[Bruce Kulik]: Before we get started, I'd like to remind the audience to please mute their cell phones. Good evening and welcome to the Medford Democratic City Committee City Council Forum. The general election will be held November the 4th, with early voting beginning this Saturday, October the 25th. Tonight's program is being broadcast, streamed, and recorded for later playback by the Medford Community Media. My name is Bruce Kulik, and along with Phyllis Morrison, we are the co-chairs of the committee. All candidates, regardless of political affiliation, were invited to attend. Tonight we will hear from 10 of the 14 City Council candidates. Nate Merritt is unable to attend due to a previous family engagement. Paul Donato Jr. had a previous work commitment and is unable to attend. Rick Caraviello is recovering from knee replacement surgery and is unable to attend. His wife Cara will be arriving later this evening to deliver his closing statement. And George Scarpelli declined to participate. The moderators for tonight's forum will be myself and Phyllis. and we're joined by volunteers from Jumbo Vote, a nonpartisan student-run organization from the Titch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. The co-president of Jumbo Vote is Tegan Mastone. Tonight's volunteers also include our timekeepers, Julia Kiko, Macy D. Giuseppe, and stage managers Amy Zhao and Ella Hochman. We also have a volunteer from Medford High School, Jacob Yee, who will be operating the lights and providing technical assistance. The format of tonight's forum will consist of two rounds of questions and responses, with each candidate receiving one question in each round. We will then have each candidate deliver a closing statement. The order of speaking was determined by a random selection conducted earlier this week by members of the organizing committee, with candidates allowed to swap positions if they wanted to by mutual agreement. Each candidate will be allowed two minutes response time for each question and two minutes for the closing statement. The timekeeper will display a yellow card when 15 seconds remain and a red card when time has expired. The moderator will then tell the candidates that time is up. We will now introduce each candidate. When your name is called, please stand if able, greet the audience, and then please be seated. Justin Tseng. Liz Mullane, Matt Leming, Nick Guerrillo, Anna Callahan, Zach Bares, Melanie Tringali, Emily Lazzaro, Miranda Prezzino, and Patrick Clerkin. We will now conduct the Q&A portion of tonight's forum. The questions will be asked in two rounds, with each candidate responding in the order previously determined. We have developed several questions for tonight's forum. The questions will be drawn from a glass bowl by one of the student volunteers and provided to the moderator, who will then ask the question to the candidate. The candidate will then have two minutes to respond as they wish.
[Bruce Kulik]: That concludes the first round of questions. We will now proceed to round two. We have replaced the questions in the jar with a separate set for round two that will include different topics. The first question goes to Justin Tsang. The new charter would give the city ward representation on city council a four-year term for mayor with four-term limit and the ability of the school committee to elect its own chair, among other things. What is your position regarding passage of the new charter?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Justin. Next question is for Liz Mullane. How would you approach your role in oversight, funding, and collaboration with the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee to ensure a transparent and fiscally sound process?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Liz. The next question is for Matt Leming. What specific steps should the city take to support small businesses and local entrepreneurs while ensuring Medford's growth remains responsible, sustainable, and aligned with the needs of residents and the community?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Matt. The next question goes to Nick Girelio. Closer, Girelio. Girelio, thank you. I apologize.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's insulting. Please explain your position on whether using free cash to cover operating expenses is a fiscally sound policy and why.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Nick. The next question goes to Anna Callahan. Medford has many heat islands, a diminished tree canopy, and areas vulnerable to flooding. What is one specific action you would like to take to address climate change risk for Medford, and how would you pay for it?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Anna. The next question is for Zach Baird. What is your position on the current divestment policy recently vetoed by the mayor? How would you monitor and enforce it without undermining the city's fiscal flexibility or return on investments? Or, if you don't agree with it, what alternative ethical investment criteria, if any, would you propose?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to note that at this time Carol Caraviello has joined us on stage. She will be delivering Rick Caraviello's closing statements shortly. The next question goes to Melanie Tringale. What city department do you feel is most in need of significant increase in its budget for the next fiscal year and why?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you. The next question goes to Emily Lazzaro. What specific tools, meetings, or outreach methods will you use to strengthen communication and engagement with the community?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Emily. I'd also like to remind the candidates at this time to refrain from invoking the names of other candidates in their responses. Thank you. The next question goes to Miranda Roseña. Did I say that right?
[Bruce Kulik]: Looking ahead five to ten years, what is your vision for Medford's future? What role do you see the city council playing in helping us get there?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you Miranda. And the final question tonight goes to Patrick Clurkin. If elected to Medford City Council, what is your top priority for the city? How do you plan to turn this into action? And what specific steps will you take to make measurable progress about that within your term?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, Patrick.
[Bruce Kulik]: And welcome to the Medford Democratic City Committee School Committee Candidates Forum. Tonight's program is being broadcast, streamed and recorded for later playback by the Medford Community Media. My name is Bruce Kulik and along with Phyllis Morrison, who is absent tonight, we are the co-chairs of the committee. Tonight we will hear statements of responses to questions from all nine school committee candidates. The general election will be held November the 4th with early voting beginning October 25th. The moderators will be myself and Anita Tucker, who is a member of the committee. We are joined by volunteers from Jumbo Vote, a non-partisan student-run organization from the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Tufts students' volunteers tonight include our timekeepers, Tegan Mastone, Dombian Kurt, Eleanor Shockney-Martello, Jules Zinn-Rothorn. We also have a volunteer from the Medford High, Jacob Yee, who is up in the booth operating the lights and providing technical assistance. Mayor Brianna Lungel has graciously declined to participate tonight to allow the focus to remain on the school committee candidates. The format of tonight's forum will consist of opening statements by each candidate, followed by questions and responses by each candidate, and concluded with a closing statement. The order of speaking was determined by random selection conducted earlier by members of the organizing committee, with candidates allowed to swap positions by mutual agreement. Candidate Intoppa has notified us he has additional personal engagement this evening and will need to leave early. He has designated Lacey Intoppa to deliver his closing statement. Each candidate will be allowed two minutes for the opening and closing statements as well as two minutes response time for each question. The timekeeper will display a yellow card when 15 seconds remain and a red card when time has expired. The moderator will then tell the candidate that time is up.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you to all the candidates for their opening statement. We will now conduct the Q&A portion of tonight's forum. The questions will be asked in three rounds with each candidate responding in the order previously determined. We have developed 27 questions for tonight's forum. Each candidate will draw a question from a glass bowl. The question will be provided to the moderator who will ask the questions to the candidate. The candidate will then have two minutes to respond as they wish. The first round begins with candidate Mastro Brioni. Please draw a question from the bowl and return to the volunteer.
[Bruce Kulik]: What motivates you to run for school committee and what particular skills or experience qualify you to serve? So to repeat the question. What motivates you to run for school committee and what particular skills or experience qualify you to serve?
[Bruce Kulik]: What do you believe the primary roles and responsibilities of a school committee are? Provide some examples of the differences between the school committee's role and the superintendent's role.
[Bruce Kulik]: Provide some examples of the difference between the school committee's role and the superintendent's role.
[Bruce Kulik]: John Intoppa. What are your views on school safety policies and disciplinary practices? What steps would you take to address behavioral and mental health challenges facing students and staff?
[Bruce Kulik]: Jenny Graham. Oh, excuse me, Jessica Parks. What ideas do you have to engage parents and taxpayers to ensure their voices are heard?
[Bruce Kulik]: Jenny Graham. What role do you think school committees should play in supporting the rights of gender-flexible students?
[Bruce Kulik]: Lisa Kingsley.
[Bruce Kulik]: What do you see is the district's greatest strengths and weaknesses regarding student achievement? What are you proud of? What would you like to see improved?
[Bruce Kulik]: Nicole Brandlue.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do you believe that students should have access in the classrooms to the personal devices like phones, tablets, laptops for research or learning tools? How should the school committee ensure equity for students who might be unable to afford such technology?
[Bruce Kulik]: Do you believe that students should have access in the classroom to their personal devices like phones, tablets, or laptops for research or to use learning tools? How should the school committee ensure equity for students who might be unable to afford such technology?
[Bruce Kulik]: Erika Reinfeld. Should we increase or reduce the resources applied to special needs or English language learners? Please explain.
[Bruce Kulik]: Paul Rousseau.
[Bruce Kulik]: Does Medford need a new high school building? Please provide examples supporting that choice.
[Bruce Kulik]: Does Medford need a new high school building? Please provide examples supporting that choice. That feels like a softball. Thank you. They were randomly assigned.
[Bruce Kulik]: That concludes the second round of questions. We will now proceed to the third and final round. Michael Mastrobianni. Massachusetts voters recently approved a measure to eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement, but to retain it to assess student achievement and identify schools needing support. What is your perspective on the decline in MCAS scores post-COVID and the decision to eliminate it as a graduation requirement?
[Bruce Kulik]: What is your perspective on the possibility of federal budget allocation being subject to federal guidelines or curriculum and policy requirements, such as teaching the history of enslaved people, DEI policies, or the treatment of transgender students?
[Bruce Kulik]: As indicated earlier, John Antofa had to leave due to a previous personal commitment. We will then proceed now to Jessica Parks. Will you support a debt exclusion tax override to build or renovate a new Medford High School?
[Bruce Kulik]: OK. Next to Jenny Graham.
[Bruce Kulik]: We'll get out early this way.
[Bruce Kulik]: After-school programs have been an ongoing challenge for Medford. Do you think that after-school programs are important, and how would you help address this challenge?
[Bruce Kulik]: Lisa Kingsley. What are your views on the district's current literacy or math programs? Are there types of programs you would like to see put in place to provide more flexibility in instruction?
[Bruce Kulik]: Nicole Ranley. What can be done about improving the nutritional value of food provided to our students?
[Bruce Kulik]: What can be done about improving the nutritional value of food provided to our students?
[Bruce Kulik]: Erika Reinfeld. Around the nation, parents and groups have expressed concern about certain books being available to their children or used as optional teaching materials. Are there certain types of books or books with particular message or characters that we should restrict at any grade level?
[Bruce Kulik]: And finally, Paul Rousseau.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll read it afterwards. All right. Medford currently has an interim superintendent What criteria and methods will you use to ensure that the best superintendent is selected from a broad range of internal and external candidates?
[Bruce Kulik]: At this time I would like to invite Lacey and Tapa to join us on stage. And while we're waiting, I will read the question, which is one I wish had been asked. How will you evaluate technology purchases to ensure they provide a strong return on investment? How should the school committee ensure equity for students who might be unable to afford internet at home? So you can all think about that and dream about it tonight.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you to all the candidates and thank you to the Medford Public Schools for allowing us the use of the auditorium. Also to the volunteers from Tufts and from Medford High and finally the staff here who helped us this evening to set up the stage, get everything ready. We truly appreciate your help. That concludes tonight's School Committee Candidate Forum. Please note that the Medford Democratic City Committee will hold a forum for City Council candidates next Thursday at 7 p.m. here in the Caron Theater. and it will be broadcast, streamed, and recorded by Medford Public Media. Thank you for attending and viewing this forum. Have a good night.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, Daniel Nuzzo-Miller, chair, is absent. Emily O'Brien, vice chair.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce Kulik, secretary, here. Gerard Powell, appears absent. Ernie Meunier.
[Bruce Kulik]: Noam Reuveni.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mary-Kate Christopherson, appears absent. Leah Grodstein appears absent. Rebecca Wright appears absent. Adam Shire. I'm here. Chris Stivers.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hannah Renkert.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you. And we have a quorum, we can continue.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, Adam Klein. That's a new one. Yes, you're right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Why don't we return to him? Hi, is everyone there? Oh, there you go.
[Bruce Kulik]: We have an infrastructure agenda item scheduled for about 755. If necessary, we could move that forward at the discretion of the chair. I guess I appreciate it.
[Bruce Kulik]: One more person, someone, Kaitlin.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's a part of the eight o'clock review of goals, priorities, and procedures master plan. Uh, we can discuss it at that point.
[Bruce Kulik]: We have that under events 735.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think I don't have the minutes. I can bring it up and confirm if you want.
[Bruce Kulik]: What was that question?
[Bruce Kulik]: You had requested who was authorized, and I did get the minutes. Yes, Daniel was authorized to write to DCR. Sorry.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce? Yeah, I'd like to suggest that we actually get more formal about this. We need somebody to kind of take the lead on giving us a design, whether that be Arlington or whether that be us. And then we review with the other team and come to a consensus on what we want to present. And I think the idea of blacking out the lines is a great one, just so that it's clear that It's perfectly okay and encouraged if you so desire to take the lane and ride the rotary like you normally would, because frankly, that's the only efficient way to get through there. Yeah. So, to that end, I will suggest that we take the lead on that. I'm not quite sure who can do this in a timely manner. I am going to be traveling for a few days and back on Wednesday. That seems a little bit late. So unless somebody else can volunteer to do it on our side, then maybe we should ask Arlington to take the lead.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is that in our chat?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, good. I'll copy it from there. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: And our Chris, Chris Stivers, was that you that produced that diagram? That very simple sketch? Yeah. And is that something that you're comfortable doing, I mean, from several angles? Because that was pretty quick and easy and better than that.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think that if you and I can work together, I'd be happy to do that. And you can come up with a proposal. We can kind of run it past a few of us, not as an official vote, but just to get ideas and then present it at their next meeting. Again, not as something we have definitely approved, but as a starting point. And then we can come back with hopefully an approved version from them. maybe perhaps another representative or Anton can come and then we can work out in conference committee, if you will, any changes we need, or hopefully we'll just need to rubber stamp it at that point.
[Bruce Kulik]: So can you... I'd like to make an official motion so we can close down on this because we do need to move on to the car pump track.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would like to make the motion that we authorize Bruce and Chris basically to do the verbiage we just talked about, come up with a diagram, get it sent to Arlington, attend the Arlington meeting, at least one of us, and then come back with a proposal that we can vote upon.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you, too, Anton. We'll see you in a few weeks.
[Bruce Kulik]: Point of order, Scott. When you get a chance, could you provide either a link that everybody can use to reference this or a PDF, whatever works best for you?
[Bruce Kulik]: If you could pop that into the chat now, that would be great. Otherwise, we'll get to it later.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to move that we create a letter of support, perhaps sending it, I guess, going to the mayor might be the right place and identify people who we would want to provide the letter to.
[Bruce Kulik]: We need a second on a motion if someone's willing to do so. I second. All right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's probably best if you actually follow up on that thread. That way we'll be sure to get it.
[Bruce Kulik]: And you'll put the link in shortly?
[Bruce Kulik]: We had gotten kind of blindsided by that. And I realized what happened is we had an email exchange about it. And it never made it back into any of our official agenda. And Emily, I think you were involved in that email thread as well. And so at the last minute, we thought we'd try to put it together, only to discover that there weren't sufficient. We didn't have enough manpower to do it. So we wrote to Cash and said, we're not going to do it. So bottom line there, we don't have to worry about it. And yeah, you're right, Daniel's taking care of Harvest Your Energy, that's in a while. Do you want me to move on with the Tufts Community Day?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, so I'm the coordinator for Tufts Community Day. And whoops, hang on, let me.
[Bruce Kulik]: We've already applied as far as I know.
[Bruce Kulik]: How can I tell?
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. While we're checking that, we could move on. So Tufts Community Day is October the 5th. And I at least will show up. And we are there. Good. All right. And I'll send out email to anybody who can help volunteer for that. It's kind of standard tabling. We'll show up and answer questions and say hi to everybody. So that's that.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, but I'll do so before then by just watch your email. I'll send it out to the whole list and we can coordinate any scheduling or logistics.
[Bruce Kulik]: One person will do, it's just, you know, if you're there for three hours, it's kind of, you get a dry mouth and it's always useful to have two people because often people show up in pairs for some reason, you know, so it's good to have two or three people at the booth.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we have any other possibly identified fundraising sources. Did Brookline Bank not step up? Did I hear that from before? Or is that another one? Or are there other organizations we think we might be able to get some funding from?
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we need to authorize anything specifically for them to authorize them to ask Alicia to purchase approximately 400 or 48 helmets or whatever the number is at rounds appropriately.
[Bruce Kulik]: Correct.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think it was primarily the, the Clippership Drive Main Street, um, interface, possible signal, et cetera. That's why Todd needs to be involved because he was going to present what's happening with the Contra Flow Lane, et cetera. And that's what we're waiting for on that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Emily, you had asked me to add a door zone bike lane question. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so just a couple of clarifications regarding Boston Avenue. Are you referring to the whole distance or specific blocks? Just so I understand the context.
[Bruce Kulik]: I have a lot of experience riding Boston Avenue all the way from High Street to College Avenue. I do find that the lane on the lower, I guess maybe it's the upper part, towards High Street is narrow, but does offer sufficient space, being aware of the possibility of dooring, which is the case even when we don't have bike lanes. So I'll put that out there, that putting the bike lane in or not, I don't think for an inexperienced rider has much effect on the possibility of touring. In fact, if anything, the bike lane might increase that. That's hard to say. I will definitely say that if the roadway has any sort of a downhill, in that area, that configuration is absolutely inappropriate, as we've seen on the downhill side of Boston Avenue, where we've chosen to put in sharrows. And that's because simply any inexperienced cyclist can get up to 18 or 20 miles an hour without breaking a sweat, and that becomes extremely dangerous to be in a door zone at that speed. On the uphill side, on the other hand, cyclists, including myself, are often going significantly slower, 8-10 miles an hour, and therefore the the notion of being in the way, which some people are uncomfortable with, is higher. And it would mean that without a bike lane, there's things we could use to mitigate it. But you would be out in traffic more, going slower, which does become uncomfortable for a lot of people. and for motor vehicle operators who feel they don't have enough room and don't know that they can cross the line. And of course, at rush hour, you can't really cross the line on Boston Avenue because there's too much traffic. So one of the other points is that if there are no bike lanes put in, then the default configuration is to center the yellow line so that there's equal amount of space. However, if you were to leave the line where it is currently, and not provide a bike lane, you would effectively have a 14-foot lane on one side and a 10-foot lane on the other side. It looks funny, but I'm not quite sure what that would do. So the real question here is, given the lack of space, what does the paint actually do or not do? And is it really more dangerous to have an uphill bike lane at that location than nothing at all. I'm torn and you know how I feel about a lot of bad infrastructure. Yep.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, and by the way, the area where the construction is is a whole other deal.
[Bruce Kulik]: I will say- You were completely stopped prior to this because you either knew the door was opening or you staged this?
[Bruce Kulik]: Kind of like the rotary situation we discussed earlier. Yeah, exactly.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's- I think it's only four feet for the bike lane as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I want, I want to be clear about what your proposal would be. You would want us to have a minimum set of width that before we recommend a bike lane, otherwise we would recommend share us.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think the biggest difference is the yellow line has moved left. And so the lane is effectively wider with or without the bike lane.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I think that I understand your dimensions, and I've looked through them myself. I think, practically speaking, in an urban environment like Boston and Medford in particular, That is not a practical set of criteria for deciding whether or not a bike lane fits, because we just do not have the room, period. I always contrast it to what it would look like without the bike lane there. And I'm going to have to say that I can't support your minimum concept that you're putting forth because I think what would end up happening is it would end up getting painted in a symmetrical way, thereby narrowing the uphill lane significantly and making it worse. The only thing that you've really put forth as a potential safety hazard is people who are not aware of the door zone and do not ride accordingly and that is not going to change actually if a bike lane is taken out because people will not ride in a narrow lane out where we think they ought to, because they're afraid of harassment, they're afraid of getting hit, they're just not playing comfortable with it, etc. And so I think that even though it is not ideal, I don't think we have much of a choice but to go with the absolute minimums, which is what we've done in this situation. So I've got to say at this point, I can't support this, if it would be a resolution, I can't support going that route and saying that we should only recommend them when we have a certain amount of width, otherwise we'll put sharrows in.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I'd like to reiterate that if we remove the bike lane, that we retain the asymmetrical lane widths so that there's sufficient passing room. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a 12-foot lane and absolutely no space for anybody.
[Bruce Kulik]: Could you put a reference in the chat, please?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to make a motion. Yeah. Are we ready to move on to the next piece? Because I wanted to make a motion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I want to make a motion that we table this until the next meeting. And I would like to move it as the first item in the agenda, possibly at the expense of other items that we, cause we never seem to get to this and it's an important issue. Okay. That's my motion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Motion to adjourn. All right. Thanks all.
[Bruce Kulik]: With the record, could you identify yourself so we have that?
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. That's great. Got to make sure we haven't started the meeting officially yet. I wanted to add it as a preamble to the minutes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Daniel Nuzzo-Muller. Present. Emily O'Brien, vice chair.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce Kulik, secretary, here. Jared Powell here, Emily manure.
[Bruce Kulik]: I did, but that's because Emily is right above your name. And I just did one of those, you know, whatever.
[Bruce Kulik]: No.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mary Kate Gustafson present. Thea Gronstein, not present. And Rebecca Wright, not present. Adam Shire, not present. Chris Stivers, Stivers? Stivers. Stivers. What is it?
[Bruce Kulik]: Say again? Stivers. Stivers, sorry. Present. Yep. And Anna Rankert. Excellent. So let me mark the ones who are not present. All right, we have a quorum and we may proceed. We have a guest tonight.
[Bruce Kulik]: Seconded.
[Bruce Kulik]: Put that in the infrastructure section.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hopefully Todd will be with us if he's joining us.
[Bruce Kulik]: Before we move on, we have actually a clipper ship connector access that I had asked Todd to help us with later. We should keep any other further comments for that section.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. So you want to add a, I thought we, I thought I saw an email about that as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've noted that you want an agenda item for next meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Daniel, what is this? You call it the Hills Hill contract? Yes, playground by the ice rink. That's the official name of the playground.
[Bruce Kulik]: This is a mountain bike track path. What is it?
[Bruce Kulik]: It is apropos to the next agenda item, which, unfortunately, Scott emailed me about an hour ago and said that he will not be able to make it tonight, which is too bad, because I was looking forward to hear more about what his ideas were. And he's asked to reschedule. For next week's, I'll have to go back and be in touch with him to find out if he can make it to the next meeting instead. So I just wanted to relay that. But it is interesting that maybe several of us on our own might want to just go over there and see what it's all about so we have a sense of what Scott's talking about.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's a request for an agenda item, so that's now in the minutes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, why don't we keep that thought for the next meeting when we have the agenda that'll just talk in general about the master plan and we can figure out what that means.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think it was mostly Pat who put it together, right?
[Bruce Kulik]: Can we just email these to you?
[Bruce Kulik]: Who seconded?
[Bruce Kulik]: Please raise your hand. I didn't hear it was Leah. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: Um, just summarize at this point, the motion that's on the table, which is to, um, empower Daniel to provide a C click fix agenda items, basically at his discretion to figure out, um, who should get them and lobby the city to have that happen. Do I have that recorded correctly?
[Bruce Kulik]: Aye.
[Bruce Kulik]: In the past, we have said that we would assign an individual who would be responsible for making sure that everything's coordinated so that we don't have repeat of the circle square where either nobody shows up or the tent's not there. Do we have somebody on this? Is that you? Is that somebody else?
[Bruce Kulik]: I would like to suggest that maybe some of the newer people think about this.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm willing to staff it and be at the table, but I was being reluctant to coordinate it because we also have another event which I'm planning on coordinating, which we haven't talked about yet. I would certainly be available to be at the, at the booth.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hang on one second before I get too committed about that. Oh, no, I'm good. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think I've got access to it. I'd have to double check, but I think I do.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK. I can work with both of you and figure out what we want to do. For me, it's mostly just been a matter of attention. I won't even say bandwidth, but just getting my attention to think about what should we do and what changes need to be made. So by having additional people doing that, I think that might be helpful.
[Bruce Kulik]: We can just do that offline.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I left a link in the agenda, which I will copy to the chat for everybody's edification. And it's basically going to be on October the 5th from 11 to 2 PM. They are looking for people to sign up, they say as soon as possible. So hopefully we're not too late, but I would take the lead on that and get us there. And if we are accepted, then organize for people to show up. Otherwise I would just show up and I would volunteer to be the coordinator for that event as well. So that's assuming we want to do it. So all we need is just approval for me to go ahead with it and I can take it from there.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's our basic table. And we hang out at the table. People come and talk to us. And if we have lights to give away, we do that. I have in my head to get some better handout material or better program. And I know, Chris, you and I are on planning to get together. I think, who else was the third person who was going to do that? Adam. Adam.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, Adam, OK, not on today. So anyhow, where was I going with that? Yeah, so basically, that's what we do at the tables, and answer questions that people might have. How do you get places? What are we doing about blah, blah, blah? When does ClipperShipConnector open? Blah, blah, blah, that kind of things.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's a general crowd that when people show up, it's like literally a community day, and it's really more externally facing than internal for Tufts.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, I will send out separately a call for volunteers as we get a little bit closer. And assuming we get accepted, I do need to contact them, which we'll do in the next day or so. So I heard a motion, I think. Anna, that's right. That's what I had you named out for. One second.
[Bruce Kulik]: And we're looking for a second, I think.
[Bruce Kulik]: Emily.
[Bruce Kulik]: Aye.
[Bruce Kulik]: Breakstone. Breakstone.
[Bruce Kulik]: So, again, this is working group stuff, I suppose, but... I'd like to move that we form that working group and appoint people to that group at this point.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, that's fine.
[Bruce Kulik]: Please raise your hand when you second, so I can tell who did it. Thank you. Thank you, Chris.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so I went through there, I think, after the signs were put up. And I've got to say that I don't remember there being a kind of continuous path as to how to do things. Maybe I missed a sign or maybe someone pulled down.
[Bruce Kulik]: It could be that because I was on my bike and perhaps going faster than a pedestrian would be, I bypassed some of them without realizing it. Yeah, I mean, we did our best.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll endeavor to do another survey at some point in the next week or two, just as I go through that area to see. Maybe some have come down or if either suggestions.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thanks for the effort.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm not sure what they did there. They said they were going to do it. There was some modification of the islands planned, but it was not a major thing. I don't know, Jared. I don't know. Why are you listed as the person?
[Bruce Kulik]: That's fine, I think we can do that for when Todd's here. However, we had pushed some of the Mystic Valley Parkway repainting discussion to this agenda item. And I did have some comments I wanted to make in that area.
[Bruce Kulik]: I was quite surprised when I saw the ghosts getting painted prior to the actual painting, because I was not aware that there were going to be any changes. I didn't see any requests for comments, anything of that sort. So it was really kind of a blindsiding, in my opinion, of the public with regard to painting what they painted there. And I've got to say, frankly, it's substandard. It does not adhere to many of the guidelines, particularly with regard to entering rotaries, traffic circles and the like. The bike lanes supposedly that went across the bridge, basically doesn't have any provisions for crossing straight onto Medford Street going into Arlington. All it does is turn you to the right at Mystic Valley Parkway. So it makes it kind of difficult. A couple of things it does, it discourages lane control, which is vitally important if you're going to be riding right through a rotary. It kind of makes the assumption that you're going to get off and ride through the crosswalk or dismount, et cetera. And I just think that it was, was done hastily and without sufficient input from stakeholders.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's correct.
[Bruce Kulik]: This link that was provided is basically for the paths and not so much for the rotary, it looks like. OK.
[Bruce Kulik]: So, I do remember this 1. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's not what was implemented.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think the big problem with the current design and where I'm afraid this is going to go is it basically provides, there's two ways for cyclists to safely get through this intersection. One is by merging with traffic that might be wanting to turn right or effectively controlling the lane as you do so and proceeding through the rotary as a vehicle. The other option is to be shunted basically off to the crosswalk, but because of the nature of where those crosswalks are, that's an incredibly non-efficient mechanism for most cyclists, especially if you're coming down the hill from Arlington into the rotary, you have substantial speed at that point coming through. At least any non-trivial cyclist will have that. So it really becomes a question of making sure that motor traffic that's turning right is aware that there are cyclists potentially continuing straight. And whether that's done with signage or paint markings or whatever, that in my opinion is the biggest issue that needs to be faced because this rotary serves a fair number of what I refer to as fairly experienced cyclists. It also is kind of trepidation for those who are not. So it's fine to provide a pedestrian-like approach through here for those cyclists who don't want to ride it, but not at the expense of making it more dangerous or more confrontational for cyclists who are competent and are willing to ride through with traffic, which is probably most of us here. with the exception of maybe some of us when we're using a larger bike that's heavy and so on. So that's my comment about that and why I'm concerned with what is there now, similar to what Emily said.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't do it. I just ride with traffic there. It's also a very slow rotary.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, that's on the Medford side, less so on the Arlington side.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's also that the motorists are more familiar with the patterns and therefore have an expectation of cyclists being to the right in those situations. And I think that's part of the problem that we have here is to the right is out of sight, out of mind. And therefore, it's really important to be able to assert oneself in those situations. Yeah, I wish we had what we had in Sweden or wherever, because they do it right somehow.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, but I mean, it never has felt like I'm being slowed down deliberately because I've approached an intersection. I feel like I've got the same throughput that motor vehicle traffic has whenever I'm in those situations.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so just a couple of comments regarding the points that Leah had made at Outer House. I can understand how the current way it's set up is more comfortable for somebody who's willing to basically walk their way slowly through the intersection and watch every time they're crossing one of the ways that somebody is not taking their right of way. I can understand that. But the second thing is the rotary on the Arlington side, at least, is a much faster rotary than the one at Powderhouse Square. Both College Avenue and Broadway are slower streets. Powderhouse previously didn't used to be, but they put in mountains all over the place, making it harder to go fast on Powderhouse. In any event, that rotary is inherently a much slower rotary than the one on the Arlington side there is. And that is one of the reasons why pushing the people to the outside of the rotary like that can result in the issues that Emily was bringing up, where people get hidden by other cars, people exiting the rotary at higher speed than they ought to, but nonetheless at speeds that are apparently normal, that can create a real problem for somebody trying to cross that crosswalk. As a pedestrian, I cross that crosswalk from time to time and find it's very tricky to make sure that people coming off the rotary, particularly those making the left turn through the rotary, see you. People making the right turn seem to see you more often because you're kind of in the way, but people in the rotary don't, and that becomes a very scary aspect as a pedestrian. So it'd be great if we could make those into more modern roundabouts where, you know, you're deliberately being slowed down to 15 miles an hour. that would make it easier for bicycle traffic to get through at a reasonable speed and remaining safe.
[Bruce Kulik]: What? that get in the way. Of what? When you're trying to make a turn, for example, or trying to merge with traffic as you approach a conflict point, the flex boats are generally spaced in a manner that they are in the way of bicycle operation. I can cite several examples around the metropolitan area if you want to go look. and experiencing it. But there are places where flex posts across the bridge on a straightaway, no big deal. They're not a problem. Except when you're trying to pass another slow cyclist, but that's a different problem. But when the flex posts continue too deeply into the intersection, they don't allow for effective lane control if that's what's necessary to be safe at that intersection. And that's why it's a problem. You might disagree with me, but it is a problem. What I would ask for is that flexible. That's debatable.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm not sure what you mean. But anyhow, that's an argument we don't need to have at this point.
[Bruce Kulik]: I follow you, Ernie.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, that was what I was going for. First, point of order, first a motion to table the next agenda item, then a motion to adjourn. Oh. Motion to table the next agenda item on reviewing our goals.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, everybody, if you have a chair, please take a seat. There's still a couple here and a couple over here. Otherwise, I believe we're ready to get started. Welcome tonight's candidate, a forum put on by the Medford Democratic City Committee. Our intention was to invite all the candidates to share with the citizens of Medford who they are and why they are running for office. I'm happy to announce that all the candidates expressed interest in attending. Also, before we move on, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Bruce Kulik. I'm co-chair of the Medford Democratic City Committee, along with Phyllis Morrison, who will also be our timekeeper tonight. Unfortunately, George Scarpelli and Justin Tseng are unable to attend in person due to previous commitments. Mr. Scarpelli sends his regrets, and Mr. Tseng has asked Jessica Attadio to represent him in his absence. Additionally, Matt Leming has indicated that he unfortunately needs to leave early, so if you see him bolt out, that's the reason for it. This event is also being broadcast and recorded for later replay on the Medford Government Channel, which is 22 for Comcast and 43 for Verizon, and via YouTube live stream at YouTube at Medford Community Media and 391. We have also published a list of websites, Facebook and Instagram IDs supplied by the candidates. There are cards distributed around the room with this information and a QR code to access the recording and Medford Democrat webpage directly. Additionally, the Medford Democratic City Committee plans to hold additional forums in October before the general election. We'll let everybody know when that's going to occur. Before I continue, I'd like to acknowledge any non-municipal elected officials who are in attendance. I didn't see anybody come in. Oh, stand please. So I'm looking for non-municipal candidates and elected officials. Yes. Elections Commission. Okay, thank you. Anybody else? I think we're all set with that. We will first introduce all the candidates, followed by each candidate speaking for up to three minutes. Any remaining time will be used to allow the audience to interact directly with the candidates on a one-to-one basis. Due to the time limitations, there will be no questions asked to the candidates and no questions from the audience. Please hold your applause until each candidate has finished their talk. And with that, Phyllis will introduce the candidates and continue with the program.
[Bruce Kulik]: Number 13, Melanie.
[Bruce Kulik]: We'll be starting in just about five minutes.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm also worried about... Doesn't everybody get to know their business?
[Bruce Kulik]: including me for that matter. And it also means no scrolling. All right, everybody, if you have a chair, please take a seat. There's still a couple here and a couple over here. Otherwise, I believe we're ready to get started. Welcome tonight's candidate, a forum put on by the Medford Democratic City Committee. Our intention was to invite all the candidates to share with the citizens of Medford who they are and why they are running for office. I'm happy to announce that all the candidates expressed interest in attending. Also, before we move on, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Bruce Kulik. I'm co-chair of the Medford Democratic City Committee, along with Phyllis Morrison, who will also be our timekeeper tonight. Unfortunately, George Scarpelli and Justin Tseng are unable to attend in person due to previous commitments. Mr. Scarpelli sends his regrets, and Mr. Tseng has asked Jessica Attadio to represent him in his absence. Additionally, Matt Leming has indicated that he unfortunately needs to leave early, so if you see him bolt out, that's the reason for it. This event is also being broadcast and recorded for later replay on the Medford Government Channel, which is 22 for Comcast and 43 for Verizon, and via YouTube live stream at YouTube at Medford Community Media 391. We have also published a list of websites, Facebook and Instagram IDs supplied by the candidates. There are cards distributed around the room with this information and a QR code to access the recording and Medford Democrat webpage directly. Additionally, the Medford Democratic City Committee plans to hold additional forums in October before the general election. We'll let everybody know when that's going to occur. Before I continue, I'd like to acknowledge any non-municipal elected officials who are in attendance. I didn't see anybody come in. So I'm looking for non-municipal candidates and elected officials. Yes. Elections Commission. Okay, thank you. Anybody else? I think we're all set with that. We will first introduce all the candidates, followed by each candidate speaking for up to three minutes. Any remaining time will be used to allow the audience to interact directly with the candidates on a one-to-one basis. Due to the time limitations, there will be no questions asked to the candidates and no questions from the audience. Please hold your applause until each candidate has finished their talk. And with that, Phyllis will introduce the candidates and continue with the program.
[Bruce Kulik]: I apologize.
[Bruce Kulik]: Daniel Nizzle-Miller, chair.
[Bruce Kulik]: Emilio Bryan, vice chair, not present. Bruce Kulik, secretary, present. Jared Powell.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bernie Muneer. You are muted. I see you. Noam Uveni. Not present. Mary Kate Gustafson.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right. You are listed as someone else, right? Leah Grodstein. Not present. Rebecca Wright.
[Bruce Kulik]: Adam Shire. Present. Chris Stivers, is that Stivers or Stivers? Stivers, present. Chris Stivers, thank you. Anna Renkers?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, we have a quorum and we can proceed with the July meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: I received it and I removed her.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't ever listen to you in the minutes either.
[Bruce Kulik]: Guest introductions are next.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think we have a guest, Paul Morgan.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are you a Medford resident?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. We will have announcements coming up shortly. I think we'll be able to figure in, uh, briefly in that period. Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: Aye. Aye. Uh, I opposed who seconded it. I think you're right. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, approval of minutes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, so moved. We can discuss that after the second.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, not yet, we gotta discuss. The problem I've got, somehow or another, I neglected to retain the record of who attended last week's meeting. I think because I was paying attention to the new people. And so I just wanted to go around the room and recall who was actually present at the meeting. Daniel, did you recall that you were here?
[Bruce Kulik]: Emily was here. Uh, here she was here.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mary Kate was not here. Is that true? Mary Kate?
[Bruce Kulik]: You were not there. Okay. Thank you. Rebecca and Ernie was late.
[Bruce Kulik]: I was, I was here first. Anna, were you here?
[Bruce Kulik]: You were not okay. And I think no one was here, wasn't he?
[Bruce Kulik]: You do or you don't?
[Bruce Kulik]: And Adam, I don't think you were here at the last meeting. Is that correct? No, I was there. Oh, you were. Okay. Thank you. And Chris, you were there, right? Yeah. And Rebecca, you already said you were. All right, thank you so much for all that. And I think we had two guests, Caitlin Robinson and Simon Alcindor. Anyone recall anyone else? OK, that is it. Otherwise, I am good and we can proceed to approve the minutes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, there were about 50 people there. It was really well attended. We started down in Assembly Row in the park there with the steel uprights and rode up one side of the river. and examined exactly what we were talking about, crossing Main Street and coming across the Clippership and actually rode, formally rode the Clippership on the first opening day. Was able to work our way down through it. And let's see, then what did we do? We worked our way up, basically on Revere Beach Parkway. And let's see if anyone will... Revere Beach Parkway, and then up along the Northern Strand Trail until, and we stopped at the bike kitchen, which I was actually quite impressed with. It's a couple of containers that have bicycle tools and some spare parts and is occasionally staffed by volunteers. So that was quite interesting. And then we made our way over to Idle Hands. and had a good social time. So it was a good fun Mystic ride and I do recommend if you're able to make it next year, they do this every year. And there are also other landline rides that are of interest. There will be another one tomorrow leaving from downtown Boston. is the North Station area going up to Salem. So that's going to be a pretty aggressive ride to look at some of the paths and so forth that are going on there. So I'm looking forward to that if we don't get rained out tomorrow. How does one get clued into these rides? It's put on by the MAPC, which is the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. They have a website. And I don't remember if I was specifically placed on a list or whether I was able to subscribe myself. But let me make a note to look up that information for you. All right.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, yeah, so that's that. And then the other announcement I wanted to make is that we will be reviewing the MBAC goals later in the meeting, just so we have enough time to really talk about it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Exactly what permits do you need for a ride of this nature? I wasn't aware that in Massachusetts, permits were actually required. I know if you want to get police detail, that's a different thing. Maybe that's what you mean?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, that's fine. I'm just curious about that. One other question is I saw on a thread that you had said something about the Arlington start site was not going to be in effect. What happened there?
[Bruce Kulik]: And what do you need specifically from us?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to point out it's a great idea to have people at strategic points even along the route. I know last year there was actually a key point that in retrospect we could have done better with right where we made the very sharp I should say hard right turn to go under the Route 16 bridge. Traffic had to slow down and there was one collision without any serious injury, but the potential could have been there for a little bit more of a pileup. So I think one of the things we should consider is actually running the route and making sure that there aren't places that could be of that ilk. I'm thinking, for example, Where am I thinking where they might be? Any place where you're crossing and queuing up, stopping, that kind of area is right for it. You were going to come from Arlington, but I guess if you go from Delaware, we might still.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. I'd be willing to do that. you can make a note, put an email for me so I know when you're planning to do it. Thanks.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think it's medfordbikes at gmail.com.
[Bruce Kulik]: It was pretty straightforward. You know, we show up, we put the table up, and people come by and we chat. I think we're still missing some good collateral to hand out, and we need to figure out kind of how to do that better, just so we have something. Ernie eventually showed up with some bike lights at my request, and we were able to hand out some of them. I have an agenda item later about helmets. We'll discuss it there. And that's basically it. We talked to a handful of people, and I had to leave about 6.30-ish. So I'm not quite sure if anything exciting happened after that. But we had like three people at the table at all times. So it was good. Oh, there was also a ride. Maybe Emily wants to know. Emily's not here. Was anyone else involved in the Clippership ride? that came to the farmer's market?
[Bruce Kulik]: She's not here either, OK. Well, they arranged a ride, and I think there was about a dozen people, kids and adults, that showed up at the market having ridden on the new Minuteman, the new Clippership Connector.
[Bruce Kulik]: All you do is say, I'd like to move that we, and then you say what you'd like us to do.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, I don't think we've ever done that. I think we just, you know, we create the group and and then the three of us will decide who should chair it. It's pretty informal, that's why it's just a working group and not a quorum.
[Bruce Kulik]: Tell us more at the, uh, at his slot.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm not sure who brought that into the I brought that up just because it was in the June meeting. We had an action item and I'm going to take. make a habit of putting action items in bold in the agenda so that we can review them, maybe nudge people or find out if they're no longer an action item, et cetera. My note was that Dennis said he would check with the Hormel Commission to see how to proceed. And I know people get very busy and sometimes don't get to it, but maybe you did.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, cool. Well, that's good action then. All right. Do they need our input for anything?
[Bruce Kulik]: That's correct, yes. I'm a certified league cycling instructor. And for each state, we do talk about and refer people to the laws of the state, not as legal advice, but basically saying, here's a summary and here's where you can look for information. Most groups, most state groups will have an advocacy group that's actually summarized everything by their legal staff. And we can usually just crib from that and go through it. I believe the goal is, how to say it, a lot of people have what I'll call default attitudes with regard to bicycling. And that means that they don't fully understand what the rights or the responsibilities are for cyclists. And that can create tension and can result in, you know, particularly with police officers, if they're not aware of what an issue is and then they get called to a crash or something like that, they might not be aware or fully understand whether the cyclist was operating properly or not. And sometimes people will blame a cyclist no matter what without really understanding it. And so I would like to see that information be provided so that they at least have a better sense of what's actually you know, important.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's possible. I would need to look up exactly what the well you could either go on the League of American Cyclists website and find about becoming a bike instructor, but basically they have a typically it's a two day session where they walk through. At the time they walked through a lot of operation on the road and what some of the pitfalls are and how to actually operate in a vehicular manner so that you can get through situations that might otherwise be uncomfortable. I think that the curriculum has probably been expanded now to understand some of the pitfalls that you have to watch out for even when operating an infrastructure, whether it's a shared use path, bike path, or separated bike. All these things have their own perils that you need to be aware of. But anyhow, you would learn about all that and learn how to present that to people, as well as the basics of how do you learn how to ride a bike to begin with. It's a fascinating course to go through. I did it five or six years ago, as I recall, maybe more. It'd be kind of interesting to see how they do it again for it. But yeah, if I don't remember to connect to you about it, let me, you know, look on the web, the league website, and you can probably find information on that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, and that might be the kind of thing where you could get a stipend perhaps to help offset the cost of either lodging that you have or the actual cost of the training. I don't recall that it was very expensive, but it also wasn't free.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm happy to do so.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll second that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that was my item, and that came up because one of the questions I was asking at the farmers market was, didn't we used to give away helmets? And so I just wanted to figure out, I think Pat might have been coordinating all that in the past. I wasn't certain about that, but I wanted to know if anyone recalls how it is that we ended up with a bunch of helmets, whether we still have a bunch of helmets, and if we can get more.
[Bruce Kulik]: What is the name of that organization? Breakstone?
[Bruce Kulik]: How do we get back on board that train? Just contact them?
[Bruce Kulik]: Was there any administrator reason we were storing them on city property as opposed to not?
[Bruce Kulik]: I just meant, was there any city policy with regard to that that we had to adhere to?
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe we can figure that out as well and just have a handful at members' places, like a dozen or 10, so that we can arrive at the events with them more easily.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, no, no. He's with Mystic River Watershed Association.
[Bruce Kulik]: What did I say? You said Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think someone was ahead of me, or are they set?
[Bruce Kulik]: I guess it's me. Yeah, so I just wanted to say that I have been riding the Clippership Connector currently at every opportunity. I've been coming almost exclusively westbound at this point, and tried several different routes just to see how they fared. And the one that was actually the worst was to go down to the police station and try to cross there. And I found that crossing the street at that point, it's very difficult, especially with a bicycle. As a pedestrian, you can kind of step into the street and people will actually stop. And I found when trying to do so with a bicycle, you can't really step in far enough without your bike kind of being in the way. And therefore, I didn't seem to get as much cooperation, and it took a while to cross the street. So that was one.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, at South Street, the South Street intersection with Main Street, right across from the police station.
[Bruce Kulik]: Please do, sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: I actually stayed on the sidewalk on the side of the lane yet. Yeah, down to. Oh, sorry. No, I guess it wasn't quite that far. It was just north of the police station at that light right here. Right. And crossed over to South street. and then had to ride along the sidewalk a little bit there to dismount and get into the not quite contraflow lane that's at least marked with a yellow line currently. And I found it to be incredibly awkward and would not recommend it for people who were trying to serve who don't know how to work their way through here. It really was not a good idea to do it that way. So another approach I took, and this was on a Sunday afternoon, so traffic was quite light. I was able to simply pull off the curb and make a left turn, similar to what will be proposed once the signal is in place. And that worked pretty well. I then took the bike lane south on Main Street and picked up the river path with the awkward kind of U-turn that you got to make to get on the path. And that wasn't so bad. The third approach that I took was to actually go down to the crosswalks in Medford Square proper, cross over those crosswalks, and then pick up the bike lane southbound on Main Street. So while that worked quite well, It was not very efficient. It really took a while, because in order to get through those lights, there's got to be like three or four different things you've got to coordinate. And they're not designed so that you can just sort of go through. And I got frustrated and just had to cross one of them, even though it wasn't green.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so I think what we're looking for here is the least worst of all the ideas that we have. The thing that I found to be the most
[Bruce Kulik]: I was going to tell you that that was my fourth approach.
[Bruce Kulik]: And Chris, I'll say that that works great for experienced riders, those who aren't timid about it. We've had reports that Medford Square is one of the more intimidating places to ride your bike through if you are not an experienced vehicular cyclist. If you are, it's not so bad. I do it many times and I find it works well. And so from my standpoint, what you said is totally true. I was able to go up, do my standard route through City Hall as if I was coming from Riverside Avenue and that all worked. But I'm not going to recommend that as sort of a family or kid or inexperienced cyclist way. to get through the area. So I think we need to really figure out what's the least problematic of all these choices that still allow inexperienced people to get through. And I think, unfortunately, it's probably to go to the lights in Medford Square, even though there's not quite enough room, like you said, with a cargo bike. because I think, I don't know, Chris, did you try going to the crossing down at South Street as well? And that technique, because that's just as bad. There's no space in the middle.
[Bruce Kulik]: We could propose different solutions and basically say, if you're comfortable riding on the street, this is the best way. If you're not, this is the best way, or at least the worst way.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it is, it is. But maybe just suggesting alternative paths. And the two alternative paths would be up around on Salem Street, and then the other would be going through the crosswalks. So that way, people who aren't sure where to go can say, oh, yeah, there's no way I'm riding on City Hall Mall. I'm not going to do that. Or people who are comfortable and say, oh, there's no way I'm going to ride down the sidewalk and through the crosswalks. So that would at least give some wayfinding guidance to people on how to get through. So that's my observation from what I've done.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I see your point. So that's another alternative would be to use the parking lot, which has its own perils, but at least you're going in the right direction.
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe the thing we would do would be suggested off-road route through Medford Square.
[Bruce Kulik]: Safest is a judgment, you know, because I don't consider it necessarily safest. I often find that riding in traffic is the safest approach for me, given my speed and abilities. So, you know, if you say it's off road, you're not You're not making any judgment as to which way is safest. And that provides guidance westbound. I'll continue to do these experiments eastbound, which, again, I haven't done, and offer my view of how that all works as well. But where do we want to go with this, I guess, is the next question.
[Bruce Kulik]: Let me add another clarification. When I came down Main Street from the crosswalks, I went through what we've called Sleepy Hollow and across the dangerous crosswalk on Mystic Valley Parkway. And then across this route-studded path, that was not very fun to ride on. No, I didn't go that way. I went on the path. Yeah, I'd recommend going through the parking lot, and then I picked up the Contra Flow lane. Yeah, okay. Basically, the only reason I did that is because that's the natural way to go. I think actually one of the times I may have, yes, one of the times I also went along Mystic Valley Parkway and picked up the Mystic River Path by the Condon Shell instead. Yep. I like that better. But that's still, yeah, that's a little bit better choice. Of course, the bridge and the sidewalk are kind of a pain in the butt there. But that's another approach. I've crossed. Mystic Street, both at that crosswalk and gone down to the path itself and crossed, those are six of one, half dozen of another. There's not really any benefit to one or the other other than maybe you have a crosswalk light if you're on the path as opposed to crossing by the ballparks. Right there, you don't have any light, you just have to go, whereas up at Mystic Valley Parkway, you actually have a crosswalk light. So those are different ways. Normally, I just go through Medford Square and down High Street. But I've been, as I said, deliberately using the path just to get a sense of what people are facing.
[Bruce Kulik]: I mean, I suppose we could have a series of, right, a series of paths that basically point in the direction, sorry, a series of signs, rather than having a diagram or something like that, that basically say, you know, Mystic River Path continues and direct them through the crosswalk directly. And then once you're through the crosswalk, they can decide, you know, what is the best Mystic River Path to take. Actually, that would work well. You'd go through Sleepy Hollow, cross at the crosswalk, and then continue across the narrow bridge to pick up the path at the Condon Shell. That's probably actually the closest to the real route, the ideal route that we would ultimately want this path to take.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interesting. I'll try that sometimes just to see how that fares. I hadn't considered that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we know where those specs are?
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe Todd knows.
[Bruce Kulik]: I propose that I can put together a draft based on what I've heard us discuss and maybe circulate it. We wouldn't be able to make primary decisions, but we can gather information to bring to the next meeting. Hopefully everybody will have reviewed it by then, and we can have a quick vote on how to proceed at that point. Maybe making a recommendation to Todd that they purchase these either temporary or perhaps a little bit more permanent wayfinding signs until the contraflow is available. So I'm willing to do that and distribute it. I don't know if we need a motion for that. It's just an idea I have. What do you think?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, so here's what I'll do. I will I will go back out, maybe even take some pictures and figure out what signs ought to be where for eastbound and westbound. And the goal will be directing people onto the Mystic River path, as opposed to any of the other solutions that we've said. It basically will be, how do you get to the next part of the Mystic River path? and people can decide, you know, how they might peel off and use a Chondroflolane or anything like that on their own. But I think that would be at least helpful to people that have no clue, you know, they get to the end on either side, it's like, now what?
[Bruce Kulik]: Say again?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, I've got that as an action item for me then.
[Bruce Kulik]: When you say Riverside, do you mean Clippership? connector at Clippership Drive?
[Bruce Kulik]: Point of order, we're coming up on 7.40, 8.40, and one of our main things we wanted to do today was to review the goals of priorities, which I think is going to take us half an hour. And I'd like to move that we curtail discussion on this particular item and pick it up on our standing Clipper Ship Connector Access agenda item in the future.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's a motion.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK, thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: What item are we going to?
[Bruce Kulik]: I move to table this item until the next meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Sorry.
[Bruce Kulik]: I was- You jumped. That's why I went back to it. Sorry about that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Watch out what you vote for.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think that is correct, but let me go back. The new members are Adam, Chris, Anna. Yes, all set.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to augment why that's important in our experience. People have come to us as if we are an advocacy group only, and we need to know that we're not. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: uh as you all know point point point of clarification we we can get together even as a quorum we just cannot discuss anything that is bicycle commission related and you gotta be real careful there because it's real easy to stray into something like that right we can't we can't deliberate right and we can't deliberate right under under the law of almost everything counts as deliberation could be construed that way
[Bruce Kulik]: I think I'm actually officially secretary. We voted on that a couple back.
[Bruce Kulik]: Daniel, when you get a chance, could you put the link to the slideshow in the chat just so I can make a record of it?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. Maybe I can move it into our collateral material point and make it publicly viewable or make a copy of it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: I generally put the agenda in by noon time on the Monday before the meeting. Yep.
[Bruce Kulik]: You noted in your original note, City now has dedicated bike related officials and engineers. I think that probably means Todd and to some extent, DPW Director Tim.
[Bruce Kulik]: several things including you know funds um and the mayor point of information there i think she might actually be a different title now part of community development or if she returned to her role strictly as energy and environment okay i think she was called the director of planning and development yeah they changed they changed the department name uh okay noted um i will
[Bruce Kulik]: I threw a link in the chat just to the web page on it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, here we go. Jareb Powell, not present. Bruce Kulik, present. Emilio O'Brien, not present. Ernie Munier, not present. Doug Packer, not present. Daniel Nuzzo-Miller.
[Bruce Kulik]: Noam Rivini, not present. Mary Kate Gufteson-Cleat, not present. Leah Grudstein.
[Bruce Kulik]: Rebecca Wright, not present. With no quorum, we are proceeding with an informational meeting at this time.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hey, Mary Kate. Mary Kate joined the meeting. At 7, 11 PM.
[Bruce Kulik]: 2nd, point 2nd, point it is.
[Bruce Kulik]: Preparation piece that I would just like bumble every time we might have we might have a good combination then Because I am NOT typically very good at taking notes because they talk too much and Then I listen and then I don't have time to record but I'm fairly good at keeping organized with like the formal Items the announcements the agenda etc. So and that's the secretary who does that correct, correct? Yeah, so, um, as long as you're willing to take the notes portion of it, I would be willing to take on the administration portion of it.
[Bruce Kulik]: They get filed and they're formally, we just approve them, but I've never known that we have to submit them to any place. Do you recall, Daniel?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll take on the role of Secretary Pro Tem until the next meeting that we have a forum at and officially bless me as being the Secretary.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK, one second. Let me make a note here.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, like I said, I'm not good at note taking, but Mary Kate, if you're wishing to do it, good job.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there actually a bill that's proposed in either the House or the Senate?
[Bruce Kulik]: That's all in the state proposal?
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there an H number or an S number?
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, I guess that would be on the proposal itself. We don't need to worry too much about it. I just wanted to get as much information as I could.
[Bruce Kulik]: It would be 65 divided by 5, which is 13-ish.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm guessing from the past that it's about 65,000.
[Bruce Kulik]: We would also want to know whether the DCR and other police agencies also are able to deploy them independently or if it's only municipalities that can do so. because obviously a lot of our streets are DCR streets and perhaps the ones that most could use speed cameras.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't remember hearing that the governor has signed it yet.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interesting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hmm. Is that later or earlier?
[Bruce Kulik]: I could look at the listing from the state that's in melegislature.gov, I think it's called, and it provides the text of the laws. So I could look that up and provide that to everybody just so we have the information directly from that website for at least for the next meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, I'll take that upon to look it up and get that out independently. We're done with that.
[Bruce Kulik]: So for the record, I would put down that you are announcing you made an executive decision to sign the letter.
[Bruce Kulik]: And if anyone objects, we can bring that up at the next meeting. I don't think that anybody will, but that's the protocol.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK. Could you provide a copy of a letter to maybe to the email address?
[Bruce Kulik]: So, as a matter of protocol, if you sign the letter. It would make sense that the members could get a copy just so they know what it is that you signed without approval. So, I would say that's kind of tacit approval that you get provided to the committee, but if you want to check with her.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't know.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's a recline, right?
[Bruce Kulik]: Hang on. Dudley to Haines Square. Yep. What direction did you say that was in?
[Bruce Kulik]: Eastbound. Okay. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hang on I want to clarify a couple items for the Albion street 1. what's the scope?
[Bruce Kulik]: One moment because Albion Street, I'll be in the street in one way, southbound between Medford Street and Broadway, and a small stretch northbound between Medford Street and Main Street. All right, I'll just record that we don't really know, but we have bike lanes in progress.
[Bruce Kulik]: And the River Road Contra Flow will be in which direction? I believe that would be northbound.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, okay. I had my, I had it. My memory of which direction that road went was incorrect. Okay, got it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it becomes two way between Arlington. Well, actually, it turns into Arlington Street, which is two way.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do you know, again, the scope of the counterflow? Will that be from Riverside all the way to Main Street, or will it pick up where the trail joins currently?
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, that's interesting. That's a really cramped area between two, one non-functioning signal and the main street at High Street, Forest, Riverside, Salem signal. It'll be interesting to see how that's connected.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's been only casually discussed in the context of.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's not good.
[Bruce Kulik]: I am a co-host as well. But I don't see.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, I got the recording started so Mary Kate in response to not knowing not knowing that these were in progress. It's only been casually mentioned in the context of a couple of different places. Like, when we talked about Salem street. We've talked about the South street. And Todd said, oh, it'd be good to do something about Clippership because we brought it up a few times, but that's basically the extent that's been. That he's mentioned it, so it'd be great if we could. I agree with you. It'd be great if we could get requested plans just so we can. React to that as well, and I have down down that you're looking into it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interesting. I never had any difficulty going through that intersection. I thought that was simply a timed intersection. Or maybe it's because there's been automobiles at the same time that I've been there.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. Austin street and mystic Valley parkway doesn't work.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. Yeah. I think there's, I think when they repave Winthrop, they put new detectors in and certainly the left lane detector works fine. If you're coming from Winchester to turn left onto Lawrence. Um, I don't know about going left from Lawrence on to Winthrop heading towards the circle. Cause I, I do.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: You come down and why many, and you turn right there.
[Bruce Kulik]: And does that detect you?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's what I thought. OK, good.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think we should put that on the agenda for the next meeting. Listen, people will volunteer. And maybe field check their. Their sense if they can, so that we have an accurate list of. Intersections, which are problematic and maybe ought to be prioritized. I'm gonna make a note of this here. Hang on one second. How did you phrase it? Advise versus react?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. Anything else?
[Bruce Kulik]: So just to clarify, you said Amy, is that her name?
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. A chance, you know, her last name.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you. Great.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are there any further agenda items?
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. So in Leah's interest, I move that we adjourn.
[Bruce Kulik]: All in favor?
[Bruce Kulik]: I guess that's it.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll get these notes out. by tomorrow or to tomorrow sometime.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, no, you don't want to do that. I scribbled them and I will try to get them written up tonight while they're fresh in my memory, at least tomorrow it's not.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. That's excellent. How about if I send it to you then to turn into information?
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, that would work. Sure. I can update that doc and then I'll be ready to go. Where does that exist?
[Bruce Kulik]: Excellent. Thank you. You did?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I'm on it.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've added a bookmark and we're good. All right. Good night everyone.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: You got three of them. Yeah, so, okay, so this came into my email box and I followed it because I said, oh, that's kind of interesting. And it's basically, it was done by someone at the Harvard Crimson, and it's pretty well done. They took four or five intersections around the Harvard area and just did some discussion about it. Didn't offer any solutions, but simply pointed out what they viewed as some issues with them and questions and was sort of a, let's talk about this article. The reason I brought it up is because I thought it was interesting to kind of. see what the discussion was and some of the points that were made regarding what's good what's bad about particular infrastructure and I also thought not that we've ever been able to really kind of do something like that with any kind of regularity but It does make for an interesting, we could have discussions about intersections in our area as well with either hints about how to get through them or what we ought to do about them or pointing out issues with them, whatever. It was just sort of food for thought. And I just threw in the announcements because I thought it would be something that on our own time, we can all do a quick run through. If anyone has it open, you can see that if you browse down quickly, there's a handful of little maps that have been put together, depicting the layout of the infrastructure, and then some verbiage about what's good, what's bad about it, and so on. So there you have it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, that sounds fun.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, for example.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hey, yeah, so 1st of all, Emily, I want to thank you for doing all that work. I know it's a lot of follow up work and it sounds like there's at least. a notion of some motion with them, which is better than we've had in the past. I mean, the fact that the chief himself is actually contacted rather than a lieutenant of some sort is actually, I think, a good sign. At least, I think it's a good sign. I'm assuming that the conversation was cordial and inviting to discuss issues as opposed to, oh, what's this all about?
[Bruce Kulik]: Right. The fact that the mayor is also interested, I think that really shows some good motion on the part of the city. Yeah. I would look forward to having a one-on-one meeting starting with the chief if he's available so that we can have a frank conversation about what do we want as far as policy goes? What do we want as far as education goes? Because I think that's the big thing. We need to know that we're supported. And if we make a complaint to the police, at a minimum, it'll be noted. And preferably, if we get a license plate, et cetera, a polite phone call. Right, which is simply, you know, informing them of what the role, the rights of cyclists are. And in many cases, that would be enough to let somebody say. Yeah, absolutely.
[Bruce Kulik]: These are all mystery things. I appreciate that the department is at least making What's the word I want? Outreach, I guess is the word. Yeah. I do hope that we're able to get something together. You said after the holidays?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm available to it. I would like to extend as possible.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thanks again for your efforts on this. I appreciate it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's the case with a lot of stuff.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's an interesting point. I'd like to get that clarified if possible. And maybe it's more of a legal thing than it is a law enforcement thing.
[Bruce Kulik]: Can they even go so far as to harass someone or warn them? Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Although I don't know if that's- Was that as a cyclist or as a motor vehicle operator?
[Bruce Kulik]: I think it's also a key reason why many people choose not to cycle. You're not genuinely afraid of getting injured, but they are afraid of being harassed, which is uncomfortable, as we all know. Even if you have a steel will, it's sort of annoying to get into a verbal altercation with someone.
[Bruce Kulik]: I do have one quick question, which is, do we have new people? I thought there were some additional people coming on board.
[Bruce Kulik]: And how many people are missing from today's meeting?
[Bruce Kulik]: Three, okay. Doug, Becca, Mary Kay.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I would not dismiss it, but one of the beliefs that I have although perhaps I shouldn't worry about this at this point, is it's important to have... It's important to pass the championship along, if you will. A lot of organizations that have kind of a founder and a champion, when that champion disappears, the organization falters. And one of the things we did with this commission was deliberately make sure that we had people moving forward in different roles. That was something that I initially made sure that we set up the first time we had transitions moving forward so that there'd be a lot of different people. Yeah, so along that line, I would not say I'm 100% against my doing it. I would have a preference to not doing it just yet, maybe again in the future. But if push comes to shove and there is nobody else willing to step up and say the vice chair, I would be, I would entertain the notion.
[Bruce Kulik]: You step down.
[Bruce Kulik]: There'll be more in keeping with the tradition, actually, to have you.
[Bruce Kulik]: I am not a good secretary. I self-admit that I get too distracted and wound up in meetings to keep good notes. It doesn't work. So I'm going to say no, I won't do that.
[Bruce Kulik]: We could, in theory, split those two as well and have a position of reporter, if you will.
[Bruce Kulik]: If we're- I move that we postpone the selection of secretary until the January meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Point of order? Yeah. I just, this is something that has been, I guess the word bugging me is the right thing. According to Robert's rules of order, the correct procedure is to request ayes and then separately request nays as a voice vote. And although pro forma, there's also the option for somebody to object to the vote. So it's sort of, You know, there's always that if you don't quite follow the rules and no one has so I'm not saying that that's a big deal, but I just wanted to point that out as a, as a. A walk of robbers rules of order. Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: I nominate Daniel to be chair and Emily to be vice chair. Now we have a slate.
[Bruce Kulik]: Any points to be made by the candidates?
[Bruce Kulik]: Call the vote. All in favor of that slate?
[Bruce Kulik]: I make a motion to suspend the rules and appoint Emily as chair of Pro Tem for the remainder of this meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Let's move on. We've got that sorted out. Next up is the
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to make a quick proposal with regard to that. I know there's also a Somerville-ish committee that's looking into traffic calming on Mystic Valley.
[Bruce Kulik]: But it does seem like there's no reason for it to be four lanes in the section between Auburn Street and the Rotary at Zilboy Field.
[Bruce Kulik]: Incidentally, if it was reduced to 2 lanes, that would provide sufficient room for bicycle lanes as well, and possibly a turning lane if they reconfigured that road. I mean, for those who don't want to ride on the sidewalk slash shared use path, which doesn't exist in that area.
[Bruce Kulik]: Even changing it as two lanes would reduce it from being a super highway type road that some people seem to think it is. Of course, if you've tanked up a few too many at some local tavern, which I suspect is maybe the cause of some of these crashes, maybe that won't make a difference.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we know if the bridge is DCR or is that a mass thought?
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, no, no, the bridge over the river often bridges are.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've already got on my screen. If you want to just let me share, but that's where you're trying to figure out.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's prohibited to make a left turn on Auburn Street at that point.
[Bruce Kulik]: Conversely, it is not prohibited to make the left turn southbound onto Auburn Street.
[Bruce Kulik]: Which is a very awkward movement to get from the river, to get from the path to the west side is very awkward through those two intersections.
[Bruce Kulik]: And my question, there's a crash cluster all out the differences between pedestrian cyclist and motor vehicle to motor vehicle crashes. Sort of a aggregate of, oh, this is. You know, checks a number of boxes, so we call it a crash cluster.
[Bruce Kulik]: I can believe that most of the crashes into that guardrail are the result of late night shenanigans. Maybe I'm just being speculative here, but the person would, as Emily pointed out, still be able to drive the car away and not want to have the police involved.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's no protection on the sidewalk side of that guardrail. At least on the Eastern side of the bridge, I don't know about the Western side because I never use it. But on the Eastern side, the guardrail posts are basically I-beams that are about 4 inches thick and have sharp edges. So if you run into those I-beams, it's not comfortable.
[Bruce Kulik]: In my opinion, that powder house, but I know what you mean. It works well for traffic control.
[Bruce Kulik]: There are bike racks at Whole Foods.
[Bruce Kulik]: And right in front of the police station, no less.
[Bruce Kulik]: I lost my agenda here. Here it is. So, what was this federal grant for? No, I would not have sent out. Blue bike expansion grant typically.
[Bruce Kulik]: I just wanted to comment that I'm somewhat pleasantly surprised, as I sometimes bike in parts of the city I haven't been to for a while, that I see more and more bike infrastructure making its way in, mostly in bike lanes, some sharrows, but I'm glad to see that, and I guess I have to give credit to Todd mostly for pushing a lot of that forward. So credit due, I guess.
[Bruce Kulik]: Actually, technically, in a case like that, you should call for a roll call. But again, it's a de facto roll call, since she's the only one who said she abstained.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, ravine road right near where I walk all the time.
[Bruce Kulik]: Across that crosswalk many.
[Bruce Kulik]: The speed limit is 25 miles an hour on the parkway. Most cars do about 30, which is not unreasonable. And of course, a minority, but large enough, you know, create like an expressway and we'll be cruising past at 50 miles an hour. In the evening, there tend to be frequent motorcycle drag races, it sounds like. I can't, well, I was only out there once when there were a bunch of them, but that's not so much relevant for what happened there. I don't know the details of the crash, although I think I read that the driver said the person stepped in front of them, but it is a crosswalk. It's well marked. It's one of the few crosswalks that are actually on Mystic Valley Parkway. I think the next 1 is probably a Shannon beach. And then up at bacon street, there is no crosswalk at high street on the rotary. The visibility at ravine road is a little bit. I know. Sorry. Yeah, that was ravine road. It's a little bit limited. I know that, for example. When I'm riding my bike out, I will deliberately come out at Sagamore so that I can see left and right on Mystic Valley Parkway. But on the way home, I will turn onto Ravine because it's a more direct route. If somebody is traveling at the speed limit, it's not an issue. If they're traveling 50 miles an hour, it's potentially an issue. I don't think the injuries were particularly serious. From what I read, I believe a dog was injured and taken to, they said a nearby vet, of which there was one just down the street. I don't know if that's what actually happened. And I do not know the individual who was struck by the car.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't know that the report, that the news article mentioned it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so... We should also be aware that there's a redesign currently in effect for the parkway and the trail adjacent to it.
[Bruce Kulik]: We don't know if it's serious yet, if it's at what they would call 25% or if it's still at concept.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's what I was asking. I think it's, I think it's concept.
[Bruce Kulik]: Um, do we have short term short term fixes? Ernie? I agree with you that something like that would actually be useful. Because, um. It's it's being used as a pretty major commuter thoroughfare, both by bicyclists and by motor traffic. Commercial traffic is not permitted, which is 1 saving grace. But yeah, I wish that most of the cars behave like most of the cars do, like all the cars would behave like most of them, because generally people are not traveling at ridiculous speeds, but it only takes 10%, right?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we have a recommendation coming out of this that we want to vote on or not?
[Bruce Kulik]: It's a somebody's going to get killed here spot.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's what you call profiling, Jared.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, I do, actually. Great. I just came off a meeting that started at 6 o'clock, hosted by Somerville for the Elm Beacon Street Connector, and they're basically kicking off the project to make improvements In the quarter that I think many of us use, or at least people who go from Medford from Western Medford to. Kendall square or downtown frequently go through that that intersection. Of moss land, Somerville Avenue, beacon street. So, it'll be interesting to see what they have and I have put into the chat. A, a link, which is on the Somerville website to get more information and to get the. The reporting of the current session that's still actually going on, I had to leave at 7 to join this meeting. But I'm looking forward to see what facilities they have in mind, a quick build, that sort of thing. I just wanted to alert everybody to that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I haven't seen the station, but I'm pleased to see that they're popping up literally all over the place. So that's really great that Mets has finally gotten really mainstream with blue bikes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Better, yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: The northeast side has probably the most space. as opposed to the others, which are just sidewalk, just speculating.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, I've actually used them. They're north of where I live, just north of the railroad bridge. And they go all the way to the Winchester Line.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's two places where sharrows have been put just before the bridge so that you see a sharrow as you cross the bridge.
[Bruce Kulik]: Really? I thought I could have sworn. I saw one there.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll sit right up there and check, because I could have sworn I saw it there as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: Not northbound? OK.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, no, it wouldn't be southbound. Right. Maybe I'm conflating what I saw at the bridge.
[Bruce Kulik]: They've become so ubiquitous, I've lost count.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think I think there's like, um, at least the 1 on Grove street is comfortable at 25 miles an hour, which is the speed limit.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, the one at Woburn Street narrows down to maybe 10 or 11 feet worth of distance, so you're sharing the lane, which of course is not comfortable for some people.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right, but that also means that you're typically running at about the same speed as traffic, so it's easier to manage.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, but frequently you'll hit 25 or 30 by the time you've hit that point. Your point's well taken.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do you have a sense of what caused the motor vehicle to lose control?
[Bruce Kulik]: If so, when is that again?
[Bruce Kulik]: Who do we contact about that?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I would consider serving as a marshal for that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I've got to check my calendar. I just remembered that we have a wedding one of these October weekends, and I need to confirm exactly when that is. But I'll look into it nonetheless.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm free. Wedding is not that way.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. It looks like I'm free as well. Okay. I always enjoy going to that one.
[Bruce Kulik]: When is it Saturday? What time is it morning or afternoon?
[Bruce Kulik]: Uh, if we want to get ambitious, um, in, in the past, we've actually sponsored a ride. Along some of the river paths, like to assembly row and back.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've actually got a picture of her holding her dog and sitting in the bucket with Chris. And sit in the bucket. I haven't distributed that because I wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it. I sent it to her, but I haven't seen it surface anymore yet.
[Bruce Kulik]: It was just... It was kind of a ridiculous vehicle, wasn't it?
[Bruce Kulik]: The Ford pickup truck that people use for commercial use is probably about the same size. It just doesn't look as, I'm not quite sure what word I want to use, unusual.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, that's a good point.
[Bruce Kulik]: Anyway. Yeah, but it is aluminum or stainless steel or whatever it is.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, how many people do we need? I mean, we can get two people to cover the whole time. I think that's fine, right? Yeah, and I'm free, so I'm willing to do it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, certainly.
[Bruce Kulik]: So we actually need to get signed up then. I can cover a little bit of it as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: Any idea if there might be a soft open in that, you know, it's not officially open because the signs aren't in and that kind of thing, but is accessible.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. It's usually, usually it says trail closed and the fence is open.
[Bruce Kulik]: Jared, would you mind sharing the street that this happened on? I'm sorry, say that again, Bruce. Would you mind sharing which street this occurred on? Brookings Street. It was on Brookings and you were heading south, northbound rather to George or the other way?
[Bruce Kulik]: I would like to ask us to do something formally, which would be to engage the representative of the police department. Maybe it's Carl Brooks, maybe it's somebody else, I'm not sure. But to really understand what we can do in those situations when somebody deliberately doesn't honor the forefoot passing, for example, or verbally harasses or intimidates using their vehicle. Because I feel it's the kind of thing which nobody does anything about it because it doesn't get taken seriously. And I'd like to have us somehow enter a dialogue. I don't know if we need the mayor involved, if it's something that Todd can help us with, but I guess I would like to make an official motion that we look into engaging the police in some fashion to understand what we would recommend to people, right? And maybe get some actual feedback from the police so that they know this does happen. And if you get a license number, you know, at a minimum, they'll make a phone call, for example. You know, that happened to me once in Belmont, I called the police and they actually tried to call the individual couldn't get through, but, you know, they at least gave good lip service to it.
[Bruce Kulik]: There was an interesting article a few days ago, maybe last week, on I think it was WBZ TV, where they kind of did a poll about what What is permissible and what isn't by bicyclists and they were very. I thought evenly handed in basically, you know, describing the rights of cyclists. That people typically didn't know about, you know, things like. Oh, you have to ride in the bike lane, right? Well, no, right? I mean, things like that. So there was quite a bit of surprise by both the anchor who was doing it and, in general, the way they presented it. But it does feel like that's another layer of education that people need to learn. I have also seen on the back of buses now, I always wanted this, and I'm glad they're doing it, the four-foot passing law. Is actually now on the back of some buses as an advertisement. I don't know who's paying for it. But you might recall about a year ago, I looked into what it would take to get that advertising. And it was way too expensive for a group like ours to do.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I actually, I believe I have a motion on the table to put together some sort of response for us to look into working with the mayor and or the police department to at least clarify exactly how members of our community should handle such incidents with regard to reporting.
[Bruce Kulik]: We also, I guess I'm requesting that we put forth the resolution that we be more. assertive about this particular incident, and in particular, an understanding of who should we contact or what should we do, so it's not just something that ends up in a vacuum. Because it's obviously not going to change, and it happens to more people than some, but It's a very intimidating factor for many people who don't want to ride. In fact, I believe when people say they're worried about traffic, it's really a surrogate for not wanting to assert their right to the road because they're afraid of these kind of encounters.
[Bruce Kulik]: All of the legality is gonna be handled by the state. I mean, that's cut and dry in the regulations and mass general law. So it's really a question of the policies of the police department and any of the safety organizations as to what they're recommending. But you have a good idea there, I mean, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, right? If, if, uh, have come up with policies that are useful.
[Bruce Kulik]: I mean, I'd like to I'd like to modify my resolution. We put together a working group to to proceed forward on this.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's not even quite that far. This proposal is to put together a working group to try to figure out how we should address the problem. Maybe it's discussing with the police. Maybe it's figuring out how to do more. or we're working with the other cities and towns on getting information, but it's really the proposal I'm putting forth now is just that we put together a working group so that we can explore a handful of different options as opposed to discussing it just in this meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll put together, whoever's involved, I'll put together an email and see if we can, you know, put together a working group of some kind in the next several weeks.
[Bruce Kulik]: Very clearly, particularly it's a very slow residential street that nobody has any business going more than about 15 miles an hour on anyway.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's just, it's a. Particularly outrageous, it's not like you're on, I don't know, mystic Avenue. Right and not that that's an excuse, but I'm just saying it's a different situation.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, exactly.
[Bruce Kulik]: Um, what's going on with South and nevermind. Sorry, South and I was thinking South Street is going to say, I just was on South Street recently and it looks fine, but it sounds like you got it.
[Bruce Kulik]: The, no, that was, I think that was a meeting that they had, which was sort of the kickoff and getting initial feedback. And then they're going to go stew on it and then they'll eventually come back and Leah, maybe, you know, more about it. Because I know you're involved directly in that. Project correct no, you are not. Okay. Not correct. All right. Sorry. I thought somebody was in any event. I believe that once they've stood on it and come back with their next plan, there'll be another similar meeting that we need to keep our ear to.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've heard nothing. Emily might be looking into that, or that's what the request was, and I've not heard anything.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to at some point suggest to Todd that we get Sheroes on city hall mall. Which right now is a bit of a. A bit of a bottleneck as you're coming through Medford square from the East. You know, there's three lanes there, one which turns right and two which turn left. And then you have people coming eastbound on Riverside that have to merge through that. Typically, those people are going towards Malden. So you have a lot of cross-traffic through that area. And at a minimum, it would be good, I think, to have Sharrows there and Bicycles Meashere full lane and perhaps even a four-foot sign or something. in those areas. Is that something we could request Todd to do?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. I mean, if you're going straight from the right turn lane, people who are going to Malden get on your case. If you're sticking far to the left because you want to stay left on Salem Street so you can continue south on Main Street, for example, then you get another set of people who worry about you being there and in the center, you're in the center.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's true. That would be useful.
[Bruce Kulik]: On the other end as well, to continue from the Brooks War to the Winthrop Street Rotary would be useful as well. But the better thing would be to get that part repaved, because that's in pretty rough shape.
[Bruce Kulik]: It is, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's owned by the state.
[Bruce Kulik]: So that's where the state got involved.
[Bruce Kulik]: So that's a good question. And I can only tell you what I read in the general laws. And I think this is the kind of thing which if we really want to know, we should check with the city solicitor, who may or may not be as responsive as the previous city solicitor was. I do recall that we were told that commissions can weigh in on items that are germane to their, what's it, where their function. So, you know, that could mean that, for example, the streets might be something that we'd be able to weigh in on, but it's not clear that it'd be a stretch for like the fire department one. And I forget the exact order of these. I know there's another that has to do with schools. Schools, yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. The only problem is that I don't see how we're going to get a decision, a definitive decision between now and when we'd be able to do anything for the election. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe we'd be able to in our next meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, the city's got to have a city solicitor in some fashion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, we did. We used to ask directly to, and he was quite responsive about clarifying these things. And I don't know who the current city solicitor even is.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that would be within their purview for sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, they are, but in a different way than we are. I think we should try to get a clarification from the mayor. And if she needs to talk to the council, that'd be good. If she recused herself at the school committee meeting, it might be because she thought there was a conflict of interest for herself. I don't know. Why don't we just get it resolved somehow?
[Bruce Kulik]: We could call a special meeting if need be to specifically vote on which, if any of the proposals we support. Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: We would do adjourn.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is that at the fire station?
[Bruce Kulik]: But the card, the lock is a little bit too narrow. So it doesn't fit.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are there any chapters at other schools other than just the Brooks?
[Bruce Kulik]: Are there any proposals or concepts that other schools have that are along the same lines as what they did on High Street?
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, the whole the whole infrastructure on High Street around the Brooks School was a Safer School project. and i forget where the funding for that came from but i thought i might have been involved with that so i was wondering if other schools if other schools have any kernel of an idea you know i'm thinking that mistletoe might have something on medford street perhaps or some of the connecting streets there or um what's the big long street that goes um Can't think of the street, but as a street between basically halfway between Main Street and mystic and mystic Avenue. That kind of parallels and that's another good. Low impact, but it would be good to have infrastructure. I know those are a couple ideas. Okay, I don't know what would happen around the Roberts. Certainly, the, uh, the middle school complex has all their. You know, the trails and the pathways, but maybe even work on Riverside or something like that could get involved in that kind of a project. These are just thoughts. I don't have any any insights on how to accomplish them. Just. You know, throw them as a kernel of an idea as to what what could be done in some of these areas.
[Bruce Kulik]: How is that funded? Unfortunately. I don't have anyone from the city to answer that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that was my thought that it was and it was all coordinated basically. Outside of mostly outside of the city. Until it was time for approvals and that kind of thing. That was my recollection anyhow.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I was thinking Willis Avenue is the connecting street, which is between Main Street and Mystic Avenue, and it's like the main north-south route through there. You know, I'm not a bad bicycling street as it is right now, but for the kids might benefit for having something. I don't know how wide it is. I haven't really investigated. I'm just saying that that might be a target. Or what other areas are there?
[Bruce Kulik]: So the Brooks project looks like it extended approximately 1,700 feet from the school proper, or maybe if I take the most conservative view, about 1,500 feet from the edge of the school property.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's right across from Woodman Road, right?
[Bruce Kulik]: 1,500 on Willis Avenue would take it to about Golden Avenue, just beyond Harvard, but that's worth. It would also mean that portions of Main Street would certainly be within Yeah, in fact, Main Street all the way through the Harvard and Main Street intersection would be covered by that distance. So just, again, a kernel of an idea.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I'm wondering if it makes sense to... Well, I think that means that in here, which is the next meeting, which would be end of January.
[Bruce Kulik]: So all we can do is let the people know that, Hey, they should have been here. So we got to both the quorum and their input.
[Bruce Kulik]: Otherwise I think we're done and I will move it to adjourn.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, more precisely, people can turn off notifications on Google and then not realize it.
[Bruce Kulik]: And when does the actual rest of the events occur? Is that also 2 to 5, or is it other times during the day?
[Bruce Kulik]: So I personally plan to be there for some portion of the two to five session, just so everyone knows. I did notice a week or two ago, there was an article on one of the, oh, I forget what newsfeed I saw it from, might've been in one of the Globe auxiliary feeds. And it said, Medford putting on a bike program. And I said, oh, that's interesting. I didn't recognize it initially as the one at the library, because they didn't say that until much later in the article. But anyhow, I did mention that there would be people from the bike commission to help out with inspection and repairs and so forth. So hopefully some others will decide to come as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, that would work great. Cause I'm my preference would be to be earlier. I have something a little bit later that evening. And so pushing five o'clock might be tight for me. So, excellent.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've been- I've gone several times in the past, not recently.
[Bruce Kulik]: Um, I might show up, but I don't want to commit to that. So, um, yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[Bruce Kulik]: That explains why I wasn't able to register for it then.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would recommend there's a lot of There's a list that you can get on where you can get announcements for each of these items, and you can get a little bit of overload as I have, but you find out about these things. And I was actually kind of surprised to see this because I hadn't found out about it. But now I see that it was from a year ago accidentally, so I'm not surprised now that I didn't recognize it as anything. I'm curious about the comment you made about people not knowing that these things were happening. Are these cyclists who didn't know that they were happening or general public?
[Bruce Kulik]: That doesn't mean much to me.
[Bruce Kulik]: Let me, let me cut to the chase here. My understanding is we do a post, but we have no guarantee that it's getting to anybody. Correct. Okay. So why don't we use email instead?
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, yeah, but we can invite people, I mean, through Facebook to join the email list for a little bit more precise announcement, for example.
[Bruce Kulik]: I, for example, am rarely on Facebook. I have an account, but I don't pay any attention to it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. So similar problem except self-imposed perhaps. as opposed to algorithmic.
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe get a picture of the one on the other side, right? But which is completed and in use and people see that they're like, oh, wow. And then, of course, you say we're going to have one like that.
[Bruce Kulik]: But what it's worth, even before social media, people would always complain that they were not notified about something that the city has regularly had hearings about. So I'm a little bit jaundiced about that complaint personally, but I understand the need to get it out to as many channels as possible. So that people like people, including myself, who aren't on Facebook will at least stand a chance of seeing something.
[Bruce Kulik]: And I'm not- William, does everything have to be in the tip to get funded by the state or is it money come from other sources as well?
[Bruce Kulik]: I know that's 1 of the mailing lists that I'm on and I periodically get paying that says. Comment period open for the and it's always something absurd. It's like the 2026 tip. It's like these things are really far in the future from our standpoint. It makes sense because everyone has a plan for it, but it's not like money is put into the tip for something that's going to happen this fall. It's like the tip lines are things that are really pretty far in the future. They're hard to track down too, I found. They're really hard. You got to sort them in just the right way to find the project in question. You know, and it might not even end up being in the community you think it's in because of some weird, you know, the way it's allocated.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, the best we can say is we don't really know yet, but here are the steps that have to happen. And, you know, here's the best case. Or maybe not even say that just here's what has to happen still, and we're not ready to go yet.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think all of those are true. Yeah. I mean, you're right. That's one of the best ways to keep things active. And although they can't go and say, I want you to put a shovel in the ground tomorrow, you know, they have great influence when they talk to the commissioners and the people that are there and they say, we're getting a lot of feedback that people want this to happen. Right. they know that they control the purse strings at some level for some time. And so, you know, it's understood that, yeah, you kind of want to listen to them. So yeah, it's important to tell them that that's what we need.
[Bruce Kulik]: I could point out we're running over time on this slide.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, I think it's probably illegal, too, if you're thinking about it, because if you're riding a bike and you're under the age of 15, you're supposed to have a helmet on, right?
[Bruce Kulik]: Suggest that the kids would ride from park to park and then. Basically, the Halloween event would be at the park.
[Bruce Kulik]: That would work where you helmet up, you ride to the next park, you drop your bike, and you change into your costume, you do your thing at the park, and then you go to another park. Same thing. I don't know how well that would work, but that's something I could envision, I suppose.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, point of order, I'd like to point out that Kevin made a motion regarding how we should act on this, which is kind of along the lines of this discussion. But I wanted to 2nd, that motion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is that the same thing that Mary Kate was referencing?
[Bruce Kulik]: Why don't you check the chat to see if it's the same link?
[Bruce Kulik]: And the Fitchburg cut off for the most part with a couple of the conflict with cars isn't really the point of Ernie's. Whether or not we as an official arm of the city are able to sanction something in which we wouldn't be encouraging not wearing helmets while riding a bicycle, which is in violation of state law. Right I'm not judging what people decide to do with their own kids at some point. You know, whether it's legal or not, that's. a parent's decision to enforce, but I'm just suggesting that if we weren't, as with Ernie, if we were not enforcing the helmet regulation, that would not be something that the commission as an arm of the city really ought to be involved in. So we need to figure out how would we go about doing this while staying within the legal bounds.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, there's a difference between encouraging them to ride at night without providing lights or making sure they have lights and something that they would choose to do on their own or at their parents' discretion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, point of order, there's a motion on the floor that either needs to be dismissed or voted upon. Okay. If Kevin wants to withdraw, he can do so, or we can just vote on it one way or another.
[Bruce Kulik]: Sorry. Any opposed? Okay. I'm just hearing that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Unless I'm missing something. Okay. Motion passes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thunderville bike committee has very similar items that take place at Aeronaut, or at least they used to on a regular basis. I don't know if that's continuing at this point, but.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so that particular venue has an area which is away from the beer hall, although I guess technically you could still consume beer at that location, and the public's able to come. Anyone's invited. There's no limit. they seem to think it's okay. I don't know if that's proof enough for us, but obviously it isn't. But, um, I believe as long as the public's able to come without restrictions, there wouldn't be any problem in sponsoring such a series.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, sorry. Yes. Well, okay. That particular venue certainly has ADA access.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would think any location that we hold an event that would be the case, and I would be surprised if such a venue is not inherently accessible as necessary. I just can't imagine that at this point any new business is going to be able to get their license, occupancy license, without that kind of access.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's no law regarding that.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's far enough away that people might be disinclined to go to Somerville to do it. I happened to go there because it was previously on the way back and forth to my office. And it was therefore convenient. Plus, you know, I'm willing to ride to Somerville, but I recognize that not everybody else is, you know, I'm sure you're willing to and probably most on the committee.
[Bruce Kulik]: As far as I can tell, it's good. It's just good publicity and good. I'm sorry, Becca. What?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, there's also a couple other small businesses like a chocolate shop and at least one food place.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is it is it whether we would actually pay for something? Is that what the how did we get into this conversation? I missed something. I think.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm happy to provide a speech like every six months. I mean, everyone would like to talk. So what can I say? And I've got a number of programs I'm willing to provide as well related to different types of bike safety and infrastructure and what they do. I mean, I can go on and on as you know.
[Bruce Kulik]: As soon as there's a quorum, then it's... And of course, any decisions we make are not binding. We have to bring them back to the whole group for a vote. And, you know, that's just pro forma, typically.
[Bruce Kulik]: Who wants to be the ad hoc lead to take up organizing that committee? I will be willing to help on the committee. I don't want to be the ad hoc lead on it, but maybe Leah, you're willing to?
[Bruce Kulik]: Right. Good. Leah, just pick me at some point, and we'll figure out how to get this rolling.
[Bruce Kulik]: That probably is something we need to talk to Todd about. What? We probably need to speak to Todd about that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, in that area, I think we've already analyzed it and it really seems like a. a reasonable approach. I mean, it's kind of like the other end of High Street where the bicycle lanes now exist. Yes, there was some pushback, but the reality is that the parking was so heavily underutilized that it was not a problem. Some people might have thought it was a problem because they had to cross the street or not be able to park directly in front of their place when somebody chose to come there, but we always get that pushback. And we have to make a decision one way or another that we're going to do this. The city's got to make that decision and live with the political ramifications. That's. You know, and our recommendation is to go in that route. So. I know, Ernie, you don't have an excellent point, but, but I also agree with you that. you know, if there's going to be more rent, not rental, blue bike traffic, then yeah, you're right. We ought to step up and have better infrastructure. I don't see the two having to go hand in hand. They won't go hand in hand. The blue bikes are going to go there regardless of what happens. So sever that notion. But I think it is an impetus for us to say, yeah, that becomes a high priority. And we really ought to look at Getting something complete basically between the 2 rotaries, you know, we have a good infrastructure in front of the Brooks school and up to the top of the hill. It'd be great to get that continued all the way to the rotary. And in the opposite direction, so that we have a full quarter. And at least on the West side of high street.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right now, I just want to make sure that doesn't get value engineered out that I want to make to me that they would be required to at least have what the street had initially or some other agreement with the city. If they're doing something else, wouldn't that be right? Lillian.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there any way to get additional linkage with a project of that nature? Specifically, I'm looking at getting Boston Avenue from High Street to Mystic Valley Parkway repaved. That section has become atrocious.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's not that area, then the area from College Avenue to Harvard would also be a candidate and that of course is right next to what they're working on.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that is a political nightmare for parking. I mean, there's many places where you can make the argument that the parking utilization is quite low. But Boston Ave, unfortunately, would be really, really tough, I think, because it's almost entirely residential and typically two or three family houses with few driveways, just because there's not space for the driveways. I'm pessimistic that a whole lot can be done there, frankly. And you don't really want to have a cycle track on the opposite side of cars on a downhill stretch like that, because the operating speed of a bicycle, even someone who's not fast, is really too fast for that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, the only saving grace there is that as a cyclist, you're typically going much slower up that lane because it is uphill. And so the door zone is slightly less of a problem.
[Bruce Kulik]: It would be downhill.
[Bruce Kulik]: To that for construction, you know, I don't like it. It might not seem like it, but I seem to recall that there's actually a requirement that there must be bicycle accommodation. Through construction, I don't know if it's.
[Bruce Kulik]: Access for the city solicitor to provide a legal opinion about whether the. So you can do that. I mean, clearly the pedestrian law came from somewhere if it's an ordinance, that's 1 thing, but.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, there's a difference between a detour and accommodation through a construction zone. Yeah, I mean, a detour is, you know, basically they say all traffic has to go around and that's fine for a motor vehicle to go an extra quarter or half mile. But obviously on a bike or pedestrian, that's a big problem. My experience is similar to yours, that anytime there's been access through a site, I generally will ask the flag person or the police officer and say, yeah, hey, can I get through? And yeah, they'll usually point me to like the adjacent sidewalk in that case, and I'll go through the 500 feet or whatever it is. And that's typically when they're like digging a trench for a sewer or that kind of thing.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's kind of nice, but it might- Well, as a matter of law, you're generally permitted to operate on the sidewalk, particularly cases like that where It's not a commercial zone, so that makes sense.
[Bruce Kulik]: Motion to adjourn.
[Bruce Kulik]: But Bruce, you have your hand up. Yeah, two things. I always enjoy going to that, that event. So I'll certainly be there. And it's an election year, which means all the politicians will be around and it's a good chance for us to meet them, talk to them, et cetera.
[Bruce Kulik]: Saturday. Saturday. Saturday, okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm willing to help out with this, both in terms of any mechanical work that needs to be done. And as a bike instructor, I can also do some of these learning sessions, but it sounds like you've already got someone for that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, if she needs any help with that, I'm happy to help as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: Usually the way we do that is we explain to them what needs to be done and kind of like say here, here's what you have to do to your bike to fix it. And then if they say fix it, it kind of alleviates that liability. But yeah, there is always that question. on, you know, being a mechanic of sorts. So we do have to be careful what we're touching.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would suggest that actually adjusting the brakes is probably something you don't want to touch. Explaining how to do it and having the parent do it and helping them do it is another thing altogether. But that's the kind of thing where, you know, if the cable's faulty, for example, you adjust it and then it breaks and something happens, right? That's questionable. So that would be my non-legal advice about that kind of thing, just, you know, from a comfort standpoint.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we have any examples from, I would say, maybe Cambridge or Somerville? Surely, they must have had even more demand than we do in that regard and have some sort of, particularly Cambridge, I think, would have like a program in place that allows this public-private partnership without running afoul of any kind of equity or other laws of that nature.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I don't know if it was true, but I'm just suggesting that it feels to me like they would they would have more opportunity. I mean, maybe this is part of the mitigation from a developer, for example, right? There's a lot of development going on, and maybe they can say, yeah, you're doing this development, but you also have to pay for five bike racks. Problem solved. You're not you're not saying, oh, you're rich, so you can afford a bike rack out front. I'm just suggesting that maybe there's an opportunity if we have contacts in other cities and towns to get a sense of how they might handle that. And also even just check with the city solicitor to see legally what is, you know, what is the situation? Is there something legally the city can do? Because if that's the case, then the question becomes more of a political one of, well, is it apropos to do that as opposed to, you know, someone who can't afford a bike rack not getting one. Just some thoughts.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've seen in Somerville similar signs. There's particularly one along the frontage road on McGrath Highway. right near Highland Avenue, and they have striped in an advisory bike lane, it's basically sharrows with dotted lines, in the right-hand lane of two lanes, and they say, I believe it's more assertive, it says, bicycles use full lane, change lanes to pass, or something of that nature. I have a picture of it somewhere, but it's a much more assertive language. Clearly, those are custom signs, not just an R number that they used for it. But it's like the bicycle may use full lane sign, but it's basically saying, use it. Take the lane.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm standing in the truck parking the bike lane. You can see here, it's basically two lanes. Two lanes here on a frontage road, light enough traffic, slow enough traffic. And it basically says, here's the bike lane, but it's a shared lane. And between that and the signage, I found that this particular place is quite comfortable to operate in.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's the one at Boston Avenue.
[Bruce Kulik]: I also find that in that particular location, there is enough space where if I, I don't know if you can see the cursor here, but if I position myself right about here in the bike lane, cars can still get by me safely to the right. I mean, it's only a couple of feet. It's probably not strictly legal, but from a convenience standpoint, it means that I'm not blocking somebody. They're able to make their turn. I'm not unsafe. I'm able to be the position I want to be in when the light turns green to continue. you know, it works all around. I don't know, I think there would be enough space on Winthrop Street as well, because that's a bit wider there, in fact, is my recollection. Well, here's kind of a little, sorry.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's not striped in this particular view, but...
[Bruce Kulik]: I think the problem actually comes from a subtle change in the MUTCD, where when lanes merge in from the side, like imagine a freeway lane coming in, an entrance ramp, the line is dotted at the end of the ramp. It used to be nothing. And now it's dotted. And so if you use that same topology on a bike lane that's ending, you end up with a diagonal line from the bike lane side to the curb. And we've seen that more and more. And I agree with you that that visually gives the wrong impression. I think it's just that guidance comes from an ill-conceived change to MUTCD. That's my thought on that. I don't know what we do about it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Especially it's in Yale because it's a right turn merging into the entrance. However, to go back to Kevin's suggestion, I would think it would be ill-advised to make a left turn at that crosswalk. which is what I think you were implying.
[Bruce Kulik]: You would go to the right and become a pedestrian effectively and then cross, which would be perfectly reasonable. Yeah. There's not a lot of room there, but it's reasonable.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would like to comment just, again, advice, not anything that's like, based on law or anything but as a rather I consider myself to be a pretty assertive maybe aggressive street cyclist and that is not a place that I would feel comfortable operating in the street to make that maneuver. I mean, maybe you do. I know there's places that other people feel comfortable operating. I find myself not. And even though it's all perfectly legal in that spot, because it narrows down the way it does and because traffic comes off Mystic Valley Parkway, absurdly at times, I would find being at that location to be very uncomfortable. And therefore, I always take the, I either avoid that particular route by going on to There have been times when I have taken the sidewalk on South Street to get to there or in general just stay on High Street, depending upon exactly where I'm going. I find the need for me to go from Main Street to South Street is lower and possibly to the point where I go as far as Emerson Street and cut through the neighborhood instead. Just some
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's that's an easier left and crossing to make for sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right now, it starts at Walnut Street.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mary, I'd be interested in just understanding what's your experience so far. You said you started this a couple of years ago. So you've now had a little bit of time to kind of see what things are like here and in other communities and so forth.
[Bruce Kulik]: I found that people who learn how to drive standard shift on their car also know how to work the gears on their bicycle. But you know, whatever.
[Bruce Kulik]: Part of the reason that is getting rebuilt is they are redoing the affordable housing complex to make it mixed use larger. Basically larger buildings in that area. And so I think that taking advantage of piggybacking and therefore reconfiguring the powder house at route 16 quasi rotary, which has always been. very odd because the yield signs don't match traditional yield signage and people don't quite know how to operate it. And it's again, another one of those where you have four lanes coming in and this theoretically two lanes around the island, but that's also not quite clear. So I've always noticed a lot of confusion there.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hi, my name is Bruce Kulik. I'm one of the founding members of the Bike Commission, and I've really been biking in the metro area before a lot of the infrastructure came on board. So my view is sometimes a little bit contrary to some of the other members. I don't mean to be adversarial when it's contrary, but often to point out where there are issues with some of the bike infrastructure that's put in place, just to be aware of it as we try to make it the best for everybody. I do understand that not everybody, as Jared just pointed out, not everybody's comfortable riding in the street, and I recognize that. On the other hand, there are many of us who do ride in the street, and we need to be careful about for lack of a better word, not obstructing their access to the street as well. So that is something that you'll hear me sometimes come up with counter ideas beyond just putting everyone on the sidewalk and whatever. I'm very familiar with Massachusetts and laws in other states. I am not a lawyer, but I've read up a lot on that. very familiar with the different streets and the situations we get involved in. So I understand where the intersections can be very, very difficult for people. And yeah, the Auburn Street one is a great example, because it's just, it's kind of stupid to drive through there, let alone try to ride any way through there. But I bring a lot of experience to the group, and I'm not afraid to say so. So there we have it. Thanks, everybody.
[Bruce Kulik]: I just threw a quick link in case anyone is interested in seeing what we're talking about.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mary, I'd like to suggest that you work with the PTO. I know years ago when my kids were at the Brooks, we had a very strong PTO and events like this would be something that they might be interested in doing. And we certainly would be able to help with any technical expertise and organizational expertise as well to help with that. But it would typically need to be push from the PTO side rather than the other way around. You know we make ourselves available but the school would need to kind of organize it and in the past it's been I won't say lukewarm, but trying to coordinate that has always been sort of like, oh, that's a great idea, and then we never hear anything, particularly at the high school.
[Bruce Kulik]: One of the big criticisms I have of the format they have the cycle tracks is they basically funnel the cycle cycle traffic into the crosswalks. And anyone who's been to Europe knows that that's not the way it's done there, which is one of the things that makes it a lot more attractive. So basically the cycle tracks are recognized as high volume high speed roadways adjacent to the main roadway, as opposed to kind of like an adjunct to the sidewalk. And that's what we see here. So when you see the cycle tracks curve, for example, at the southwest corner, right by the police station, and then you got to cross the pedestrian crosswalk. And then you can see that there's a 90 degree angle you got to negotiate to continue eastbound on Route 16. And I've, I've talked to people about this before but it's not met with good reception is sort of almost like they don't care. They want to see the cyclist up on the sidewalk, as opposed to on a track that would go through at a relatively well connected angles through the through it and that's what I would lobby for frankly. because that would be comfortable for people who don't want to operate on the street. It would keep them out of the way of pedestrians who are on the sidewalk. And there was just an article in the Globe about, you know, many pedestrians are kind of rising up and saying, this is a problem. We got cyclists on the sidewalk effectively at high speed, particularly at bus stops and that kind of thing. So I think it's I think it's probably going to be like a third generation kind of thing that we see where people are going to recognize that this sort of format isn't really the best for cyclists, nor for pedestrians, and so on. So that's my take on what I see here. So I'm a little bit disappointed in the way it's come out. Although yes, it is better than the current where it's probably one of the few intersections I particularly don't care to ride through either. As people know, I tend to ride pretty much everywhere, but I will avoid at least the east-west crossing through Wellington because there's just not a lot of good, you know, there's just so much going on there that it's very difficult.
[Bruce Kulik]: And like, there should be there's like, there's no, there's no connection to the bike lane, right, which is something which certainly better than having no facility there at all. Although, again, I know a lot of people who don't like that bike lane, because even though the speed limit is 35, you know, it's basically a freeway.
[Bruce Kulik]: The sidewalk's not bad there either, if you're so inclined to use the sidewalk. But your point is well taken. There's no connectivity for, what is it, 150 feet? 200 feet? Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, one of the excuses I've heard about not putting a bike facility across that section, and it's stupid, but it falls on deaf ears, is because you have the slip lane to make the right turn into the, in between Kelly's and the whatever the other building is next to it, right? they consider that to be unsafe for cyclists to cross at high speed, which is true. But the answer isn't, don't put it there, it's figure out why it's a problem and fix it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, what I do right now is I actually go behind everything. I tend to cut through the park and then cross over by President's Landing. And it's, you know, it's an extra quarter mile, but just because it's so awkward to come through there. And then I come out by Kelly's, I can turn right onto the parkway. And then at least they have the bike lane at that point, you know, which provides some right of way, if you will.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I think that I think it can be summed up as how to how to through cyclists who are traveling either east, west or north, south, actually come through this at a reasonably effective manner.
[Bruce Kulik]: As opposed to get on the sidewalk and then stop 20 times to try to cross a million different crossings to get through, because that's not much of an improvement to what we have now and be able to see.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's like a right hook, a right hook that's even worse because you're, you're literally facing exactly the wrong way to detect the right hook coming.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. And the problem with that, the reason that there's that many lanes is this particular intersection has a lot of high volume left turns. Yep, probably more than any other intersection, at least in the northern metropolitan area. Right. So, yeah. On any one of these roads, which both of which are very busy roads, about half the traffic is turning left. which is unusual. And so therefore you need to have a lot of queuing space and decision-making space. And it becomes ridiculous because you can see, I mean, just the coming in from the East, you know, we've got three left turn lanes and then a couple right, a couple through right lanes and then the bus lane, right? And then all the sidewalk infrastructure. Oh, I don't know. I don't have a solution either, but that's what causes all those lanes. Yeah. And that's what makes this intersection so horrible to operate through in any mode.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's an unanswerable question. I mean, you might think you could answer the question, but... Right, there's no one answer. There's no one answer.
[Bruce Kulik]: My immediate reaction to this is it wasn't clear to me what they were trying to show here because it looked like it was primarily just a map of what they've used as existing infrastructure without really any discussion of what's the overall vision of what they're trying to do, even though they're calling this, I thought I saw it called as a vision somewhere here.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think one of the things that we could do is when you look at this map, and especially when you compare it to some of the other nearby towns, there's some notable lack of connections. And so I see right away, for example, if we're looking at the Harvard Street one, you would want to see something that really goes all the way from Powder House, not in Medford, but across to connect to the paths along the river for eastbound. Also, you can note that kind of mid-map, if you were to come across Central Avenue, you would want to have a blue line that basically goes from Central Avenue all the way across connecting to Route 60 all the way across to Arlington. So you'd want to see a blue line east-west right across that map. Right. Similarly, we got some north south gaps, and these are all I think these are all in our quarter master plan, more or less, but by kind of penciling in our own dotted blue lines, we might be able to say hey here's the vision for the larger trail network and here's what we need to fill it in. Right here's missing pieces Salem Street. etc. Or not Salem Street at least Central Avenue so that there's a much better east west connection to some of the other main, the main bicycle arteries, if you will.
[Bruce Kulik]: this uh this circle um that would require some amount of contra flow lanes on some of these side streets and maybe like for example you come central avenue to park street uh turn left on i forget what street it is behind the roberts school um and there's one part part where if you're going eastbound there's a real right where your cursor is a real short stretch yeah yeah right here would be ideal to be contra flow so you could make that turn eastbound legally
[Bruce Kulik]: The north, the northern end of Winthrop street, several times now the past few weeks on a morning ride and it's great to see that Winthrop, sorry that Winchester is connecting to the past that we have. So, it makes Winthrop street. a much more comfortable street to ride on, right on the street, because the lanes now are narrower and there is dedicated space on either side to go there. So it doesn't just stop at the city line anymore, which is great. Even though it's not painted, it's just sort of halfway striped, but good job.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is it all the way from Fellsway to the rotary that is getting repaved?
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there any way we could get even preliminary plans on the bike lanes? Because it seems to me that from Fellsway to I forget the name of the street now. The first light outbound, no, no, that's not right. The one that goes to Meadow Glen Mall, whatever street that is. Locust Street. Locust Street, yeah. From Fellsway to Locust, it seems like there's a lot of space on that street, and it could afford to have lanes on both sides. From Locust, westbound, it gets a little bit trickier, because I think there's only space for one, so you'd want to probably have it in the uphill direction, even though there's not much of an uphill there.
[Bruce Kulik]: That'll be a really good east-west connection. That's good to hear.
[Bruce Kulik]: Motion to adjourn.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so I had one thing I wanted to let the group know, I was approached by former Mayor Mike McGlynn, and he set up a meeting with myself, Emily john pre auto and jack Engelbert who is, I think the head of criterion developers. And basically it was just to provide advice regarding a development that's going in at the former KISS 108 site on Mystic Valley Parkway. That's right kind of in the corner of the Wellington T Station parking lot. It's kind of where that funky modernish glass building and a couple antennae are located. And that's going to be redeveloped. At least the plan is to have them redevelop it to residential with some small retail, and they were just seeking advice, basically community input and one of the areas was. regarding bicycle infrastructure, what they can do to help out the path that is going to be put in to help complete the Wellington Greenway, as well as other issues like access and parking, amenities for workers at the retail, amenities for the residents and so forth. And I just want to let everybody know that Emily and I attended that meeting and provided our opinions based on our experience with the group and generally with the bicycling community. So there's not really anything going on yet I don't even know if the project has yet been approved. This is not the air rights possible project over the Wellington T station parking lot, but they did allude to it and we wanted to make sure that any, any things they do. how do I want to say it, that they will coordinate well with any possible things that happen on the air rights as well. So they're aware of it. They're very, how would you say, Emily? I think they were very interested in doing the right thing, basically.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, we basically talked about mostly about access and. wayfinding and stuff like that. So for example, making sure you can get from Mystic Valley Parkway, whether you're on the bike lane or on the sidewalk, making sure that you can get from the trails up easily, that you don't have situations where you see something desirable, but have no clue how to get there. You know, that happens so often where you'll be on a bike path and you see this great beer garden up on the cliff, right? And you're like, okay, how do I get there? And there's no clue, so you don't go. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: And you don't know how to get there. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So anyhow, I thought it was an interesting meeting. I'm glad, I'm glad Mike McGlynn helped set it up. And John Friato was there. He's a great ally for paths and pedestrian access and bike access and all that stuff. So I think it was interesting that the developer is reaching out, you know, and trying to get the ducks in a row before You know how these things are always a little bit contentious. So I thought that was a great move on their part to solicit information before they get too far down the path.
[Bruce Kulik]: I also wanted to just add, before I forget, I didn't mention that John Pruodl is the main principal with the Rivers Edge development, in case people didn't know what that name was when I mentioned it.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to make a motion that we write such a letter to her to thank her. Seconded. And just sign it for her.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's at least three on Boston Avenue between College Avenue and Ball Square coming down the hill.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that we could contact the principals and get in touch with the PTOs who might be helpful, depending upon what their bent is on having their kids bike to school. a lot of work. I'm not saying that I can do all that, but you know, it's one avenue that we could get a little bit of publicity going and maybe they could make it a school event as well as this outside event that's occurring and get us involved. It would help the parents understand that, you know, we're here to help. It would maybe demystify, like you said, the way to do this and just get some hype about it. So that's one idea that we could possibly do to get more involved in this.
[Bruce Kulik]: I can approach the Brooks School. That's something I can take on. If maybe we can get some other people to commit to the other five school, well, with five in the high school.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's, I'll enumerate them, the Roberts, what used to be the Columbus, is that a Sagamore school now?
[Bruce Kulik]: That's right, Missituk. The Misitech, the Roberts, the McGlynn School, which is also part of the McGlynn Middle School, the Andrews Middle School, and I already mentioned the Brooks, and then the high school. I think that's all. And maybe there could be some additional buildings that are still used. I don't know if the Tufts School is still used at this point, but that was one that in the past had been used. And there was also a smaller school building up in Fulton Heights that I think may have been redeveloped. But again, I'm not certain of that. So those are some ideas that we could look into. Certainly the main schools, for sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll take that on to recruit other people to get in touch. OK, I'll do the Brooks and then I'll snag other people to OK with the other schools.
[Bruce Kulik]: I will say thank you to Noah for showing up, basically showing up to half the battle.
[Bruce Kulik]: So that's appreciated.
[Bruce Kulik]: In theory, we could go into executive session. I'm not quite sure how that works with the government access and elsewhere, I mean, whatever, but yeah, that would be an executive session kind of thing to discuss personnel, which, you know, this would be about. On the other hand, if we just provide individual vetting and, or if the chair provides vetting and recommendations, that's probably as accurate as we need to be anyway, it'd be my guess.
[Bruce Kulik]: We have a tradition of allowing people who aren't yet members to volunteer to help us out. So if you don't mind, maybe I can tap you for whatever school your children are or child is attending.
[Bruce Kulik]: You don't need to tell me about that now. We can we can chat offline, but perhaps if you would send what's the best way to get your contact information, maybe send to Jared, who's our secretary, and then he can send it to me.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, I'm sorry, Daniel is. Yeah, I think Daniel has my contact info. Sorry.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's probably worth checking with the mayor just to see what she wants to do about that. It sounds like a good idea to just touch base with her to see the, you know, her thoughts on it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, so I followed up on the bus advertising that we discussed last meeting. It turns out it's run by a company called out front, which manages all the advertising. And unfortunately, it's quite expensive. They got back and said an entry level campaign. On the bus starts anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 for a 4 week period. And an entry level means that you get certain sectors or approximately 1 garage worth of buses. So they have divided by the garages that the buses are parked in and maintained out of, which kind of makes sense and. I'm not quite even sure how many exposures you get at that level, but it struck me as certainly more than we would want to afford on our own. I could probably drum up one month if I really got involved in other organizations and pool other resources, but that's a lot of work. Bottom line is, I don't think we could do it, unfortunately.
[Bruce Kulik]: But he's still muted.
[Bruce Kulik]: That appears to be a Saturday, which is good because maybe more people can attend.
[Bruce Kulik]: So, uh, I used to do next door, but it's, I don't know.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, yeah, at the at the risk of touching a raw nerve here. Do we have a sense of, you know, we've had a pattern of people joining enthusiastically and staying on for a year or year and a half, and then deciding not to continue? Do we have any sense of what's triggering that? Is it simply everyone's overworked, et cetera, or have people expressed concern that they can't be as personally effective as they thought they were going to be or whatever. I don't know what the answer would be. I'm just curious if we know.
[Bruce Kulik]: And if we knew, I don't know what we would necessarily do about it, particularly if it's a case of people feeling like were less effective than they might like us to be. Right. Or the time frames are longer than they're expecting, et cetera.
[Bruce Kulik]: I mean, at least we can prepare people and say, yeah, this is what we do. Here's why we do it. And here's the reward we get out of it, even if it's not, you know, gold bike lanes. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: It seemed like a good idea at the time. And then when they got involved, it was just more effort than they expected.
[Bruce Kulik]: Also, it's you know, the only difference between a member basically and an attendee at the chair's discretion, of course, is other than voting. They can't vote, but we often vote unanimously anyhow, just because it's a good idea.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, it's a voice vote, so that's sort of not quite exactly the same, but close enough.
[Bruce Kulik]: Anyhow, my point there is somebody who attends as a guest has almost as much voice as we do with regard to the questions.
[Bruce Kulik]: If you worked for Blue Bikes when we were doing the bike share thing, you'd have to recuse yourself. That's another example. That would be a conflict of interest.
[Bruce Kulik]: Isn't that area getting repaved by the end grid?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I was gonna say that one technique that people that I've seen is the use of rubberized railroad crossings that seem to be particularly effective to help with bicyclists and for cars for that matter. But just it's, I'm sure it's much more expensive, but it really makes for a much better crossing.
[Bruce Kulik]: But okay. City must have some influence. Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: So do we need to vote on this as a official paper?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, I was just curious what's the status of the clipper ship connector I thought that was actually going to go out to bid last year.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's strictly a DCR project, is that correct?
[Bruce Kulik]: Not even on city area property or a transition area?
[Bruce Kulik]: What about getting from Clippership Drive to the path? There's no transition at this point to do that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, but not the ability to get from the street up to the sidewalk easily? Correct. That's really part of the through infrastructure for cyclists.
[Bruce Kulik]: I found that to be the case even on some very well-known long-distance trails, like this one into New York City from, I forget the town, way up north. But there are places where it just stops and you have to go a quarter mile somehow to find the rest of it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Isn't that known as a conflict of interest that we talked about earlier today?
[Bruce Kulik]: Do we have any common borders with Melrose? I know we're close. Maybe up at the hospital, at the Woodland Road area?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, very narrow. It's like really, we just almost touch right at Highland Avenue. Or more, what is that, South Border Road, I think is in Medford. I think you're right, it's Malden.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: There actually is a road all the way across the fells right there from Woodland road to, uh, fells way east. So you need a mountain bike for it. Oh, yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Would you submit the letter that you wrote just as a matter of, uh, yes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I just wanted to comment both on what B. Dan said. Regarding how effective it is, you're right, the best would be enforcement. Hopefully, if it's a state road, the state police would enforce the lower speed limit. The second is in any sort of crash investigation, a lower speed limit will sway slightly towards not automatically blaming the cyclist because if somebody is traveling 30 miles an hour, for example, you know, somebody might say, well, you know, the cyclist shouldn't have pulled out or something of that nature. At 25 miles an hour, there's a little bit more headroom there, for example. Not that we should expect someone to be honoring the speed limit when you're pulling out in front of them, but nonetheless, there's that liability issue. And in a civil suit, that could also have impact where, you know, you can show that somebody was violating the law in an incident in which someone needed to collect damages. So that's what I had about that. Regarding the original motion here on talking about what we can do with the law, the one thing that I thought was important is the crash reporting. And that would involve us, I guess, working with the mayor or the police chief or whatever to make sure that the reporting is done in conjunction and provide a little bit more information about what to look for and what to remember about cyclist operation so that there's not an automatic prejudice by anyone to report that a cyclist was at fault when, in fact, You know, there were any number of things that the motorists may have done that contributed or with a plain plainly at fault, like passing too close is one example, right? De facto evidence. If someone sideswiped you, they were clearly not passing you sufficiently. And that was previously not law. Let's see what else I think that's the main thing that I saw red light requirement. I don't know, it's sort of the common sense thing, where if you're going to be out at night, you ought to be lit, as opposed to just relying on your reflectors. It does have one thing of interest, which is that you have to have both a front reflector and a rear light. Oh, right, I'm sorry, I misread that. An earlier revision required a red reflector and a red light, but I see it's now been changed to only the red light. All right, so that's it.
[Bruce Kulik]: I always thought an interesting place for that would be an advertisement on the back of a bus. That might be something that MassSpyke is interested in doing. We could perhaps inquire or write a letter to them suggesting that they fund some advertising in that regard. It seems like that would be a very effective way of advertising a three-foot rule.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's probably expensive.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's probably not so expensive that it's not feasible once in a while.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, and it's also really any rule that applies to motor vehicles, unless explicitly modified for bicyclists. Are the same therefore, if you are passing another vulnerable road user. According to this law, this is an exception for cyclists, which I haven't seen, but maybe it's there. You would be required as well to pass at four feet.
[Bruce Kulik]: The safest thing to do in that case is to pass the door By a fair distance, because there's no place for a car to squeeze by you. Yeah, when someone else's car door is open, right? And unfortunately, boring is 1 of the major causes of fatality that we've seen in the past 15 to 20 years. So my advice is, regardless of what the law says, make sure that you are away from the door zone so that you don't need to rely on reactions in any case. I know that's uncomfortable for some, but that's the best advice.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think all that is available on the MassGL website, is it?
[Bruce Kulik]: You can go find it and search directly on the site. I'll dig up a link where we're going to the next meeting.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't know how a boulevard pedestrian was killed. at the intersection of Curtis and Powderhouse Boulevard. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Bruce.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I'd like to recommend that maybe even make a motion that we recommend that we not ever put a bump out that's going to affect bicycle traffic. In most cases where we've seen the bump outs, they've been in the parking lane primarily, and therefore there's sufficient space for all traffic to cross. But to recognize that cyclists frequently do stay to the right of the main travel lane, and therefore a bump out can come up on them very unexpectedly when there's no bicycle infrastructure on the street. So to take that into consideration is actually making it considerably unsafe for cycle traffic. And basically, what should be taken into account is whether there's sufficient space for, I would say, maybe 14 feet or whatever the appropriate shared lane spaces. So, as to avoid that situation, unless the bump out only goes as far as the parking lane itself. I know many cyclists use the parking lane. That's not really valid travel on a street without a bicycle infrastructure. But I would certainly say that if cyclists are on the right of the main travel lane, that a bump out could cause a pretty serious hazard.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think it does say bike lane ends at that point and then there is additional hash marking. Yeah, that's the spot where I'm thinking. Part of that particular issue is also some amount of cyclist education so that they can become comfortable controlling the situation they're in. That's a case, for example, where If you're about to overtake another vehicle, both bicycles and motor vehicles, the overtaking vehicle has to be sure to either yield or pass appropriately safely. And that's where if a cyclist is unwilling to assert themselves, you can get into that situation where the motor traffic won't won't notice you and won't stop for you. If you assert yourself, I can almost guarantee that the motor vehicle will yield the space appropriately.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right, so physically, I don't think there's a lot that's going to happen there. What do you suggest we do to modify motor vehicle operator traffic? I mean, that's the question you're asking.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't believe that's true. I think the law makes no notice of lanes with respect to whether being in a separate lane means you don't have to provide the four-foot passing.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I think it refers to overtaking, so that's a good question. I see what you're saying, whether overtaking means that somebody is basically in your lane or not. That's something for us to ask one of the bike lawyers that we know.
[Bruce Kulik]: Back with the intersection in general, right, Becca?
[Bruce Kulik]: So College Ave heading south, and then what's the left turn you're making? Onto Boston Avenue?
[Bruce Kulik]: Where there's a left turn lane?
[Bruce Kulik]: Right, I thought I'd be mistaken if that passed through there in several months, but I thought the bike lane was between the left and the through lane. I'm sorry, there's no bike lane. Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I think maybe it's a I think this is an example Highland Avenue at College Avenue might have one.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I forget what exactly exists here as you're approaching from Somerville. I know Somerville has a bike lane and I could have sworn that there was a transition there, but maybe I just imagined it. Does anyone remember? Wait, when you're heading when you're heading northbound on College Avenue towards Medford.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, it's okay. I probably thought there was a bike lane there because I just automatically took the left turn lane in preparation to make the left turn. Yeah. I just assumed that there was actually a bike lane there.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, they weren't expecting you, were they? To the right of them.
[Bruce Kulik]: You were in the straight through lane.
[Bruce Kulik]: They made an illegal maneuver, but they also weren't expecting you to be there.
[Bruce Kulik]: It looks like the bike lane actually does not end at somebody's bumper, but just does not continue beyond the Medford border at that point, based on whenever this was taken.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've had situations where I've been behind 1 or 2 cars. And, um, obviously, I'm the 3rd vehicle through and the light will have turned yellow. In the same circumstance, in that case, I always just continue. Yeah, because it still takes another. 2 or 3 seconds before the other traffic's been given the entry.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right. But at the very least... I think the sensor actually does detect a bicycle, if I recall correctly, but the timing is such that it only allows a minimal amount for the last vehicle through.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I agree with your list very much. I'd like to make the motion that we approve this list to be sent, I guess, to the DPW as guidance, or at least our requested guidance. The one thing I would reorder on that list is a wheel diversion can be an incredibly bad situation without any traffic around or whatever. If your wheel gets snagged by a rail or a pothole like that, it will throw you mercilessly. I had a crash on the Minuteman bike trail of all places. When I ran off by accident, tried to come on too quick, the pavement grabbed my wheel and I just slammed into the pavement. Yeah, fortunately, not getting hurt too badly, but I'd like to see that moved up in priority because that that can be a very surprising.
[Bruce Kulik]: Indeed, yeah, larger, larger wheeled vehicle, that's for sure. So I'd like to put that motion as an official motion of the committee.
[Bruce Kulik]: I will withdraw my motion on that.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are you aware is there anyone that enforces safety issues on private ways?
[Bruce Kulik]: For example, if someone were to crash a bicycle on a private way, then there could be a civil action there against the particular owner, I presume, of the street at that point, which would be the adjacent property owner. But is there, you know, if there's something egregious on a private way that the city can enforce?
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: Years ago, there used to be a person who actually had Medford bike safety and was providing, I think helmets, I don't think lights were in vogue at that point, but maybe we could find someplace as such. I don't know. I don't want to nominate any particular office, but the energy committee might come to mind because it's very close or maybe some other first floor office who would be willing to just have them available. Shot in the dark there. I know.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, and it was some insurance company, as I recall, or was it a lawyer's group or the other pair of lawyers? Yeah, I'm sure that Patrick would would yield the sources and connect us.
[Bruce Kulik]: You said next week, but I think it's tomorrow.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've got it on my calendar. That's how I know it's tomorrow.
[Bruce Kulik]: By the way, it's pretty early tomorrow at 630, as opposed to 7.
[Bruce Kulik]: I just registered and said, put it on my calendar, and that's what came up.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interestingly enough, I just took a look at it, there's really only nine places that their infrastructure would potentially link to ours. And of those, a few of them are already in place. For example, one of them shows the crossing going over to Wellington on the bridge. and basically that's just a state project that we've partnered with. So we connect on the bridge and then of course we have the whole Wellington project which is another long wax right. So that's one place. East Albion Street near the Columbus School which is a very lightly traveled road and there might even be a fence in the way there if I remember correctly. Maybe we could look at getting the fence removed for pedestrian bicycle access. Of course somebody mentioned Main Street, which makes sense. Nothing direct but off-Broadway leading into the neighborhood. There maybe is something that could augment something that they do on Broadway.
[Bruce Kulik]: HAB-Jacques Juilland Okay, I'm yeah, I'm holding down a temporary mute and must go away after a little bit.
[Bruce Kulik]: I know what happens when I change focus. That's what happens. Packard Avenue, Curtis and North Street. North Street, of course, has been one of my favorites because that would make for a pretty good neighborhood, which is what they want to do as well. And yeah, just thought I would share that while we're waiting for Amy to possibly come back.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that would be, I agree that that would be a very interesting thing to do and would be helpful. I would have some concern about the unexpected How should I phrase this? People coming out of, what street was it that you said?
[Bruce Kulik]: Bristol. Well, anyhow, people coming out of there would be not expecting any traffic to be flowing into what they perceive as a one-way street. We'd need to be very careful about how that's implemented so that people coming out of Bristol are aware that potentially there'd be straight through traffic as opposed to left and right turning traffic.
[Bruce Kulik]: I just know I used to I used to come out Willow Avenue fairly frequently in my commute. And even making the left turn there, people making their left turn from Willow Street would be surprised by my presence. Yeah, a little bit, you know, even though I was well lit and whatever. Not that I ever felt like there was a problem. It was just I recognized that they would come out and be like, oh, there's somebody there. Yeah, they weren't expecting.
[Bruce Kulik]: Those are all good ideas.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. Speaking of bumpy roads, I've noticed that Boston Avenue between the Somerville line and High Street has really gotten pretty seriously chewed up with what seems like continuous gas main work in that area. Is there any plan at some point to be either having the utility repave those or Medford actually repaving them or rebuilding that section?
[Bruce Kulik]: I may be mistaken, but I thought that a year or two ago, the city council actually voted that utilities needed to at least resurface the lane that they had impacted. I'll check on that.
[Bruce Kulik]: So in any event, at this point in time, take a look at Boston Avenue, you'll see it just particularly on the inbound side is is unusable.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you. I recall seeing something. It might have been an April Fool's joke related to inflatable helmets.
[Bruce Kulik]: One idea would be to have disposable skull caps basically adjacent to the helmets. So you would put the skull cap on as a kind of like a bedroll that you might have in like a hostel or that kind of thing, right? And then you could wear a helmet more or less confidently.
[Bruce Kulik]: They would be reusable or disposable, I suppose, or quasi-disposable.
[Bruce Kulik]: Not the most environmentally friendly, of course.
[Bruce Kulik]: Additionally, cable locks are totally ineffective on a parking meter.
[Bruce Kulik]: And the difference between those two mailing lists, Ernie, is that one is the commission members and the other is anybody who is interested in following the Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission. So one is a public, basically a public send and the other is to the members only.
[Bruce Kulik]: We should probably do one at a time because I think I was not present for some of the meetings, so can't really confirm whether the minutes are correct.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to just say I'm pleased to hear that you're on the board of the northern strand. That's a really key trail connecting up in that direction. And once we get some over our connecting infrastructure set up, you'll be able to go all the way from Concord to Lynn almost entirely off road. So. Great, great thing to have you on board that committee.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes.
[Bruce Kulik]: So one of the other things that I noted there, I believe that the crash you cited occurred down near First Street. Is that correct?
[Bruce Kulik]: But certainly, we've proposed a small rail trail on the Pan Am right-of-way, if we ever figure out, number one, who owns it and how the city could get it or get access to it. But there was a crossing right there at Middlesex as well that would be kind of germane to this discussion.
[Bruce Kulik]: Sorry, what I said is if you take Highland Avenue North, it ultimately becomes Woodland Road up through the cells.
[Bruce Kulik]: Sorry, let me permanently put it on. There we go. Highland Avenue turns into Woods Road through the fells, and so it becomes a very valuable north-south corridor, because you come down Highland Avenue, up Highland Avenue, and right down to Wellington. So as far as, I mean, a lot of it is in Malden, but a fair amount of it's in Medford as well. Some of it's under DCR control, if I recall correctly.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce. Oh yeah so making it a mass stop road or that it is a master road is that mean it's in the same category is like mystic Avenue. And that is, it's literally owned by the state as opposed to the city.
[Bruce Kulik]: Just really, really think about other sections of roads that we think might be Medford roads, but in fact are dot roads. I'm thinking things like the traffic circle under 93 on Salem. Is that or is that, you know, messed up.
[Bruce Kulik]: Any idea what other municipalities do to deal with? I mean, obviously, they're all over the Boston metro area. So other cities and towns must have some liaison or method of influencing MassDOT to do the right thing.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, as I recall, when the Brooks was putting in the Safe Routes to School project, we had to get authority from the traffic commission here in Medford for the parking issues.
[Bruce Kulik]: I presume that in addition to the source and destination, it's got a time as well. So you might be able to impute about the route perhaps by estimating, you know, if someone went direct. It would take this long and if they didn't go to direct what they might have done, I don't know how helpful that is, but could be too much work too.
[Bruce Kulik]: They're not freeform. No, these are just thrown. No, no, no. I mean, the system uses docked bikes as opposed to lime or the others.
[Bruce Kulik]: Great, thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, okay. So I'd like to make the suggestion that you actually read the mass general laws. I know it's quite dry and you probably don't have any real legal training, but nonetheless, layman's reading of the laws has no indication of private ways or greater or lesser street with regard to intersecting ways. It leaves a substantial gray area that Ernie got trapped in. And although common sense might dictate that the more major road, if you can identify the more major road, has the right of way, From a legal standpoint, I don't believe that that's necessarily clear. And again, this comes from my personal read of the Mass General Laws, without benefit of knowing any judicial interpretation or anything like that. But it's just, I found it quite curious that, I don't know if that's the right way to put it. Mass law apparently does not spell these things out in more precise detail. To state who has the right of way in a case like that. So my suggestion is just to. to get a bona fide legal interpretation on it. But as I said, a lay person's reading of the regulations that are in the Mass General Laws don't make mention of private ways or lesser streets. How that affects what we do with stop signs, I don't know.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hi there, thank you for recognizing me. There's just a few points that I wanted to make here. Some of them quoting from both the summary of the mass general law on the mass website, as well as I believe it's from the driver's handbook that is issued to people looking to get a motor vehicle license. And also some questions about uh, prejudices that, um, police may have against bicyclists in incidents like this, which anecdotally seems to occur from time to time with, um, officers who are less, just less familiar with bicycle operation. I know there's plenty of officers who are both in Medford and other communities. Um, but. There's enough of a pattern here that I think it bears maybe a discussion with the chief or whatever they do for training to make sure that there's not an implicit assumption that the cyclist is at fault. And unfortunately, I've got to say that many times that assumption comes from behavior of many cyclists. perhaps including ourselves, who are reluctant to adhere to the rules of the road for whatever reason. So I'll leave it at that. But regarding unsignalized intersections, Massachusetts is a bit of an anomaly, I believe, because in most cases, especially those states that subscribe to the Uniform Motor Vehicle Code, I forget the exact name of it, The code basically says that when you're entering a more major street from a minor street, that's the traffic that is supposed to yield. Massachusetts, however, does not subscribe to that code and specifically has a competing method of determining right-of-way, which is, from a practical standpoint, very unsafe. From a legal standpoint, might give you actually more perhaps more, I don't know what the word is, more rights, if you would. Now, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just reading what I'm reading here from the book, but it basically says, intersections not controlled by signs or signals. Slow down at an uncontrolled intersection, look left and right for oncoming traffic and proceed if the way is clear. However, You must yield the right-of-way to any vehicle that has entered the intersection from your right or is coming from your right. That would be you, Ernie, in this situation. Look for traffic coming from the left. Even though you may have a legal right-of-way, make sure that the other driver is yielding before you proceed. Now, that's what it says legally. Practically speaking, I believe that most people strongly interpret the major road having the right-of-way, and in particular, Woburn Street with a yellow line down the middle, and many other streets for that matter. I haven't looked at Grove Street, but I know we have a lot of side streets coming in. They are private ways, but there's no distinction made in the right-of-way rules listed here regarding private ways, although it's possible that there is a, something to do with driveways or other private ways in that regard, that maybe there's an interpretation there as well. Either way, it's quite ambiguous. And equally so with the pavement markings that you said that led you to believe that you had the right of way coming into there. And therefore, it didn't quite occur to you that you would need to observe traffic crossing. Yes, Ernie.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, I'll repeat the Massachusetts law makes no distinction about whether it's a major road or not. It just has to do with intersecting ways and I'll simply quote the, the chapter in verse here, literally, Mass General Law, chapter 89 section eight entitled right of way and intersecting ways. turning on red signals. And the first paragraph basically discusses several different types of intersections. But in particular, it makes mention of when two vehicles approach or enter an intersection of any ways as defined in section one of chapter 90. Now, I haven't referenced that, so I'd have to see if that includes private ways. At approximately the same instance, the operator of a vehicle on the left should yield the right of way to the vehicle on the right. So again, that's apparently legal standing, practically speaking, as you observed, you couldn't see each other. That's a very dangerous situation to have the right of way coming from a blind corner where people will likely believe that they have the right of way as well. So to that regard, that's what we really ought to think about is what would we like the city to do in general And what else can we do, maybe more generally, to clarify exactly what happens? Because this has got to happen a lot, not just with cyclists, but with motor vehicles as well. Collisions of all sorts that can occur because somebody thought they had the right of way and pulled into the way of somebody who also thought they had the right of way, right? There's no reason for that kind of a collision.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I'd have to say, practically speaking again in my 65 years, I've never ever used a convex mirror at any intersection.
[Bruce Kulik]: What do you think we could do or get the city to do that can help alleviate these things? I mean, paint might be one one thing where pavement markings indicate a stop, for example. Yeah. You know, to go and put stop signs everywhere would be a very long term project, clearly.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes. Yeah. Real quickly. So I just did a quick scan, uh, on Google, uh, street view of. Intersecting streets on growth street right near where I live and virtually none of them. I couldn't find a single stop sign on any of the streets that I looked at and looked about a half dozen quick sample, um, up and down the street. So I've got to believe that this is. in general, a problem everywhere in Massachusetts. And why it hasn't been addressed sooner in some fashion, either by changing the regulation such that it becomes more apparent who has to yield the right of way in a case like that, or street markings or whatever. As I think about it, it's just astounding that there's not more of a problem where you know, even motor vehicle traffic has problems because what I'm reading from this is if I'm going down my street at even the modest 25 miles an hour and somebody pulls off from a side street in front of me, according to the law, I would be at fault. And that does not make practical sense. Although as we know, practicality and legality are not always in sync. So that was just an observation I made from Google.
[Bruce Kulik]: Would we want to, um, would we want to copy city council in any way, either as a possibility of create the cities can, as I understand, create some ordinances, although in many cases. You need to be home rule petition. Um, and particularly with traffic regulations, you don't want to have a patchwork different regulations in every city and town, but they could certainly fund, um, uh, stop signs or paint or street markings. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Moderator): yeah different intersections as an alternate as a some of the city council could do.
[Bruce Kulik]: That is a great question. I have no idea whether that is typically the case or whether the private way would be responsible for a sign facing there. Maybe that's part of why in Massachusetts, there's this weird dichotomy of all this stuff because private ways are much more common here than in many other states.
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe so, or I do believe that there are private ways that perhaps the contract with the city or maybe because there are major, I don't know the details, but in some cases there may be snow removal, for example, as a possibility. On the other hand, I know several private ways around our area are plowed by private companies. So perhaps it's an agreement with a residence or a contract or something. I don't know the details on that as I don't live on a private way myself.
[Bruce Kulik]: Have you included sharrows on this map? It looks like in particular on Boston Avenue, you have something that's listed as, I'm not sure what pink means, but I know there are sharrows. Well, there are sharrows when the pavement is good. The pavement is pretty lousy, but similarly, I believe Placestad has sharrows as well. Am I mistaken there?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'd like to propose that if this is actually an on street infrastructure map that you actually rename the map away from bike network map draft, because I think otherwise the question about the trails is a legitimate one, as I would expect that to be part of a bike network.
[Bruce Kulik]: I can offer some insights there, because I'm familiar with that street.
[Bruce Kulik]: The street itself is just the driveway up to the high school. It's typically three lanes wide. The outbound heading towards Winthrop Street is two lanes to provide for a left and right turn lane separate. while the inbound heading up to the parking lots is a single lane going up to the parking lots. As a result, there was really only enough space to have a bike lane on the uphill side, which is generally the preferred place to have the bike lane as coming downhill, it's easier to stay with traffic. But also because of the two lanes, there's not a good way to have a safe bike lane for people making left turns on the wind through up and so on. So the best approach there is to remain with traffic when you make your left or right turns, or if you don't wish to remain with traffic, effectively dismount and pretend you're a pedestrian for the area, which of course is not ideal.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, really quickly. How do we get ahold of you and Lillian for the map?
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll also drop it in the chat right now maybe.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so I live not very far from there so I drive and ride and walk through there quite frequently. My recollection is the last go round, the biggest impact had to do with narrowing the lanes on Grove Street approaching high street, as well as narrowing the lanes on Boston Avenue approaching high street. And that seemed to serve no purpose, frankly, because there are many cases where people would queue up for a left turn and you need to be able to get get past them on the right for example to make your right turn before they could make their left turn, and so forth. Meanwhile, the. HAB-Michael Leccesereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee quite rapidly. And so the other part is as people come through this kind of an S curve at that location, and people certainly are going faster than the 25 mile an hour speed limit, so a little bit of narrowing, I guess, might help there. On the other hand, That's not necessarily beneficial for cycling through that area because the narrowing makes it difficult to basically traverse that in the lane at that point, especially if you're concerned about high speed traffic. So I'd like to see I mean, I don't remember seeing anything recently that was done. It might have just been that I missed it. or whatever, but yeah, clearly there has to be some sort of look at that to figure out what more permanent infrastructure could be put in there, but that also accommodates cycling easily.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, all of it but the most negative feedback I heard had to do with the approach of Grove Street to Boston Avenue and the approach of Boston, I'm sorry, approach of Grove Street to high street in the approach to Boston Avenue, high street, which have been narrowed. mostly to get what you described as nearing the crossing distance of Boston Avenue. But it struck me that there would be another way, which would be to increase the island while still permitting the egress lanes from Boston Avenue. For example, Grove Street's not so bad right there to cross. But Boston Avenue is, especially because of the real sweep on the right turn from High Street, that's probably the most treacherous part.
[Bruce Kulik]: I have to say offhand that this design is not satisfactory for bicycle use. Basically, the bicycles are put up onto the sidewalk with sharp radiuses sharing with pedestrian traffic. And I'd have to say that I would object to this particular configuration as planned in this document.
[Bruce Kulik]: And the motivation for that was pointing out pointing out a couple of myths that I've always never been fond of with this sort of a design is. there's not really good access from the bike lanes proposed on the bridge onto the so-called shared use paths, which are actually only sidewalks. I mean, it needs to have a much better flow that still allows the protection that people desire, but allows also the throughput of cyclists that are not pedestrians with wheels. That's one of my gripes with exactly this sort of design is that It does get cyclists off the street, but it's really not effective for even moderate speed cycling. I got to be frank about it. That's all.
[Bruce Kulik]: Two things I would support certainly in this, in this design are the crosswalks that have been added across I'll call it Route 60 because it's not High Street, the whole place. Currently, there are no crosswalks at 3 or 7. And the crosswalk to the east of 5 is significantly further up the street. Plus, there aren't any entrance islands that do help slow down and divert the traffic. So I think those are all good features of this particular design.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, we use that gas station from time to time, and right now there's curb cuts, I think almost the whole way, so it is a little bit of a free-for-all, but certainly the design has shown landlocks the northwest corner of their property in a way that If I were the station owner, I would not be very happy about. Again, as you point out, that's not necessarily in our interest. But nonetheless, having designs that are accepted by the community, I think, is in our interest.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's a- Do you mean this year or do you mean ever?
[Bruce Kulik]: I haven't made it this year, but I've been there before a few times.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are you describing available before the traffic commission meeting or will they only be presented at the traffic commission?
[Bruce Kulik]: So the thing is, at the time that I was at Google, I tried to get an understanding of how bike lanes were determined. And a lot of it is done through Street View, and an attempt to see what looks like a bike lane through basically machine learning. that's maybe only 90% accurate, if that. The rest of it comes through, effectively, complaints. There's a feedback section on the maps, and you can actually write in and say, hey, this is wrong. And eventually, somebody will get around to look at it, maybe, and say, oh, yeah, the AI said this wrong. Or they might have a field inspection or get some more crowdsourcing or that sort of thing. And eventually it gets updated. I don't know that there's any way to actually force that issue and basically say, hey, we're from the bike commission, we're from the city, we're from an agency that does bike, whatever the case. I've never seen that happen. And it's really kind of a secondary, you know, yeah, Google provides it, but it's not sort of the main thrust of what Google Maps does, unfortunately. I wish it were.
[Bruce Kulik]: Mass Ave is, oh, approaching Alewife?
[Bruce Kulik]: You had mentioned Wellington and Greenway, and maybe that segues with the last item on the agenda, which is the Wellington Station developments. but I know at one point there was a plan to extend the greenway formally to connect to the paths underneath the highway there, underneath Route 16. Do you know if that's proceeding?
[Bruce Kulik]: On a summer- Is this part of the grant that Catherine Clark mentioned about six months ago? Maybe it was last summer?
[Bruce Kulik]: Congresswoman Catherine Clark had mentioned that there was funding for that available at one point.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm talking about the extension of the Wellington Greenway, which currently terminates in the parking lot at the MBTA. TAB, Tila Duhaime): Oh right sorry allowing that to proceed to connect to the.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's usually my concern is if Medford actually goes ahead with the air rights development that's in this last agenda item. Clearly that will impact access from the Wellington Greenway out to route 16. And, you know, they need to be coordinated that was my, my reason to bring that up at this point.
[Bruce Kulik]: Does anybody from the city actually know the scope of the property ownership that Medford's seeking here? Because I had always assumed that that parcel was MBTA-owned, but apparently it's Medford-owned.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, I see your point. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: I presume John Piotl will want to bid on that. given that he's got all the developments nearby and tends to be a pretty good proponent of alternative access as well. So that would be exciting if he's involved in it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Didn't Tim work with some sort of, with a DCR, piggyback on the DCR purchase or something and got them at a substantial discount? I don't think it is.
[Bruce Kulik]: That money was used to build and repair the wall along Grove Street in some places. I don't know how that's all that different from bike rack infrastructure to encourage outdoor recreation activities. But it would be up to the commission to decide whether it applies.
[Bruce Kulik]: I mean, not our commission, the CPA commission.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's not really a Roberts rule so much as an open meeting question. My understanding is that the working groups, as long as they don't constitute a quorum and are not making binding decisions on the commission, that's fine. Basically, the working groups would come back with a recommendation that then gets presented and approved by the full commission. So when it comes to providing advice to the city, I don't see that there's any issue there. That might be something if we really are concerned about it to check with the city solicitor. But in the past, we've done working groups, you know, to discuss exactly this kind of thing, which on our own, And I don't think we had a commission meeting. Sorry, what's the word I want? A vote to actually do that, so.
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe best to wait till the next meeting and then do it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Good evening, everyone, and thank you all for coming and for those of you who are watching on TV. On behalf of Paul Donato, I would like to welcome you to tonight's City Council Candidates Night. And I'd also like to thank Henry Milleron, the Ward 6 Chair, for organizing this event this evening. Thank you, Henry.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce Kulik, Grove Street. I would like to say thank you to the council for considering this matter. I think it is very important and that I'm here primarily tonight to listen to hear what any objections there might be or what other ideas people might have. I believe, as has been pointed out by Councilor Knight, you have the information about where the proposals were. And from that, that should be, I believe, sufficient for most people to understand whether or not their area is affected. And you had a primary question, actually, that you would ask.
[Bruce Kulik]: I can't be responsible for that. I don't know when the mayor dispatched them.
[Bruce Kulik]: I recommend that you might visit Arlington or Somerville, maybe Cambridge, and you can see how it's applied at those places, which are done basically to DOT and AASHTO standards, which are both adopted by the state.
[Bruce Kulik]: Good start. I expect full vetting of the Traffic Commission as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: For that information.
[Bruce Kulik]: Cyclists are basically just like any other traffic. They have the exact same rights as all motor vehicles, except for being on interstate highways. That means that you're responsible for merging with bicycle traffic just as you would any other slower traffic that might be there. to address Councilor Penta's point. Any two lanes come together, whoever is in front at that point in time has the right of way and the person behind has to yield or overtake safely. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: and all of that, so. There's no regulation about clothing at this point, other than your possibility of adding something to the state, which you brought up a couple of weeks ago. However, there is no currently anything that requires clothing. There are reflection standards that need to be met, lighting standards, and of course, you're right, part of the responsibility of being on the road is to follow the same rules of the road that all other traffic does as well.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's correct.
[Bruce Kulik]: We've reviewed them through Google images and other photographs that we have. Um, there are some places where we'd be interested in finding actual road widths, um, before we would make any recommendation to the traffic commission or to the city about.
[Bruce Kulik]: Certainly.
[Bruce Kulik]: I will say this is one of the strangest city council meetings I've been to. Nice and festive.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, in fact, that's another area that we are considering a recommendation to the city, which would be at some point the purchase of additional bicycle parking facilities. Many of the recent private developments that have gone in have put in very good modern racks, and we really appreciate that. But within the squares, for example, that does become a question because nothing is discouraging like going to find a place to park your bike and not really having a place when you want to go to a merchant that you want to buy something. So I think it is important that there be sufficient bicycle parking in the squares as well as automobile parking.
[Bruce Kulik]: At some point once we've, you know, there's a lot of work to do. And, uh, as it's been pointed out, we're all volunteers and you know, we get, get done what we can get done. But that is one of the ideas we have for future recommendations.
[Bruce Kulik]: That would be if it passes muster with all the people that have financial control. I mean, obviously it's an extra, an extra item, but it certainly would be useful. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm going to bring my bike in here and sit on it more quickly.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, as part of the educational piece that we're putting forward, as you pointed out, honoring the rules of the road, both by bicyclists and by motorists, is a very important facet. And to encourage the police department to watch for and enforce both for bicyclists and for motor vehicles, I think would be an important item. As well as any sort of detailed reporting of any incidents that might occur that involve a bicycle. That's something which across the state, a lot of times it's varied and there's not as much information as you'd like to see. as far as what might have happened that caused the collision, whether it's something that bicyclists did, something motorists did, that's always, I know it's not always easy to figure out what happened after an incident, but that would be useful. Okay, great.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think that was Ben Everbrook at the time. And Saving Lives, I think, was the group. And there were several, I think about a half dozen, put throughout the city in some areas.
[Bruce Kulik]: The bike lanes would be put in with whatever paint presumably is used for the rest of the street markings and would have the same maintenance schedule.
[Bruce Kulik]: I couldn't tell you what that is.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, can you tell me how often the lines are redone? Not often. I couldn't tell you that. I just know that you become part of the street and um, unless they're being removed, they would be repainted on whatever schedule the streets are being refreshed.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thermoplastic would certainly be longer wearing, as we've seen on all markings. There are some paints that are less slippery than others. And generally, that's not an issue, except where the lane is painted with green paint that you may have seen. If that's done with thermoplastic, that's not a good idea. Other than that, it's more expensive and longer lasting. Thank you. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bruce Kulik, Grove Street. I am the chairman of the Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission. One of the additional areas that I believe was on the docket was the stretch from Magoon Square into Medford, which has just been recently repaved and either recently re-striped or about to be re-striped.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yes, we're developing a master plan that involves basically a staged approach starting very conservatively to begin with until people become accustomed to them and working our way towards additional streets. Also in conjunction with the mayor as far as, you know, what he believes to be the best applications.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right now, we've worked with the DPW, gotten some estimates from them, and we have a sense of how much per mile, per bike lane things cost, but I don't recall what those numbers are.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, for sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: There are basically two types of pavement markings that can be applied depending upon the width of the street, traffic considerations, and so forth. The first and one of the most common is referred to as a SHARO, which is basically just a reminder regarding state law which permits bicycle operation within a full lane at any time at the discretion of the bicycle operator. So those chero is basically look like a bicycle symbol with a couple hats on top of the large chevrons is what they're actually called. And you can see them in some of the neighboring communities, particularly on College Avenue is one of the closest ones within Somerville near Tufts. The other pavement markings are actual bike lanes, which are generally five feet wide, and depending upon whether parking is permitted on the street and how wide the street itself is, might be outside the parking lane, or rather, it might be between the parking lane and the traffic lane, or might be all the way against the curb, again, depending upon whether parking is permitted. In the case of Winthrop Street, we will be looking at exactly where those go. I don't recall whether parking is permitted on that stretch of Winthrop Street or not, or whether parking is generally used in that area. On Playstead Road, certainly parking is permitted, so likely the bicycle lanes will be between the parking lane and the general traffic lane.
[Bruce Kulik]: No, we're referring to the stretch between the Winchester town line and approximately Wildwood Street, which is near the high school.
[Bruce Kulik]: The absolute minimum is four feet wide, and that is only to be used in places where it's permissible, depending upon the width of the lane. We've recently gotten some standards that are being used by the town of Arlington regarding decisions as to where bicycle lanes, how wide, whether share or should go in or whether there should be no markings at all, depending upon traffic volumes and width of the street. And that was really well put together for them. And we hope to adopt that at our next general meeting, which will be December the 3rd, so that we can have some guidance as to what other towns have done, where lanes have been put in. But generally, five feet, to answer your question, five feet is the preferred minimum.
[Bruce Kulik]: Bicycle signs. I believe that's part of the $25,000, and I don't know whether they're manufactured locally or purchased.