Public Utilities and Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. My name is Naima Syed. She, her pronouns, ward five counselor, and your traffic and parking chair. I would like to call to order today's traffic and parking committee meeting of the Somerville City Council. First, they will read the legal notice that allows us to have this meeting on Zoom. Pursuant to chapter two of the act of 2023, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish a quorum?

This is roll call. Consular

Burnlow. Present.

Consular Wilson. Present. Consular Saeed.

Here.

Madam chair, all members are present. We have a quorum.

Great. Thank you. Let's begin with approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. On the minutes, any discussion? Seeing none. Clerk, could you call the roll to for approval of the minutes?

On approval of the committee minutes of 05/19/2025, consular Burnley. Aye. Council Wilson. Yes. And councilor Syed?

Yes.

Madam chair, all members have voted to accept those minutes.

Thank you. We will skip item number two for now until director joins us, we will we'll do item number three first. Clerk, could you please read number item number three?

Item number three is a public communication. Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets, Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Groundwork, Somerville Green Team, and Union Square Main Streets submitting comments regarding Union Square walk audit.

This is public communication. We will place this item on file. Is that the right way to dispose of this item? I believe so. Item Chair? Yeah.

Sorry. Chair. I believe that item was that we wanted to have some sort of discussion given the the quality of the comments that came out of of that work. The hope was that that the committee would

Actually, yeah. Thank you. I think we're gonna keep this item in committee because there will be discussion at the next meeting. So we're not going to place it on file. We're going to keep it in committee because there's an item related to this that that I already put in the next meeting agenda, if that's okay with my colleagues.

Sounds good, Cher.

Alright. Let's place the item Let's keep the item in committee. Item number three. And, clerk, could you please read item number four?

Item four is an Audubon Council, Syed, that the director of mobility update this council on when the speed limit signage and no motorized vehicle signage will be installed along the community path and at its entrances.

Okay. Great. Director Rawson.

Good evening, chair. Good evening, committee. Brad Rossin. I serve as director of mobility, and it seems like our motion sensor lights are gonna do this all night. I apologize.

Chair, as you know, city staff have recently launched a community engagement process focused on a variety of short, medium, and long term safety upgrades for the community path, not just the community path extension that was built along with the GreenLine extension, but the entire path. Just this past Saturday chair, I wanna give a tip of the cap to staff from mobility division who are out doing tabling outreach on the path. They've been doing it nights, weekends, trying to really diversify and maximize the number of people that we're able to speak with to hear what's going well and what can be improved. We have definitely heard the same things that you have heard as board counselor about motorized vehicles disproportionately, you know, using the path, often in aggressive circumstances. And so signage is one of the things that we fully expect will be developed and designed, funded, installed coming out of our community process.

There will be other tools in the box to try to make sure that traditional bike riders are using safe speeds and courteous safe passing behavior, but I think that's not the exact focus of this order chair. I wanted to paint that broader picture since we're doing community engagement work and trying to set up a predictable way to structure investments that the city can make to make this path even safer and, honestly, help all of our diverse users share that limited space more effectively. At this time, we do not have a detailed schedule for any signage install, so I wanna be clear about that. The earliest that we anticipate at this moment, Chair, would be springtime. We are rapidly losing our construction season, and I know it may be an item of frustration for you as board five counselor.

For that, I apologize. Please know that our staff are reviewing engineering standards, citing options, and community feedback. And this is a real project with real staff hours assigned, and we expect to have many implementation steps, ready to go for the new construction season in 2026. Why don't I pause there, Sharon? I'm happy to answer any other questions that I can.

Thank you, director. I was very thrilled to see, the community process starting and, regarding your feedback and the different ways you're doing that by having a survey, a map, and also talking to folks on the path. Definitely, I I am frustrated that we're still we still don't have signage upgrades and just overall rules on the path because this is still very, very unsafe. It's it's still very unsafe for many community members, our seniors, our parents with strollers, because we have we especially people with motorized vehicles, but also ebikes go in at just a crazy speed. I understand that this item is not about speed.

I am planning to submit a different item because I did some research over the summer. They had our policy analyst look into this, and this it sounds like a lot of it is outside of our control here in Somerville. I don't wanna get to it to in today's meeting, but would love to discuss it. So, yeah, I'm just gonna deviate that because the speed limit is, yeah, a huge concern. Do my colleagues have any comments or questions on this item?

K. I see no hands raised, and we will mark this item as completed for now. Yes. Again actually, look. We will keep this item in committee since we will we're going to be discussing the speed.

Hopefully, next time, we can just keep this item in committee so we can also get updates on the other things. And we'll move. I'm just checking to see if director has joined us. I do see director. Let's take item number two. Clerk, could you please read the item?

Item two is an order by councils Klingon, McLaughlin, Wilson, and Strezo that the director of mobility and the director of engineering collaborate to install crosswalks across Walnut Street and Wigglesworth Street near Sunnyside Avenue to protect Winter Hill Community Innovation School students, families, and educators using the Otis Street Woodbridge.

Councilor Wilson, would you, my understanding is that we do have a committee member who would like to speak to this item, but first, councilor Wilson.

Yeah. Thanks, Cher. This was introduced by the the cosponsors you see there in an effort to address concerns of families who have children going to and from the Winter Hill School at the Edgerly. And just some of the concerns that that were highlighted about that that commute to and from school. So if it pleases the committee, I would like to sponsor Samantha Zielstorf from the community to to speak on this to go into greater detail about why we felt it was important to bring this order forward.

Samantha, thank you for joining us tonight. Please unmute yourself.

Hi. I'm Samantha Zielstorf, and I'm a parent of three kids in Somerville, two of which go to the Winter Hill School. I live on Sunnyside Ave in Winter Hill, and me and many neighbors have noticed many kids walking down my street. And there are two areas that have we've noticed are a problem, which are on Walnut Street, which many kids from the Winter Hill neighborhood cross over, and then Wigglesworth Street. And both of these streets have many cars that go very fast.

Walnut Street has a hill that goes down and then pass there, and there are dozens of kids in the morning crossing the streets. It's very difficult to see. So myself and other parents in the community have requested that you put a crosswalk or, in addition, some types of traffic calming measures. I know you're very busy, but we hope this can be a priority because there are kids walking daily, and there are no crosswalks. Many kids are also walking on their own. And I we can see that it's a dangerous situation not having any crosswalks on these streets. So thank you. I hope you will consider adding this in.

Thank you. Director.

First off, I'm director. Brian. You can call me Brian, from the department of engineering. I wanted to thank the council for bringing this back up as an order. And, Samantha, thank you for giving us your testimony this evening.

I also have two kids in the in the school system here, and I completely understand the the goal and the desire to have children be able to walk to school in our community. It's it's one of the few communities in the country, frankly, where where students can really walk to school and feel comfortable traveling around the city. And and it that is both a personal and professional goal to make that easier for everybody, especially students at our school system to do so. This particular issue came up about eighteen to twenty four months ago, right after the Winter Hill was moved from the Sycamore site to the Edgeley site. And the engineering division with the support of mobility did, refresh a number of crosswalks in this neighborhood in particular as well as as construct a new crosswalk at Marshall because the goal at that time was to create a very clear pedestrian corridor from the Otis Street Bridge to the Sycamore School site, knowing that there were still a number of students and should be a number of students walking from that area of the neighborhood to the Otis Bridge and onto Edgeley.

So that has been our focus over the and we were able to install those about a year and a half ago. I hear you on the request for Sunnyside. This is something that we have to both on both sides of Sunnyside. These are both crosswalks. The Walnut Street crosswalk is probably more warranted because it is it is a busier street, and the crosswalk currently at Bonaire, and the and the nearest crosswalk at Pearl are about 700 feet apart, which is about a 100 to a 150 feet further than we would prefer it.

Wigglesworth is a little harder of an argument because it's such, relatively speaking, a quieter local street than many of our streets in the city that have student age populations walking on them. Both of them, we have been looking into. The most challenging piece here is is weighing the priority of doing it for this location versus all of the other locations in the city that have similar and equally valid requests. We get we get similar requests from West Somerville neighborhood school, Kennedy, Argenziano, Healy, etcetera. So I don't wanna minimize this concern, but I do wanna I do want to express that these are common concerns from all of our school neighborhoods throughout the school, and we're having to weigh all of them and prioritize them appropriately.

This is one that we will absolutely be putting in the hopper to review over the next few months. In particular, I believe that there's a good chance that we can prioritize this on the sooner side because we are currently in the process of designing and contracting the West Pearl project. One of the challenges from a construction standpoint is is hiring contractors to do the work and not have them bounce all around the city because it's really complicated both from construction management, but also from a cost standpoint. So the fact that we have a construction project approx proximate to this area, I think there's a greater chance that we can that we can make this work on the sooner side. So I don't wanna give you any promises that I can't keep tonight, but I do wanna give you a little insight of of the importance that we place on these requests and what abilities that we might have in the near term to execute them.

So I hope that gives Samantha both you some insight, anyone else from the public, but also the council and chair for bringing this to to or not bringing this to our attention, but reminding of the importance of this.

Go ahead to council Wilson.

Yeah. Thanks, chair. I guess I just wanna make the simple but quick point here that, if people are looking at this and saying, well, why would we do something like this for a temporary situation? Because, obviously, the Winter Hill School's temporarily at the Edgeley. They're gonna be there for, according to the latest timeline, the next six years.

So, you know, this is this is not something that's being done for a one or two year, temporary situation. And then beyond that, you know, the edge really is gonna be swing space. Like, should we need to do another school project, somewhere else in terms of building another school? It's important that we have these connections there. And I just wanna draw, comparisons to with bike networks, the the weakest link that people talk about where the weakest part of of that commute, of that walk is going to be that's what people are gonna judge the entire safety of that commute on is basically the the it's that portion. And I think what we're hearing about here is that weakest link of that journey that folks are making to that school.

Thank you, counselor. Yeah. I agree with the points you're making. This is not temporary. And, also, this crosswalk is important.

I just wanna say that I understand directly post the wait that you have to like, the for construction and trying to manage different projects. But the schools, you know, we don't have a million schools. I think should all be prioritized. I was just talking to neighbors today about, actually, the just not having a speed hump on near the Kennedy and know how a neighbor, you know, stalk got hit and killed. It could have been a child.

I think when it comes to schools, whether it's speed humps, whether it's crosswalks, it's really important that we prioritize them. You know, these cost money, but it's all worth it because, again, we have children here who are using these areas and having to cross streets. And so I just I guess what I'm trying to say is let's please prioritize these. And if it's a funding issue, please let us know so we can, you know, try to do something, especially during budget season. I see director Rawson's hand raised. Director Rawson.

Thank you, chair. And and as director posted late noted, his team leads construction contracting and management, but working in close partnership with our team. I wanted to make sure that constituents and counselors remember that as the city staff get into our due diligence, there are many, many criteria that we must review to site a new crosswalk. As Brian noted, the number of requests that we receive to paint a new crosswalk is really substantial. And one of the hard messages that we often have to deliver is that we have to construct accessible curb ramps, which means time and money.

We've talked about both of those things already this evening, Cher. But just to add a tiny bit more for the work ahead, we cannot typically install new ramps where there are utility poles, hydrants, other types of utility structures like catch basins or manhole and access points. Driveways are another impediment to siting accessible crosswalks and new curb ramps. You have worked with us, counselor or chair. You have worked with us on on this exact question at Lowell Street near the Green Line Station.

And so we just use every opportunity to educate ourselves and our constituents about some of the technical challenges as we try to do something that really seems like a layup, right, to build and install a new accessible crosswalk. So the staff know how to do our due diligence. We will be reviewing that and communicating with school community, board counselor, and others as we work work through those processes. But I just wanted to to remind us that there are many impediments, that we will encounter, and so the exact locations sometimes vary from the ones that folks advocate for. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, director, for, you know, all these, considering all these, you know, different things. Actually, for this specific crosswalk, do we know if we are dealing with all these different, like, you know, similar to, like, the Lowell Street where there's just no space that doesn't have a fire hydrant, that doesn't have a driveway, that doesn't have is this an issue for this specific one, or is this something that you need to look into?

Jared, I we have taken a preliminary look at both of these locations, and they're absolutely trees and poles. Though, my recollection, there's not a lot of drainage infrastructure right in the area of these intersections. But citing them isn't going to isn't is unlikely to be exactly at the same exactly at the intersections. But what I've what I've kind of figured out is is I'm trying to place out the desire line and trying to fit crosswalks between the blocks if I can't get them right at the intersection. Those are sometimes the the the balances that we make because one of the biggest challenges is just the detailed design of making the sidewalk accessible so that all the slopes are correct.

And I know this is a level of detail that you shouldn't have to worry about. Like, we take care of it, but it does mean that we can't always get it exactly in line with an intersection, especially on our really narrow sidewalks and really small tight street neighborhoods like this.

Yeah. Thank you, director. We're glad to hear there are a lot of, obstacles here, and, there is a way to make it happen. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions, comments from, colleagues? Okay. See none. We'll mark this item, as completed, and we will, now skip item five for now and take up item six. Clerk, could you please read item number six?

Item six is an honor by council council Wilson, council Stressl, council Klingon, and council that the director of engineering update this council and community advocates on current efforts to pick the unsafe crossing of the community path at School Street.

Thank you. So we do have someone who will be speaking from the public. Ben Ornstein, who'll be speaking to this item. They would like to sponsor. But just before we do that, I wanted to check with both directors if I because I know in the past when we have discussed these crosswalks on School Street and Lowell Street, because it's the same project, if there's any way we can also get an update on the Lowell Street one, it's okay if not, but just wanted to make that request.

And let's hear from Ben Ornstein. You could k. Could you please unmute yourself? Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair. Good evening, committee and directors. My name is Ben Ornstein. I live at 5 Maxwells Green, and I'm here about the intersection where the community path crosses School Street. This intersection has a nasty corner on it due to a 90 degree return and some fencing and screening that is there. And I found this area worrying enough that I took it upon myself to install a convex mirror at the corner so folks could see, before they took that turn. And even as I was hanging the mirror, I had a number of people stop to thank me. And I, at one point, hosted a meeting of residents who were concerned about the intersection, and dozen people showed up on a Wednesday night. So, clearly, this is not just my concern. There's a bunch of residents in Somerville that would like this fixed as well.

I'm very encouraged to see the city moving forward to address the issue, and so I'm just here to add one more voice saying this matters to us. This is worth prioritizing. I hope the fact that a resident felt compelled to install safety infrastructure themselves underscores some of the urgency there. I can't wait to see the mirror come down once we have something better and more permanent. Thank you for your time and for taking action on this issue.

Thanks, Ben. We'll hear from director Postoway.

Thank you, Cher. I I know that we've spoken about this particular intersection in the past. I think it is worth reminding us that this has been a very important topic for both the engineering division and the council since this was first installed. Director Austin, I might need your help in reminding me what I think that was in '21 or '22 that this was first constructed. But the we have been looking for solutions for for this since at least 2020 when the city was reviewing design plans for the GLX.

This is not a new issue, and counselors and the city have been aware of this and have been working diligently for years to resolve this. This has been a understandably difficult intersection to resolve predominantly because of the intersection of two really high profile construction projects, both the high school and the and the GLX, but also multiple jurisdictions being both the city, the MBTA, and Masstad. These are the challenging projects that that the city actively is working on, and and and I think the council is just witnessing the the difficulty and the challenge it is and the time it takes to resolve these well. The this past year, we were able to hire a consultant to do the due diligence and design that Mass Highway was going to require by their bridge team for any changes to the bridge that would be required to ease this corner because it is impossible to make any changes here without changing the bridge structure short of taking adjacent properties. The we are about a third of the way through the design process, and we're getting really close to, having designs that we can share publicly and start discussing with MasDOT.

We anticipate about a month ago, we anticipated those to be ready in October. And so that's where we stand right now. And we've had some conversations with our consultant over the past couple months to fine tune those, but they're not ready for real for public discussion yet. And as soon as they are, I would be happy to have that conversation here in committee. So from that respect, I would respectfully ask for the the chair to consider holding this in committee till October when I anticipate that we will have plans that we actually can share.

Thank you, director. So does that apply to Lowell Street Crosswalk as well? Is it the same It

does apply absolutely, it applies to Lowell Street. We're do these two projects are very linked from though they're not the law is not on the community path from a practical constructability standpoint and regulatory standpoint, they're very similar. So they take the same team to design. So we're having them done together as a joint project. And, absolutely, you had asked if we would include Lowell into this into this item. Absolutely. We can include Lowell into this item.

Okay. Great. Well, I'm glad to hear we are finally, making some progress on this, and, we'll keep this in committee. And, hopefully, we get an update in, October or, actually, will be early November, our next meeting. Are there any questions from colleagues? K. Seeing none, we will keep item number six in committee. Item number five. So we'll go back to the order of the agenda.

Item five is an auto by council Ewan Campan, but the director of mobility install a left turn signal for vehicles turning left from some of the lab onto Bow Street.

Okay. Director doctor Ross in this one. Yes.

Chair, this is going to be another classic order that could get routed towards engineering or towards mobility. But as you know, the city's senior traffic engineer and traffic engineer positions do report up to Brian as director of engineering, mobility supports. We do field work. We do policy development, data collection, community engagement. But if it's okay with you, Chair, I would suggest that Brian take the lead describing the team's work at this location and any potential additional analysis that we might consider.

Alright. Great. I'll let you pass away.

Thank you, Brett. That was just another way of saying that we work so closely as a team that either of us could probably answer this question quite intelligently. The so, yes, our teams have been working on this particular intersection for a number of months now, nigh on a year or two, depending on how far back you wanna go. And this particular left turn has been a a particular topic point, not least that, councilor Yun Kampen, put an order into it. So happy to discuss this.

The the real upshot of this is twofold. One, the the request for signal is we've reviewed the traffic counts. We've reviewed the the the traffic in this area and the operations at this intersection, and a left turn signal is not the most appropriate solution here predominantly because it's a through left straight lane, and most of the traffic continues on to the Washington Street intersection where they turn left there. And so having a left turn here would would be rather confusing to motorists because it is inconsistent with the other operations on this particular lane. What is more appropriate, and what we have installed, I believe either just prior or just after this order was forced put in, was, and we've we've had it in the works for a while, is installing a left turn after stop sign.

And so what that does is it allows motorists, if they're the first in line at that red light and they want to take a left, they can proceed with their left turn upon stopping, checking both ways, and then proceeding. Not unlike a right turn upon a full stop during a red light. There's only one other place in the city that has a similar left turn sign after stop, which is at the corner of, I'll get this wrong, but a summer in Qatar. And because it's also a similar place where you have nominally a one way to a one way with a left turn. And so given those conditions, that was the most appropriate action at this case, at this location, because most of the people stopping at this red light aren't turning left.

Most of them are continuing straight in order to turn left on Washington Street. So we didn't wanna give mixed messages that they were getting a a pass to turn left on Washington Street early and potentially go straight instead to go to Washington Street. So it was more appropriate to put a left during the red light after a complete stop, and that sign was posted. And so it does allow anybody in that left lane who's turning left to continue even during a red light.

Okay. Any questions from colleagues? Yeah. So is there, like, a timeline for this? Do we have

Oh, it has already been done.

We've already already been done.

Okay. We've already installed the sign, like like, three or four weeks ago. Yeah.

Oh, okay. Okay. So there was maybe I don't know if this item was my colleague putting the item before or after, but okay.

It it was really close.

Alright. Okay. Good. Counselor Brundley.

Yes. Thank you, Gerard. Through you, just wanna thank director Polsoway for going through that explanation because I've certainly found as a counselor that when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to issues like this, the simple answer is often not quite that simple. You know, we have requests as counselors to to do a lot of things. Put a stop sign here.

Put a speed bump there. Make this a one way street. And the reality is often far more complex, than it would otherwise seem. And I appreciate the director kind of laying out the complexities because it I think it it provides the the public with a a more realistic sense of all the decisions that have to be made, and factors that have to be weighed, in order to do something as simple as, oh, just put a sign there. Well, okay.

But then when you look at the totality of all the the road users and their behaviors, often it's not that straightforward. Glad that it's already done. Glad that we could have the discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. We will mark item six, not six, five. Is completed, and we will, unclog. Could you please re read item number seven?

Item seven is an order by counsel Saeed that the director of parking install a new Square Municipal parking lot sign at the Square Municipal Lot.

Thank you. So this is my item, and the directory yeah. Refresh is here. And this was a request from the businesses. I think it was with six over six months ago now where, apparently, clients and customers in Laguna Square customers do a lot of them do not realize that they can park in that parking lot.

I requested, yeah, signage upgrade to make it very clear that it's in Magoo Square Municipal Parking Lot. Director. Good

evening. Suzanne Winfred, director of parking. Thank you. I'm a little confused with the question or the the request, actually. Not the question, but the request. We do have a public parking lot sign at the entrance. And throughout the lot, we do have signs that say pay to park. There is a Magoon Square sign. It's a low sign that was put up several several years ago in front of CVS that just really is a welcome to Lagoon Square type of sign. I'm not sure exactly what the ask is, and I'm happy to put up new signs, but we'd have to have them fabricated. And I wanna make sure that whatever we have fabricated is exactly what this council wants.

Yeah. I think, a sign that well, from my understanding, a sign that says Magoon Square, municipal lot, Magoon Square parking lot, a public parking. So, yeah, the if the two signs can somehow be put into one. Again, this is I live very close, so I always walk to Magoon Square. But this is this came from the small businesses there.

And they can reach out again if there's any language that's, like, brief that would help. But I think just putting the Magus where they are.

Perhaps somebody could reach out to me. I I I obviously need a little bit more direction than that. Thank you.

Yeah. I can connect you, and that way, you know, we'll have a sign that addresses this issue. Thank you, director. We will mark this, item as completed, and we, clerk, to please read item number eight.

Item number eight is an order by councilor Syed and councilor Wilson. That's the director of mobility. Return the do not walk intersection signage to the intersection of Broadway and Hinkley Street.

Yes. So, I'm not sure if it's back, but this was brought to my attention over the summer. There used to be a sign there, and the Hinkley neighbors are asking that the sign that we put the sign back because it's creating confusion. So if anyone can speak to this, why it was removed, then if it's planning to put it back.

Sure. I think this is an engineering lead, and so perhaps Brian can provide the latest information.

Okay.

Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Cher. I was looking back to see when the do not block the intersection sign may have been removed, and I just haven't been able to to find out exactly when it was removed. But it may have been removed in some of the construction that's been there for the past few years. But one of the key components of these signs is we don't just put up a do we our standard now and our policy now is not just to put up a do not block sign.

Honestly, most people don't follow a simple sign anyway, especially a nonstandard sign and especially a sign that only has information in text. So we do try to couple that always with street markings or pictorial symbolic signage wherever possible, especially for these nonstandard situations. The this has not been a priority to return predominantly because it doesn't meet the safety criteria that we're looking to solve with do not block the box or do not block the intersection symbology. And our policy is focused on two key things when we're looking at this. One is we're looking at fire department emergency response.

So when there is when there is an intersection that is regularly blocked during or regularly blocked, that would impact an emergency response. Then we install them. Probably some of the most obvious ones are at Lowell And Somerville Avenue and at the Teal Square Fire Station, but we do have others throughout the city because they are critical for emergency response. The second reason is if a if blocking the intersection could potentially negatively impact the operation of a signalized inter adjacent to it. And that happens when if blocking the box could end up resulting in a gridlock condition where you can't get the traffic to move because people are blocking the intersection that allows traffic to move.

And and so those are the two priorities. What we have explicitly not been prioritizing is impacts to side streets because of that. We don't want to be using these in so many locations through the city that they don't mean anything anymore. One of the biggest challenges with traffic traffic signal operations and traffic operations in general, if you use the same tool too much, people stop paying attention to them, and people find that, oh, they can excuse this one on themselves. So we really try to use tools like do not block the intersections for locations that have clear safety implications to it, not just a convenience implication to it.

If this was a real problem that warranted if the if the signalization was backed up through Hinkley on such a regular basis, which it sometimes does at the Lowell Street intersection, which you're probably aware of, then that do not block may be appropriate. But that's just not the case at this intersection, and we don't wanna get into a place where we're putting this this on every single side street that's within a couple 100 yards or a couple 100 feet from a signalized intersection.

Okay. Yeah. So it sounds like this was removed during construction, like, three years ago, and it's been like that since. And my question is, is this the air would is this is this area going to be is part of the street reconstruction in because I'm interested in, like, the long term Yeah. Solution. Okay. Alright. Because we're have a meeting about that one soon.

Sure. That's a that's actually a really good connection you make there. And and, yes, we are actively, with with Brad's team in Mobility, actively working on redesigning and reconsidering this section of Broadway. And I think that would be a brilliant topic to bring to the team's attention. Just to that's probably gonna be the better place to consider the best solution for it. So really, really good connections there you make.

Okay. Good. And we'll make sure to do that. I'm sure neighbors will mention it, but make sure to communicate that to the team because there's so many weird things and things that don't work in that area. So really excited about the upcoming community meeting about it. Alright. Awesome. We will, any questions, comments from colleagues? Seeing none. We will mark this item as completed. Clerk, could you read item number nine?

Yes. Before I do that, madam chair, can you verify that item seven was kept in committee or was that work complete?

Work completed. Yeah.

At work k. Thank you. Item nine. Order by council McLaughlin that the director of mobility place a speed bump on Pitney Street and consider the neighbor way potential of this street?

Director Ravasu.

Chair, thanks through you to the board councilor for placing this item. I'll provide a quick little summary here, and then happy to continue the conversation. As you know, chair, we have many ways for streets to enter the pipeline for staff review and consideration for traffic calming, and orders like councilor McLaughlin's order, are one of those ways. So we have added Pinkney Street to our list of candidate streets. As a reminder, this is a very long list.

We have way more demands for traffic calming than we can accommodate in any given year or two, but we will start that due diligence process and look for ways to communicate with residents about how to stay involved. The second part of this order, chair, asks us to consider Neighborways treatments. And as counselors know, the Neighborways program has really taken off well in East Somerville, and we're grateful to councilor McLaughlin, for working with us on those efforts. The official citywide bicycle network plan does create a twenty thirty and a twenty forty kind of planning milestone to build out our network of safe streets, including neighbor ways. I think it's important to note that the plan does not include Pinkney Street as a neighbor way.

That doesn't mean we would never consider such a thing, Chair, but it's not on the official plan. One block over Florence Street running parallel is on the official plan. And so as we get closer to looking at that neighborhood holistically, we can speak with the ward counselor. We can speak with neighbors about the relative needs and merits of Florence versus Pinckney versus Mount Vernon, in that portion of East Summerville. So I wanna validate and appreciate the advocacy work that Council McLaughlin and neighbors are doing.

I wanna let folks know that we will review Pinkney for traffic calming potential, and we will clearly communicate is this a one, two, three, or four year journey ahead just because of the magnitude of of demands that we're trying to meet citywide. And then in terms of any neighborhood ways, treatments, again, that'll that's not on our priority network, but we're happy to continue that conversation with the counselor and with community members. Hopefully, hopefully, that's a helpful initial response, Chair. Happy to answer any other questions?

I don't have any questions. Just kidding. My colleagues. Okay. We'll we'll mark, item number nine as we're completed.

Clerk, could you please read item number 10?

Item 10. Order by council McLaughlin, Klingon, Wilson, and Davis that the director of mobility update this council on recent changes to the number 90 MPTA bus route and the reasons for those changes.

Chair, through you, thanks for this order, and thank you for all the counselors who have been involved in this process. If it's okay, Cher, maybe I'll suggest a quick summary of how we got where we are, provide some basics about the potential paths ahead, and then happy to answer questions. There's definitely ongoing conversation in the months and even the years ahead, so I view this as a step in a larger process. For counselors or community members who are interested in the history and how we got here, I strongly recommend checking out the formal public meeting of the city's pedestrian and transit advisory committee from July 17, which is a regular monthly meeting of our pedestrian and transit advisory committee where staff and committee members discussed this issue at some length. So there's video footage.

There's slides that staff presented. But to quickly summarize, chair, back in 2022, the MBTA board of directors approved a long range bus network redesign plan for the entire MBTA service area. At that time, Route 90 changes did not include elimination of the East Somerville leg of route 90. What I mean by that chair is today, the bus uses Pearl Street between McGrath and Cross. It uses Cross Street between Pearl and Broadway, and it uses Broadway between Cross and Sullivan.

The official MBTA network redesign anticipated some changes, actually combining Route 88 and Route 90 to achieve better frequency and, honestly, more predictability for riders as well, but it anticipated keeping the 90 in the heart of the East Summerville neighborhood using Pearl And Cross And Broadway. But, Chair, after the Green Line extension opened, MBTA staff started to get very focused, and understandably so, get focused on trying to provide a bus to green line link. They felt that ridership on the Highland Avenue buses, Route 88 and Route 90 today, really could benefit from a slightly better connection to GreenLine rail service. And it's really interesting because we all know as residents, as riders, that you can kinda look down the hill from Highland Avenue and think that the Magoon Station or Gillman Station offer some of that interconnection, and yet I think we all know that the steep grades of those sidewalks coming down from Highland Avenue really do create access barriers, and so MBTA staff began focusing on the East Summerville Station at the corner of Washington And Joy And Tuff Street. City staff did not feel good about this as a conclusion, and we also did not feel good about this in terms of community outreach and engagement and notification in part because the official network redesign did not include that change, Cher.

We were unsuccessful in in slowing down that process, and so MBTA initiated this service change, pulling the 90 bus off of the heart of East Summerville neighborhood streets and running it down McGrath southbound to Washington Street where it could provide that Green Line connection at the East Summerville Station. And as counselors are aware, Somerville residents do what Somerville residents do and and and rose up and had a letter writing campaign, lots of forceful and yet diplomatic advocacy, and we're grateful for everybody who volunteered their time to do these things. But it's complicated. There is logic and perspective in what MBTA staff recommended with this interchange, and yet we as city staff and city residents felt like community members who really do rely on that convenient bus from high school to East Somerville, had not been appropriately consulted and had potentially had worse transit outcomes. Chair, as you know, mobility staff do more than a 100 outreach events per year.

And in many of our outreach events this year, we were hearing from high school students who were saying, my day to day has fundamentally changed, and I didn't learn about it with enough time to make adjustments. People were shocked and upset. And as as they thought about their one seat ride from home in East Somerville over to the high school, for example, that's just one use case, but it's it's something that we find to be impactful and powerful and important. So mayor Ballantyne worked with general manager Phil Ng and said, we have a community concern here. What are our options, general manager?

And to the general manager and his team's credit, they said, we will work together with you on this. And so in June, we did a sidewalk. City staff and the mayor were able to meet with the general manager and staff from MBTA and really explore the Somerville neighborhood, understand some of the challenges to bus service on that cross street corridor, and come to a mutually agreeable conclusion that if the city were to make some safety improvements for bus operators, including creating a little bit more turning space at the intersection of Cross and Broadway, that the MBTA would bring back that service at least for a period of time. And so we're happy to report share that Route 90 bus is now restored to Pearl Street, Cross Street, and Broadway as of the August. I do want to caution all of our community members.

The logic that the MBTA staff have articulated is still valid, and it's still important to them. We have simply asked that MBTA connect with our community members, for some public consultation, and everybody can understand one another's perspective and try to find the best medium or long term solution. We do see value in combining Route 88 and Route 90 to get better service frequencies. We do see the value of green line connections, but it's also really important for us that disproportionately environmental justice populations in and around East Summerville have maximum number and convenience of transit connections. North South bus service is something that city council, that our staff, and our community members have advocated for for a long time.

And even though it doesn't come very frequently, Route 90 bus does provide some of that North South connectivity today. So I'm happy to report that that after a long journey over the last six months, we're in a a good holding pattern for now with buses running, serving the East Somerville Community School, the Winterville at Edgeley, and, critically, for East Somerville residents, workers, and others who want to get to the library, to the high school, to City Hall, or over to Davis with a one seat bus. So sorry if that went on a little bit longer, but, Cher, the the language of this order. I think did ask for kind of some of the background about how we got here. Why don't I pause? Happy to answer any questions you may have.

No. Thank you for, that brief summary of happened, then I think it's worth telling that story because this is at the end, we were able to reinstate this really important route, the 90 route. And I personally have been following this conversation very closely. The council, community members, the administration, we all work together. As you mentioned, this is an essential route because it's many of our high school students take this bus to get to the high school.

These are parents who can drive, who don't necessarily who don't own cars or don't have the capacity to drive their kids to school. So, I am very, very glad that we were able to, make that happen. And, yeah, so for now, this is great. And I understand that the MBTA will try and eventually Yeah. So we will we will worry about that when it happens. But for now, I'm just glad. Alright. Constable.

Thank you. Through the chair, just questions about the implications of this on Cross Street. And I think everyone knows where I stand on these issues generally, but just because it is something that has been asked of me by constituents. Was the removal of parking a part of, the negotiation process with the MBTA to make sure that the 90 could operate? Could you talk us through that? And and, potentially, like, how many spots were reallocated to make room for the the 90?

Through you. Thank you for the question. Yes. The short answer is that the MBTA safety and operations team described to us a daily challenge of navigating cross street, which is exceptionally narrow. In fact, it's substantially narrower than most streets that carry MBTA bus service.

So frequent reports of side sweeps, of mirrors, or even a more routine delay associated with vehicles getting stuck and not being able to make turns, missing light cycles, engaging gridlock are common stories from the operators at the bus garage that serves this route. And so the general manager and the MBTA team described these issues to us and said, we are willing to move the bus back to this neighborhood. It's really important for us to keep our operators, our riders, and the public at large safe, and it's also really important for us to not lose five minutes at a time if you have these moments of gridlock and traffic congestion because a truck is turning in front of a bus and then can't make it and has to make a three point turn to navigate around a parked car. And so this was the in terms of next steps, the recommendation was to restrict parking closest to the signalized intersection at Cross And Broadway. And I will note, Cher, that there are bus stops, at this location as well.

I should have mentioned that a minute ago that the historic bus stops at this location are much shorter than MBTA standards. So buses were having a hard time getting to the curb, which is really important from an accessibility standpoint, but then also getting off the curb and positioning themselves for the movements at the at the right hand turn, eastbound or or the left hand turn from cross to southbound from Broadway to cross. So it's a complicated puzzle. Tight geometry and parking restrictions are the technical tool that we often use in terms of things like fire lanes, and bus turning radius. So that was the direction that staff recommended and that MBTA said was essential for them to bring back the bus at this location.

Thank you. And just a quick commentary follow-up. Appreciate that explanation. As continued conversation happens with the community, I recommend that, your department bring some of that data for folks. One, provide the context that the state really you know, this was a a hard line for them in order to, save this critical route.

But, also, I imagine the city has some of the data around potential crashes or crashes, side swipes, some of that, and the state has some as well that we could bring into this conversation. Because from the from some of the folks I've talked to, and I and I imagine director Ross Rosslyn knows exactly who some of these folks are. You know, there's a a concern about being able to park in this residential neighborhood, because once we get off Broadway, it is full of homes right there at across. Being able to park nearest to your home, being able to to turn into there is a lot, right near that intersection as well, which now has not a a a actual island, but a, you know, a painted, you know, kind of divider in the middle of the street.

Counselor Burnley, we can't hear you. You're frozen.

Upon Oh. Can you hear me now?

Yes. We can hear you now.

Yeah. I can't be seen and heard at the same time, so I will choose to be heard. So you just saying just to to wrap it up, yeah, there have been some concerns from neighbors and some local business owners about this. I think, you know, as bringing as much context and data to that discussion as possible is helpful because, obviously, we've had this route. I think from the public's point of view, they're like, why are there changes if we already have this? And that I think the crash data and is and the requirements of the MBTA are really helpful in explaining that to the

Thank you, counselor.

Chair, we've noted thank you, chair. I've noted those comments. I appreciate that feedback from community members and through the counselors. Staff are listening, and we are constantly working to improve our processes, to make sure that folks know when and why changes in our streets are occurring. And it is clear to us from feedback that we could have done better in this case. For that, we apologize, and we're committed to constant process improvements to get better every year.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, director. We have discussed this in the traffic commission meeting recently. And, yeah, I appreciate you saying that. And, yeah, that next time reaching out to, those businesses, so that they understand the importance of this change. Okay. Any other comments, questions? K. Seeing none. We'll mark, item 10 as complete as work completed. And, clerk, could you please read item number 11?

Item 11 is an order by councilor Klingon that the director of mobility installs stop signs on 10 Hills Road and Governor Winterke Road, making the intersection a four way stop.

Okay. Director Brasson.

Sure. Through you, let me quickly provide a little context and note that I think the engineering and mobility team have a little work to do with the ward four counselor to understand the intent of this order. Counselors will remember that installing stop signs can be one of those things that councilor Burnley acknowledged a minute ago. Seems simple on its face, and there are many complexities as you start to dig into the details. Federal standards and guidelines do obligate roadway owners to perform certain analyses and to demonstrate compliance or consistency with certain criteria of warrants in order to install new stop control, new stop signs.

Roadway owners like the city can take on liability if we fail to do those due diligence steps, and goodness forbid, a crash occurs. So we take seriously the due diligence necessary to consider installing new stop signs. And if we cannot meet those criteria, then we try to work with residents and counselors to solve a problem in a different way. So we have not yet initiated a due diligence of this particular location. I think think Brian and I and our teams, wanna reach out to councilor Klingon to just make sure that we understand the problem that residents are identifying.

We know this location. It's adjacency to the state highway at Route 28. We would like to understand where is the cut through traffic going and coming from, where are the speeds or compliance records the worst, and then that'll allow us to provide a more thoughtful response. So we don't I don't think we have a ton else to report on this evening, chair. But, Brian, please feel free to chime in if I'm missing anything.

Yeah. I think that sounds great. Reaching out to the ward council to understand this. Any comments from colleagues? Okay. Seeing none. We'll mark this item as work completed. Clerk, could you please read item number 12?

Item 12 is an order by counsel Saeed that the director of mobility update the traffic signal equipment at the intersection of Rogers Ave and Boston Ave.

Yeah. This is my item, and, I have discussed this very briefly with director Rawson, and this is just putting an item an order is just a way to have it have this order make so this order, you know, is on your radar. Yeah. If if you wanna say anything to this. But

Sure. If it's okay, I would ask director Postalway to chime in on this one. I've been talking a bunch, and his team leads these technical reviews and these equipment upgrades. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, chair. I did look back in the record, and we had discussed this, I believe, in the spring. But I don't think we had gotten into much detail about it. And I I think as we've looked at this particular intersection over the past few months, the frankly, the level of analysis that we need to conduct to get to the level of coming up with a conclusion isn't one that we can just do in isolation because it has a lot of impact with the other intersection, particularly Willow that's adjacent to it.

I know last time we spoke, we were concerned about the signal cabinets being able to handle a substantive change in the signaling, and that has been proven to be the challenge here in particular. And and right now, though, we do have a program. Jessica Bello, our senior traffic engineer, has been really good at looking at and moving forward on, frankly, a decades decades long backlog of traffic signals. We believe there's that brings us to a juncture here. One is that this isn't a this isn't an effort that we can realistically just do as a one off.

We're in the process of doing a lot of other signal upgrades, particularly for emergency v it's late. My mouth isn't working well. Emergency vehicle preemption. And the and so the next best way to handle this, and especially because of Willow Street, is to couple this into a larger construction project. And I feel that that's gonna be the best way to go for this particular challenge because we do have in the five year plan to reconstruct the Broadway Intersection through Ball Square, basically, the section of Broadway from Ball Square to the Powderhouse Rotary.

Comparable project to what we discussed a few moments ago regarding the Mugun Square Intersection in the Central Broadway area. So we do anticipate this being this project coming in the next few years. We haven't prioritized exactly what year this would fall into, but I think that's gonna be the best place where we're gonna have the most correct answer that can be executable here. I I think that's gonna be the best answer, and I know that's not the answer you're looking for. But you should know me by now. I'm as honest as I possibly can be on this thing.

Yeah. Thank you for being honest. Yeah. That yeah. That's I was hoping we'd be able to do something temporary there. Yeah. Like, I understand that this is part of, like, a bigger issue here. And, yeah, I guess, we're just gonna accept that. I I sometimes push back, but I think for this one, it did get there there were some upgrades there. It's just frustrating that because, yeah, like, this part, we were not able to address it when the

It would however say Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

And the advocacy on this one. This is an important one. I don't want anyone to forget it, and I definitely don't want the the work on on Ball Square and in on along Broadway to get stalled out for any reason. So, absolutely, stay on top of it. This is a this is an important component of our city.

Yeah. It's I know it's, like, really hard to tell, but is this, like, when you say in a few years, is it two or five?

I I honestly don't know. I I when we were looking at this previously, I think it was so if if if West Pearl is one year out being this coming up year, I think this was going to be on year three, but I don't know how things are gonna change out. We need to go through a new street plan and reprioritize the streets and which we'll be issuing sometime in the new calendar year. So, hopefully, we'll find something soon.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I will probably you know, with the neighbors, we're still this is all we we're still we're, like, always in discussion about this. So don't be surprised if you come back again with potential solution. Okay. We'll mark this item as we're completed. And, yeah, think that we have one item left. Item number 13. Clerk, could you read that for us? Thank you.

Item 13 is an honor by council McLaughlin that the director of mobility install a rapid flashing beacon with push button stop sign in front of the East Somerville Community School on the cross street side to assist in street crossings.

Chair, thanks for putting this order on the agenda. Thanks to councilor McLaughlin for filing it. This is gonna be another point of those answers from the staff perspective that includes, we'll look at it. It can be complicated to find the right types of street crossings where specific signalization is helpful and should be prioritized. City staff are currently going through a prioritization process to establish criteria for when we use this particular type of rapid flashing beacon.

And, Cher, I'm sorry if I'm using, you know, technical terminology. When we say rapid flashing beacon, I think the counselor's order and the way that I'm describing it would be a crosswalk sign that uses rectangular yellow flashing signs and is upper you know, operated by a pedestrian pressing a button. We see examples of this on East Broadway at the library. We see examples of this in Summerville in the heart of the Union Square Plaza at the bus stops by the Farmers Market in the main intersection there in the square. So staff are currently reviewing how these types of signs are working citywide and how we can set priorities for investing in them and using them to improve safety and visibility at different crosswalk types citywide.

Typically, we use these on multilane crossings. So, again, think about East Broadway near the library where you have two direction two lanes in one direction. These are, like, longer crossings that can be associated with slightly higher speeds. We don't typically use them on narrow streets like Cross Street, but I don't wanna presuppose that we never would. Often, find, Chair, that physical traffic calming is the best way to solve these problems, slowing down motorists so you improve visibility.

We've been able to do that on Cross Street with a lot of community buy in, so we're excited about that with the raised crosswalk at this exact location, Cross And Everett. But if the ward counselor is continuing to hear concerns from community members, we will take those seriously, and we'll continue to evaluate this location and see if any different signage could be warranted or helpful. I don't wanna make promises before we go through that technical review process, but we will work with council McLaughlin and his constituents to understand the problem and and try to, you know, continue making investments to support safe crossings in front of our schools.

Yeah. Thanks, director, for looking into this. No questions about this. Any questions from colleagues? K. Seeing none. We will mark this item as were completed, and this brings us to the end of the agenda. I believe there's nothing to yeah. Yep. I think we can call the roll for adjournment.

On adjournment, councilor Burnley. Aye. Councilor Wilson? Councilor Saeed?

Yes.

Madam chair, two members have voted to adjourn. One is absent. We are adjourned.

Everyone. Have a good evening.