing my father and my mother. They're the tenants at 42 Willard Ave. It's a second floor apartment that they rent. They've been there probably about 15 years now. And just over time, my dad's health has kind of declined. He has already received the handicap plates. So this is just to kind of help ensure some parking in front of the house. that he rents. I think there are like two or three other handicap parking already on the same street that other people use.
[Jack Buckley]: That's all. Thank you. Sergeant Rogers, Sergeant Canava, did one of you go down and view the area?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: No, but was this table? No, this is new.
[Jack Buckley]: This is new? No. OK. Commissioners, any comments or questions of the petitioner?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes. Hi, Jason. Looks like there's a pretty good driveway there that can hold a few cars. Is there a reason why the driveway wouldn't be used for this purpose?
[SPEAKER_37]: So my dad's the renter. The driveway is used by the owner of the house, the landlord.
[Tim McGivern]: And they're not allowed to use the driveway?
[SPEAKER_37]: No, because he goes in and out pretty frequently. We only have access to it. He only lets us park in there, say it was like a snowstorm. We're like, they'll make leniency over that. But other than that, it's, he has it, it's for this landlord's use.
[Tim McGivern]: And you may not know the answer to this question, but I see one parking space in front of the property, 4042. Yep. And is, is that a legitimate parking space? It's long enough? Yes, it is. All right. And traffic sergeants, would you agree with that? Yes, yes. With all that said, I would move approval.
[Alicia Hunt]: I do notice it. I was just taking a look at the street with street view that there is just up the block from him another handicap spot and he does. Does he ever use that one?
[SPEAKER_37]: He does it right now. He he frays from driving because he doesn't want to lose the spot right now in that handicap plate is somebody else use that spot. And that's why, that's why that.
[Alicia Hunt]: And this is just something that like, you probably just heard us saying about the previous spot. These are not personal spots in anybody with handicap plate or tag is legally allowed to park there. Um, so it's not a guarantee that the spot is available to you.
[SPEAKER_37]: Correct. Yep. We're aware of that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[Jack Buckley]: So we have a motion by second seconded by commissioner hunt. of a roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of three to nothing, the petition is approved. Mr. Rodriguez, thank you for your participation this evening, and we'll be reaching out and getting that set up for you then. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_37]: Thank you very much, everyone.
[Jack Buckley]: petition of Hetfi Patel, 564 High Street, hermit parking variance to Sagamore Avenue. Is the petitioner present?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, she is.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome to the Traffic Commission meeting. The floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_26]: So I park on the high street right now. I rent the apartment on 564 high street apartment 2A, but the landlord is not giving us a permission to park in the back garage because it's already full from the other rentals. So I'm scared to park on high street right now because somebody broke our side meters three time and the bumpers too. So I need a permission variance from high street to Sagamore F. Yeah, on the corner house.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, 564 High Street, that's on the corner of High and Boston, correct?
[SPEAKER_26]: Yes, like between the two stores.
[Jack Buckley]: So she will not qualify for the second one. Yeah, so we have corner, the traffic commission has always approved variances for corner houses to park on either side street. In your case, you would be eligible to park either on High Street or Boston Avenue, and you'd have to choose one. Is there a reason why Boston Avenue isn't available to you?
[SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, because we cannot see Boston Avenue. It's on the right-hand side. It's on the thing. And we can face our window from Sagamore Ave. So we can see our cars from our windows.
[Jack Buckley]: OK, so it's just an issue of the ability to see the vehicles as opposed to
[SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, because it's like they broke over side mirror three times I'm scared now to don't see my car over there.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay.
[Unidentified]: Commissioners comments or questions of the petitioner.
[Alicia Hunt]: So was the apartment rented to you with parking or did you know that parking?
[SPEAKER_26]: We did not know that it wasn't like there are parking. After that we know.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's one of the things that we've been working on in Medford is reducing the amount of parking available so that people will rent units that they'll know when they rent their units whether or not there's parking available as part of it. And so, but we don't have any control over what the landlords, the real estate agents say yeah. um do do we have any information from. any of the traffic units about whether there's sufficient parking on Sagamore or Boston. I honestly, I could see that Boston Ave is a much busier street to park on and Sagamore is a quieter side street, but Boston Ave actually has marked parking on it as does High. I'm honestly concerned about the fact that her car is getting hit on High Street. It's just, I mean, we need more traffic calming measures on that street to slow the vehicles down. Um, because that just speaks to the irresponsible driving that we're seeing on our streets.
[Jack Buckley]: Uh, to the traffic commissioner side, I know we've had initial conversations about this. Um, you know, there is plenty of parking on high street. Um, this, uh, petition obviously has had some unfortunate parking there. but we do defer back to the traffic commission rule of a variance is automatic. In this case, it would be automatic from Boston Avenue. So from the traffic department and from the chair, it's an issue. It's not so much an issue of whether or not she can have a variance. She's entitled to one, but by rule it is on Boston Avenue. So the commissioners would need to debate the issue of whether or not she should be allowed to have a variance extended to second one, as opposed to where we've already moved.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I get a thought on this chief. Although I understand that acknowledge the issue with. the fear of a car getting hit. I think that issue needs to be dealt with in a different way than granting a variance for another street. I don't think that is fair as far as process goes for all of the residents. It sets a precedent that I don't think we could support moving on, moving forward. And I think that you know, the residents who park on Sagamore, this sort of setting a precedent is unfair to them as well. So I'm not sure I can support this variance for Sagamore, but you know, I could obviously support the corner lot rule that we already have.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Hunt, any comments before I open it up to the public?
[Alicia Hunt]: And can we just, I actually honestly didn't realize that we had permit parking in that portion of the city. I did see Director Blake had his hand up before we put up the screen share. But I assume there's a confirmation that there's permit parking on Sagamore. I would assume that there's not on Boston Ave. I just I was a little perplexed by that night. I don't have a permit parking map in front of me.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, there is a section of Boston have. It's permit parking off now to correct. Streets. Yeah, it's 7am to 12. New Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday holidays, excuse school. It's the same on Sagamore's is on Boston now. So there is the the permit parking restrictions are the same.
[Todd Blake]: That's a typical time and weekday in the vicinity of the West Medford commuter rail station. The West Medford typically has the 7 to noon if it's anywhere. What I was going to say was in comment to Alicia's comment about traffic coming on High Street, that would help with this merit issue. The city could consider painting shoulders On that stretch of high, I checked the width. It does have the ability to paint shoulders so that the travel lanes are tighted to the yellow line that vehicles traveling hopefully wouldn't hit a parked vehicle. So that's something we could consider. And by narrowing the view of the lanes, it usually tends to have a calming effect as well. But there's other things we consider but that's one. We did it at the high street block near the Brooks school. And if you recall in previous meetings, there were a bunch of mirrors getting hit on that stretch of block as well and the shoulder lines helped with that.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Director Blake.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, I guess I I'm very sympathetic but I'd really like to fix the problem and fix the problem for everybody and not just give like different parking permit because there's my understanding the issue is not that there's not enough parking on high street. Is that correct? Like honestly I use the stores there sometimes and I feel that there's but I couldn't tell you off the top of my head if I was parking in two hour parking or places she could park overnight.
[Jack Buckley]: So I think in one sense, it's very easy to separate the issues. I mean, we have a director of transportation and parking who could work with the Medford Police Traffic Team and review the area, do some studies and come back at a future time. I don't think tonight we're gonna come up with that solution, but as for the petitioner, Again, I think the issue, we should work on the issue first as to whether or not marriage, the established variance should be deviated from, but with the understanding that both the transportation director and the Medford Police Traffic Team can work on making that a safer area.
[Alicia Hunt]: precedent for giving like a temporary variance until we get the, you know, because if the, the answer is because he doesn't need to come back to us to add like the paintings and the markings to delineate it so that it slows traffic down. I guess like I'm sympathetic that there is a problem that's going on right now and I know that the process is it's going to take months before we got stuff painted out there. In the meantime, she's going to continue to have the problem, but one would assume so does everybody else's parking there.
[Jack Buckley]: There is no established precedent. per se, that would work as far as establishing a temporary, the commission could make the variance, establish a variance until, say, the end of December, where in the new calendar year, the petitioner's variance would not be granted anymore. We would have to choose High Street or Boston Ave, as is the rule. I think that's the best on a temporary basis we could probably come up with.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do we, I realized that people, so what let's a lot of people have joined after we had our initial discussion I think we should just reiterate that comments in the chat are not part of the record, the commissioners will not necessarily take any of that into account. if you have trouble for some reason raising your hand or speaking, you can say that in the chat and we can work out a solution. But if you wanted to take public comment or if the petitioner had anything they wanted to add.
[Jack Buckley]: Does the petitioner have something to add before we open the floor to public comment?
[Todd Blake]: You just have to unmute again.
[SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, I did. Not really, but like it's a so busy street, so still getting scared for that car. And I have two cars. One is the new one, so it's so scary to park a new car over there.
[Jack Buckley]: OK, thank you. To the public present, is there anyone who wishes to comment in favor of the matter? We'll go with that direction first.
[Unidentified]: We'll open up the floor so we can see if anyone's here. See, we have two hands up. Kevin, come down here.
[Jack Buckley]: Kevin, we're going to ask you to unmute yourself.
[Unidentified]: OK.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome to the Traffic Commission meeting.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yep, I did. I did have the question of whether the how seeing from the house would help if if the mirror is getting struck by cars that are going by too fast, the odds that you're looking out your window in that two seconds that it takes to get hit in the street is different than if the mirror, if we're worried about, you know, the mirror getting struck on the sidewalk side. I do go, I do walk my dog around that very corner, I live over in Pitcher, And yeah, traffic moves so fast that I would not want to park for any extended period of time in this stretch. But I'd just like to understand better what the actual threat to mirrors comes from.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comment and your participation. Petitioner, You're not required to respond to this, but if you have a comment that you would like the commissioners to consider in response to that question, I'll open it back up to you. Just unmute yourself.
[SPEAKER_26]: Sure. So for that reason, we have a camera of the store so we can see it, who did it. In Boston, we don't have anything to prove that, like who broke the mirror and everything.
[Jack Buckley]: Right. Is there any other public wishing to speak against this matter, this issue? I'll comment further on it. I see a third hand go up. Hi, welcome.
[SPEAKER_23]: Yes, hi. I would just like to agree. I was writing in chat and excuse me for doing that. But this area of High Street from the bridge where we're talking about rotary all the way to the other rotary near the condos is just a raceway. In 1996, a car came up on the sidewalk out of control early in the morning and hit me and I had my right arm rebuilt. I was in a very bad accident. The traffic really needs calming. I think that the woman who spoke originally is so correct on this. Nobody obeys the 25 mile per hour. rule in Medford, and it's ridiculous people have been killed in my parish St. Joe's. A woman was killed a few years ago on high on that area of high street near the church. We've got to do something about this crazy traffic.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments and for your participation and for sharing that experience with us as we consider this I do think. Regardless of how the petition works out, I think there is a directive and an understanding that the police department and the traffic and the engineering department will work together to review this area real soon and get some suggestions put together on this area. Sorry, sorry. Right here, he didn't raise his hand. Right here.
[Unidentified]: Yep, I'm just gonna ask you on mute.
[SPEAKER_41]: Thanks very much. My name is Omri Schwartz. I live on Powder House Terrace, right up the hill from St. Joe's. And I also have to confirm High Street and Winthrop and the rotary between them are areas where it's really easy to just get lead-footed and some well-meaning people do that entirely too often. And it's also where I've seen entirely too much obnoxious, aggressive uh flat-out sociopathic driving uh in particular during rush hour people commuting to Winchester uh and it's this is not their city so they have no respect for the uh those two areas and then there's just a matter of the uh the grade on high street going west from the rotary it's just really steep and so heavier vehicles just have trouble keeping control especially in wet weather um the more we calm the traffic in that general area, the better.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for the comments. I appreciate it. And I love people listening and picking this up. Mr. Bruce. Miss Bruce, sorry.
[SPEAKER_45]: Nope, Mr. Bruce. Hello, I'm a resident of 611 High Street. I regularly walk my, or not my dog, I just, I regularly walk around this block, and I could comment that I believe Sajamore is probably a preferred place for the petitioner to park their car. especially with the bus stop right at the corner of Boston Ave, I believe that that area of the street would be more contested than Sagamore, which I very regularly see as plenty of parking into the evenings and nighttime.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for those comments and insight. Any other comments?
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, somebody said that Anne-Marie Pessatoro was raising her hand. Oh, yes. Anne-Marie has her physical hand or her husband has his hand up.
[Unidentified]: Just unmute yourself.
[SPEAKER_33]: Welcome. This is Anthony. How are you?
[Jack Buckley]: Anthony, how are you? Welcome to the job.
[SPEAKER_33]: Yes, thank you, Chief. A few comments. The lady with the issue of broken mirrors, there's thousands of people that can't see their cars when they're parked. Put your mirrors in, you have two streets to park on. My opinion, the decision is easy. You wanna calm the speeders at the rotary, put stop signs at all entrances. That's it, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your participation and your comments. I'm gonna ask you to unmute yourself.
[Unidentified]: It's using 98.123. You just unmute yourself. Can you unmute yourself? Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome. Hi, how are you? Very good. Yes, my name is Immacula Pierre. I live in 126 Columbia Road. OK, she's the one for us.
[Jack Buckley]: Ah, Immaculia, how are you?
[SPEAKER_03]: OK.
[Jack Buckley]: I'm not going to defer this message. We already took the vote. Thank you for coming here. We went over your issue earlier, and you have been approved for your handicap. We will be reaching out to you in the next day or two to arrange for that, OK?
[SPEAKER_03]: All right. I say thank you very much, because you know, I am a handicapped and I have like a pro artist. Some days it's good, some days it's not. So when I come from to the doctor, there are people always parking on a parking lot, in the front of a parking lot. And then when my daughter or my son or anybody come and help me, and I'm not able to come into the house because I have to walk far. When I come to the house, my legs will hurt. No, that's what I want to know.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. I appreciate your comments on that. And we have resolved the issue for you. And again, separate from this, we'll reach out to you tomorrow or the next day and get that set up for you. All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much. All of you.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Thank you. Have a good night. Appreciate it. New comments. Anyone else?
[Unidentified]: I think Valley, Mr. Valley.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, thank you. I live in South Medford, so I am not particularly familiar with the speed there. But I have to say, as a general comment, that I lived in Cambridge before, and I moved two years ago to Medford. And it's quite striking how the driving habits are different in Medford. People drive much faster in Medford, and I think that's true all over the city. So I think anything that goes in the direction of slowing down, leaving more place for pedestrians would be welcome because the markings are really in the car's favour in general. There are very few marked pedestrian crossings. So I think, just as a general feeling when I compare to Somerville, Cambridge, I think we have room to improve on tempering down the driving.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you very, very much for your comments and participation. Okay, so seeing no further comments, I'm going to turn it back to the commissioners. I will add, because I did see a comment there real briefly, that, yeah, one of the things we are going to do pretty much immediately is do a speed study in a number of sections. We have the technology and equipment to do that, and that's going to be the first time we'll probably get those out there. Now that we have nice weather, we can get that started very soon. So back to the commissioners on the petition of Ms. Patel for a variance to Sagamore Avenue.
[Tim McGivern]: Chief, I can make a motion on this and I'll just state my reasons. I think this issue needs to be addressed in a different way. And I think we need to take a look at it and, you know, I'll ask that Todd to work with your team to see if we can come up with something. And something was already proposed moving the edge line closer to the yellow, for example. Maybe some more longer term measures might be, you know, some other traffic calming measures speed tables or whatnot. And I know that we have tried some. some edgeline work at this kind of complicated intersection here of Grove and Boston and High Street and Sagamore. So, you know, we can refresh that too, I think, or bring that back. So there's some few things to do. I do not want to set the precedent from this commission to grant variances on streets that are not associated with the building and the rules of the traffic commission having to do with corner lots. So with that said, I will move to deny the request.
[Jack Buckley]: OK. On the motion, Commissioner McGiven to deny the request petition, which, just for a point of order to the Commissioner making the motion, which would enable her to get a variance on Boston Ave. That's your understanding, correct? So to deny the petition, enabling the petitioner to receive the automatic variants to Boston Ave, and that would include the Director of Traffic and Transportation along with the Medford Police Department performing traffic calming measures and doing longer term studies and speed table studies in that area. Commissioner Hunt, do I have a second on that or?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I'll second it.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? No. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. A two to one vote. Petition is denied, but that denial does come with the right of the petitioner to an automatic variance to park on Boston Ave and the commitment of this police department and the director of traffic and transportation to look at other methods for making high street much safer avenue of travel and of parking. Miss Patel we will reach out to you again tomorrow to kind of further explain that for you but you are entitled to variance on Boston Ave as it relates to parking. And that should, to some extent, resolve all your issues. But in the long term, we're going to make High Street hopefully safer as we move forward. So I thank you for your participation this evening and your petition. To the commissioners, that is the end of new business. We do have a number of table business with people present this evening. Obviously the big one is gonna be the Winthrop Street bike lanes, but there are two other petitions I'd like to bring to the commissioners attention. First one is 2023-10. It was tabled, I believe, last month, and it might've been two months ago. It's a petition for a handicap parking sign for the Kuna Family 525 Main Street. They are present this evening. So if the commissioner would like to make a motion to take that item off of table business, we can then discuss that matter.
[Tim McGivern]: Motion to take off the table item 2023-10. Second.
[Jack Buckley]: on the motion of Commissioner McGiven, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a quick roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, three nothing approved. 2023-10, Handicap, Hockensein, Renata DeCuna for Thomas Cuna, 525 Main Street. Someone here from the petitioner, we've already seen you present, so I just wanna find you and then ask you to unmute.
[Unidentified]: Raise your hand. We're just here. Where did they go?
[Jack Buckley]: I think the police department is going to have to hire professionals. Or we're just going to have to go in person. This is my preference.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, if you pop up the participants list, it's alphabetical.
[Unidentified]: I'm just going to ask you to unmute yourself. Hi, welcome to the traffic commission meeting.
[Jack Buckley]: Uh, hello. Hello. Would you like to speak about the petition? Your request for a handicap parking sign on five 25 main street.
[Todd Blake]: Just mute it. You just need to unmute yourself again. You just muted it.
[SPEAKER_36]: Yes. Uh-huh. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Alva, is all the paperwork in order? Yes. All the paperwork is order. Do you have, can you tell us a little bit about your reason for your request? Let me ask briefly of the public participants. Does anyone speak Portuguese?
[Unidentified]: Raise your hand. I'll ask you to unmute yourself. Maybe assist. Yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: Hi, you speak Portuguese, could you maybe, I'm worried this might be a language barrier.
[Phil Santos]: I do, I do.
[SPEAKER_36]: Hello, yes, I speak Portuguese.
[SPEAKER_44]: Oi.
[SPEAKER_36]: Oi. Ah, speak to Luciano, I've already found a translator, bye. He was also at the meeting, he was trying to get in because he speaks English, but he's not able to turn off the microphone.
[Phil Santos]: Is there a Luciano on the call?
[SPEAKER_36]: If there is, she says that he can speak for her. I think it's Luciano's iPhone. So if you guys can unmute him, he can speak for her.
[Phil Santos]: All right. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. Luciano, the floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_39]: How can you can you hear me? And we can hear you. Thank you. And welcome. Oh, thank you very much. Let me go outside so we can talk a little bit. Well, I live at two five to five Main Street and Madness. And I wish I do have a pocket spot in the back. but I drive a commercial plate van, and my commercial plate van cannot be out in the street. In the back of the street, it calls Bogue Street. So it was a park permit street, right? In Main Street, we don't have, you know, parking street, whatever, but we can park. But now it's too much cars on that street because the people they street right next to it. They just they live in over there. They have like people they live that they have like five cars and three of the cars they park in the main street. And as right now, we don't have no spot to park. The only spot to park that we have, I have to park the van. Otherwise, I get ticket every day. I tried that at once at Bowie Street. I got locked for two, three days. Other than that, every day, like from A year ago, I pay almost $2,000 just for parking spot because she has to park in the car because they need to go in and out all the time with my son because back then, my son was very sick about it, you know. That's why we need a plate sign for the front of the house, so that way we can park, you know? Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: All right.
[SPEAKER_39]: Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: We have that so far. I'm going to defer to the traffic sergeant. Did you go down to 525 Main Street?
[Souza]: Chief, I did. I believe I spoke to Luciano.
[Jack Buckley]: Again, what he's saying is that his mother is handicapped. There's no way for her to park. He's got to park the commercial plate in the driveway. There is a panic at space, two houses up. But again, it is.
[SPEAKER_39]: Okay, thank you, Sergeant, but I don't lose I just like I say, we don't want to use that hand kept space, because there was a guy in the front of the house, they use them all the time you know they really need as well. So, I want to take that chance to use my, I was called with that and then they come to complain to us, you know. I know both of us need, but it's not fair to get his spot, you know?
[Jack Buckley]: Yep. Okay, Luciano. Let me defer. Let me ask the traffic commissioners for their comments. They may have some further questions for you. To the traffic commissioners. Comments or questions of the petitioner.
[Tim McGivern]: I have a question. The driveway that is right next to it, and Meyer, maybe you might know the answer. Is that a shared driveway between 525 and the next door house?
[Jack Buckley]: Tim, I don't believe so. I brought my wrong notebook, so I don't have my notes. I do not believe that.
[Tim McGivern]: Luciana, is that a shared driveway? I think someone mentioned a driveway. Your commercial plate's got to go in the driveway.
[Unidentified]: Luciana, I just have to unmute.
[SPEAKER_39]: Can you hear me?
[Unidentified]: Yes, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_39]: Okay, the driveway, you're only for me, just for me to use, you're only one spot. We're not sharing with two, two, two, five, two, what do you call, five, five, two, five, five, two, seven. The second floor, you don't share with me. I'm the only one who use, you're only for one car.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. So looking at your property at 525, the driveway to the left, you're saying that is only for one car?
[SPEAKER_39]: One for a car, but it's in the back of the street. It's at the Bow Street. The park is on Bow Street.
[Tim McGivern]: Got it. OK. So the driveway is off of Bow Street. So it looks like the driveway that has a curb cut on Main Street is not yours at all, or not associated with your building.
[SPEAKER_39]: OK.
[Tim McGivern]: And the request is for a handicapped parking space on Main Street?
[SPEAKER_22]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_22]: On the other side.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hunt, comments, questions?
[Alicia Hunt]: No, I guess I'm feeling like a lot of the sort of the same. I was trying to take a look at the image from Bow Street, but there's not a very good look at it from Google Maps to see the parking in the back. It's actually kind of a funny picture today. And again, I wanna make sure that the applicants know that these handicapped spots are not for your private personal use. That's how they often get used. That the neighbor who has a handicapped spot, like their handicapped spot is not for their personal private use either. I realize that sometimes people feel that way when it's directly in front of their house. but all street parking is shared public parking. And we're just confirming you have the medical, that they do have a handicap plate, et cetera. I think we've gotten beyond people applying for handicap spots when they don't actually have handicap plates.
[Jack Buckley]: We've received all the proper paperwork as a placard.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great.
[Jack Buckley]: Confirm that. Let me, is anyone from the public wishing to speak in regards to this petition, either in favor or against?
[Unidentified]: Raise your hand. All right. Seeing none, back to the commissioners.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right. I'm inclined to move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Second. On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve petition 2023-10, seconded by Commissioner McGiven. On the roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Motion is approved. And Luciano, if you could just let them know that we've approved it and we will let them know in the next day or two the procedures to go through and what they will need to do. I thank you and them for their participation and patience tonight.
[SPEAKER_39]: Thank you very much.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. To the commissioners, there's one One last one I want to deal with, this should be really quick. 2023-13 was tabled. That was a, we dealt with a temporary permit parking variance for a traveling nurse. I have resolved that issue on their behalf. There's no further business for the traffic commission at this time to deal with. So if I could just have a motion to remove that from table business as resolved, we could do that probably quickly. So moved.
[Alicia Hunt]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner McGiven to remove 2023-13 from the table of business, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Roll call vote, Alba.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Approve. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Chief Buckley? Three nothing, approve. 2023-13 will be removed as resolved. 2023-17, Winthrop Street bike lanes, phase two. table last month. Do the commissioners want to take this up this evening? I said that with a smile on my face. Of course, that's what everyone's here for.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, should I not have laughed?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, I will leave the motion to remove it from table business.
[Alicia Hunt]: So moved.
[Jack Buckley]: Motion of Commissioner Hunt, seconded by? Second. Commissioner McGibbon, I'll have a quick roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, the petition is approved for a nothing 2023-17, Winthrop Street, Bright Lanes, phase two. Director of Traffic and Transportation, Todd Blake. We will present, I know we have several people have their hands up. We're gonna present this proposal first and then we'll defer to the commissioners for comments and then open it up to public comment.
[Todd Blake]: Hi everyone, my name is Todd Blake. I'm the Director of Traffic and Transportation for the City of Medford. So before you tonight is a continuation of the tabled item is the remarking of Winthrop Street between Lawrence Road and approximately South Street. So it involves the block between Lawrence Road, Winthrop Circle, Winthrop Circle and Mystic Valley Parkway and Mystic Valley Parkway to South Street. So the proposal includes adding bike lanes to that three block stretch. The proposal includes buffer bike lanes predominantly. And it does, the proposal does propose to remove parking, but it does keep parking in several areas. So I just wish to run through the plans really quickly against people who may not have seen them or weren't here last time. So basically up to this blue line, so north of the blue line on the plan, north is kind of to the left of the plan towards the high school. That was already approved at previous meetings, traffic commission meetings. So we're only looking at where my cursor is, the traffic signal at Lawrence Road, south to the right of the page. So this shows a double yellow center line with a bike lane and a buffer a hatched area leading up to the signal where the bus stops are. So in this area, because the bus stops, there may not be as much on-street parking anyways. But as you move to the next block between Lawrence Road and, say, Winthrop Circle, predominantly in the area where Burbank and Badger exists, the American Legion exists, the proposal is to have a bike lane in each direction with a buffer, meaning a hatched area between the bike lane and the travel lane. With the exception of this plan shows approximately seven on-street parking spaces remaining on the east side of the street, what's sometimes referred to as the American Legion side of the street. So in that area, the bike lanes would be maintained or added as well, but they would just lose the buffer, the hatched area between the travel lane and the bike lane. and then it would transition back to a traveling east direction with a bike lane and a buffering east direction and no parking on either side as you get to the right side of the screen, which is the south side. And as you get closer to Winthrop Circle, no parking on either side to have the buffered bike lanes, and then it comes into the area where there's bus stops. As you approach the circle, it becomes the bike lane transitions to a sharrow situation so that to navigate through the circle you would share with vehicles. And then as you move through the circle down Winthrop Street, there's a bike lane on both sides as you approach Mystic Valley Parkway with hatched buffer and no parking on either side of that block. One point about the circle here is it was proposed to eliminate the right turn lane, not the right turn movement, All movements at the circle would still be allowed in every direction. You could go into the circle and take a right. It's just a painted right lane on the bottom of the screen coming from West Medford Square would be removed. And the painted right lane coming from Mystic Valley Parkway to take a right towards Medford Square would be removed. And that would create every approach to Winthrop Circle having only one lane, which slows people down, brings them in a more orderly fashion. reduces the number of lanes a pedestrian has to cross and things like that. As you go down south and approach the Mississippi Valley Parkway signal, which is on the right side of the page, and the condo buildings are on the top of the east side, the top of this page, this plan proposed a buffer bike lane on each side of the street with the same number of travel lanes that exist today, two southbound, one northbound, although northbound, It's a little unclear today because there's no striping, whether it's a very wide one lane or two lanes. As you get close to the circle, it is two lanes where the right turn only is. And as you move over across Mystic Valley Parkway, on the bottom of the screen is the baseball field and on top of the screen is the community garden. So in the future, Eversource owes us a raised crosswalk at the community garden and ball field crosswalk. So that's what's pictured kind of in the center of the screen. This plan preserves the parking on the ball field side, the Veterans Memorial side of the street. So that side doesn't really lose any parking except if someone tries to park in this hatched area to the right side here, opposite south. But the top of the page here does lose parking, so along the community garden side. So there's a few spaces that people might use over the bridge, and there's a couple maybe immediately adjacent to the garden. So we're trying, right now, it's not striped very well there, so we're delineating and defining that there's a right turn lane there and then a through left, and the right turn would be shared with a bike lane. So the bike lane is a standard bike lane that as you approach the signal on Mystic Valley Parkway going northbound, you would share that lane with the right turning vehicles. Right now it kind of acts, most people that drive through there know, regardless of the painting, people kind of use it as two lanes, a through left and a right lane. So we're just formalizing that. So this plan does keep parking, but it loses some on the garden side. So that's a quick overview. One other thing I wanted to share just to explain to folks why So we just got a little graphic here that kind of illustrates, because we got a lot of questions about safety. So this graphic illustrates the relative safety of one option versus another. The top of the screen is a picture of a kind of a standard road in Medford with a traveling in both directions and kind of a usable parking shoulder in both directions. So if you go from that scenario to a standard bike lane scenario, which is a bike lane painted on the side without a buffer, then there's another option to a bike lane with a buffer hatched area that gives a little more separation between the bike and the cars. And then lastly, in the bottom of the sheet is what's called separated bike lanes, which is a bike lane with a hatched buffer area to the cars, but also a vertical element such as a flex post. So this is just on the right hand side, this black arrow says less safe, more safe for cyclists. So this is just generally, I don't like to use the word safe and unsafe. It's as compared to one another. So as you move down the sheet to the more treatments, it's more safe. And then as you move up the sheet, it could be considered less safe in comparison to the other options. So this is kind of, We're starting at the top here on Winter Street. And the proposal for the most part is the bottom of this sheet. So that kind of gives a little overview of why we're doing this sort of thing. And there's also complete streets policy, which says that every time the city touches a road, repaves the road, repaints it, we should take a fresh look at all modes and not just cars. And this lends itself to some of the early conversations that people had regarding some of the other agenda items on High Street. where by painting lanes tighter, it lends itself to calming traffic. Right now, if you drive down Winthrop Street, the yellow is in the center and there's no other markings. So it appears like a 19, 20-foot wide travel lane when nobody is consistently parked in the parking shoulders. So by painting the shoulders either with the parking shoulder or a bike lane, it gives, it narrows the travel lane, defines it, and helps calm the traffic a little bit. So just wanted to share that with folks to get a little background of why we're doing the things we're doing. And it does have also sustainability and environmental impacts if we could get more people using person-powered things versus vehicles that use gas. And it's a better use of our overall infrastructure versus just allowing curb-to-curb space for cars that drive and cars that park. And we do also, we did collect parking data for the residents and the commission's use. So I'll briefly share that as well because we do get a lot of, we've got a lot of feedback since last time and we understand there are concerns and, you know, this, it's, you know, we value those concerns, but we do want to let you know that we did collect data at several different dates. along those stretches of roadway, and it did indicate, you know, lower than average use of the parking there in terms of the number of available spaces and the number being utilized. So we're welcome to share this with anyone, but quickly going through it, each block, each direction, various times a day, various days of the week, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday, midday, evening, It doesn't appear that any stretch is more than 50% utilized. In fact, most of them are 10, 10 is 20% range. The highest usage was obviously during a ball game. That's increased. And then there's an event obviously, it's a special event. But for the most part, the typical scenario is not much usage. The highest block consistently with usage was the Condo the block between the circle in the single mystic Valley Parkway on the right hand side. That did consistently have five to 10 vehicles parking there, but otherwise it's pretty sporadic and we're trying to use the city infrastructure as best we can for all users. So. Chief, I think that's a good rundown. I don't want to take away more time from the community having a chance to speak.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, and I'm going to first go to the commissioners, but I have one question. And it seems I wasn't present last month on the first presentation, but I have looked at this and reviewed it. But the impact here, Todd, is on parking as well as bike lanes. But can you give just a quick comment on what the loss of parking is so it's clear up front?
[Unidentified]: You're muted, Todd.
[Todd Blake]: The overall number I have to get back to you once we start listening, I'll give you a number, because I do have the proposed what was proposed to be remaining. So the overall remaining in this current proposal would be 24 to 25 spaces. So 17 to 18 in the block near the near the ball field so the southern block. And seven in the Lawrence Road to circle block and zero in the circle to the 16 block is what's proposed. So I don't, yeah, I'll tell you the number from those spreadsheets and give it to you while we await the public comment, but I'll get right back to you with that, Chief.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, thank you, Director Blake. Commissioner McGibbon, Commissioner Hunt, I'll refer to you first before we open it up.
[Tim McGivern]: Sure. Thank you, Todd. So just a couple of things that I brought up last time, similar concerns or just, you know, I'll bring them up again. I do have concerns with eliminating the right turn slip lane from high street to Winthrop at the circle. So I know that that is, you know, relatively high traffic count there going through there. So does that fall under the regulatory approval because it's a number of lanes?
[Todd Blake]: I believe so, yes. And we did take that feedback in from last time. And I look to see what the plan would look like if we kept that right turn lane and we can make it work.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. OK. And then my second concern, which I didn't didn't bring up last time, but. It's fresh in my mind now, we talked a little bit about the garden last time and access to the garden, and I believe the response was keeping the spaces on the south side I'm sorry, not this is that the south side, it would be the West side on the ball field side of the block as parks on either side. But it, you know, one thing that I do know is that when gardeners park there, they have beds that are accessible for disabled folks. So I think we talked about how raising the crossing and keeping those spaces allowed maybe even better access and we weren't even sure if those spaces were legit. But I'm wondering if, if that if we're causing any issues with access to the garden in this plan, as far as disabled access to the garden goes.
[Todd Blake]: So yeah, with the improvements that the city already made there for that crosswalk between the community garden and the ball field, and then the improvements that we expect as a result of the Everswiss MOU to get a raised crosswalk there, hopefully, you know, maybe we'll add a flashing element By doing those things, it will enable whoever is visiting the garden to be able to cross the street much more safely than they would be able to now. And if they didn't want to cross the street, they could potentially use the Cunninshall parking lot, which obviously is admittedly a little further away, but it's definitely still within less than a five-minute walking distance. So hopefully that addressed your questions. As said, the crosswalk itself is being drastically improved, so we think that will help with the patrons that need a park near the garden.
[Tim McGivern]: Maybe there's an option to put a handicapped space closest to the raised crossing. That's a great idea, yeah. And then I know I also brought up we're saving spaces for the American Legion area, making sure that we're sort of treating everybody the same here and not necessarily giving the American Legion special treatment. I understand the concern with loss of parking. And I know we're probably gonna hear from the public on this, but just curious if you happen to look into any more of that issue in regards to, you know, if that is a, Is that, did that come from the American Legion themselves? Did it come from somewhere else or was it just trying to be thoughtful in the design of the system here?
[Todd Blake]: I think it was all three of those. So we had heard comments from others, not necessarily associated with the Legion in terms of hierarchy and what their usage may be. We've since heard from the Legion itself and other representatives representing the Legion. And, yeah, and also just being cognizant of the general overall usage and, you know, anecdotally and data-wise what we know to be true. So, yeah, so in receiving, do you have a question about the fairness to which block? So there were a lot of comments about whether or not the parking, if we do keep parking, it should be on the even side. versus the odd side, or the west side versus the east, even slash west versus odd slash east. So I looked at several options to try to respond to folks' feedback in terms of parking and where it should be, which side, and took some measurements. And it looks like there may be options to spread that out a little bit, but there would be trade-offs. So, for instance, you can keep a bike lane but you might lose the patch buffer to in order to accommodate some more parking. So, yeah, I do I do have draft plans if you want to see that.
[Tim McGivern]: Well, yeah, let's, you know, to the other commissioners and, you know, let's see how the chief wants to do this.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I am have had the opportunity to look at this some more I had the opportunity to talk to a disability advocate who had experience with. the divider polls in another community not near here, but actually I spoke with Todd to get a better understanding of what we were looking at for polls. And I also had the opportunity to speak to some youth who've been biking in the whole region about the pros and cons of, because for me, one of the big things I would like to make things safer for all bicyclists in Medford but we really have an issue with people driving their children to the high school. Children who could be biking and it's good and I just to be clear I have children who biked to the high school for two years pre-pandemic and I have another one coming up and having bike lanes makes, I have been finding from the youth I've spoken to, makes a huge difference that the protected bike lanes are nice, but that it's the bike lanes, the painted clear where the students are. And actually they talked to me about the green markings in conflict zones to help make things more clear where things were a little dangerous was also something that, was pointed out to me by youth who bicycle in the region. So I just, I kind of wanted to say I've been looking into that. I was pretty comfortable with what was proposed in the first block near the gardens and the baseball field. that we need to keep parking on one side there, but that is a very, very dangerous stretch. That is where people have been hitting crosswalks. That's a tough place and that is, in my mind, the most important place to have the raised crosswalk. And the protected bike lanes, so that cars don't cheat and park in the bike lane, because it'll only be five minutes and then you have a bicyclist swerving into traffic there. I feel like that is our most dangerous section. I'm a little conflicted about the part with the condos because I do believe that our apartments should be providing parking for off street. We did actually do some research in my office to see what this building was zoned and permitted with. We were able to find that it was built in 1979 and we were not able to find the zoning files from that particular building. or the minutes from the meetings for the entire year that that building was permitted, although we have minutes predating that by a good shot as well. So that was interesting. I echo a lot of what Tim said. I particularly, I just, the thought around the lane from High Street onto Winthrop, My desire is not that people should be able to go fast and cut that corner, but what we've been observing during rush hour is that actually vehicles park back all the way up from mystic gap through that on to high street, and then there's a line of vehicles on high street waiting to turn right. And without a separate lane for them to queue in, they would actually block up all traffic from High Street trying to access the rest of High and Winthrop. And that is actually more concerning to me. So it's not giving priority to those vehicles trying to turn, but rather give them a place to wait. I spoke with Todd about what are our options to improve the intersection down at at Mystic Valley Parkway so that cars didn't get backed up quite so badly. And that is, as I am very well aware, a bigger issue that needs to be worked through with DCR and MassDOT because there are bigger issues down there and we do not have the ability to just fix that problem. So my concern there is providing, I don't wanna back up all of High Street because people can't get onto Mystic Valley Parkway. I know that we've been hearing from a lot of residents. I have a very full email box as well from comments from residents as well. I've seen the petitions. Well, I've seen both from the neighborhood and one from the condo buildings. as well. I do think this is perhaps the right time to reiterate that comments in the chat are not part of the record. We're not reading that, and I would prefer that people don't get into a back and forth in the chat, because we need that space for if somebody is unable to unmute themselves, is unable to speak, then they should be able to tell us that and provide information. because that would be a reason that we could read somebody's comments out because they didn't have the ability to speak or figure out the mechanisms. So I just talked a lot and I will leave it at that.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Commissioner Hunt.
[Todd Blake]: Chief, I have the parking numbers for you that you asked for.
[Jack Buckley]: Give me the parking numbers and I have one actually basic question again. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. He-Him. He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him.
[Todd Blake]: The northernmost block was 12%, the middle block was 23%, and the river was 11%. Just to give a little context, because it sounds more drastic than it is, I think. If we count up what spaces people can use, including the west side of winter opposite the condos, and we know that nobody ever parks there, but it's technically not restricted by signs. So there's, in the three blocks, there's a total of 115 parking spaces that's available for use, that's not restricted. So that's 55 in the northern block, which is the Lawrence Road signal to the circle, 28 in the middle block, where the condos are, and 32 in the southern block near the ball field. So the proposal that's currently proposed would eliminate 79% of the available parking space and retain 21%. But again, that's why I said, it sounds drastic, but the utilization, it matches quite, quite accurately with the utilization. So even though it's a drastic reduction in non-restricted spaces, based on what's utilized, based on the data we collected, it seems to more appropriately match the demand. So basically seven, we're keeping seven out of 55 spaces in the Northern Block, zero out of 28 in the Middle Block, and 17 out of 32 in the Southern Block.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, thank you for those numbers. Okay, I'm gonna open it up to public comment. I ask you to be brief, concise. I'm gonna limit comments to one minute. We have 23 members who have hands up, and I wanna make sure everyone has a fair opportunity to speak. Generally, there is no exceptions extended to the public as we speak. But I do see, I have Councilor Caraviello present as well as... Well, let's start with- Councilor Scarpelli is actually the first one in line, the Zoom. I didn't know if I saw him again. I thought he was on and then he dropped off. That's why I hesitated there. So Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Caraviello, you both have a meeting to attend, so I'm gonna allow you to speak first, but Councilor Scarpelli, the floor is yours.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Chief, and thank you for the commission to have us this evening. I think that one thing that I think you mentioned earlier that I'll be bringing up as a council that I think it's time to move away from Zoom with some of these important meetings and be in person. That's very difficult to have a meeting like this with without the uh on zoom for some people so that's something that i want to bring forth but i on this issue um one i appreciate that uh it was tabled but i think that um received a lot of phone calls that put a resolution on the agenda last week to discuss this and um had a lot of neighbors contacting me chief a lot of um residents that have lived there for a long time that make Winthrop Street, especially from from Lawrence Lawrence Road all the way to the satellites on. near the ball field that it's it's that I'd really I don't think tells the truth about this area. One concern with a lot of the neighbors are a lot of our neighbors in the area are senior citizens and a lot of these houses are shared driveways. So having the opportunity to even park out front for a half an hour or move your car for a bit while people are your neighbors are traversing through their driveways because of the shared situation that they've had for years, I think poses a huge problem. I understand the safety concerns and I think that Medford has done a great job with making sure that our bicyclists are safe and we're moving to that stack. But I think this area specifically, There are a lot of issues that really haven't been listened to or haven't been having been data has been collected at the proper time. The American Legion being probably one of the biggest things that is a very important. uh community area that house a lot of our uh veterans and and the the the biggest piece of their income probably the only piece of the income the only way they stay open is through events and having the parking on both sides of the streets are vital on the nights that they rent their facility so it seven parts parking spots out front sound good But it would eliminate it would ruin their business, and the legion would be closed another factor that's very important with the closing of the voting area in different spots we've we've had the opportunity to move everything over to the American Legion. not having limited parking in that area during election seasons would be very difficult for our community. And I think that as you traverse further down, even the condominium complex, you realize you're affecting the people's quality of life. And I understand we support the safe routes and we support bicycles for the families in Medford, but sometimes there are spaces that we have to find other avenues. to support their endeavors. I think taking up parking spaces Um, with the data that was given Todd, I appreciate your hard work and I don't, I don't discard those, those, that data, but I think it doesn't tell the truth, especially when you're talking about the neighbors that share their driveways that come out for 10 or 15 minutes or, you know, um, or the American Legion that hosts hundreds of people for events that keep their business alive. Um, and again, I think that, um, Looking at the situation, I think we really have to ask the people, the stakeholders, because I tell you, Chief, what I've been told was we haven't had much communication with those neighbors. Although they have surveys and there are information going out, but it seems to be going out to one demographic. It's really not hitting the people that are truly involved in this. And if you talk to most of the neighbors that are probably not tonight, the only reason why they know this is because we had neighbors that contacted us that heard that we put this on the resolution and came to the city council meeting and started a grassroots and door knocking campaign. So I also think that I love compromise. But I think unfortunately for the ramifications both the American Legion and the neighbors. I think it's disingenuous to try to have a compromise that we eliminate on one side but not the other. It really doesn't help. It doesn't help these big issues which are the American Legion survival and the neighbors, especially the neighbors from the Rotary to Lawrence Road that have reached out to me that share their driveways. It would be a devastating loss for them because a little different than High Street, you know, the High Street was a federal grant. It was really pushed on people that really couldn't speak. There's parking on one side of High Street. So, but on this side, and with this situation I think we really need to slow down a little bit, and really listen to our constituents and understand the impact it makes on the quality of life for everybody that lives on on winter street so again, I know I went over the minute I apologize and I appreciate it. It's all the commission. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Maybe look back console but thank you for your participation in your comments.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Chief, and I thank you for letting George and I skip up to the front of the line there. A lot of good points were made this evening, and I respect the people who ride bikes and safety, but You know, as we keep adding these traffic calming measures, we're creating traffic nightmares, especially at that circle. I mean, anybody who lives in that area in the morning, you know, in the morning and in the afternoon rush hour, it's become a nightmare. In the morning, the traffic is backing up to the high school, backing down to the train station and to the school in West Medford. And on High Street, it's backing up into the square. So, you know, we've had calm stuff. the nightmare that we've created is a lot worse. So, Todd, you mentioned that, you know, we're taking 79% of the parking spaces away, correct? In that area?
[Todd Blake]: Correct.
[Richard Caraviello]: Technically, yes. Well, and I looked at the data that you showed me. You're doing studies on Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, go by there at night when people are at home after work at 8, 9, 10 o'clock. that's stretched by the condo, there's not a parking space to be had there. I mean, I don't know what y'all people are looking at, but that's jammed over there at night. And the Legion Inn, as Councilor Scarpelli mentioned, there's nowhere for them to park now when visitors come, other than going onto Badger Road, which is a private way, which opens up another can of worms for us. So I think more, More work needs to be done on this before this is approved, because the bulk of the people that live there are seniors that live in the condos and live in those houses. So I think more work needs to be done. And I think we need to work more on that Winter Street Circle, because it is a logistical nightmare. People forget that we have 500,000 rideshare cars on our roads in Medford every year. 500,000, because we get paid for about 250,000. So those people are all coming back to Medford who take the ride shares out. And also these ride shares are cutting through. They're going to Arlington. They're going to Somerville. They're going to Winchester. So that all has to be taken into consideration here. There's a lot of cars on the road that don't belong to Medford residents with inexperienced drivers who don't know the roads. So again, I thank everyone for taking the time for this, but I do think we need to take more time to look at the winter street area, the circle, before we move on any further. Thank you, and I hope I didn't take up more than a minute.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. I do appreciate your comments and your participation in this process. OK, so let's open it up to public comment. Again, I am going to limit it to one minute. please help us out, as now we've doubled the amount of people who want to speak. I want to try to allow everyone the ability to speak and give their opinions and their positions. I ask that you state initially if you're for the petition or against the petition, and then have your one minute of comment. And let's see if we can get through this civilly. There is really no room. I'm just going to go through my screen. And Amanda, we're going to ask you to unmute yourself, and we'll just run through this.
[Todd Blake]: Chief, I think I see another Councilor in the crowd. I don't know if you wanted to bump them up.
[Alicia Hunt]: Councilor Bears asked if he could speak, but he... We don't see him.
[Unidentified]: He's on my page two or... There he is.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, Councilor Bears you move to the front of the line, only because you have a meeting to attend this evening we give no preference this evening, but welcome and your comments, please.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Chief. I'll keep it to a minute. I just want to number one, I think the traffic commission or traffic department for putting together this plan and working with ever source. I can respect everyone's request for reasonable accommodations here. And I think From what I've heard from the traffic commission tonight and our director of traffic and transportation. There's a clear willingness to make some adjustments to the plan to address the facts as they come up but I also just want to be really direct here and say that I understand that there are changes here that may inconvenience people may inconvenience residents and property owners, but Again, I know firsthand and we all know firsthand of very serious traffic incidents on the street that have led to serious injury. And I think that these changes, while I understand that not everyone in the area is fully supportive of them now, will by and large lead to improvements in the safety for all people involved. When someone is injured, when a pedestrian or a bicyclist is injured, or worse, God forbid. Certainly, that is a horrific thing for that person and their family. It's also a horrific thing for the drivers and the car traffic involved as well. And I just want to put that out there, that protecting people's lives and protecting them from serious bodily harm needs to be our priority. So thank you for taking the time and taking me out of order.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Counsel Beers, both for your comments and your participation. OK, let's head back to page one. Ahmad, we're going to ask you to unmute yourself. state your position for or against the petition and your one minute is yours.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak. I am against the bike lanes. My name is Robert Miller. I am the finance officer of the American Legion. As we greatly appreciate the seven spots that you guys are looking to impose, we have a lot of people that do park on the street and those spots will be occupied you know, prior to us having functions. A lot of our functions are Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays, and I feel as though the study that was done may not show, you know, when we have those functions. And like Councilman Scarpelli and and Caraviello said, you know, we donate a lot to the community and our lifeline is the hall and the hall rentals and And also, you know, our donations come from those rentals. We also have, you know, union meetings there. We have all sorts of city events there and a polling station. So I emailed all of you, you know, my whole speech of what I was going to say, but I just want to let you guys know that it would greatly impact us. And ultimately it would cause us to have to close because of the lack of parking for our functions. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments.
[Unidentified]: Lucia and the law.
[Milva McDonald]: Hello.
[Unidentified]: Hello. Yes, we can hear you.
[SPEAKER_58]: Thank you. My name is Lucia Anzalone. I am against the bike lanes. I have been a Medford resident since I was born. I lived on Essex Street right off High Street, so right at the Rotary, and now live on 235 Winthrop at the Regal. I recently bought a condo here and we are given one spot. when you do live in this condo, but we do utilize the spaces in front of the complex for not only guests, but like service workers. This is predominantly elderly in this building. And so people do have nurses or, you know, visiting nurses come by and park there. And so I don't really, I don't understand where anyone is supposed to park other than in front of the complex. If we have to go on High Street, that's used by people that live on, or is it Lawrence Road might be Lawrence Road. I think it's the Regency uses the parking space there for guests. And then also people that have shared parking spots on the opposite side of that street also use those parking spots. And there's a church there as well that I know has a driveway in the back parking lot. But I just feel like we don't have, if you have to have someone park all the way at the baseball field, to come visit me or to come to the building at the Regal, I think that's completely uncalled for. Because we don't have any space. If you come into the parking area here, it's completely tight. There's no open availability except a fire lane.
[Jack Buckley]: Much appreciate your comment. We're going to try to, again, keep ourselves in line. Thank you for your participation. Jared Powell, please. State your position. And the floor is yours for a minute.
[Jared Powell]: Thank you. My name is Jerry Powell, I'm for the petition, I would eat to Brookings Street, I'm the vice chair of the Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission. I do walk, ride and drive in Medford so I have a broad perspective here, but I strongly support the city's plan to make Winthrop's safer at public events and via outreach. People literally beg us to make the roads safer on the commission. They describe all the roads they want to use, but frankly are rightfully afraid to do so. And Winthrop is absolutely one of those. The current road design implicitly encourages very fast driving. We have a large amount of parking that's underutilized on a day-to-day basis, really wide travel lanes so that yields good sight lines where people feel like they can drive very fast. So people frankly are scared to ride their bikes, they're scared to cross the street here. I think that we need to narrow the roads, as this plan would do, and impose some traffic calming measures to make the actual travel speeds match the posted speed limit, which is 25 miles an hour here which is not what most people are driving. Just the other day right off of Winthrop I was screamed at with my wife by someone driving by an SUV. I think we need to have road, road designs that prioritize calm driving, and we should follow design principles that encourage that Ellery Klein has been working with the high school at walk Medford. to come up with a statistically robust survey that described how a huge portion of the high school students there would like to ride their bikes to school but they are scared to. Just imagine the impact on traffic if we could get some of these kids out of cars that are being driven up and down Winthrop multiple times every day. Route 16 is also a very popular route for cut through commuter traffic. If we slow down the road there, we make that a much less appealing high-speed route. We allow the roads to actually better serve the people who live in the neighborhood rather than cut through commuters. I look forward to this route being much safer. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. I appreciate your comments and participation. Please try to keep your comments brief. I know we have a number of people and they keep including and we have to get through this meeting with some sense of time in life, but thank you very much. Next user named Caroline Sarami.
[SPEAKER_64]: Yes, thank you, Chief. And my name is Jay Charami, and I'm a resident at 360 Winthrop Street, and I am against the proposal. And I've been talking to my neighbors a lot about this. And not one person has said that they're against bike lanes. I think we're all for bike lanes. We applaud the city's efforts to add bike lanes. And I think the issues that we run into are the parking and putting up pylons and other things like that. Um, it's a very residential street. It's a busy street, but it's a residential street. I drove Arlington last night. They have bike lanes on Mass Avenue, which is not a residential street. It's really a commercial street, and they don't have pylons, and they haven't taken away their parking. So just wanted to talk a lot about how important it is the parking is important here. One of the committee members mentioned earlier, and asked a question of a resident about whether they knew that the parking was limited in the neighborhood before they went there. And the answer was that they didn't know. Well, we all know that we do have parking here before we rented our own here. And this is a big change. And I think all of these interests have to be balanced as far as whether you're taking parking away from people that bought homes and decided to sign rental agreements when they had parking, the Legion, You know, all the residences at the condominiums, you know, I applaud the ballparks and I applaud what's being done at Victory. And, you know, all of those are great things, but I think we're not taking into consideration the residents. And I will add another comment that I think was already said is, you know, all these efforts to calm traffic, everybody would like calmer traffic, but I live in this neighborhood and I know that some of the efforts have actually increased the traffic, which makes things more difficult in the neighborhood and not better in the neighborhood. And I thank you all very much for your time.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments. I believe Councilor Collins has joined. Councilor Collins, I know, again, because of the City Council meeting this evening, do you wish to speak so that you can move forward? Councilor Collins, the floor is yours. We are asking speakers to whether or not they are for or against the petition, and we're trying to limit speakers to approximately a minute, but I've been up and doing a good job getting better. Welcome, and the floor is yours.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you so much, Chief Buckley. I really appreciate your deference and allowing me to speak before the City Council meeting. I'll keep this very brief. I really appreciate the Traffic Commission Taking up this issue, I think it is both obviously demonstrably a really controversial one, a complicated one, but an important one. In this city, I drive a vehicle, I'm a pedestrian and I'm a cyclist. I like to think that I kind of directly experience all sides of this issue. And in addition, I've heard from a lot of people who drive and walk and bike along Winthrop Street. We know empirically that bike lanes save lives. That is, you know, you don't even need to define the importance of that. I know that removing parking to put up a dedicated bike lane along Winthrop street requires some residents to make a sacrifice. I think that is really heard. It is really appreciated. It's something we need to be really sensitive around and try to accommodate where we can. But the issue here is one of extending road safety to all road users. And we know that the bike lanes save lives and make our roads traversable for all users. So I'm in favor of the petition. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Council calls. Thank you for your participation in comments.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, before you call on the next commenter, I am aware, I believe that Todd mentioned that there are some options that include bike lanes and parking. And I would actually be interested to get some of the commentary on that option. as opposed to just thinking that the option in front of us is an up-down all or nothing, because we know that we could actually accept pieces of this and not others. And I'm wondering if it would be helpful to be considering some of the options or to see what it would look like with preserving the parking in the stretch by the condos and then having the commenters, possible if they're willing to comment on that option, because that is an option with both on the table.
[Jack Buckley]: Director Blake, question for you. Is there a modified plan, a secondary plan that would resolve many of the issues of parking? I do believe, at least we've only heard from some of the public and some people are saying that they are in favor parking. And I will say from the chair, four and a half years as chief of police and I've heard we have issues of safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, bicyclists in the city that we have to improve on, but more equally as important is preserving parking in the city. And I have a great concern from as a police chief separate from chair of the traffic commission preserving some We are very limited. So is there a plan out there that you could present that has a modification to this?
[Todd Blake]: Yes. Yes, I have a backup plan that does preserve bike lanes in each direction, north and south. The trade off is that to preserve parking on essentially a full side or half and half, you lose the buffer component of the bike lane. CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His): So I did confirm because I needed to draw to confirm that I could answer the question whether it can fit that or not, if people asked, so I did prepare a plan, so I could show that now if you'd like.
[Jack Buckley]: CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His.: : So I do think I want to get. CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His.: : Receiving all night with this meeting as a. CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His.: : A. CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His.: : parking for pipelines. HAB-Michael Leccesereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
[Todd Blake]: The first sheet is essentially the same because due to the bus stops in the region, so it would be a bike lane with a buffer that shares that goes through the bus lane or the bus stop. But on the next sheet, this option, this kind of a la carte option, there were a lot of petitioners that argued for the parking to remain on the even side, which is on the bottom side of the sheet, the west side. versus the top or odd side. This particular plan shows half and half. So this would restore nine parking spaces on the west or bottom of the sheet opposite Badger and Burbank, and it would keep nine parking spaces on the American Legion side in the vicinity of American Legion with a shifting of the travel lanes in between the two so you lose If you were to preserve parking on the east side or the top of the screen, you wouldn't get as many spaces due to Burbank and Badger being present. So this plan versus the original, instead of seven spaces in this block, it would have 18 parking spaces, half and half in this particular plan. I think if it was all on the odd side, we wouldn't have as many. If it's all on the even, you might get a little more. but this preserves bike lane east direction, it just loses the buffer component. As you approach the circle, it's still the same with nothing directly in front of one of the nursing home driveways and opposite it because the bus stops. The circle itself, this particular plan restores the right lane from West Medford Square to Mystic Valley Parkway. On High Street, that heavy right turn, especially in the morning, that would be restored and preserved. And then going down Winthrop Street towards Mystic Valley Park, where there'd be two Q lanes, as there are today, all the way back to the circle, because we know that that Q does extend that long, not more. So this particular plan would still remove the right turn going northbound from Winthrop to Medford Square, because the volume of people taking that right is proportionally less. The one that we restored on High Street in this particular plan was much heavier. In fact, it was heavier than the through movement, whereas on the Winthrop Street, that right turn to Medford Square is not as heavy. On that block, we restored parking on the entire east side, which is a condo building side. By removing that right turn to Medford Square, you actually gain a couple of parking spaces as compared to today. includes about 17 parking spaces on the east or top of the page side. You'd keep a bike lane in both directions, you just lose the buffer, that's the sacrifice here.
[Unidentified]: And then the southern, just lost my ability to share here, the southern portion remains essentially unchanged in terms of parking. PB, Harmon Zuckerman.
[Jack Buckley]: PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him.
[Todd Blake]: PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. Somewhat evenly spread out, it would keep 18 spaces in the northern block, 17 in the central block, and 17 to 18 in the southern block. So it'd be very evenly spread out versus the original plan with seven in the northern, zero in the middle, and 17 in the south. So thank you, Alicia, for mentioning that because it may be, it may appeal some and it may offer some response to some of the community concerns. but still provide improvement upon existing conditions.
[Alicia Hunt]: Much needed. I don't wanna prevent anybody from making the comments they wanna make, but I do think it would be helpful to us to hear sort of, given this option, I would just, I'm not in favor of an option that has no bike lanes at all, and I don't think we need to go there. I think there's an option with bike lanes here that we can come to a decision on. I also wanna make it clear that we don't have to take 100% one and 100% the other. We could take sections from each. and put them together. Todd, I don't know what if the other commissioners have, but we could speak to page numbers if necessary to identify sections of the plan. But I'll shut up now. I wanna hear from the public, but I just wanted to have them have this option to comment on too.
[Todd Blake]: Definitely, we can go by page number or the blocks essentially.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Commissioner Hunt, Director Blake. Go back to page one. BDN Fairchild, we'll ask you to unmute and state your position, and please try to limit your comments to a minute.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: All right. Hi, BDN Fairchild, also a member of the Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission, speaking in favor of the petition. Just a few things. It's really great to have those buffered bike lanes. We have a four-foot passing distance for vulnerable road users in the state now. It's basically impossible to give that with a lane that doesn't have a buffer. And I'm regularly passed by motorists who buzz by me with maybe a foot of clearance in those sort of unseparated bike lanes. Winthrop is very dangerous now. We really need these bike lanes and we need them to have the buffer and eliminate as much parking as we can really. Eliminating the turn lanes also help. We just need to make Mefford not an appealing place for people who don't live here and are just driving through. And let's see, Powderhouse Circle originally had a one lane per entrance redesign, and it's a lot better for it. Finally, just addressing Councilor Scarapelli said, Zoom makes this meeting more accessible for many people. I think a lot of people, there are a lot of people here. I doubt the Traffic Commission would have 100 people showing up on a given night if it weren't for this. This helps. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Thank you for your comments and your participation. This is not the debate on the zoom meeting even though I'm the one who probably brought this up today. So I recognize that. Mr. Santos, I ask you to unmute, ask you to state your position and your one minute of comment.
[Phil Santos]: Thank you. I'm in favor of the bike lanes being added and somebody made a comment about buffer zones in the chat related to can we swap the parking and the second option that that Todd presented could we possibly swap the parking the bike lane so that the parking is the buffer for the bike lanes I think that would make it. a little safer if that's doable. And if not, I think I prefer to keep the buffers and actually eliminate the parking for the Legion in favor of putting the parking for the residents of Winthrop Street. Legion events are maybe, what, a few times a month. They have a whole paved area along around that building. It is plenty of parking for that. And then they, in addition, people can park in the neighborhoods You know, people talk in doom and gloom that the legion is going to close if we eliminate the parking on the street is just silliness to me. And then the other thing I agree with with Alicia she mentioned the right turn lane on high street unfortunately that is needed because of the high level of cars that drive down that road heading towards mystic Valley Parkway I think that a study of that light at mystic Valley Parkway is necessary and if there's. people that the public should be reaching out to at DCR or whoever controls that signal, please let us know because I'm more than happy to reach out to them and try to get something. Because ever since we did the South Street entrance into the Mystic Valley Parkway, they can't do that anymore, which is fine. I think that was a big problematic area for accidents. A lot of people used to use that road. Now everybody's piling up on this Mystic Valley Parkway traffic light causing and a lot of backup that goes down the high street. You can see it every morning if you take your kids to school to the Brooks or wherever they may go in the neighborhood.
[Jack Buckley]: I appreciate your comments and your participation. Flores Valley, you're next. Unmute, please. Your position and your comments.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, Boris Vallée, I'm a resident and homeowner in South Medford. So I just want to stress that if we were to calculate the share of public space that is dedicated only to car and the share of public space that is dedicated to bicycles or pedestrians in Medford, the number would be staggeringly in favor of cars. And so when we compare to other borough cities that still have, I think, progress to be made, we are clearly lagging in terms of space for bikes and for pedestrians. So I think safety is really a central argument here. I am in favor of the bike lanes, in case you wonder. But there is not only the safety. I mean, safety is obviously central to this project. But I think it's a much deeper project. It's thinking about a different type of city that is much more vibrant and much more pleasant to live than one that is made of parking and buzzing cars. So when we think about what makes a city vibrant, it is not parking lot. I am sorry to say that. And I'm actually an economist. And when you look at actual research, looking at data, giving more place to bikes on PaceCamp, it is very good for business. It is always very good for business because guess what? People like more to come. And so that's good for everyone. So the argument on businesses, I think, are very limited. Of course, there is some businesses like gas stations that are not going to be positively impacted. But most businesses are going to be positively impacted. And again, I think this is about having a different project. And just one thing, I would just encourage everyone on this call to bike in Medford. Just try it. I drive as well. So I know the driving part. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: I appreciate your comments, sir, and for your participation this evening. We're moving on to a user named Claire Sheridan.
[Clare Sheridan]: Hi. Right now it's dangerous for a pedestrian to cross mystic Valley Parkway I've almost been hit by a car making a right hand turn off the parkway, and I refuse to cross at the winter traffic circle, it is extremely dangerous. I'm not opposed to bicycle lanes, but I think it will be very dangerous for bicycles going back and forth on Winthrop Street. You've got to come up with an alternative. I offered a solution, send the bicycles along Veterans Memorial Parkway up to Whole Foods, let them cross there, go through the side streets like Auburn Street, and they'll come out onto High Street. just find an alternative because I can assure you, bicyclists will be killed on Winthrop Street. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your participation and your comments. Next user name, John G. Am I unmuted? You are unmuted, welcome. Take your position and your comments, please.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you, Chief. My name is John Guarnara. I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Medford, and I reside at 130 South Street in Medford, which is directly on the route at the intersection of 12th Street and South Street. However, at this point, I'd like to talk about my position with the American Legion. I'm president of the corporation that owns the building that is occupied by the American Legion. When our function hall is being utilized, generally parking on both sides of Winthrop Street can extend to a badge road from Winthrop Circle. If we are unable to utilize our function hall due to the city creating bike lanes, thus denying our patrons the opportunity to park on Winthrop Street, the American Legion will suffer severe financial stress. The American Legion is and has been a good member of the Metro community since 1919. and in our present location for approximately 80 years. In addition to creating a severe financial hardship, the creation of the bike lanes on that stretch of Winthrop Street may very well create a substantial safety issue to the users of bike lanes. The amount of traffic on that road is very substantial. That peaks a nonstop bumper to bumper traffic in both morning and evening traffic. I have to assume that one of the unspoken hazards to a bike rider is that of driveways along his or her route are coming and going on routes. From a driveway, crossing a bike lane is a potential safety issue to the cyclist. I assume it's safe to assume that the majority of homeowners will use their driveway no more than four or five times a day. With respect to the American Legion, we average over 75 cars coming and going. That is 75 entries and 75 exits from our property each day. And that is not a function
[Jack Buckley]: with apologies. I appreciate your participation. I have to limit comments. We have plenty to get through. We have a time frame. So I will add that we did receive written petitions from each and every one of you. Many of those are still coming in. So I'll make sure all the commissioners have access to them. They're probably getting them also. So we're going to move on. Next username, Laura, please. State your position and please try to limit the time of your comments.
[Laura Deruiter]: Right. I'm trying to. Thank you so much. I am saying something that is I think at odds with what some of my neighbors say. I live in 190 High Street, that's the Regency condo and I am in favor of bike lanes. I'm a driver and a cyclist myself and I can only confirm what others have said. It is dangerous cycling in Medford and I would very much appreciate a better protection Especially also for the kids who are talking about that. I 100% agree with what Claire said about the danger of the intersection. However, I believe that the solution to that is not to change the ideas of where the bike lanes go but to do something about traffic enforcement more generally because So many people drive through the red lights on the cross intersection. It's really, really dangerous. I 100% agree. So I'll stop. All I want to say is I would urge people to put safety above convenience. That is my plea to you. Thank you so much.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments and participation. Username Mike McDevitt, please unmute yourself, state your position, and your comments.
[SPEAKER_22]: Hi, thanks for letting me speak. Can you hear me?
[Jack Buckley]: We can hear you, yes.
[SPEAKER_22]: I am against the bike lines. I'll be 54 in a month. I've lived in Medford most of my life. I've lived in running for a few years, but I live on Cedar Road off of Forest Street, but I am a patron of the American Legion. I'm an officer. I've been in charge of the Sons of the American Legion for the last 12 years. Very supportive of our club. We do a lot for the community, as the Councilors have already talked about, and John Grenard and Bobby Miller did too. During COVID, we couldn't rent the hall because there was no parties or anything, and we barely survived, and we did raffles to stay alive. And now we're just getting back on our feet, and we heard about this, which is another blow to us. The parking is very, very important to us. We need it for the revenue for the hall, which pays for our mortgage. So I would like a compromise here or at least, you know, eliminate the buffers and keep the parking or something like that. It's not that I'm against bike lanes, but all my point is we need the parking badly and we don't want any rash decisions to be made on this. I think if it's, you know, you have 85 people here talking about it, I think it's important enough to maybe have another meeting in public, let everyone talk, and, you know, not make any rash decisions here. Thanks.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments and participation. Next user name, Aitan Leonard. Welcome, take your position and your comments, please.
[Eitan Glinert]: My name is Eitan Gleinert. I am a resident who lives at 374 Winthrop Street, which is exactly where the bike lane is. I am strongly in favor of this design. It's a wonderful design. I commuted every single day to Cambridge using the bike lane or the non-existent bike lanes. And it's so dangerous on Winthrop Street. I hated it. I would bike through Somerville and Cambridge And it's so much safer there because I don't have to worry that some car is going to like swerve into my lane because they're not paying attention. Having to compete with cars is really, really dangerous. Having a bike lane that kids could use to bike to Medford High School would be amazing. It would reduce traffic. Everybody's talking about parking as if that's the major thing. There's almost no one parked on these streets ever. It's so underutilized. It's empty space. most of the time, but there's always traffic and getting rid of some of these cars because people can now bike instead would be wonderful for the community. It would make things so much safer for everyone. I can't believe the number of people on this call who are saying that the convenience factor of a parking spot is more important than the safety of bikers. I think that's really sad that that's what people are saying as part of the community. And as for the American Legion, I'm sympathetic to them, you know, I understand they have big events where they need lots of people, but you're not going to go out of business because people have to park a block away in a residential street it's kind of silly and disingenuous to claim that. So I really hope that this gets passed it's a safety issue it's a traffic issue, and there will still be parking. There's not much parking being used. It's just using empty space that is otherwise going to lay barren. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments and your participation. User name, Peter Taps. Please unmute yourself and state your position in your comments.
[Peter Calves]: Hello.
[Jack Buckley]: Oh, we can hear you.
[Peter Calves]: Yes, my name is Peter Calvis. I'm a resident cyclist, pedestrian and driver in Medford and I am strongly in favor of this project and I'm strongly in favor of retaining the buffers. As several people have brought up, there is now a state law that states that vulnerable road users such as cyclists need to be given four feet and four feet of space, and that is almost impossible to do with just a line of paint. The buffers will keep people safe and encourage more participation. If you build just the line, it will be less used because people don't want to compete with cars. I mean, I biked to and from downtown Boston through Medford today and it It is scary in some parts. And if we could improve that in this location, that would be great. And I hope that we can pass this. And I think parking is an issue. And I think that is an issue that can be resolved without compromising safety. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments and participation. Next, username Patrick Bibbins. Your position in comments, please.
[MCM00001142_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I'm Patrick Bibbins. I live in South Medford. I'm in favor of giving kids a way to get to school that doesn't involve their parents driving them there. And my kids both went to Medford High. We gave those parents, we gave them the option to ride their bikes there, but they didn't want to because they didn't feel safe doing it. And I think this is really unfortunate. It was a lost opportunity for them to take responsibility for their own transportation. It restricted their freedom to get to afterschool activities and to jobs. And it was, you know, they didn't have the opportunity to incorporate exercise into their day. So, you know, responsibility, productivity, physical fitness. These are all things that we want our kids to get out of a Medford education. And so I'd really encourage people to view these proposals as more than just changing how Winthrop is used and configured. but more is an opportunity to give our kids an opportunity right now to prepare for their futures. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments and participation. Next up username Samuel Christie. Please unmute yourself and state your position and your comments.
[MCM00001133_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I am Sam Chrissy. I'm in favor of the bike lanes. I've taught at Medford High School for the past nine years. And every single day of those nine years, I have walked or biked to school along Winthrop Street from across Route 16. So I'm one less car on Winthrop Street. And I can confirm that many more of my students would definitely bike in the streets were safer. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments, your participation. And next up, username Omri Schwartz, please unmute yourself, state your position and your comments.
[SPEAKER_41]: Hello, my name is Omri Schwartz, and I'm speaking in favor of bike lanes. I live on Powder House Terrace on the hill right above St. Joe's, and that is a neighborhood that is hemmed in by High Street, by Winthrop, by Lawrence, and Governor Zav, which means the kids do not really have a safe way to walk to any good playground. And you can really see it's a rite of passage when their parents trust them enough to cross any of these roads and they start showing up at Victory Park. And the milestone I have not yet entrusted my own kids with. I would like to correct that. These two here go to the book school, and they cannot get there on their own power because that would involve crossing Winthrop, potentially walking along High Street, that's not good. The safety there is highly important. And anything that will just force the cars to slow down on Winthrop Street is highly welcome. It is a majorly trafficked route, and it's trafficked by people who don't live in Medford and have no respect for the residents of Medford. The worst aggressive driving I've ever seen has been by the traffic circle and on Winthrop. And this includes rude gestures shown to me when I had my children with me by people who obviously are from out of town and just don't care. The police do a wonderful job trying to improve the situation, but I think narrowing the roads will do a much better job of it to get one to be safe.
[Jack Buckley]: I appreciate your comments and your participation and your support team did an excellent job. Next username, Caitlin Robinson. State your position and your comments, please.
[Kaitlin Robinson]: I'm Caitlin Robinson of Everett Street, and I am in support of separated bike lanes with flex posts. I would actually like to see this plan go further. I'm concerned that in some areas such as the ballpark where children go, that we're deciding to maintain parking there. There is parking at the Condon Shell. I don't think door zone bike lanes are a good idea, especially with the new Massachusetts law of with four feet of passing, it's not possible to pass in that way with a door zone bike lane. They're unsafe. We heard about someone whose car mirror was getting hit multiple times. And I think it was agreed that it's a problem that needs to be addressed in general and not just for that individual. And I hope that we can do these bike lanes right the first time and making sure that people don't get hit, showing the same concern for people out there as we do for car mirrors. And a final comment with regard to like the American Legion and functions. School is a function that's happening every day with hundreds of children. So I think that that function that happens every day should take precedence over the occasional functions. There's a parking lot there and we can look into other options for parking in the residential areas. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your participation and your comments. Next up username Matt Eaton. State your position and your comments, please.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, my name is Matt heaton and I am strongly in favor of the plan as it is presented for me I am a cyclist and driver and pedestrian in Medford, I ride on Winthrop multiple times a week and It is, as other people have stated, it's a disaster. And anything that could make it safer would be highly welcomed. And the idea of making a safe route for kids to get to school is just, you can't understate the importance of it. So that is my position. And Chief Buckley, I cannot believe what a good meeting you run.
[Shannon Heaton]: And thank you so much for making these meetings accessible via zoom for a lot of us parents on school nights, it makes a huge difference, I am super in favor of the initial proposal promoting the safest option for bikes and for walkers. I buy my kid to school I walk I drive in this town and i'm in favor of a town that is welcoming to pedestrians and bikes that is way more exciting and more affluent. a more affluent town than one made for parking, and it will definitely make less car traffic heading to the high school. Thank you so much to Ellery Klein for gathering that data. Go science, go bike kids, great way to start the day, bike to school. Woo!
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you both for your comments and for your participation. Next up, username Emily O'Brien. Please unmute yourself, state your position, and give us your comments.
[Emily O'Brien]: Hi, thank you. I'm Emily O'Brien. I'm the chair of the Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission. I'm on a train right now. And I'm strongly in favor of the original plan as proposed. I want to point out that the cross section with the parking restored is fairly similar in dimensions to what we have on Boston Ave. And my experience in that location is that with that very narrow bike lane next to the parking lane and in between the parking and a fairly narrow travel lane, is that if there's a larger vehicle parked or several of them, if somebody's parked farther out from the curb and I want to stay outside of the car door zone, I basically have to be outside that bike lane. And then I get yelled at and honked at. I grew up in Washington, D.C. and I rode my bike to school every day. The farthest you can live from Medford High School and still go there is about three miles by bike. There's one area where it could potentially be more. This is around 20 minutes for most kids, it's less than that. By biking to school, I was able to take advantage of a ton of opportunities that my parents would never have been able to drive me around to, and that the transit schedules would not have worked for. It's an amazing opportunity for kids to have that flexibility, and especially in an area where everything really is so close. That buffered bike lane, really does make a difference, especially when we're talking about high school kids going to and from every day. I think that's I think that's a really important consideration.
[Jack Buckley]: So thank you. Thank you very much for those comments and your participation from the train. We'll move on to the next season in Marine Passatoro. Please unmute yourself, state your position and give us your comments. Welcome. That's true.
[SPEAKER_30]: I am against bike lanes, at the cost of packing of course I delivered the petitions to Alva personally for 190. and 235. And what I'm seeing in this meeting, all the bikers are young people. So nobody is considering the older population here. 235 Winthrop, 190 has a lot of older people that receive services. We get one parking space. The majority of us have two cars. And it would be impacting our quality of life if nobody could come and visit us. And VNAs come, mails on wheels. The mail carrier parks his car on Winthrop Street, delivers the mail. I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous to even think about getting rid of parking for a bike that swishes by in two minutes. If it's dangerous in this area, then maybe they gotta find an alternative route. You just, you don't impact our lives. Nobody is considering the elderly. It's all about the bike people and they're obviously young. So that's my position and hopefully what work we did We get, you know, we get agile. And yeah, I mean, I pay excise tax to drive these roads.
[Jack Buckley]: So. Thank you very much for your participation. You're not elderly. Don't tell it. Next user name, Ian Zachary. Please unmute yourself. State your position for or against it. Please give us your comments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, I oppose the establishment of a bike lane at this time. The pro bike lane people have made some very compelling arguments. I've actually softened my stance on the issue during this meeting. But I agree with Councilor Caraviello that more work needs to be done on controlling the traffic at Winthrop Circle. before considering a bike lane. I live at 282 Winthrop Street, which is the only private home at Winthrop Circle. I would hazard a guess that everyone on this call knows my house. And over the course of 10 plus years at this address, I've seen numerous traffic accidents and had to make several insurance claims due to damage to my property as a result of many of those accidents. I do fear for my own safety and especially that of my six-year-old. I'm working on my own petition for greater safety measures at Winthrop Circle, which I think should actually be Winthrop Square with a traffic light. So safety at that rotary for all, not just cyclists, needs to take precedence at this time. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, your participation in this meeting. Moving forward, username Connor Semler. Please unmute yourself, give us your position, and please provide your comments.
[SPEAKER_35]: Hello. Thank you for hosting this meeting and for taking our comments. My name is Connor Semler. I'm a resident of Medford. I live in Medford Square with my wife and two children. I am in support of the petition for separated buffered bike lanes. As I said, I live in the square with my family. My two children are in third grade and kindergarten at the Brooks School, and we ride bike every day to get to school. As a Medford family, we only have one vehicle available to us, and so we rely on walking, biking, and buses to accomplish all of the things we need to do on a daily basis. Without safe bike lanes for my family, there is not a way for us to accomplish what we need to accomplish. bike lanes are a source of freedom and independence for my children who obviously can't drive and I appreciate the comments of Patrick and others earlier expressing the importance and the value of creating an opportunity for kids to bike to school. My kids can't yet bike alone to the brook school because there's not a safe way to do so, and they wouldn't be able to bike to the high school without a safe way to do so. Finally, I'd like to encourage the commission to share with us how you will make a decision. I know that in transportation, decisions like this come with tradeoffs. We can't hide behind the tradeoffs. We should be honest and upfront about them and share with us the metrics that you will use. If it's a number of signatures on a petition, then we can all rally around and get the most signatures. If it's qualitative or quantitative data, then we can know what it is. that would help us all help you come to the right decision. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. I hope to have some of those answers when we debate as commissioners before you this evening. Thanks for your comments and participation. Next user name, William Navar. Please unmute yourself, state your position, and give us your comments, please.
[William Navarre]: Hello. William Navarre, 108 Bedford Street, number 1B. Thank you, Chief Buckley, for recognizing me. I just want to say that I think that we should generally reflect that our overall goals, you know, on climate, car dependence, independence for high schoolers, community vibrancy, our local economy, and ability, you know, fiscal resilience of our people might not want to own as many cars, and therefore we should support the bike lanes. I think that there are trade-offs here, And we need to really reflect on what our values are. The concern about losing parking is legitimate, as are these other concerns. And we need to make a decision about which one we value and how we wanna make that trade off. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for those comments and your participation. Next, username Christina Roberts, please unmute yourself. State your position and provide us your comments.
[IC6Elh6AwZY_SPEAKER_10]: Good evening. First off, I want to say this is one of the more pleasant large group city meetings I've attended, thank you for running a great meeting, and also for taking time to present options that are more middle of the road options that might allow more users to have their needs met. I am a cyclist. I am in favor of the bike lanes with buffer zones. That being said, I would feel safer on Winthrop Street if there was a bike lane without a buffer zone compared to what we have today. I would welcome any progress in this area. Today, I don't feel safe biking from my home near the Brooks School to the Ginn Field in Winchester, which is on the Tri-Community Bikeway. something like this would actually give me a better route where I might bicycle with my three young children to a bike path. And I hope someday that my children will bike to the high school as well. Thanks for your time. And yeah, thank you for running good meeting.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your participation, your comments, go Bruins. Next username, Zach Thompson. Please provide your position and your comments.
[SPEAKER_44]: Zach Thompson, Resident of 356 Winthrop Street. I'm highly against this. I've made numerous calls. There's not even a working cross light. And I have three little kids that you can hear them screaming. We can't even cross the street safely after numerous phone calls of light so we can cross. And if you're out on Winthrop Street, the traffic is insane. And where's the statistics on the bike riders? What's the numbers on the bike riders? Because I barely ever see bike riders on Winthrop Street, maybe a few a day. And going forward, if you put flex posts in, how are you adequately doing snow removal? How are you cleaning the catch basins? How are you doing street sweeping? And I know street sweeping is a big thing in this city. I'm highly opposed and I appreciate your time. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments and your participation. Moving forward, username George, please unmute yourself, state your position, and provide your comments, please.
[SPEAKER_20]: Sure, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. OK, good. I'm for the compromise. I was one of the ones that got the word out. I live on Winthrop Street, and I park my car in front of my house. And there needs to be safety for everyone, including the bikers, cyclists, and we need the lanes for that. But as a homeowner, I park my car overnight there. I need my car to get to work and I need my car to go shopping. And if parking's removed, I have to park on side streets, which means me and my family have to multiple times cross Winthrop Street, especially at night in the dark. So it becomes a safety issue for the homeowners. And I understand all this, but when you say we're parking, this isn't parking for the public. This is parking for families, safe parking in front of their homes so they can access their cars without, we know Winthrop Street's dangerous. I don't park across St. Winfred Street now because it's dangerous to cross. If you remove the parking, I have to do that multiple times a day. And actually, you'll see me running across with grocery bags. I mean, this is what impacts the individuals who live here if you move the parking. That's why I think the compromise that keeps some parking for the homeowners, for safe access to their home and parking there, and doing bike lanes, the plan B that was shown, I love it. There's no winner and no loser. Everybody gets something and everybody gets some degree of safety. And I think that's where we have to go. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for those comments and for participating tonight. Moving on to the next username, Jackson Bruce. Please unmute yourself, state your position and the floor is yours for comments.
[SPEAKER_45]: Hello yes I'm a resident of High Street, I am for this proposed bike lanes. I'm for any form of increased safety for bicyclists. I myself am primarily a car driver in Medford, but there are a number of short one to two mile trips. that I would love, love, love to be replacing with my bike. We talk about traffic throughout this entire meeting. The only way we're going to reduce traffic is by finding alternatives for people to be using instead of driving their cars. There are tradeoffs. There are impacts. We have to accept this. And the other thing is, I think trying to equate protecting cars with protecting human life is sort of absurd. We have to acknowledge that we need to protect the residents and the children and the elderly of Medford who want to be participating in life in this city. Thank you very much.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very, very much for your comments and participation. Moving forward, the next username is HR. Please unmute yourself, state your position, and provide us your comments.
[SPEAKER_17]: Hi there, my name is Hannah and I live at 190 High Street. And I am opposed to the original proposal that I saw this evening, but I was very intrigued by the second proposal that was more of a middle ground. I do live in the Regency. We do have a bike room that is full to bursting. So I think it's really important for people to recognize that the people who live on Winthrop Street and the people who live in these condo buildings, we're not opposed or I can't speak for everyone, but I am not opposed to a bike lane. I just don't want to sacrifice the parking that my elderly parents use when they come to visit me. There is only one parking spot. And I think that we need to push things forward towards more of a middle ground so that everyone's a little bit more happy here and make it less of an either or. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, and for participating tonight. Moving forward to the next username meckler please unmute yourself, state your position and your comments. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_56]: Hi, I'm Scott McClure, I live right, right next to the rotary on winter street. against the original proposal, not because bike lanes or parking. I mean, I hope we can find a middle ground there because because both are important for safety. It's just that right turn. And I'm sorry if I if we already talked about this, I feel like I'm the first one bringing it up. It's just that work right turn coming from high street onto the rotary. I think that would back up traffic a lot. And and one thing I really want to make clear is there's too much traffic on the street, maybe bike lanes would help get rid of it, but I think the amount of traffic on the street is the number one cause of low safety. Anything that adds more traffic, like condensing the lanes to single entry at the rotary, I think it's gonna make things more dangerous, cause some aggressive behavior, have people driving through side streets that really aren't meant to take traffic like Badger Road, So, so I hope we can hit a compromise with parking and and bike lanes like even if we you know dig into the American legion parking lot and create more parking spots there. To satisfy them it's just there's just you know I can't even pull out of my I already can't pull out of my driveway in the morning reversing, so I have to take alternate routes. So if we can't do something about route 16 just the cause of backing that up, or at least allow the right turn entry to the Rotary. I feel like we haven't really considered the bigger picture for this proposal. Thank you for the time, and thank you for running this meeting so well.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, for your participation. Next up, username Lucia Sitaki. Please unmute yourself, give us your position, and state your comments.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, I am for the petition. I'm a freshman at Medford High School and I bike to school when the weather permits it. I have talked to a lot of my friends that don't bike and I know that they would bike if there was a bike lane. The reason that there aren't many high school students biking is because they don't feel safe or their parents don't let them because they don't think it's safe. And I think that a lot more high school students would walk and bike if there was bike lanes, specifically with barriers, because that's a lot safer. And also, at the end of school, the kids that walk home prowl the sidewalk, so there aren't any spaces for people who are biking. So the options are to go on the street and possibly get run over or go on the sidewalk and possibly run over pedestrians. So a bike lane would fix that. I also know that a lot of middle schoolers bike to school. The bike racks there are always really crowded. So why would they stop biking to school once they got to high school, unless it wasn't safe anymore? So I think a lot of kids would like.
[Jack Buckley]: We'll see it. Thank you very much for participating tonight and for your comments. I know I would never have joined a public meeting in high school, so good for you. And thank you. Next up on the username Alex's iPhone, unmute yourself and please provide your position and comments.
[SPEAKER_42]: Hi, everyone. Thank you, Chief Buckley and the rest of the commission. I am all for safety. I don't really think that this bike design, the way it currently sits, is really beneficial to the entire community. I think removing 70% of the parking space is a slippery slope as a precedent to sit. to set going forward because clearly we're going to be doing this across the entire city. I mean right now I'm not as familiar with the numbers for Medford. The city of Somerville has roughly three parking permits for every single parking spot that is available and they continue to strip more Highland Ave as well as several of the other main arteries and it's going to become a bigger issue that they just don't want to address right now and I would like us to be able to learn from the mistakes of a Cambridge and a Somerville who are a little bit further ahead than we are, to really take all their mistakes and improve upon that. Like one thing I would like to point out in particular, there were some people that are talking about having the bike lane be protected by the parked cars. If you look on Mass Ave in Cambridge and several other areas, the issue that becomes of that design is that if you get out of a car, you're not in the middle of a travel lane. And if you don't park properly, you're also in the middle of a traveling, which is not a safe solution. So I just would like us to be able to take our time and actually come up with the best solution possible, because clearly we also don't pave our roads that often. So let's get it right the first time. Thank you for your time.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, for your participation. Andres, please unmute yourself, state your position and give us your comments.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, thank you, Chief Buckley, for recognizing me and for a good meeting. Thank you to the Alicia and Todd and others for some plans. I'm very much in favor of the petition. I think some of the compromise solutions have been very thoughtful. As part of Walk Medford, I am very aware of the traffic we have through Medford, and we need to take back our city. We need to be able to walk and bike to important facilities. This area is really an extension of our town center. It's an extension of the square. You should, you know, it has The high school, it has the temple, it has park and youth athletic fields. It's has the Legion and the Legion's events. We should be able to reach this should be able to reach the high school from the wonderful new library without taking your life in your hands. And I see this as a very positive step to do that. Implement this this proposal. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you very, very much for your comments and for your participation this evening. We are moving right along. So next up, username Caitlin Souza. Please unmute yourself, provide your position and comments, please.
[SPEAKER_27]: Hi there. Good evening. Thank you, Chief Buckley and all the people who have worked to organize this meeting. I hope everyone can hear me. My name is Caitlin Souza. I am opposed to this petition as it's been presented at this time. I currently reside at 359 Winthrop Street and I grow up living at 360 Winthrop Street right across the street. I think that there have been some really great arguments on both sides, but one of the ones that I keep hearing is we're putting safety of bikers below convenience of parkers, and I don't think that's really framing it in the best light or the most accurate light. The parking issue for the residents that live on the streets that will be impacted by this is that it makes it less safe for families with children and also families with older adults to be able to access their homes if they don't have the parking that's right outside. I know earlier it was mentioned, even if it's just for a few minutes so that someone can hop out, you know, being able to park on this street is really important. I know that many leaders in the city of Medford have said that you know, they want to prioritize and preserve and even promote multi-generational living, including, I believe, even the mayor of the city has said that. And so, and I know that there are at least a few families on this street, mine included, that in the last year have had three or more generations living in one household. And so, if we were to take away their parking on the street, there wouldn't be a safe place for families to be able to get in and out of their cars. They would have to cross Winthrop Street in order to be able to access their own homes. And so I think that we're not necessarily putting safety of bikers below convenience, it's safety of people who live on this street and safety of bikers. And so hopefully we can come to a better compromise.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, your participation. Next username, JSNBK. Please unmute yourself, state your position, and please provide us your comments.
[Souza]: Thank you. My name is john Sousa, I'm a resident of 359 Winthrop street. And I, after hearing everything I've heard to this point, I think there's only one real comment to make which is back to the drawing board unfortunately there, this problem is not going to necessarily be solved with one idea of a bike lane. The neighborhoods behind Winthrop Street are going to be so overrun with traffic. I'm sure Medford PD is aware of this but you know Badger Road and those cut-throughs back there, those just turn into a freeway and all that's going to end up happening is you're going to have other residents in other areas basically in high traffic areas and you'll solve one problem to replace another and that's not the objective here. The traffic commission needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that fixes all of these issues. It can be done, it will be hard work, but that's the action that needs to be taken in that role. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, for your participation. Next up, username Kevin Cudback. Please unmute yourself and state your position and give us your comments, please.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: I'm in favor of the proposal. What I like best about it is narrowing the general travel lanes on Winthrop. I think that everybody can agree that any time anyone visiting anybody's house here has to cross the street, it would be better if we had found a way to channelize and slow the traffic on Winthrop Street. So that I like. The second thing that I think I really like is the climbing lane to the high school for the morning traffic in particular. When it's asked rhetorically, where are the cyclists now? The answer is about 500 of them a day are in their parents' car being driven to school. And if a hundred of them a day switch to biking, that saves 400 trips a day on Winthrop Street to school, from school, from school, to school. There's a morning and an evening trip. So just moving a hundred cyclists out of their parents' taxi, and I've been in that parent taxi, into a bike lane is adding capacity, and it's adding capacity in a very innovative and safe way on the street. So the idea that traffic is going to get worse on Winthrop is just ridiculous. In fact, we are creating a new way of moving on Winthrop Street for extra people to move every morning, particularly in the morning, climbing to the high school. So I'll end it there.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your participation, your comments. Moving forward, using Emily Stein, please unmute yourself, state your position, and give us your comments.
[Emily Stein]: Hi, thanks so much. I'm Emily Stein, I'm here with my organization, Safe Roads Alliance. I'm also a member of WAC Medford. I'm in favor of this petition. I live three houses in from Winthrop Circle, so we've seen how changing the road has improved that a lot. I agree that there's always room for improvement at this really challenging intersection. Just a couple things. I work in traffic safety, and from mentors that I've had, change is hard. And it's really hard in the beginning, and then we all adjust. So that's one thing. The other thing is, I just came back from a national traffic safety conference last weekend, and the Secretary of Transportation there said, inconvenience. We have to get used to the idea of a little bit of inconvenience. Parking in front of your house maybe is a little better than parking in your driveway. I walked my, my daughter to school for many years along Winthrop up Lyman. Most of these houses have driveways and hopefully those can be utilized, so that, you know, you know I also understand parking. If you take away parking that is an inconvenience and for some it is a big inconvenience. But lastly, I just want to say we have this incredible bike path and walking path along the river. We have Clippership Connector, which will hopefully actually be that half mile stretch so kids can walk and bike to the middle schools. We need a safe way to get there, though. Walking down Winthrop, biking down Winthrop is quite a challenge to get to that bike path. And this can be used for commuters going into Boston. It can be used for commuters going to Cambridge to connect to this amazing network of bike paths. So however it's done, I'm really looking forward to seeing more bike lanes, more safe pedestrian crossing along these busy streets. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments and for participating this evening. Next up, username. Leah Grodstein, please unmute yourself and state your position and please provide your comments.
[Unidentified]: Here we go. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Welcome.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I live at 30 Revere Beach Parkway and I'm in favor of the proposal with the fully buffered bike lanes. especially want to commend the people who designed this for the roundabout and the improved geometry in the roundabout. And want to request that if we use flex posts anywhere, that it be in that roundabout to enforce that new geometry. I think with the grade of the roundabout, that's pretty much like the worst part of Winthrop Street for me when I bike. And also to consider using maybe the same treatment that Somerville did powderhouse circle that like tan road covering, I don't know what to call it. And then finally, I'll say that I'm not really in favor of door zone bike lanes, they kind of scare me. But if that's what we have to go with, I would love to see the parking and bike lane flipped, even though the widths are a little substandard, I'd rather be in the door zone only when there's a passenger in the car. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments. We're participating tonight. Next up is David DeBono-Shafer. Please unmute yourself, provide your position and your comments.
[SPEAKER_60]: Good evening. Thanks for a great meeting. I'm generally all in support of bike lanes, although I'm really nervous about option number one because of what it's going to do for traffic in Winthrop Circle, which is an awful, dangerous commuter circle. I'm intrigued with option number two that was presented. It provides the right-hand turn onto Winthrop Street that might alleviate some of the traffic. But we already said that Currently traffic is backed up to West Medford on one side it's backed up to Medford center on the other to the high school to the north and sometimes as far as George Street, excuse me to the south. So I'm worried about reducing the lanes will do to traffic, and I haven't heard any studies presented on the traffic. at tonight's meeting. I've heard them on parking access, and I've heard them on other types of access, but not on traffic patterns. So I'm sorry if I missed that, but I kind of support Anne and JK's comment that I think some traffic studies need to be done before we can make the right choice. And my last comment is we do have a user here that physically has her hand up and not the EAN hand up, so I hope we can get to her too. Thank you very much.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you. We will appreciate that. pointing that out to us. And thank you for your comments, for participation. Next up, username Erica Putnam. Please provide your position in your comments.
[SPEAKER_28]: Hi, my name is Erica Putnam. My daughter actually wants to speak. She's 15. Here she is. Her name is Delilah.
[Jack Buckley]: OK, thank you. Welcome, Delilah. The floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_18]: Hi, thank you. My name is Delilah Putnam Bagley, and I am for the bike paths. The last year in the summer, I was hit by a car in front of my house because a car was speeding. And luckily I got away without injuries, but the amount of trauma that has caused me, I'm afraid to even cross the street now, let alone ride my bike down the street. And I don't want to have anybody else have to go through that just to go to school. I mean, I'm a high school student, and I would love the opportunity to ride my bike to school, but I can't even cross the street to get into my own car, because I'm just too nervous. I need to have my mom pull the car up to me every single day so that I can drive to school. And it's terrible. And for me to think about somebody else having to do that as well, just because they maybe don't have access to a car, or they can't drive themselves to school. It's not something that you want kids to go through. And yes, of course, people need to have parking spaces, and I'm sure that we can accommodate that. But what comes first is the actual people who are in danger of cars. And the bike pass would slow down cars so that they wouldn't make these mistakes. And there have been precautions put in such as a no turn on red sign in front of my road. But it's still seems to not help because even when there's a walk sign, I have run into a situation where cars have sped right in front of me as I was walking across the street. And the more safety precautions that we can have, the better. So I think that there should be bike paths for kids to get to school and for pedestrians walking to be safe. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, Delilah. Much appreciated, and thank you for participating tonight. Great job. Next up, username David Zabner. Please unmute yourself, state your position, and your comments.
[David Zabner]: Hello. My name is David Zabner. I'm calling in support of this new bike lane. I live at 107 Bowdoin Street in South Medford. I'm a relatively new resident of Medford, just lived here for two years. And, um, almost every day I wish that there was a way for me to comfortably bike from South Medford to Medford center and other parts of the city. Um, I feel often very comfortable biking South into Somerville and Cambridge. Uh, but, uh, it wouldn't be a long ride to Medford center, but it's a very, very scary one. Um, so I think whatever's going to add more bike lanes to the city is a good step. And a lot of people I know argue that we need to design a solution for the whole city before we make any changes. But I think incrementalism is almost always the way to go. This is a chance to make a good step in the right direction. And I think we can take it and have that bike lane. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments, for your participation. Moving to the next user name, Frederick Ross. Please unmute yourself, state your position. And the floor is yours for comments.
[SPEAKER_40]: Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Frederick. I live on 24 Mystic Street, so close to Mystic Valley Parkway. And I am very strongly in favor of this proposal. I bike regularly around the city. And this is, as everyone has pointed out, a very dangerous section to ride in. and adding bike lanes will help this traffic problem that we all know because, as I said, the students who are going to school getting dropped off will now be able to bike themselves, and we can slow down the cars and just make it safe. I bike, and I'm more experienced biking, but I have a seven-month-old daughter who I want to be able to bike this road someday. So yeah, very much in favor of this proposal. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments, your participation.
[Jack Buckley]: Moving forward, I believe Patricia iPad, we're going to ask you to unmute yourself and you've been waving your hand. So I want to make sure you. Yes. Thank you for your patience and for participation tonight. But the floor is yours. State your position and your comments.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yes. My name is Patricia Egan. I am a resident of 190 High Street. The Regency condominiums and I'm made in Medford, I am actually a person from Medford, and I have biked all of these streets or avoided them for well I'm an elderly person and I couldn't tell you how long. And I thank everyone for the participation. I am the author of the petition that was sent out in Marie George, inspirational to the Regency and the regal condominiums. I was watching that very small meeting on March 21st when the engineering plans to eliminate the regal parking spaces was proposed. And while I live at the Regency, that I felt that that was a serious issue as far as the quality of life. And may I just reiterate that some people have mentioned that people in neighborhoods, meaning they live in houses, we live in condominiums. They're not apartments. We're homeowners, condominium owners, taxpayers. We can be lifelong residents, as we have heard. We can be recent residents. This is a very difficult problem. I go back to our Honorable Councilors Scarpelli and Caraviello who understand this is a long term problem, traffic. And we can't say that somebody from Winchester or Arlington, I've lived my entire life adjacent to Route 60. and route 16, and through many iterations and improved roadways from what they were when I was very young, I guess, and somebody mentioned or alluded that change is difficult, and we do try to make improvements, but this really takes a lot of study. The roads, Medford is a wonderful city, a long history. These roads aren't just for our residents, they're not just colonial roads. These roads were the pathways of the indigenous people that have become the roadways of modern society. And we all have our own needs and our own wants, but this is not an easily solved solution. But I speak in favor of maintaining the parking spaces, The way the condominiums were built, we have 84 units. There is one parking space per unit. There is no visitor parking. People with more than one vehicle rent from somebody who doesn't have a vehicle. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Again, I know you've been waving your hands. Go back to the first one. We have one other next user, Mary Kate Gustafson. Please unmute yourself, state your position and add your comments, please.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Hi, thank you. I just wanted to state that I am in favor of the bike lanes. I'm a neighbor of Frederick. Hi, Frederick. So I live on Mystic Street and I bike with my two kids who are four and six. And I can say that we actively avoid going to places on Winthrop Street because it's difficult and dangerous to get to them. I actively avoid Medford Square because it's difficult and dangerous to travel there on my bike. Yeah, and I end up spending money elsewhere. I would love to have more of Medford accessible to me and my family and our primary way of commuting. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments and your participation. That ends public participation. I see no other hands raised. So we I now have the obligation to turn it back to the commissioners. Commissioner Hunt, Commissioner McGibbon. After hearing all of this, what are your thoughts and comments?
[Tim McGivern]: I'll go first if Alicia doesn't mind. I have a few just comments just to remind some folks of some things. So, you know, I listened closely to everybody's comments. I read every piece of text that came at me today and previously. I have an engineering background. I was once on the bike commission. In fact, one of the founding members, I ride my bike, I drive, I'm a pedestrian as well. The way that this works is engineering designs does the due diligence of that design. And I will ask Todd an important question in a moment. And then this body reviews and then approves or denies. That's how that works pretty simple so some folks have asked the traffic commission to go back to the drawing board, the engineering division. So. Well, I said the question I have a Todd and you know I try to ask this every time when a project is designed. is if this project was designed according to current engineering principles, guidance and standards. So he can answer that in a bit here. I also want to remind folks that the city does have a complete streets policy that was adopted. So every project we're looking at designing any opportunity we're looking at designing the roads for all users. So is it isn't just cars isn't just parking spaces. It isn't just bikes, it isn't just pedestrians, it's everybody who uses the road and making it safe for everybody. That's the idea. And there are trade offs. I also want to remind folks that, you know, parking in front of your house on a public way is not a it's not a right. And, you know, I don't know the history of how the condominium buildings only have one space per unit. I don't understand that. And I don't understand why there's no visitor parking. And I acknowledge the idea that the parking lane on that block of Winthrop Street is used for both of those things. It's used for any overflow parking you may have, or a, excuse me, a contractor or a guest, for example. But the general public does actually have rights in the right of way. So, if you have a off street parking spot in front of your house. That isn't a right, that's convenience. Okay, the general public though does have a right to use the right of way. That's one of the reasons it's called a right of way. This body is charged with making decisions in the best interest of the general public's rights. A couple things here so. The school is, and someone mentioned this before it was a very strong point I had the same point, this is the major artery that goes to the school, and we've talked a lot about that I've heard a lot about that. So, you know, I understand and acknowledge the issue with the American Legion. And I'm curious as to, you know how that arrangement came to be if you don't have enough parking spaces on your site, but you're using the public space in the right of way for parking in order to rely on that. You know, again, it isn't necessarily right, but I acknowledge the concern, the school operates every single day and it has many many children many many users that cycles through and it's a right of the general public, as opposed to a single entity, so that's on the scale. Right. Let's see what else. The compromise, I guess people are calling it a compromise, but the version of the plan that allows more parking to remain, I will say that, you know, I'm not a big favor of door zone bike lanes either. However, the utilization rates are very low for this parking. So if that parking were to remain on that plan, then, you know, the parking spaces may be empty a lot of the time. So the door zone risk, it goes down compared to say, if we were doing this on High Street in downtown Medford, for example, which the utilization rate for those parking spaces is very high. Um, I counted driveways or not counted I took a, I looked at every single building that's between Lawrence road, and the, the circle, and every single building either has a driveway or a shared driveway. So again, it goes back to this idea of what you have a right to. The parking lane is public space for the general public. And it's convenient that you have the space in front of your house, but it isn't a right. The general public actually has the right in that situation. And by making the roads safer for all users, reducing the lanes, allowing a safer experience for cyclists, for example, it actually increases the safety for everybody. So there will be less interactions that will result in harm to people. So that's an important point I think everybody needs to remember. Traffic situation, we did take a look at that. So the engineering department does look at the traffic. And that was one of my comments that I brought on early was that removing the right-hand lane from High Street onto Winthrop Street, I think is probably not a good idea based upon the traffic count numbers that we saw. And Todd could provide more detail there as well. Let's see, what else? That's really it. Hopefully everybody understood my points and what this commission is charged with. With that said, I'll let my colleagues speak.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Commissioner McGibbon.
[Unidentified]: Commissioner Hutt? Thank you, Chief.
[Alicia Hunt]: I feel like I said a lot before we heard people speak about this and it is helpful to get people's opinions on it. And obviously, I absolutely believe bike lanes have to go in here. It's really important. I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to move towards more getting more students biking to school. And I feel like that's a very significant issue here. I did consult with people, we've been talking about some of this, about the door zones and whether the dividers to make them buffered bike lanes are gonna make a big difference. I'm more concerned about door zones than anything, but I think we're right. I know that some of these counts were taken at 8.30 at night, at 10 o'clock at night, on Saturdays, on Sundays. So we were trying to capture the overnight usage, nighttime usage, as well as what goes on during the day, because I think that's very important. I agree with everything that Tim said. We have the reality that we have the streets that we have. Every day, I wish that we could make them bigger and have more space for all of our needs. I did hear some I did actually talk a little bit with the staff in traffic and transportation about some of the very innovative things we've seen about flipping the bike lane on the inside and the parking lanes on the outside. And I just don't think we're ready for that yet. I see them in Cambridge and other communities, and I think that's more of a step than we're ready for. And they probably take more space than I'm not certain of. I guess as a general rule, I was prepared to suggest that we take some from each of these plans. I absolutely, I think we need to keep that one lane from High Street on to Winthrop. I think that that's an issue and until we can fix the backup problem, then we can get rid of it. I do notice that getting rid of the turn lane from Winthrop on to High actually allows us to add more parking in front of those condos, which perhaps might relieve some of the pressure off of High Street from some of those spots. I guess that's where I'm I'm sort of leaning right now. I really appreciate everybody weighing in on this. I'm glad that people heard about this, whether it was through robocalls or petitions or all the outreach on social media that this has gotten. People show up when things matter to them, and it's clear that this matters to people in Medford. So thank you all for coming.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Commissioner Hunt. From the chair, you know I do appreciate everyone's attendance and all the comments and it was a very civil meeting and we got a good perspective from both sides of it and this is not necessarily an easy issue. We also received something you know as I said earlier, a lot of emails and notes. position. So the community is well involved in position to this. My comments are relatively brief. I mean, I know in one sense, I want to support exactly what Commissioner McGibbon stated, and that, you know, the Traffic Commission's job is to take in work that is done by engineers of the city, traffic engineers, and then sort of You know, they're the experts on this and then we sort of vote as just as a regulatory body is to approve of these items. And the second very important point that he brought up was that you know the city of method did adopt the complete streets projects and that is to make a public public streets safe for all who use it. Having said all of that, I mean there are two very large concerns that everyone else has always addressed that I have. not just as traffic commissioner, but as a chief who has to run a police department. And that is the right-hand turn off of High Street. I am not necessarily thinking, we've been dealing with that for many, many years and the traffic continues to increase rather than decrease in the city. And then the second part of that is the obvious, it's the parking. We have very, removing parking is just, as far as I am, is running a police department, it's just going to add more problems in the area. And listen, I do hope we get to the point where, yeah, we reduce our needs for cars and we have a safer city. But we have to take reality to some extent first. And I'm not saying that we can't reduce parking, but I'm worried about the reduction of that. And now as Traffic Commissioner, I also have to think about the fact that when we take away this parking, all of those people who lost parking in the middle to come to the traffic commission and ask us to come up with a solution for them, which we currently do not have at this time. And so I just throw that out there as thoughts on this. The alternative plan is an option that provides more parking and does create a bike lane for people. Maybe it's a project that could be adopted and then modified in time as we work on those roadways and make them safer and redesign other safer routes for us. Or we can take each segment, I believe there's five of them, both of them one at a time. And so I just, those are my brief comments I throw back to the commissioner. I just lastly add that I have been since the chief of police and even before that a very strong proponent of safer roads for pedestrians and bicyclists. But I can see a building problem here that's got me sort of on edge and that's about losing so much parking for residents and uses. So with that said to the commissioners, how would you like to proceed? Do you want to take a vote on the original petition? Do you want to debate? Do you want to take it in portions? I'll put it back to you right now.
[Tim McGivern]: It's hard to do it in portions because what's on the table here is between Lawrence Road and South Street. you know, basically if you look at the stretch from, you know, Burbank to say, uh, you know, near the Legion or so, uh, that is really the major stretch here. And I would actually, you know, if like, for example, if we were to choose just a circle to vote on just a circle, then we have, um, we'd have to be very specific on how that boat happens. Now, I'm not sure what you guys think, but when I look at the plan that maintains the parking and provides a bike lane, I do think that that is significant progress for what's out there today. And we're preserving some of the parking I understand the concerns about the American Legion and their, their commitment to the community, and all that, you know, so there is this idea that this plan that I'm looking at here the alternative plan, you know, kind of, addresses the parking issue as well as making improvements that are multimodal. And you know, when we talk about complete streets, part of that is parking as well. I mean, you can't create more problems elsewhere with designs. And you know, I know we try to look at that. So, you know, that's one of the reasons why I went out and took a look at a lot of this myself, which is also why I stated that if, the concern with the door zone, not if, it is a real concern when if these parking spaces are not quite, you know, utilized as much as other places in the city, it reduces that door zone risk. So, you know, the more that I hear from tonight and look at the alternative plans that the more attractive they look. So, you know, I'm interested in what Alicia thinks about that, as well as you, Chief.
[Todd Blake]: Excuse me, Alicia, if I may, just to try to start to parse through this. The right turn lane from Hyde to Winthrop Street, that can be accomplished in either alternative. So if you want to take that alone as a standalone thing, you could do that to start to pitch away at this.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, it's a good idea. But before we do that, Todd, can I just ask, can I get your response to that question? Yes. Was this designed according to current engineering principles, guidance and standards?
[Todd Blake]: Yes, it was.
[Tim McGivern]: Yes. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Todd, can you just confirm for me the The stretch that it is from Mystic Valley Parkway to South Street, that's the same on both alternatives, right? There were no changes there?
[Todd Blake]: It's essentially the same. There was a little adjustment in relation to the length of the right turn lane between the end of that and the crosswalk. But other than that, the lane assignments are all the same, the parking's all the same. It was just a matter of trying to because we all know that that that right lane pretty much cues to the crosswalk habitually so the longer that right lane could be, but at the same time not sacrificing any any transition for cyclists to get over to the proper side. So that's the only change in that plan, that block.
[Alicia Hunt]: So, because on that block, I do feel that it's very important that we maintain things like the buffers, that we maintain all the things that were presented the first time. And honestly, I feel that the length of the right turn lane, I'm not clear that that's really something that we would vote on so much as it's a field decision or decision of the traffic engineers as to what length is the right length there. I just wanted to confirm on that because that was the one stretch that I really felt like I've always been really wedded to all along, and I didn't want to see any change. So there's essentially no change, and it's just a matter of how long the right turn lane is, but not around parking or whether there's buffering or anything like that. And the crosswalk is raised the whole time.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and I will point out that to help with the door zone, we are aware of door zone issues to help with that. Wherever the bike lane adjacent to the parking shoulder, the bike lane is six feet. To fit this cross section on any of these blocks, the bike lane on the curb side of the street, the non-parking side, is five feet, the minimum. We give an extra foot next to the parked cars for the door zone issue. It's not much, but Amy was very concerned about addressing that, and she did a great job at least giving one extra foot.
[Tim McGivern]: So we could, we could, I think it's fair to say that the stretch from South Street to Mystic Valley Parkway is because I agree with Alicia, I think we're good there from a regulatory standpoint. I do want to add a handicap parking spot, potentially a ramp for that spot to get up to the race crossing. But besides that, that isn't regulatory. So I'd like to keep that idea there.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Tim, if you wanted to include that now, it might be. whether it's the first space before the raised table or race cars or right after, that's a good idea.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, one of them, whichever I think makes the most sense from a design standpoint. So with that said, let's see if we can tick this one off. I'll motion to approve the original design with that change. just to identify a handicapped spot close to the raised crossing and evaluate which one it should be and leave that in the purview of the engineering division.
[Alicia Hunt]: You're saying for the first block, South Street to Mystic Valley Parkway and take these one block at a time?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, that seems like one that we could get off the table.
[Alicia Hunt]: I wasn't sure if you were motioning to approve the whole thing.
[Tim McGivern]: No, not the whole thing at this moment. I think maybe we can work, work left.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, so second. So the motion is for the block South Street to Mr. Gav to approve it.
[Unidentified]: Thank you too many mystics in Medford at eight o'clock.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'll second that.
[Tim McGivern]: With the addition of one handicap space on either side of the speed table. Raise crosswords.
[Jack Buckley]: So as the chair has this, the motion from Commissioner McGibbon is to accept the plan as proposed from South Street to Mystic Valley Parkway on Winford Street, adding a handicap parking spot Is that correct? Yeah, that is correct. Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Yep.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Three nothing. This portion is approved. Commissioner McGibbon, do you want to continue and take the next section?
[Tim McGivern]: Sure, unless Alicia wants to. What I would propose to discuss quickly is the alternative plan that maintains the parking. I understand the reality of the condominium situation and I acknowledge that this is sort of a critical public space that is used for a lot of residents that live in these condominium buildings. So with that said, I'd like the the plan that keeps that parking better than the one that eliminates it. And I think that we got a six-foot bike lane on either side. Well, the five-foot one on the curb side, we got that. Completely acknowledge that folks believe it's safer with the buffered bike lane. I agree, but this is one of the trade-offs here, right? So I think having the bike lane is very acceptable. I know Alicia chief, if you have any other comments, I mean, I'm ready to motion that too.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I think we should go that way. I do think that it's helpful for people to know that we got a grant to buy a machine that will plow bike lanes in addition to plowing sidewalks. In fact, as I'm informed, the grant was specifically because the equipment would have plowed bike lanes. But let's start with this. Let's start with putting the bike lanes on and keeping the parking. And then let's see where we, you know, couple of years, we'll see what happens.
[Tim McGivern]: And I think with that, if it sounds like the two of you are in agreement with keeping the right turn lane from High Street on Winthrop Street, I would like to keep that there. So with that said, I'll motion to approve Winthrop Circle with the modification as shown on the adjusted plans, keeping the right turn lane from High Street to Winthrop Street and approving it all the way down to Mystic Valley Parkway.
[Alicia Hunt]: Would it be helpful for the public if we put this alternative version on the screen just since that was not posted anywhere?
[Tim McGivern]: I think so, yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you mind Todd, I just want people to see what it is very explicitly that we're speaking to.
[Unidentified]: So this is it was there. All right, it's a long day. Sorry, my screen's dark.
[Todd Blake]: For some reason, that page just went dark.
[Alicia Hunt]: Your screen share stopped completely.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, because the screen I'm sharing went dark.
[Unidentified]: Is the screen that had the graphic on it I'm working on. If you want to send me an email, I can try and pull it up.
[Todd Blake]: It was the full screen it didn't like, so I got to keep the order for some reason. So this was the sales portion that you just approved already, or actually, and then this is the portion that we're describing. This on the right edge of the screen is the Winthrop Street at Mystic Valley Parkway traffic signal. The top side of the page is the condo development that we've been referring to all meeting. Keeps the parking on that side of the street, Mike lane East direction, the three travel lanes that exist at the circle would preserve the right turn from West Medford Square, taking a right down to Mr. Valley Parkway would preserve the two lane queuing ability all the way up to the circle. But it would, this particular plan that's shown, I don't know if Tim mentioned this or not in his motion, but this right would be removed in favor if you actually gain a couple parking spaces back.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, that's fine. And the traffic counts that you gave us show a low number on that turn. So I think adding some space there is a good thing.
[Todd Blake]: It was less than 100 vehicles making that turn, but this turn that we're preserving was over 350 in an hour. So, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: So should we make a motion to approve this plan as shown, this alternative plan from from and including Winthrop Circle to the intersection at Mystic Valley Parkway?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, I think that's the motion I just made. Yep.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great. Then I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. On the motion of commission be given seconded by Commissioner Hunt to approve the alternative plan from Mystic Valley Parkway to the Rotary to include the alternative plan that includes additional parking, as well as maintains the right-hand turn on High Street, onto Winter Street. Do I have that right, for the record? That is correct.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: What about he's mentioned six foot bike lanes on both sides?
[Tim McGivern]: No, I corrected myself, Al. There's a five foot on the curb side.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, I'll have a roll call when you're ready.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, to reserve by. Okay. Commissioner McGibbon, you want to keep going or you're doing, we're going to do the rotary to?
[Tim McGivern]: Lawrence. So this is a little trickier. So, you know, Todd, it looks like, and I'm just gonna, I'm counting them on the page here. Yeah.
[Todd Blake]: There's nine on each side of the road in this scenario. Nine here and nine here. It looks like more, cause it's driveways. So you gotta subtract the one in front of the driveway.
[Tim McGivern]: Got it. All right. That's, that was one of my questions. All right.
[Todd Blake]: So here's one, if you can see my cursor, there's one there, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And one here, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
[Tim McGivern]: And I think out of all these stretches we're talking about, this one is, this particular alternative plan, I think the folks who are You know really want the full separated bike lane with the vertical element in the buffer. You don't get that in this version. But what you do get is you preserve some but not all of the parking along the stretch of Winthrop Street so it gives some parking opportunity for residents as well as the American Legion. In my mind, this is a incremental step towards progress that might be around for a while. I would like to see eventually us getting towards, you know, fully separated bike lanes, but I do understand all the concerns that folks have and what their expectations are and things like that. So, you know, I think this might be one of those ones that not everybody is happy, but it could be a compromise that is also making significant progress towards the safety of the general public.
[Unidentified]: So anyway, that's my thoughts on this particular stretch. Honestly, I agree with you.
[Alicia Hunt]: I agree with everything that you have said all the various points, but I don't really see any alternatives, I do hope that this will inform some of our future planning builds, and when we permit future buildings.
[Unidentified]: But you mean like as far as parking goes, I mean, yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: To the commissioners, since you're taking the motion up to what appears to be Burbank.
[Alicia Hunt]: I believe it's the whole thing, right?
[Jack Buckley]: I mean, are we going all the way up to Lawrence Road?
[Tim McGivern]: It's hard to separate it out at this point because of the way that, you know, we could say between, you know, between the circle and Badger or some portion thereof, but I'm not sure if that makes a heck of a lot of sense.
[Todd Blake]: So if I may, so on both the original and this plan, there's a bus stop located at the signal end and at the circle end. So that's why in that small stretch, the bike lane with a little bit of buffer, is essentially equivalent to the width of the bus stop. So that's why, and as you get closer to an intersection, you don't necessarily want parking there either. So that, it kind of remains the same in both plans. If we were to entertain anything else there, like parking on one side or another, it would get challenging to accommodate the bus stops as well in the shared situation, so. PB, Harmon Zuckerman.
[Tim McGivern]: PB, David Ensign — Herndon, I think this alternative, just like the other ones Todd is very well thought through in regards to taking into consideration all the comments that we've heard. and understanding the context of this stretch here. So I think this plan does strike a balance between the needs and rights of the general public for improvements in safety of Winthrop Street, as well as respecting the situation of the residents and American Legion as an entity on this stretch as well. So with that said, Like I keep saying, the more I talk about it, the more I look at it, the more it strikes that balance, and I can appreciate it and in favor of it.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right. If I'm correct, so the original version kept seven spots by the American Legion and then had buffered bike lanes the rest of the way, which was causing a problem for some of these houses that have shared driveways and aren't fully shared, but are still needing to park on the street. But that's... Yeah, and the other thing that we talked about, we can't have parking that exists for one to use once a year for voting. We did talk internally a little bit about you could do temporary signage on election day, allowing parking in places you would never allow parking. It would actually be physically hard if there was the poles of buffered bike lanes to allow temporary parking. But, and I realize that this is less parking than they have there now, but we need to have, we need to make this safe for 363 days of the year and, you know.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think on those special days, like the once or twice a year, I would venture to guess that cyclists would be willing to, you know, deal with temporary closure of a bike lane for one day for community event like voting, perhaps, and then that could be a way to somewhat compromise.
[Unidentified]: Okay, so am I hearing that the motion and
[Jack Buckley]: would be to accept the alternative plan from the Winthrop Street Rotary up to Lawrence Road, or a better way is to the improved designed end of the previous accepted bike point. Sort of the same idea. Is that what is being presented?
[Tim McGivern]: I don't think there's been a motion yet. My only reservation here is providing parking for, you know, one side of the, providing parking for a section of houses, right, like whatever it is, in front of their houses and the American Legion, but nowhere else really, you know, further up Winthrop Street, right? So, you know, I do want to try, that's my only reservation, treating everybody fairly here. If we're moving parking on Winthrop Street to make things safer, with a buffered bike lane, then why would we be keeping this stretch of parking across from Burbank and Badger Road and American Legion for that matter? I know I'm kind of having a conversation with myself, but it's probably important for.
[Todd Blake]: If I can, I'd like to point out in this compromise, there's an added traffic calming element of the shifting over of the lane in the middle of the block. So it creates that sort of slalom feel. So it takes away a little bit of the straightaway that people experience now, if that matters.
[Tim McGivern]: Are those dots, are those yellow pylons or bollards?
[Todd Blake]: At one point, I had potential to add yellow flex posts in the double yellow in that region if it became problematic. I made it gradual enough, double the length as required, based on traffic engineering standards. But if people weren't used to that sort of shift, we could consider flex posts in the middle like we used to have on Main Street over by Carrolls for a little while.
[Tim McGivern]: And these are 10 and a half foot lanes, travel lanes for the vehicle, so that will keep speeds down as well. So there's a lot of benefits to this alternative plan. I'm just concerned about the, you know, keeping parking here, but not as well. I guess we're keeping in front of the condos too. So, you know, I'm more on the fence of going with the alternative plan. I think it's a significant improvement here, but regardless, we have a significant improvement to public safety happening on this alternative plan right now.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, going back to that graphic I showed at the very beginning about the relative safety. Any of these proposals are more safe for cyclists in the existing conditions, which is a 19 slash 20 foot wide traveling when nobody's parked on the side. And then when someone's parked on the side it's, you know, 1213 for traveling. So, yeah, so either way we're increasing but yeah it's all relative, and I will say. for everyone, for the traffic commission and for anyone watching, you know, even though we're doing engineering standards and engineering practice with all these drawings and proposals, ultimately this value judgment that is being had tonight would still be there no matter what. So regardless of what form or how many meetings were, you know, led up to this, each community throughout the region is going through the same value judgments in the same transitions in their neighborhoods in their cities. And it's not an easy one. But there's only so much curb to curb space. And this is this is what's going on elsewhere. So it's not unique. And it's it's not going to go away. There's there's pros and cons. And it's a balancing act. And I appreciate the commission's time. And looking at this in a very thoughtful way. And I appreciate our community attending as well.
[Unidentified]: Thanks.
[Tim McGivern]: Maybe I'll let Alicia make the motion on this one. All right.
[Alicia Hunt]: So a motion to approve the alternate version that preserves the parking for this stretch. So from the circle to Lawrence road.
[Unidentified]: I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. So motion by commissioner hot to approve the alternative, uh, plan all the way to Lawrence road, which for the record would be where the approved, the current approved design ends. Alva, roll call vote? To preserve parking. To preserve, yeah. Well, the alternative plan is preserve parking. Yes, to preserve parking.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Okay. Commissioner McGibbon?
[Tim McGivern]: Before I respond, I'm going to say that just the stretch from Lawrence to the high school does have the separated bike lanes. So, you know, the majority of Winthrop Street here is getting that treatment. So I'm going to vote yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, on a vote of three to nothing, the motion is approved. I believe that covers the entire plan.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can you just actually reiterate that the portion from Lawrence up through the Medford border has actually previously been approved. And Todd, the section from Lawrence to the high school includes buffered bike lanes for a lot of it.
[Todd Blake]: Correct. Because most of that stretch from Lawrence Road all the way up to the Winchester line mostly already had no parking, there were some areas that we included parking removal on the opposite side from Victory Park, but that has been previously approved in a previous meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I actually just wanted to add that I'm aware, I'm working with staff in our office, there is a path from the Medford High School parking lot down to Victory Park to see what could be involved in marking, making that path better marked so that people could park up at the high school to go to Victory Park and have the shortcut walk down with the handicap parking being the spots on Winthrop by Victory. Oh, I just wanted to add that for people who care about that section.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Um, that concludes the agenda, the table items from the chair. This was quite a meeting. It was long, but, uh, I'm actually very pleased that the way it was, uh, conducted, uh, well thought out, uh, ideas. So. is somewhat of a success. So if there's nothing further from the commissioners, I'll entertain a motion to.
[Alicia Hunt]: Motion to adjourn.
[Jack Buckley]: And go have supper.
[Tim McGivern]: I couldn't agree more. A very well run meeting. And I really want to thank everybody for participating and coming and voicing your concerns. These are tough decisions. And not everybody is going to walk away extremely happy. But I think we have done our job here tonight. So anyway, I will second that motion to adjourn.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to adjourn, seconded by Commissioner McGibbon. Roll call vote, Alba.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you everyone for all of your participation and comments. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Thanks, Chief.
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