[Steve]: Hi, everybody. My name is Steve Smerdy. I'm the Director of Communications for the City of Medford. I might just wait a minute or two, just if there are any other people hopping on before we kind of get underway here. All right. So we're here today to talk about the Green Line Zone program that we're working on. It's going to go to the Traffic Commission next month. I'm here with our special projects coordinator, Jim Silva, and our director of traffic and transportation, Todd Blake. And so today they're going to give a presentation on the program and go over kind of the timeline of things. And then there's going to be a Q&A session afterwards. So please hold all your questions until the Q&A session. You can either use the hand emoji, if you're familiar with that. You can go into reactions on the bottom of your Zoom. and just stay and add your hand up and then we'll get to you that way. Or you can also put your question in the chat and we'll get to it there. I want to remind everybody that this presentation, as well as this recording of this meeting, will be available on our website sometime tomorrow. So you can go check it out there, probably on the parking page. And we'll also put it on the home page for a little bit. Okay, so without further ado, I'm going to kick it over to Jim and Todd.
[Jim Silva]: Hi, I'm Jim Silva, special project coordinator for Mail Lungo-Koehn in her office. I'm also the Green Line proposal representative of the person who is the contact for this pilot project. And all of your questions will be directed at me, to me rather. I'm J.F. Silva at Medford-MA.gov. I'm going to be helping with the proposal tonight along with Todd Blake, our Transportation Director. Todd.
[Todd Blake]: Thanks, Jim. Steve, can you bring up the slides? Thanks. Welcome, everyone. We'll try to be brief so we can get to the Q&A if anyone has questions. And we are here for you at your disposal. So hopefully, after hearing this brief presentation, you'll understand the program. Yeah, so we'll get underway. Obviously, today is March 13, 2024, 6 p.m. City Met for public information meeting. As others had said, it's regarding the proposed Green Line Transit Area Permit Parking Zone. So that's what this informational meeting is about, the Green Line Transit Area Permit Parking Zone that is being proposed. Next slide, please, Steve. Next, we're just going to flash the map up quickly. We have some other things to say, but we wanted to flash the map up quickly first because you may have heard about the meeting from someone else, and you may have thought it was about your area. Maybe it isn't. So we wanted to flash this up on the screen because we're only speaking about streets, permanent parking on streets within this blue zone that's depicted on this map here. So it's roughly, It's roughly Winthrop Street on the west side, George Street on the north, Main Street and Medford Street to the kind of the east, south is Broadway, Somerville, but excludes that obviously. And so just generally wanted to state that because we have had some meetings in the past couple of years that involve neighborhoods that are beyond this area. So if you live beyond the blue line, none of this will, impact your change in any way. We're only speaking about the area that's located within this blue designated area. Next slide. So yeah, this is a slide that kind of explains the project timeline. So some of you may think that this proposal is new, but it's actually been in discussions for eight plus years now starting with the study the city had a consultant do back in collected data in 2016 presented it in 2017 about on-street residential parking program options and in that study it referred to zoned parking or district parking in 2020 Mayor Brianna Lungo-Curran, she formed an advisory commission, and the commission was called the Parking Policy and Enforcement Commission, and it was an advisory commission to investigate parking issues and hear from residents themselves and business owners themselves. So it's a community-driven process. with the intent to develop a report that would be given to the city based on all the information that they heard throughout that process and communicate that and boil it down and synthesize it into recommendations from that community-driven group to the city. And this is one of those recommendations. And I just wanted to point out that the co-host, Jim Silva, was a part of that commission, a co-chair of that advisory commission. So, and then I wanted to the next thing, so that was in March 21. The commission policy enforcement presented their findings and report and recommendations. So, there's some other things that may seem somewhat unrelated, but they're parking related. Chief Buckley and I held a. community meeting in June of 2022 to help folks give some folks that may live on private ways information about parking on private ways. After this meeting at your leisure if you live on a private way you could go to the city's parking page which will should have a link to a private way page and it has a It should have a recording of that meeting that we held back in June 22. So if anyone has additional questions about private ways, that's where you should go. Then after that, there were several meetings and processes that happened, one of which was this area. We had a meeting back in 22, 23 to, there were some streets in this area that's being proposed that were not yet permit parking. So at that time, um in saving their community and the residents in those areas that may still be on the street that didn't have permanent parking in this area we saved them the hassle of having to do an individual petition and getting signatures to get permit and we just changed uh 15 streets at that one time in this blue zone that didn't formally have current parking that now have had parent parking for I think over a year now. So some other steps, there's some technology advances that the parking department and other departments within the city have upgraded. There are some processes that were kind of streamlined. So all in an attempt to make parking more usable for residents, give preferential treatment to city residents, and try to prevent or limit others from parking in the area. So we're trying to help in that regard in terms of the limited parking supply. So some of the other timeline points here are So after this community meeting in March 24, the plan is to have this as an agenda item on the traffic commission meeting on April 9th, 2024 at 5 p.m. If that got approved at that time, then whatever needs to be ordered in terms of equipment will be ordered, and the rollout, if approved, would start July 1st. Next slide. So I'm going to hand it over to Jim Silva to talk about some of the benefits of going to zone permit parking.
[Jim Silva]: Some of the benefits listed, the preferential access to on-street parking. The program is built to prevent long-term parking by non-residents on a residential street. It provides also alternative parking locations within short distance. Enforcing by zone is much more resource efficient. There are few overlapping variances, and it's an equitable parking without limiting the number of permits issued. There is no changes to the current permit renewal system, no changes to the visitor pass system, and the program data gathered will be evaluated to best meet the residents' needs. Next slide.
[Todd Blake]: So we're just gonna discuss a little more in detail about the zone. We want to highlight as well that this is a pilot program. So we'll go into next steps later, but this would be essentially a test case, a pilot program would reevaluate after that pilot is finished, if approved. So the light blue streets indicated on this map are all public streets within the zone. And as I mentioned earlier, all of those public streets in the zone already have permit parking. So they're already signed as permit parking. You already need to get a permit to park there. You've all done that already, I'm sure, in the past year. So none of that will change for you. The only difference is instead of just being able to park on one of the light blue streets, you'll be able to park at any of the light blue streets. So the pink streets on here just indicating the private ways that exist within the zone. The red lines on this map indicate the areas that are currently paid apart, they have a kiosk you pay for daytime parking. And then some of the other things we wanted to point out were the exclusion. So some of the blue borders go along a street, like say George Street. So we have notes here if it excludes or includes that street that's on the border. So for instance, George is excluded, but if you were a corner house and you had a variance to park within the light blue area already, that would remain the same. The east side of Winthrop Street is included. The East Capon Street near Tufts campus is excluded. It excludes Broadway-Somerville, of course. It excludes Pearson Road-Somerville. It excludes Main Street. It does include Medford Street, which is from Tufts Square south towards Magoon Square-Somerville, but only on the Medford side, obviously. and then it includes Bow Street and includes Dexter Street, the block between Lagoon Square and Bow Street. So that's what's included. Hopefully, this is more clear than some of the information you had before in terms of the graphics and the legibility of it. And this will also be available on the city's web page. So if you want to refer back to it, you will be able to. So I think that covers it, Jim. I'm going to pass it back to Jim for the next slide.
[Jim Silva]: So what we want to talk about next is what doesn't change. All other areas outside of this zone remain street by street. All approved variances remain. Your resident parking pass remains the same. The visitor passes issue remain the same and are only good for the street issued on. And enforcement value remains either 24-7, 24-6, or as posted. If your sign has a value except Sunday and holidays, you're a 24-6. If your sign has no mention of the limitations, you're a 24-7 or as posted and be posted on the sign. So it's pretty easy to navigate and those will maintain. Next slide. Some of the next steps is the Traffic Commission meeting on Tuesday, April 9th, 2024 at 5 p.m. This again is a proposal. This proposal is informational. It provides you with this information, which will be proposed at that particular meeting. The Traffic Commission is the regulatory commission that regulates all traffic and parking on public streets and public lots. Zoom link and other info will be provided via the city events calendar and the city's webpage at medfordma.org slash events. There'll be implementation, if approved, there'll be implementations of new signs. At this time, the current plan is to modify the existing permit parking signs within the zone and the letter G for Greenline Parking District will denote the zone. And we'll have an example of that a little later on. The start date, we're looking at fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1st, 2024. At that time, during the pilot, we'll evaluate based on the data perspective and the fact that we will be adding a C-Click fix called private public pilot. And we'd like you to report using the C-Click fix application. So if this is approved, that will become available and will be very helpful with data gathering. Next slide.
[Todd Blake]: So now we're going to just look at some of the commonly asked questions that we may have received. So hopefully this may answer some questions you may already have. So the first one is, what does the change mean in terms of residents outside the zone being able to park in the zone? So this is a common one. I think there's some fair perception that people further away from the zone will now be able to drive to your area and park near the train or something like that. That is not the case. That is absolutely not the case. Anyone outside the blue line, outside the zone, will still have whatever they had before. If they're in the northern part of the city, they're not part of the permit program. If they're just outside the line in South Medford Hillside in their street-by-street zone, they'll continue to have their street-by-street zone. So anyone from outside the blue area that wishes to park inside the blue zone, the green line zone, they would essentially be a visitor. And if they knew you or were visiting you, they would use your visitor pass, just as they would if they were not on your street today and went to your street. So hopefully that clears that up. Is the city considering using windshield stickers to denote cars that have permits like some other communities do? so that anyone can identify what cars belong on the street. So at this time the city of Medford doesn't issue stickers. We use what's known as a certain license plate technology that scans the license plate and then everything's coded by your license plate. So whereas before, or with the sticker program, the enforcement agent might look at the sticker on your windshield, this just scans your license plate and it gives them all the necessary information of what address the car is registered to. And then if that car is registered to the street in the zone, it will be coded in such a way that it knows that that street is in the zone. So it's ready to go in terms of implementation if it's approved. Let's see. And then the city will always continue to re-evaluate its parking processes. So we take all feedback and we're constantly trying to improve for everyone. The third one, how does the district parking help workers who come to this area, district-wide parking, better meets the needs of residents and workers, frequenting, self-measuring. So basically, by making, you know, the city's parking supply as efficient as possible, then potentially some people that, you know, it could improve availability, with the potential improved availability for resident on-street parking, business customers, employees may have a better time finding availability in pay-to-park areas or other parking that's currently available to those users. So, you know, The number of streets we have isn't getting any larger. The number of spaces, we're not necessarily going to have more spaces. So the best way to best utilize our infrastructure for city of Medford residents is to manage it as best we can, which the permanent parking program does do that by eliminating people that don't live in Medford from parking on our city streets, right? So it's one level of control the city has to help its residents with that limited supply. Will there be a change in enforcement? There'll be no change in enforcement. The days and times of enforcement will remain the same based on the sign or restriction that's on your streets. So 24-7, 24-7, 24-6, be 24-6 or otherwise post it. If there's like loading zones and things like that, those will all remain the same. If there's no parking areas, same as before and after if the zone got approved. What does this mean for people living on a street that's marked red on the map? We received this question email. So it was a good question. The red line on the map that we showed earlier, and we could circle back to it and show it again if needed. That just describes the area that's currently paid to park from 8 to 6 PM. And it's currently unrestricted overnight. So those particular areas currently do not require a permit to park at night. And they will not as part of this. They'll remain the same. So. But if you live on one of those streets, you're in the zone, you'd be eligible to buy a resident parking pass. The last question. Are there any measures the city can take to help prevent vehicles from parking too close to private drives? This is a common question regardless of this proposal or not. So at times, people that park on street, no matter if it's in this zone or elsewhere, they may park within so close to your curb cut that's hard for a person with a driveway to enter or exit their own driveway. There is an existing rule that you're not supposed to park within two to three feet of a curb cut. and the parking department or police department can issue citations for that when they enforce. If in the more rare case, if someone's completely blocking your driveway and it's impassable, that's a safety violation. You should call the police department at the number listed here. Hopefully that covers some of the questions you may have. We realize it doesn't cover every question. That's why we still have a Q&A period. So next slide, please, Steve. So as Jim mentioned, his contact info is listed here, his email, and there will be this presentation as well as other references to other points of information will be provided on that parking website. Next slide. We're going to open up to Q&A in a few moments, but we wanted to highlight some of the potential examples of signs. This hasn't been finalized, but basically these are all four signs that exist in that zone right now, with the two on the left and the one on the right being the most common. The one with the two hour is in areas like Medford Street, where there are some businesses that overlap with residential areas, but these are all the existing signs in this zone. So the thing that would change would be the G sticker would be somewhere on the sign, and it would denote to the customer, the user, the resident, as well as the enforcement folks, if you're in the zone or not. So I think we'll start to open it up to questions. Would the city of Medford be open to considering adding a Green Line Zone sticker in the future? I think we mentioned that as one of the frequently asked questions. The city is always open to receiving feedback, and we'll consider that. But at this time, we use license plate technology. That does not require a sticker. Let's see, next one is Alexander's one. If there aren't stickers, how would residents report in C-Click Fix? Jim, do you want to handle that one? C-Click, what was the, you wanted the data in C-Click Fix to refer to? If there's increased availability on this street or not, or?
[Jim Silva]: What we're looking to do is to compare some data. So reporting that on the C-Click Fix is what we're asking people to do to accommodate during the pilot program if it's approved. And that would be helpful. We can do some comparisons over the last two years, but also react accordingly and report.
[Todd Blake]: So I guess to wrap that up in a vote is whatever you would do now if you called or reported on C-Click Fix, you would still do in the future. So there would be no change in how you do it, or just asking you to continue to do it. So right now, Pearl Street is signed for permanent parking on both sides of the street, but the practice is for people parking on the right side of the street to park on the sidewalk. Will this change? with the zone permit program. So any areas that maybe like this would be handled on a case-by-case basis regardless of if the zone is approved or not. So I would say that it's not tied to whether the zone goes forward or not. If there's an issue that someone wants to raise that may be a safety issue or an accessibility issue like that, then we would take that and the traffic commission and the city would take that on a case-by-case basis regardless of if it's zoned or not. The next one is, I guess, what exact problem is this solving? Why is this better than we currently have? So right now, it's a little more equitable. Some streets, very few, may have parking only on one side of the street or near side of the street due to travel lanes. You know, some streets have availability on both sides of the street. But basically, right now, if you came home from work and, you know, there were a limited number of spaces on your street, sometimes it may be completely full occasionally. So this would enable you the option to park on a neighboring street for yourself, for the residents of the zone to be more flexible instead of taking the chance and parking on a different street and get a ticket or having to circle around for a good amount of time to find a space. So it just enables the people that live in the zone a little more flexibility. It's not that you would do that every time. It's only in those rare cases where there's nothing available for yourself. It would give you an option, an alternative next within the zone if a nearby street So it gives more flexibility for the people who live in the zone. Right now, it's very restrictive. Medford's is one of the most restrictive programs that we're aware of in terms of the state and possibly in the country with the street by street system. So it's very unique. It's not very common in areas that are in dense populated areas near transit.
[Jim Silva]: If I could just reiterate the question, the previous question in regards to a vehicle that may have number of tickets on it, etc. They would still report that information to the police and that's the way that they were produced. We would do the C-Click fix if there is issues just reporting it through that. But all reports of cars with tickets on them, multiple tickets, it's a safety issue. It will continue to go to the Chief of Police or the Police Department at 395-1212, area code 781.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you, Jim. The other to circle back just one more sec to the other of what exact problems is solving besides more flexibility for the people who live there. It's also more resource sufficient for the processes for people who may live in right now. You may need to go to the traffic commission to get a variance to park on a nearby street. This. this may negate that for some, it will reduce the number of variances, reduce the number that the city has to track and that the residents have to come in for yearly. So it's making it a much more cohesive and easy system for the users that it's supposed to be for to help. So again, permanent parking programs in general, or for the city resident benefits. So it's to make it preferential for them to use the public streets versus someone who may not live in the city. And in this case, won't live in that zone. So let's see some of the next questions. Okay. I'm curious whether the parking problem will beef up enforcement of violators of resident only parking. I live slightly outside the area on the map, and I will tell you that unfortunately resident parking in my area is non-existent. I'm at Tesla, which is Tufts University. We really have zero tickets given on the street. So as we said before, whatever levels unfortunately exist today, that's the level of resources we have. whether the zone goes forward or not. But again, this helps being more efficient with enforcement. So we hope that things will improve and we're always striving to improve as a city. And we look forward to more feedback like that. And that's one of the measures that we'll be reevaluating to see if the public perception of enforcement has changed at all. And hopefully we'll address that. Apologize to everyone for all the distractions that are going on.
[Steve]: I think we should probably keep all the questions in the chat, just for whatever reason. This is kind of devolved here. If you have any other questions, please just put them in the chat and we'll try to get to them.
[Todd Blake]: All right. Do we want to go to Bobby Delfano at all? If we see the person, do we want to take the chance or not?
[Steve]: I'd rather not. I think if you can just enter your text in the chat, that would be much more easier for us.
[Todd Blake]: OK. I'll continue with the chat.
[Steve]: What about from Diane? There isn't enough parking on my street now for the residents who live on it. This is just going to make it harder for people who live here.
[Todd Blake]: Sorry, it keeps bumping down on my screen. Can you repeat that, Steve? It keeps bumping down on my screen.
[Steve]: Oh, sorry. There isn't enough parking on my street now for the residents who live on it. This is just going to make it harder for the people who live here.
[Todd Blake]: So the intent is to make it easier for people who live there. So again, within the zone, primarily you're going to park closest to your house every day when you come home, right? And then only in those cases where it's full, it gives you a little more flexibility to park elsewhere within the zone, within your neighbors, within your neighbor's streets. It's the intent is to help all the permanent parking programs that exist in Massachusetts, throughout the country. have the intent of helping the residents to make it preferential for them. One thing that we want to make clear, and this, again, is not unique to Medford, is the supply on the street and the permit process doesn't guarantee you a space. The number of people looking for spaces may exceed what's available on the street, and that's not uncommon. But it limits the competition with just your residents and neighbors and not people from out of town or elsewhere. So that's what the Permapark program is supposed to help. If the Permapark program didn't exist at all, every street would be available to anyone and everyone who drives through the city and wishes to park there. Steve, if you could help pick up the next one.
[Steve]: Yeah, sorry. Let's see, we live down the dead end portion of Burgett Avenue. I'm sorry, this is quite long. A lot of kids on the street and they like to ride bikes. I understand the need to be equitable on street parking. Seems like it would make sense to do the inverse of what is proposed, have a small exclusionary zone and high traffic targets like the Green Line and then open all the other streets to other Medford residents.
[Todd Blake]: This is from Rob. So if this is the one that referenced Burgett, so Burgett is obviously one of the streets that are a little closer to the Greenline station or one of the Greenline stations. But the zone as currently drawn, we believe it is small enough that it won't incur folks that are further away to potentially drive to your street. Everything within the zone is within a 12-minute walk of one of the three transit stations that are nearby. And that's the outer perimeter of the blue zone. The average distance to a transit station within the blue zone is more like a seven minute walk. So it was intentionally drawn within roughly a quarter mile of the transit stations to not capture people that may be further away that want to come to your area. So it does not include the entirety of South Medford Hillside. It's just the blue zone, which is within about 3,000 feet or less of the transit station. I think Sarah, who has her hand up, had something in the chat. Oh, OK.
[Steve]: Can you hear us, Sarah?
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_24]: Oh, yeah. Let's see. Did I unmute? Sorry. I'm out of my realm of, like, usually I'm on my computer. I've just written a few things that I think have been replicated by others. I apologize. I just got off of work, so I'm a little bit late to some of the dialogue. But I also live on Berga, and, I mean, we don't have a problem now. And opening this up, it's like, you don't have to worry about parking us straight over. We're fine. But this is a huge concern of my neighbors, and I unfortunately feel like you just are repeating the same answer to all of us back and forth. It's kind of frustrating to actually not feel like this is a dialogue.
[Todd Blake]: So, yeah, we'll try to say it in a different way to there's a perception that. because of this, that there'll be this influx of cars that will suddenly park on your street, no matter which street you're on, Burgett or some other street. And I think that's just some maybe natural way of thinking of it, kind of what will be the impact. But we don't believe that to be the case. Other programs throughout other regions, other communities, that's not necessarily the case.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_24]: So can I just interrupt you for a second? Because I mean, I lived for years in both Brookline and in Charlestown. And I'm sorry to disagree with you, but that was not my experience. I would have to rush home or hurry up that I was going to have to get to a place. I'm fortunate. I have a driveway. I'm trying to advocate for all of my neighbors who have to park on the street. So I guess I agree to disagree in my experience over the past 20 years of living in Boston.
[Todd Blake]: Okay. It's just one of those things we've heard from some other streets that have the same type of concern. They think that the two neighboring streets will suddenly park on their street, but then the next street over, they think the same thing, that those two neighboring streets will park on their street, when it's essentially likely that people are still going to park closest to their house. It only gives a little more flexibility. It's not going to be, whatever number of permits exist today, exist before or after the zone. So whatever, number of cars that are vying for these spaces it's similar before after so this is very similar to other programs and you mentioned brookline as an example brookline is i believe district for zone parking as well boston is district zone parking so this isn't Medford's not blazing a new trail here. We're not starting from scratch. These things exist. Industry-wide transportation, parking industry, these are common programs that exist. And obviously, I was right to disagree. So next.
[Steve]: I think Jeremy had a question.
[Jeremy Martin]: Thank you, Steve. I'm a resident on Charnwood Road, and I understand my neighbors on Burgetts and other streets' concerns. I can say, as one of those people who I think they may fear my drive over to park closer to the T, I can say, we and our neighbors really have no intent of doing that. And so support this trial and to see how it goes, and let's learn from it and see what works and what doesn't. Support the city in that. But I also want to say that I think parking is only half of the issue with the new Green Line station, or with the area around the Green Line station. This has been brought up in the Medford master planning process and in other forums, but the city needs to make an effort to improve the sidewalks and the street along Boston Avenue and in the vicinity of the T stations. woefully inadequate for people driving, for people on bikes, for people on foot. If you get off of the Tufts T, you're in a vast wasteland of cars with no clear way to cross the street. And it's really disappointing that we're spending a lot of time talking about parking and have yet to hear any plans from the city about how those urban realms and sidewalks and bike lanes and frankly, the parking that exists on Boston Avenue is bad. We haven't heard any plans about how that would be improved. So we'd like to hear more from the city on those fronts. Thank you.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you for your feedback regarding parking and the other things. So the city does have a complete streets policy. And, you know, our apologies if you don't notice some of the changes happening, but we are trying to catch up. With safety improvements for all modes. That's why the complete use policy exists. So we're trying to improve pedestrian access as well as bicycle access and making it safe for everyone. Bicycle pads and transit users. So there are a number of projects. So, like, for instance, the college that. Boston Ave location that is a traffic signal that is actuated. You could press the button. It's right off the train station. You can press it, get a walk signal, stops all traffic in every direction. There's future projects as well. So the crosswalk that exists about halfway down between College Ave and Winthrop Street. So if you came out of Charnwood and went up Winthrop and took the left onto Boston Ave, there's a capital improvement program to improve the signal at Winthrop Street in Boston Ave, and then there's a capital improvement project related to Green Line mitigation to improve the mid-block crossing at the Tufts Garage where the emergency egress is. So that would be halfway down the street. There are several capital programs going throughout the city in terms of improving sidewalks. The city unfortunately is playing catch up with a backlog of sidewalk repairs over years of not keeping up with maintenance, so we have the city under in the past few years have created a capital plan which didn't exist in a lot of years prior, and each year it shows how many millions of dollars we have of sidewalk work to do, and we're chipping away at that, but it's going to take some time. So we do recognize and hear that comment and concern, and we hope that you see improvements each additional year.
[Steve]: I know you have a follow-up, Jeremy, and I'll get to you, Bobby, right after, okay? I know you've been waiting. Sorry about that.
[Jeremy Martin]: Thank you and I appreciate the comments Todd. I just put in the chat that just last night I was biking home on that stretch through that intersection. You're talking about there are cars that are parked double parked in front of the T station. There's no sharrows there as ineffective as they can be. This stuff was needed a year ago before the T opened and the crosswalks are inadequate. I just think there needs to be more priority on it. So I'd really love to know where I can find more information about those projects that are in progress. I've searched the city website. I can't find it. So I think that the city needs to be more transparent about what's planned there, share that information. It would satisfy these neighbors who are forced to walk through these unacceptable conditions right now. Thank you. And I'm done. Thanks.
[Todd Blake]: Thanks. There is a transportation page on the city website. It doesn't necessarily include every single thing going on. We're constantly trying to update it and add things. The map behind me is one of them showing all the safety improvements we've been doing. But specifically on College Ave, We have had a bike lane approved to connect the bike lane that's now on George Street to the City of Somerville bike lane that's on College Ave, just around the vicinity of Professor's Row, so it would pass right by the T Station. So that just hasn't been implemented yet. And now it might, the implementation of that may be delayed a little bit more because Tufts University usually gets all their construction projects in the summer months when the students are out. So they're planning on some work in College Ave as well. So we just have to line up the timing of that. But there's a project to include bike lanes in stretches on College Ave where it could fit the bike lane instruction. It will have a bike lane instruction. And then in areas where it's too narrow to have a bike lane instruction, it will have an uphill direction. And the downhill will be the Shero. So we hope to, so hopefully you see this stuff come to fruition. And it's frustrating for us too, because sometimes it's piecemeal, but eventually it's all going to connect and it's going to be better for all users. So we, you know, we do the best we can with our limited resources and we hope to continue to do so.
[Steve]: And Bobby has a question.
[Robert Delafano]: Hi, my name is Bobby Dellafano. I reside at 46 Hume Ave. I'd just like to say a couple of things. I've been at this residence for 48 years and it's a great neighborhood. We haven't had any issues. The green line come in, it's a plus, it's wonderful. The neighbors all signed petitions to put in permit parking, which in my opinion has worked out fantastic. What I haven't seen anybody talk about yet this evening is, what about the winter? Heavy snow. What about the rain? Heavy rains, extreme cold, extreme heat. You're gonna have people that live somewhere over near Bob's Food Store at the end of Vasa Street or that area there. They're going to be coming down to Hume, Bridget, to Park, to get on the Green Line. Now we're going to get a blizzard that day, or snow that day, and there might not be a traffic, there might not be a snow emergency posted or whatever, but it's not fair to the residents that are going to have a car parked in front of the house and the streets not going to get plowed because there's somebody from just on the outside of the blue zone, parking there, extreme cold. So a lot of people that don't want to walk 10, 15 minutes to get to the green line, they're going to park on Brigid Ave or Hume Ave. When it's pouring rain out, it's going to be the same thing, the cold rain, extreme heat. I mean, it's just, to me, Why are we trying to even, what are we trying to accomplish with zone parking? The street by street parking is working perfectly fine the way it is. I mean, why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here? Myself personally, I look at this map and I'm trying to figure out what this quarter mile radius is around the T station. Does it have any meaning? It's in the blue zone, but anybody in the blue zone can park anywhere in this quarter mile radius, which is where my house is. And those are just the concerns that I have all due respect. And I just wanted to express that and I really appreciating you folks letting me talk. I know we had some issues here with some people that are trying to. But again, thank you for letting me express my opinion.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you, Steve. Is it possible to bring up the slide of the map so we can just talk about it? So, those are great questions and valid questions. So, the math originated from being within walking short walking distance of the transit zones, right? And so the shape of it. The quarter mile is a rough quarter mile, which is a very reasonable short walk. Now, in some cases, it looks like it's further, but because it didn't make sense to have a zone which excluded, say, a street or two that are just outside a quarter mile, or to have a street where half the street was zoned and half of it wasn't. like if half of stanley ave was in zone half wasn't it didn't make much sense you know once a street was in it made sense to capture that entire street so this seems like the most logical area that captures areas that are located within or close proximity to the three transit stations the tufts the Tufts-Medford station, the South Medford slash Ball Square station, and then the Magoon slash Lowell station in Somerville, which is why the Bow Street area is included. So if you look off of those green symbols, it's roughly the same distance away to the Northeast and to the West. So again, you know, it didn't seem to make much sense if you did a zone that stopped short of Yale and then stopped short of Princeton on the other side and just left a gap of one street in the middle. So it's just trying to make a sensible, cohesive area that makes somewhat sense with the short distance. And again, no area within this proposed zone is further than about 3,000 feet. That's the furthest. And that's about a 12-minute walk. So to get in your car, to move it from the space you already have, and take those few minutes to then search a street, like two streets over, to find one parallel park. and then is it really worth it that you know that that short amount of distance it doesn't seem like in this zone it's worth it to do it now if someone was talking about someone across the city but they wouldn't be allowed to park in this zone so if the zone is bigger we could see those concerns but the smaller zone it is we don't necessarily see that coming to fruition so um but thank you that was very helpful comments
[Steve]: Okay, let me check the chat to see if there's any other questions.
[Todd Blake]: Steve, I see a question about the T employees on Boston Avenue. We are aware of that issue and we're working with MBTA on resolving or improving that situation. That was a comment about MBTA employees, I think, parking near the train station.
[Steve]: Okay, I think Rob wants to know what success looks like. What does failure look like? How long is the trial period? Can it be reversed if there's a big influx on parking issues on individual streets?
[Todd Blake]: So because of the pilot nature of the proposal, things will be re-evaluated. People could continue to provide comments throughout the year, and it would be revisited at a future traffic commission meeting. So success would be, you know, realizing all the benefits without all the potential concerns that are coming up, right? That would be success. So success would be, you know, you have a program, it's working, it's not a... overwhelming influx of new permits does not overwhelm the influx of one street going to another street it actually those few occasions when when you experience um you know some issues and you find that oh this is great that now i can park on the next street over into this no big deal no fear of getting a ticket um you know that would be a success um you know yeah i don't know if jim had anything to add to that but um But this truly is a proposal to help residents. I guess it seems like it's not to some, which is, you know, you have the right to your opinion. But again, Medford's not the first to ever try this type of thing. As mentioned in the slides, in the timeline, there's a consultant who looks at permanent parking programs throughout. the state throughout the country. These are not unusual, unheard of ideas. So it's just new to Medford. That's why it's a pilot and that's why it's such a small area. And some people think, well, why this area? Because it's the more dense area of Medford, closest to transit. So those are usually scenarios where parking is at more of a premium, right? So we wanna do our best to limit it to the residents that live in that area.
[Steve]: Anyone else have any other questions? Do we get to most of them in the chat here? We covered a lot of this stuff about stickers. I don't know if you want to reiterate that, Ty or Jim, just, you know, how we, why we don't use stickers for permits.
[Todd Blake]: I mean, that is feedback we heard loud and clear. As we said, we're constantly reviewing our policies and considering ways to better support the community, whether it's for their benefit or enforcement benefit or not. So this newer technology seemed to be working well, but that's feedback we've heard loud and clear, and we'll take that back and consider whatever folks may be providing feedback.
[Steve]: Just a lot of comments in the chat to. So, again, there's a traffic commission meeting on April 9th. Tuesday, April 9th at 5 0T PM where this will be voted on so you can definitely also attend that and. invoice your opinion or suggestions to the Traffic Commission before they vote. I just want to make sure we get everyone's question. I know, I'm sorry, it's been a little chaotic here, but we're trying to answer as many questions as we possibly can. From Nora, if we suspect that a car not from the zone is parked in front of my house, who do we contact to get some enforcement?
[Jim Silva]: Again, I want to emphasize that the enforcement folks will be enforcing as they normally do. If the car appears to be outside of the zone with the license plate scanner, they'll be ticketed.
[Todd Blake]: Steve, I think I could touch on a couple of things because some other folks are asking for, you know, bike lanes and things like that. So just, you know, this is a meeting about a zone parking program. That's why we're talking about parking a lot. But, you know, A majority of my time is trying to make things safer and make things more mobile and accessible for all users. So other things we do are things like review private developments in your area. And we ask for bike racks and EV parking and contributions to mitigation to help traffic calming and things like that. So we're constantly doing other things like that. So it's not that we're not doing it. It's just not necessarily the focus of this particular meeting. So we do appreciate the support. you know, for advocacy for increased safety and increased access to other modes of travel. So we're constantly doing that, requiring bike parking and other things in private developments and things like that. So we're trying to add as many bicycle and pedestrian improvements and safety as we can and encourage other modes as best we can. We're fighting to keep as many bus lines as we can, more frequent service, and we're doing all we can on those fronts. So we also agree that If new residents that come into Medford, if they use those modes and they see the availability, then maybe they won't have a car that contributes to these issues. We do understand that and get that and appreciate the support for that.
[Steve]: Okay, any other last questions here before we wrap up. Again, this presentation will be online I think it'll be edited slightly, and then we'll be online, as well as the meeting will be online as well as the presentation, and then again the traffic commission meeting is on April 9. And if you have any other additional questions, please feel free to email Jim or Todd or myself. I'll put our emails in the chat just for reference. I think that's it, everyone. Thanks so much for coming. And again, I apologize for the disruptions. Obviously, it was uncalled for, but we got through it and hope we were able to answer most of your questions. And again, if not, please feel free to reach out to us and we'll get you the answers you need. Thanks so much, everybody. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you.