Traffic Commission — 2021-11-29

Transcript

▶ 0:46 I think we can get started the time is now 5 33. welcome everyone uh good evening welcome to tonight's public hearing of the city of melrose traffic commission consistent with allowances provided by the massachusetts open meeting law as a result of actions of governor baker on june 16 2021 signing into law and act relative to extending certain coven 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency of the traffic commission is being held in an entirely virtual remote format through our webex video conferencing platform as there are no separate state laws or rules of the traffic commission requiring the holding of this hearing differently the commission is holding this hearing through this usual virtual format tonight's public hearing is being held pursuant to the requirements

▶ 1:39 of section 4 of chapter 76 of the massachusetts acts of 1998 after receipt of a public petition signed by more than 25 registered voters of Melrose objecting to the rules regulations and votes adopted by the Melrose traffic commission at our October 28th 2021 public meeting specifically the purpose of tonight's public hearing is to take in public testimony information and documents and exhibits as to the following votes made on October 28th and I'm going to read these directly from the agenda which um mirrors the wording from the petition that was submitted number one changing parking on the west side of main street southbound from about 244 main street continuing south to sylvan street number two adding dedicated bike lanes on the east side of main street northbound

▶ 2:27 from 338 feet 338 feet north of the melrose malden city limit to mount vernon street Number 3, adding dedicated bike lanes on Main Street, southbound, west side from about 244 Main Street to Sylvan Street. And number 4, amending the Melrose traffic code for consistency with existing signage on Main Street, both sides, south of Wyoming Avenue to the Melrose-Malden city limit as it pertains to parking restrictions and time limits. The format of tonight's hearing will generally be as follows. I'll go through each of the numbered votes as listed on the agenda for tonight's meeting. After reading the numbered item, I'll ask if there's any public comment or testimony to be made on that item. Anyone wishing to provide testimony will need to raise their virtual hand, which you can

▶ 3:11 find next to your name. I think if you right click on your name in the attendee list on your screen, you should be able to select raise virtual hand. I'll then call on those who have raised their hands to speak and ask if they've also liked to be seen. We've had some folks express a desire to also be seen. If you desire to be seen, I will bring you in as a panelist. If you desire just to speak and be heard, but not seen, I will unmute you and leave you as an attendee. If you have any documents you'd like me to share, which have been marked in advance of testimony, I'm happy to do that. I did receive some documents and we'll move to the next item on the agenda for public comment and testimony.

▶ 3:59 The commission will reserve its deliberation discussion and vote on each of the items until the end of the meeting after all testimony and documentation is heard. As the 1st exhibit at this hearing tonight, I'm admitting into the record as exhibit 1, the public notice of tonight's public hearing, which was posted on the city's website. As the 2nd exhibit at tonight's hearing, I'm making the petition submitted. To the traffic commission signed by more than 25 registered voters requesting the holding of this public hearing. This is now admitted into the record as exhibit 2. And that has been distributed to the traffic commissioners as a 3rd exhibit. I'm admitting into the record the newspaper publication of those votes at issue published in the newspaper for 2 successive weeks on November 26th and 19th.

▶ 4:50 There is an exception with item number 5 in the publication. Which had a typographical error where I had written Mount Vernon Avenue instead of street for the limit of the northbound bike lane. Prior to tonight's hearing, I also received written comments and testimony from residents, which I will admit as the next exhibits for the hearing. At the end of tonight's hearing, the commission will vote on the items and these votes will become final with the exception of item number 5 from the original vote. um which was the northbound bike lane which will still require publication for two further weeks because of the typographical error stating mount vernon avenue instead of street so that will be

▶ 5:32 if that vote is voted the same um we will have to publish that for two more weeks any other votes that if anything is voted differently we would also need to publish those for two weeks um so So with that, I have received a lot of public comment that I'm going to read in as exhibits. So if you will all bear with me while I read a number of emails, some of them are a little bit long, so hopefully it's manageable anyway. And then I also have a number of exhibits that William Gordon, who was one of the residents who spearheaded the petition, he submitted a number of exhibits and when it's his turn to speak, we will enter those exhibits in as well. I don't want to present the items that he's submitted without him presenting them.

▶ 6:32 So first I have an email from Adam Seraphim that says, I'm writing to provide the following comments for tonight's meeting. I am in full support of the plan adopted by the Melrose Traffic Commission on October 28th, 2021, pertaining to the new roadway layout on Main Street in Melrose. As a long time bike commuter, I believe the bike lanes, roadway configuration and crosswalks will make travel along this portion of Main Street safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. I asked the Traffic Commission to please make no alterations to the plans as approved on October 28th. Adam Serafin, 25 South High Street, Melrose. Next is an email from Bruce Herman. I sent you an email in October regarding the bike landing crosswalk striping on South Main Street and was very happy to see the striping plan was approved.

▶ 7:22 Now, I would like to reiterate my strong support for the proposed plan for South Main Street. We need much safer streets for both bicyclists and pedestrians and there's width on Main Street to support it. Biking to Oak Grove where the MBTA has built a secure bicycle storage facility on Main Street is currently not a good or safe experience. Designating the lanes for bicycles and clearly marking crosswalks will be a big step in the right direction. it will make south main much safer and will help melrose become the city we all want it to be thank you bruce herman 20 bellevue ave melrose mass next i have an email from carol nachos to mayor paul broder counselor mcmaster myself and the melrose traffic commission i'm writing

▶ 8:07 in advance of monday's traffic commission meeting which was requested by the abutters of lower main street in regards to the restriping of the road to include bike lanes i live at 216 main street since 2004 and want to ensure you all that one, I do think the City performed due diligence in notifying the neighbours of all intended plans and two, I am in full support of creating safe multimodal infrastructure on Lower Main Street and throughout the entire City for that matter. I've heard a number of my neighbours' complaints and although I can sympathize, I do not think any one of us individually get to determine exactly how the Street is configured as the Street belongs to the City as a whole and not to us property owners.

▶ 8:45 I would like to encourage the City to continue to move forward with the plans for striping bike lanes. I would argue, however, the City is not going far enough. To truly create safe bike lanes, we should really be building out the curb to where the stripe would be and creating raised protected lanes. It is this type of infrastructure that I believe would result in the widest amount of use by cyclists. I don't believe a stripe of paint makes a protected bike lane, nor do I feel it will slow traffic. I do fear that by merely striping a lane, the City, as well as the abutters, will not see a diversity of users biking along the lane as at any one point a vehicle can pull over into it or car can enter the lane to get around a left

▶ 9:20 a car turning left etc protected bike lanes would see children riding their bikes to games of pine banks families biking safely to connect to all the wonderful multi-use paths in nearly all our neighboring towns etc i fear fear that by not fully creating safe bike lanes for users we want to encourage we will still not come out and the neighbors will feel justified that there isn't enough use i do however assume this road configuration is just the start of having a full city-wide plan to safely allowed cyclists to navigate congested areas like downtown or congested intersections like wyoming and maine for that reason i fully support it as to losing parking on one side i don't believe property owners own the street and although i

▶ 9:59 completely agree it is an inconvenience i believe that we live in a community and therefore must make compromises for the betterment of the whole community i would argue that increasing safe multimodal travel options increases our property values for neighbors who cannot understand how this new road configuration won't hurt their property values i would suggest we encourage a dialogue with our west wyoming neighbors especially those living on the south side of the street the fact that traffic backs up for buses to load and discharge passengers or waiting for a car to turn left etc although inconvenient has not diminished their property values to the argument that there aren't enough current users i would compare this to when the

▶ 10:34 city built the track at pine banks i'm certain that the track was built for the sports teams and not the community but the unintended consequence is that the community at large uses the track more than the teams it's one of the most wonderful things the city has provided its citizens in my time here the diversity of users is stunning and i rarely pass by when there isn't someone using it in all seasons i believe the safer we make biking and walking infrastructure the more diverse the biking community will become and thus reducing the auto traffic and lastly in light of recent articles stating that during covid traffic accidents have actually increased see boston globe sunday 11 28 21 with the addition of hundreds and

▶ 11:09 hundreds of unregulated vehicles coming onto our streets as uber lift vehicles increase in hit and run accidents with cyclists in our area see amesbury salisbury death two weeks ago by unlicensed and impaired drivers all of these reasons support the critical need for good safe protected infrastructure sincerely carol nachos 216 main street melrose mass okay um then i have an email from david shakespeare um hello commission members i hope you're all well and had a wonderful thanksgiving as a 20-year resident of lodge avenue off of south main i wanted to let you know that i'm generally not in favor of the revised recommendations for south main street while i support the improved crosswalk signage and solar speed warning signs i did not at all like the

▶ 11:57 original proposal for the bike lane on the northbound side with parking spaces sticking out further into traffic the revised plan is mildly better but to be honest i don't see an urgent need for striping for bike lane striping on south maine as it is a particularly wide street to begin with i also don't understand the need for bike boxes near traffic lights and how they're supposed to work with cars that want to turn right um i actually responded to this already with an explanation and he responded so i'll read that as well in particular i'm confused by the proposed signage at the intersection of main and banks place for cars headed south it looks like the bike box covers all lanes and there's no longer any designated lane for cars to turn right onto

▶ 12:32 banks place how is this lane supposed to work with mbta buses that turn right onto banks place and then i responded explaining the bike box and he responded saying um i would say i was definitely against the original proposal and mildly opposed to the revised proposal i'm in favor of improved crosswalk signage and split solar speed sign okay the next is from dennis breen i reside at 19 lodge avenue i've lived in this section of melrose for 40 years i'm writing this email in the hopes that we will be heard at the traffic commission meeting my apologies that i cannot make this meeting in person the changes being made to the south side of main street from mount vernon to sylvan street are being made to appease a small number of residents in the city

▶ 13:23 without really looking at the long-term implications being made to the people that reside down in this part of the city the change will be part of their everyday life moving forward i personally drive the section of main street four or five times a day as i live on a side street off of me where all these changes are being made i thought the dry run test of this a month ago would definitely open people's eyes to see this is not a very good idea and i was shocked that it kept moving forward even with some minor changes to the plan this bike lane is going to make bikers feel safe for what about an eighth of a mile and when these bikers are coming from downtown melrose Where is the lane to get to this section of safety? Where's the lane of safety after Sylvan? I walk my dog religiously around the neighborhood every day and night. I see more bikes coming and going both using Derby, which run parallel to Main Street from Sylvan to Wyoming.

▶ 14:06 Derby Road being a one way street, there's plenty of room for the bikes. I never see issues with cars, bikes, and a whole bunch of walkers who also use Derby. What are the people who live on the west side of Main Street supposed to do when they lose all their parking spaces, family functions, holidays, or just to have friends over? Will this affect the resale value of their investment? You will say no, because this is Melrose, but long-term buying a house, you look at a lot of things and parking is a huge one for Melrose. I've never heard anybody say I'm buying a house because it has a bike lane in front of it. Will they get a reduction in their property taxes? I understand that nobody has promised street parking, but to take it away from people who are used to it, even if they don't use it every day, is not right. People will still park there when going to a house.

▶ 14:44 Where else are they supposed to go? The people that are in favor of this being built do not live down here. I do not know of one neighbor who is in favor of this. This is a lane that will be used maybe four months a year by how many people? If you build it, they will come. How is the maintenance going on the painted bike lanes on say Willow Street, Essex, and Berwick, just to name a few. As the double yellow lines sit now, there's not enough room at the Caruso apartments. People are already driving two to three feet over the lines when traveling south. moving day at the apartments deliveries at all the houses on the west side i understand that we have to share the roads even if bike riders don't obey the road laws because they don't and i believe in

▶ 15:19 safety for all but this is a straight up bad idea if at least if the if at the least this restructuring could be voted on by the residents now for a second image this was now for a second imagine this was in front of your house and you were losing your parking space thank you and do do the right thing. Dennis Breen, 19 Law Jav. Next is Jeremy Garsinski. Good afternoon. I was encouraged to see the quick start to the repaving of South Main Street. I'm growing concerned that a minority of residents are creating an unsafe transportation environment by holding up the restriping process. The plan has been talked about for several years. The pilot was adjusted based on real-world feedback, and the decision was made to remove parking on the South Balance side and

▶ 16:05 create a bike lane in each direction. I expect the Traffic Commission to keep that decision. if not the city should still remove the underutilized parking and add a grade separated bi-directional cycle track thank you for being a steady hand during the irrational feedback uh 23 linwood ave next is jessica buster as a resident of an abutting street i appreciate the opportunity to speak up once again in favor of protected bike lanes on the south end of main street as a driver i know that people are people already speed through the section of our way even passing illegally whenever they feel there's a wide enough section that is anywhere with side street parking that isn't occupied narrowing the roadway

▶ 16:45 would make it safer for everyone especially crosswalk users who would need raised bump outs and flashing lights to alert drivers of their presence there are safe crosswalks at wyoming and sylvan but nowhere in between cyclists deserve safe and protected space on the roadways i've cycled down south made both alone and with my children on my bike and following and it is heroin drivers often give more space to empty parked cars than they do to vulnerable bike users they don't use mirrors to check if cyclists are coming before they turn across intersections if you're riding in the roadway as cyclists are ought to do they honk or swerve around you if we move to the sidewalk instead for safety then we endanger pedestrians i've heard people mention

▶ 17:22 congestion is a reason to avoid bike lanes respectfully i have no idea what there is to complain about i have never in 10 years waited through more than one light at the maine and sylvan intersection because of heavy traffic although it may have happened at maine and west wyoming once or twice i don't think increased automobile space on south maine would change that in any way there is no noticeable congestion in that area in any in any case bike lanes reduce congestion especially on commuting ways the more residents who feel safe biking to oak grove or boston cambridge the less car traffic there will be at high density hours likewise i've never observed a shortage of parking on south main even during the test period this summer there was never

▶ 17:58 a day when all the parking on the northbound lane was full or even close residents who prefer the convenience of always being able to park exactly in front of their own residents over safety of other road users should reconsider their priorities as a derby road resident i know that most of the current cyclists cut down waverly and derby in both directions to avoid the dangers of south maine while i certainly don't begrudge them their increased safety it would also be safer for cyclists and driving residents if we didn't have to navigate many cyclists riding the wrong way on our one-way street i hope you consider all these concerns and choose to reinstate plans for bike lanes ideally protected and separate from traffic on this commuting quarter jessica buster 164 derby

▶ 18:35 Road resident for 10 years. Next is Joanne Eustace, and I'm more than halfway done. You'll be happy to know. I've lived at the lower end of Main Street in the area of Melrose my entire life. I've got to say the bike lanes they had previously painted on the roads just don't make sense to me. The cars looked like they were parked in the middle of the street, and there was no parking on the southbound side of the street, and it was very tight and congested from the corner of West Wyoming to South Main Street. Trying to take the corner was hard enough with the left lane-only turn lane and now you take the turn and after 10 feet the road shifts again not good not safe definitely keep the left-hand turn lane but not the rest of it joanne eustis century 21 467 main

▶ 19:16 street next email is from katie kennedy my name is katie kennedy i live on mount vernon avenue in melrose as a person with visual disabilities i do not participate in zoom or webnext meetings i want to thank paula bird for offering to read my submission live well i guess i'm saving you the trouble uh i authorized her to read it on my behalf and request my statement be entered into the permanent record request that a copy be included in the traffic commissioner's packet meeting packet i submitted a statement to the shared streets at cityofmelrose.org during the pilot project phase i forwarded copies of emails exchanged with city departments and elected officials recurring themes i emphasized included multiple requests for the dpw and city of melrose

▶ 20:01 officials to hold in-person meetings with those who live or conduct business in the area most impacted by the lower main street reconfiguration i described unsafe incidents i witnessed i also questioned the lack of communication and notice given before the project commenced and the process of evaluation decision-making criteria which informed the final recommendations a virtual only meeting was held in july on short notice a survey monkey questionnaire which many people didn't know existed had a specific and limited focus the one in-person neighborhood meeting on 9 29 at rockview and maine was held at a time and place not conducive for many to participate and involvement was limited by inviting main street residents only why were the opinions

▶ 20:38 feedback and possible concerns to those of those who live and work in the lower main street corridor restricted why was the only in-person meeting open to the entire community organized at the last minute the melrose high school session occurred only a few days before the traffic commission vote on the lower main street project on october 28th dpw never directly reached out to residents or businesses business owners in the lower main street project area during the total redesign planning timeline which began in 2019. those who live and or work on main street residents who live on streets which are parallel to maine or situated on side streets directly off maine were never consulted many are concluding the reason this did not occur was the city wanted to control

▶ 21:13 the input and feedback they would receive a number of my neighbors speaking this evening will detail the unsafe conditions and specific problems they've witnessed and documented on main street my focus mainly concentrates on the current and potential problems that impact the streets located in the whole lower main street corridor When addressing the redesign of Lower Main Street, the DPW plan focused on changes on Main Street itself. The recommended changes, however, permanently and directly affect the entire corridor on Lower Main Street corridor, which include Mount Vernon Avenue, Kingsley Avenue, Lodge Avenue, Woodruff Avenue, Ledgwood Avenue, Derby Road, Mount Vernon Street, Potomac Street, and Sylvan Street.

▶ 21:50 Why were those who reside, work, travel, and visit in this area left out of any formal consultations? Their consequences for the entire Low Range Street corridor seem to have been overlooked in the current DPW plans. The traffic signal at the intersection of Main and Sylvan is outdated and not ADA compliant. The traffic light at Main and Sylvan allows for a right turn on red, which often puts pedestrians who are crossing in danger because most cars do not stop even when people are in the crosswalk. Wheelchair users, people with mobility issues, developmental disabilities and visually impaired among others are unsafe at the main and sylvan intersection it is also important to remember that there are significant numbers of people who have

▶ 22:25 invisible disabilities the challenges faced by individuals with mental health autoimmune and neurological conditions need accommodation safety measures need to be considered for in all planning processes an audible pedestrian signal located here should have been identified in order to protect vulnerable populations in any upgraded and redesigned project for the lower main street Corridor. Sylvan Street is a central part of the Lower Main Street Corridor. Commuters use Sylvan Street as a major route to access Main Street and to travel to the Oak Grove MBTA Station. The crosswalk at Mount Vernon and Sylvan is dangerous and needs a flashing safety beacon. The parking space is located at the crosswalk, especially when occupied,

▶ 23:00 obstruct being able to see anyone and everyone trying to access the crosswalk or already moving in the crosswalk. Drivers rarely stop or even slow down. There's been no action taken in response to a repeated request for a flashing pedestrian beacon which is critical to any complete streets plan pine banks is a treasured part of the lower main street quarter and used by every age ability group in melrose safe access needs to be prioritized in any complete streets process or reconfiguration of the lower main street quarter mount vernon avenue has been a commuter cut through in speedway for years most intersections along mount vernon avenue have private and city-owned bushes which obstruct corner views and violate city of melrose ordinances

▶ 23:37 because of all the water and sewer work on main street over the last two past two years the traffic volume on Mount Vernon Avenue has already increased. Some drivers have newly discovered this cut through during this period. During commuter times, the volume has become unprecedented. After the redesign is complete, Mount Vernon Avenue residents worry that it will only worsen. Drivers meeting at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue, Mount Vernon Street, Chestnut Street, narrowly avoid head-on collisions on a daily basis. Increased traffic and vehicles cutting through from those avoiding Main Street are likely to cause frequent accidents. any lower main street redesign and complete streets safety initiatives must include

▶ 24:10 addressing the serious long-standing problems on mount vernon avenue particularly in light of the recommended plans for lower main street the side streets directly off of main street kingsley lodge woodruff ledgwood will inevitably experience increased problems related to traffic and parking issues if parking is prohibited on the south side of main street parking options will be diverted to the small side streets with few houses on them travel and traffic will likely then spill onto derby road which creates additional difficulties how will folks parking and driving near their own property be affected eliminating parking on the portion of the south side of main street raises serious matters for some residents there are many citizens

▶ 24:44 who live all over melrose including seniors veterans disabled and individuals across age groups who struggle with significant health challenges there are people who want to stay in their homes and receive support from home health workers therapists and visiting nurses professionals need convenient parking in order to serve their clients family members who frequently visit and act as caretakers also need accessible parking and the ability to transport their loved ones the isolation and vulnerability of seniors and the disabled need to be considered in any parking changes the final plans for lower main street recommended by dpw and supported by the administration and traffic commission need to be reassessed the infrastructure width of main street

▶ 25:19 will not accommodate the recommended design without serious and dangerous consequences lower main street cannot safely accommodate separate bike lanes it's impossible to fit a square peg into a round hole bike travel in lower main street should be integrated with shared lanes and bike sharrows all parking on both sides of the street should be permanently kept the previous design should be reinstated and the center line painted a few weeks ago needs to be moved to the exact center of the road it's been a stressful time for all of us over the last two years we've all experienced losses and changes during the pandemic unfortunately is not over yet please take up the challenge of reversing the votes taken on october 28th the infrastructure on lower main

▶ 25:53 street does not contain the footage to support bike lanes as designed by the pedestrian and bike committee the design composition advocated will not calm traffic protect vice bikers or pedestrians or vulnerable populations which i know is the goal of the dpw and the complete streets initiative please restore main street to the original composition composition thank you for your consideration katie kennedy okay i think i have six more none i believe that are too long everyone can hear me okay right okay dear traffic commissioners tonight you will hold a hearing to re-examine previously approved plans to add bike lanes to the southern portion of main street this plan will remove some on-street parking in favor of providing enhanced safety and visibility to

▶ 26:41 bicycle traffic for years in melrose as in most of suburbia a parking spot at the curb in front of your house or place of business has been considered a right and the needs of drivers and cars has been paramount in planning our city roads we are overdue in balancing what is actually a convenience with the safety of cyclists and pedestrians as traffic commissioners you surely know that previously approved configuration balances the concerns of multiple road users adding crosswalks accommodates pedestrians and makes them more visible to drivers parking is retained in a quantity sufficient to accommodate the current level of use cyclists whose ride to right to ride on the road is protected by massachusetts law are rendered visible in the roadscape and have a small portion

▶ 27:18 of the pavement designated for their use as i have observed to the traffic commission before we should build our streets to help people travel where they want to go and i add now in the manner they wish to travel walking biking driving and parking is how residents of and visitors to melrose want to use this portion of main street i urge you to reaffirm your approval of the current plan which will accommodate the largest number of your constituents please read this email into the record of public comment and thank you for your service to our city sincerely elizabeth falser walton park okay next is from samir sayag i hope i'm pronouncing that right greetings to all concerned members of this committee my wife eileen and i would like

▶ 28:02 to object to the proposed lane changes and bike lanes in our area of main street from the west wyoming ave from west wyoming ave to sylvan road as an engineer graduate of caltech and mit i think such an endeavor presents disadvantages the obvious narrowing of main street contributes to a traffic bottleneck at intersections such as that of main street and west wyoming avenue during the rush morning hour this has occurred every workday morning during the past trial period of lane changes more than 10 minutes wait at times what advantage would this change represent during snowstorms and garbage pickups more frustrations and delays cyclists would be better served by taking the bus if this represents an advantage to the cyclists in this area of melrose why not

▶ 28:40 extend this further to downtown and throughout the city the cost that would be allocated for such an endeavor would be better spent in improving several other streets and other city urgent needs or perhaps even reducing real estate taxes because we sincerely hope you will consider such and perhaps other facts in your final decision kind regards to the mayor and the members of this committee samir d and eileen peace uh said 12 woodruff avenue mowers maps next is from steve lombardi lower main street bike path lanes the butters and surrounding neighborhood most affected by this traffic pattern and parking plan were not included early in the planning process the bike advocacy group presented their plan and made suggestions and implemented

▶ 29:23 the plan with the traffic commission over a long period of time i did not receive any notice of this pending plan over all this time the lower main street residents and neighborhood did not get the opportunity to participate in the planning now as we express our comments it appears that we are reactionary and making unreasonable suggestions and requests we are not averse to bike riders or to the safety of bike commuters we just request input and consideration cause and effect not only does this new parking plan affect south the main street southbound residents it also affects the northbound residents as well as all the side streets when southbound residents require street parking they will park on the northbound side taking away parking and causing the northbound

▶ 29:56 residents to hunt for parking the side streets will suffer the same inconveniences as well as as having cars parked across from their driveways on these narrow streets. Two, where are the bikes? Each morning, I observe only a handful of bike riders going southbound on Lower Main Street. Even prior to COVID-19, there may have been only a few more riders. Why would eliminate so many parking spaces affecting so many residents for so few bike riders using Lower Main Street be fair and logical? Three, dangerous layout of plan. Main Street is a commercial truck route and bus route. Reducing the southbound lane with a bike path and no parking is not a feasible plan. Several vehicles, buses, delivery vehicles, and vehicles discharging passengers all create dangerous conditions for bike riders and drivers.

▶ 30:37 Holdover vehicles will force southbound vehicles into the northbound lane and bike riders will be in danger, especially when commercial vehicles are going northbound. This is not only dangerous, but the city holdover vehicles and homeowners may face serious legal liability in the event of an accident. 4, physical features of lower Main Street from 244 Main Street to Sylvan Street. Main Street is a straight road with a clear line of sight. This feature enables bike riders and vehicles a clear view of the whole length of the roadway. However, because of the proposed reduced southbound lane, residents leaving their driveways and drivers entering Main Street from the side streets are at a disadvantage trying to navigate entering Main Street. Judgment is more difficult and anyone backing out on the Main Street will cross the northbound lane,

▶ 31:14 Cross onto the northbound lane, causing for the problems 5 proposal. There is no need for dedicated by clean due to the fact that the parking on Main Street from 244 Main Street to someone students underutilized during most of the day, giving the bike riders a wide field of vision and an open road. While parking is underused, it is needed when the need arises. Share is painted on the road along with signage states, stating share the road along the road is all that is needed. The driving public and bike riders are accustomed to sharing the road. Steve Lombardi. 230 Main Street. Okay, the next is from Brendan Connor. To whom it may concern, I frequently visit Melrose Center and use Main Street frequently. I would like to visit more if the road was safer for cycling. I hope the Commission does not change course from the improved design with the cycle lanes and better pedestrian facilities.

▶ 32:11 Additionally, as a physical therapist who has worked with many elderly citizens in their homes in and around Melrose, I've seen firsthand how improving streets to prioritize pedestrians can make it so much easier for seniors to exercise, visit friends, and get outside for fresh air. Best regards, Brendan Connor. Okay, the next 1 is 1 that I already read. And finally, I have for real. As a person who sometimes bikes through Melrose to get to local businesses, like, for instance, I want to speak out in support of dedicated bike lanes on the street, prioritizing bike infrastructure, helps local businesses and helps encourage people who are reluctant to share space with cars to bike instead of driving.

▶ 33:00 And his address is 944 Dorchester Ave in Boston. Okay. And I'm just going to check. I think 1 more email actually came through. While we were talking. Okay, we received 2 more emails and then that will be it for reading into the record and then we can open it up for public. Testimony, my name is Andy Monat and I am a resident of a Melrose resident. I learned only today that a new hearing will take place due to the efforts of some residents to prevent the city's plan to install unprotected bicycle lanes on Main Street. The bicycle lands as planned are an important 1st step toward increasing safety for all road users. As Massachusetts general laws, chapter 90, section 17 C and section 18 C note, the traffic commission should act in the interest of public safety.

▶ 34:18 The experts of expert opinions of both city staff, and then Massachusetts Department of transportation are clear. The bicycle lanes, increased safety for people on bicycles who include many children in the city of Melrose and people using other forms of transportation. Therefore, the traffic commission should uphold its wise prior decision to install bicycle lanes on main street and begin acting in the interest of safety for all. Thank you for your consideration. Andy. Mona. And then the last is David Stevens. And he states, there was a time when due to the nature of main street activities, which would put you at risk would be avoided because main street is a main street and is busy. Bicycles should avoid the street and use the back roads.

▶ 35:05 Common sense should prevail here and not make the city and citizens more dangerous. Thanks, Dave. So, with that, I see we have 30 attendees. Since this is a public hearing, I'm not sure if we need to make a motion to open public comment, since it's by nature a public hearing, but I think we will do that just to be safe. Motion. Motion to open public comment. Okay, so we have a motion made by Chief Lyle and seconded by Councillor Eccles. Um, if we can just do, uh, and everybody in favor, if you can raise your hand. Okay, uh, motion carries by unanimous consent. So, with that, um. Bring attendee list up on my screen here and. anyone who would like to make a comment can raise their virtual hand in addition we were

▶ 36:15 alerted that there might be some people who are um are together in one place on the webex and if that's the case if there's more than one person wishing to speak when we unmute you if you could just indicate that you have multiple people wishing to speak in how many so we can just make sure that we don't miss anybody um okay so the first um i'm going alphabetically as i did last time it's actually alphabetical by first name that's how it pops up um so bill gordon you are first and i know that you would like to be brought in visually as well as audibly so i'm going to make you a panelist now hey bill you are now unmuted and you're a panelist and also um so we can see your name i don't know if you were going to share a video but also i have a video

▶ 37:13 I don't know why it's not working. Okay, you may just have to start video now that you're in as a panelist it might give you and also I have all the exhibits that you sent and so if you'd like me to share any of them just ask me. Yes, why don't you put up I think the video is starting now. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. Can you put up exhibit A? i want to talk about how we got here um as you know there was a long uh series of meetings in the last week of october and this commission held a long hearing and then a a pretty substantial meeting afterwards on the 28th um and um i couldn't find minutes and then elena arranged for the video of the meeting uh to be there and so i watched it again um and it was clear

▶ 38:14 uh that uh you you uh really were working very hard at trying to get it the right answer a difficult question um i and a number of people were not happy with what the decision was um i'm at 178 Main Street and 178 Main and we would lose our on-street parking as well as my neighbors would lose on-street parking as well as that our neighbors on the south on the northbound side weren't happy because they see this as a dangerous situation and as pushing some of the parking onto their side of the street as well as they're losing some of the parking to the crosswalks that are being added in um and they think the crosswalk's a good idea but we're losing net parking on that side and then all the parking from around 244 main to sylvan so uh i'm a lawyer by trade uh i'm

▶ 39:13 unhappy and so what do i do i go to the law and i took a look at the statute the set of the melrose traffic commission and what i read was and it's highlighted here no such rule or regulation except for an emergency matter are to be effective for a period of not more than two weeks shall that's the emergency shall take effect until published for two successive weeks and one or more newspapers published with the circulation in the city in other words the vote you took on an october 28th couldn't be effective until published for two weeks we were waiting for that because we thought it made sense to circulate a petition after that when the when when it just didn't show we circulated a petition and we did it over

▶ 39:56 one weekend got 92 signatures and turned them in on a monday um we we worked with the city with the scheduling so that uh at least uh one if not both publication dates would be before this hearing um so that you would not wind up after this vote with another petition um and and and so we thought um we would exercise our rights under the statute which is what we did we submitted a petition which is what we did and i'd ask you as i go through our presentation here others to understand that the statute that created the traffic commission really envisions a two-week notice period so that people can put their cases together in that minimum period i did some research to try to understand where this comes from and and it's very opaque i found a 1931 statute with regard to

▶ 40:50 the boston city traffic commissioner and essentially these uh the two-week period is in there and then the next sentence upon petition of 25 registered voters of the city relative any rule of regulation adopted or proposed to be adopted under this section the commission shall hold a public hearing within 10 days of the filing with uh of that petition and that's what happened here uh i have worked with a lot of people signed the petition um and when i spoke with the city solicitor we agreed to extend the hearing out so it would be after the two-week publication but i would ask you to to consider this since we didn't have proper notice the the two weeks envisioned under the statute to to think about this as almost a new matter on issues and evidence

▶ 41:37 that you hadn't seen before and i am going to present some new evidence that wasn't presented before. First, I've been hearing from some people in the city administration that refer to me as the neighborhood lawyer. Well, I am a lawyer, and I live on Main Street at 178 Main. But just to give you a sense of my background and how I come at this matter, for about four years in the late 70s up until August of 81, I worked in a planning department in upstate New York. I also served on a regional healthcare planning agency that affected seven lower New York counties, including Westchester and Rockland, which is pretty substantial. So I learned some principles about planning. It's from those planning principles that I'm a bit horrified

▶ 42:29 by this process because it did not have a balanced approach with stakeholders. It troubles me when I hear people saying anti-bike statements or anti-lower main residence statements. We're all in this together and we have to find a reasonable solution that works for everybody. Let me just tell you a little bit more about myself when i went to law school i had two i had two jobs one i was a an intern at the brookline town council's office which is basically their city solicitor's office so i know something about representing a municipality and some of the issues there but i was also executive director of the kenmore association represented the business that's down in kenmore square and those businesses included the stores the the restaurants um the red

▶ 43:23 socks boston university um and masco which was the planning agency for the longwood medical area so i've had some experience in planning um and so i come from this uh just trying to get you to think in terms of planning which has taken to concerns every all the stakeholders um in january 1986 i started to work with an attorney of a small firm in boston a guy by the name of mitchell garabedian um and we had a case in the mid 90s when i worked for the kenmore association i had to make presentations before the boston city council and uh thankfully we don't have some of the the characters that they had then uh speaking in front of dapper o'neill was a unique experience and i don't know if there are many people in this in this call who would remember

▶ 44:16 on this this meeting would remember dapper o'neill uh but i worked with mitchell garabedian since uh january of 86 and the mid 90s uh we had an issue where uh we thought the city council had made a mistake and the mayor had made a mistake they had fired two disabled individuals uh because they couldn't live in the city of boston uh under the residency ordinance but because of the disability and the unique nature of their house they couldn't live in the city and the city kept saying but the cut residency ordinance is constitutional besides the point the americans with disabilities act provides rights to these people the end of the day those people were very well compensated the city realized after a judge said no they have a right here um the city had

▶ 45:00 made an error so i've i've battled cities before a little bit larger than melrose um and then for the last 26 years our work became more and more involved with the catholic church we handled the father gagan cases if anyone saw a spotlight the mitchell garabedian is prominent in there stanley tucci played him somebody plays me in a non-speaking role but i had a role to play in that uh alongside mitchell and we're still fighting those cases today um um and and and i'm honored to represent those victims um so that's who i am um i just wanted to give you a little background of that and and to tell you we got here because uh we feel a bit aggrieved the law provides us uh the remedy of a petition and a hearing and so we're exercising that right um if we continue to

▶ 45:52 feel aggrieved um we will continue to see what legal rights we have we'll pursue them hopefully though we can resolve this this evening could you bring up exhibit b uh madam chair okay so i know i think one of the the presentations they spoke about the uh manual uniform traffic control devices uh this is the current version um and it's it is um could we go and it's from the federal highway administration could we go to exhibit city okay the manual and this is this is from the manual itself the manual uniform control devices is incorporated by reference in 23 it's incorporating the code of federal regulations shall be recognized as the national standard for all traffic control devices installed on any street highway bikeway a private road open to

▶ 46:52 public travel that's the purpose of the mutcd and i learned about this standard because uh in the early 90s late 89 there's a terrible accident in a crosswalk where a mother and a seven-year-old a six-year-old were struck um by somebody who was looking in the wrong direction but part of the lawsuit was the pavement markings were in the wrong place and we brought in a phd engineer from MIT, and he taught me one thing. When it comes to pedestrians, you want them in the roadway as little as possible. And so the idea of having now the people on the southbound side of Main Street park on the northbound side and then walk in the roadway just statistically increases the risk that they will be harmed by an accident because you're forcing them into the roadway

▶ 47:53 by taking away the department and could we put up exhibit uh d please and scroll down to the highlighted place okay so i and i i think i spoke about this what i wanted to focus on the principles of traffic control devices the manual contains the basic principles covering the design and use of traffic control devices for all streets highways bikeways and private roads open to public travel to be effective a traffic control device you meet five basic requirements and i only want to focus on d command respect from road users because if you have a traffic device or a pavement marking that no one's going to pay it's not effective and it's arguably useless um could we bring up uh exhibit one please okay this is a picture facing northward

▶ 49:06 basically across from 178 main to give some sense of and it's very hard to really give an accurate sense but now we're facing northbound this is much wider than the southbound lane and that's because there is parking followed by a bike lane followed by a traveling in the southbound lane there's a bike lane and a traveling um i did ask the mayor at the butters meeting to move the yellow line back to the center and what dpw did is they moved it about two feet it's still off center um and so this kind of shows that could we see exhibit two which shows another uh picture of that okay and there's another picture of now where the yellow line is the center line which is off center it's favored to the uh westbound side um because of that additional bike length dedicated

▶ 50:06 bike lane that was intended to be put there now um that once happened because the bike lane is not an effective rule yet because it wasn't published twice and in fact it was defective the notice for the dedicated bike lane because it said in the um in the first public notice and actually an error at the motion uh last at the last meeting that it ended in mount vernon avenue and as some of the members in our lower main street group pointed out mount vernon avenue was parallel to main street and never intersects it's mount vernon street that intersects and so um we never it never properly was was was advertised and so that lane can't be put in still the yellow lines were pushed over towards um the west side the southbound lane and and and i and i think it's within the

▶ 51:06 minimal road widths that are required generally in melrose so let me talk about that first of all what we have in main street different from most side streets is it is a may a major bus and traffic route and i know i said at the earlier hearings um the cars are always going over the yellow line on the day that this happened i walked up main street can we put up 625 i was working at home that day and i took a short walk break exhibit four all right which which one did you want four yes it's hard to say um can we blow that up at all or yes you see if you see the bottom uh left wheel of that truck there's a car behind it um uh parked on the street and that would be the effect if a car was pulling into a driveway

▶ 52:12 the truck is over could we see exhibit five please the truck went down on the uh the truck we just had was november 18 at 2 11 p.m this bus is coming down in november 18 at 2 12 p.m a better close-up if we could go to exhibit six that's a little better to see this and if we could get a little closer on that but again the bus is over the double yellow line and now uh exhibit seven this is near my house uh that was what we just saw was near potomac okay there's a car parked A Prius, not a big car, cars over the yellow line on exhibit 7. could we have exhibit 8 please? And exhibit 7 is 1121 at 403 PM and exhibit 8. Please, this is also 1121 at 403 PM. Could we blow that up a little bit? And again, over the double yellow line, this is what we see all the time with this off center line.

▶ 53:32 Can we see exhibit 9, please? This is November 21 at 405 PM. 2 minutes later again, because they'll blow that up a little bit. Again, over the, the yellow line also 1121 for 14. I decided I'm just going to go around the block, take a walk, came back and. If we could get the exhibit 10. I got the mic off. I'm good. You're all set, buddy. You can come in and out. Thank you. Okay. And that's also over the double yellow line. And then November 23, how I became aware of this is, can we put up exhibit 11 and blow it up a little bit, please? Okay. How I became aware of this was what because we couldn't park on the street we were doing the car shuffling because my wife was going to leave in the morning before me so as she pulled out the front i was going to

▶ 54:46 pull him back and so we're on maine and we're right up against the curb and this is what we see the buses do that this is this is all over in the other side and when the bike lane is there the cars are going to be so much closer on the northbound side this is an accident waiting to happen i'm a tort lawyer now all we do in church abuse cases and but we did accident cases for for several years before that and and i will tell you that nobody they would rather never take the money that we can get them in a lawsuit if they never had the accident no one wants to be injured and i'm you know i'm at the point where i can say can we stop this because this is not safe i understand It's not a bad thing to have bike lanes. I understand it's a good value. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's a good goal.

▶ 55:40 But so is safety of the residents on lower main. And so when we say these things, this is what we're seeing on a daily basis. We're seeing an accident waiting waiting to happen. We did not see this when these lines were centered. Could we go to exhibit 12? This is a November 24 at 116 PM. This was last Wednesday, um, we could get a little closer on that. See that bus see how close it is to the car and it's over the line. This is a little further up on main, uh. And then could we go to exhibit 13. And could we blow it up a little bit please as you can see this is again. A bus, there's a cab park there. That's one of the, that cab is in one of the houses with a very, with like a one car driveway.

▶ 56:39 And he makes his living with a cab. And so many times he will park on the street. And so, but even if it was just pulling in the driveway, we've got this dangerous situation with the off-center yellow lines. I understand the city position is, the public works position is, well, that's our minimum. that works i think on side streets because cars although they tend to cross over they i think there's enough room for them without having to cross over not every car is crossing over like we saw with the old lines which were really egregious this is a problem for the trucks and buses that's the nature of main street it's one it's a major thoroughfare it has truck it has bus traffic and this is the reality we are seeing so where does the energy come from it comes from

▶ 57:32 concern for safety of our our family our friends our neighbors okay could we see exhibit 14. again a truck passing that same cab november 24 that's last wednesday 1 16 in the afternoon the truck is well over the line um and and see that where the car is there imagine that car and then a bike lane how close it would be to a car okay could we see the the exhibit 15 can we blow that up just a little bit so we could see the lines again the bus is over there's there's the prius it's my car the prius i park it as close as i can to the curb um and and still they go over the double yellow line that's just that's the observed behavior and i come back to that point that i was saying you can't have a pavement marking that everybody's going to ignore

▶ 58:35 it means it's lawless should we go to exhibit 16 please again a truck well over the line and then finally exhibit 17 november 25 i think that was thanksgiving 17 oh it's a car sorry yeah Yeah, yeah, again, you see. Even cars are going over that double yellow. Theoretically cars could do it, I think. But the behavior we're saying, which we had not seen in mainstream when these were centered lines is the cars are routinely. Going over that double yellow line, if there's a car there, and there will be with cars pulling into driveways. Um, so I wanted to, to just give you some evidence to ponder and think about the safety implications that 1 of the goals here of the Melrose traffic commission is to preserve safety and to foster safety.

▶ 59:43 That's the purpose of the rules and regulations. I understand. Bikers have safety issues that need to be addressed, but those safety issues are are compromising the safety of the residents who live 24 7 on main street so that's our first major issue then i want to talk a bit about um my neighbor carl johnson 180 main street i've spoken with carl he's given me permission to talk about carl last time i i I was very vague about Carl, Carl's 81 years old. He's a Vietnam era veteran. He has graduate degrees. He was a successful business manager, Archie D. Little. And in the 1970s and 80s, when his children were young, he coached youth hockey and baseball in Melrose. He retired from business at age 55 and started his second career

▶ 1:00:39 as a successful history teacher at Matanon, where within a few years became the department head. And Carl was always much better at maintaining his house, getting out there with a snowblower, getting that driveway cleared, making sure the sidewalk was cleared so that the snowplow could come down and people could walk. But Carl is not well now. He's been fighting cancer for about six years and he's back. And he's under a lot of care. He has home health aides visit him. He has family visit him frequently. And he has friends who visit him. And I've watched his driveway. When we had that big nor'easter, because the utility lines on Main Street are behind the houses, National Grid had a huge truck in his driveway so they could get at the power lines in the back.

▶ 1:01:32 There wasn't a lot of room anymore in that driveway that the chair keeps talking about. They have all this pavement. Now he has home health aides. He has others who come to provide him care. They need to have access. They use that sidewalk and you're taking that from him. And he's got family who's come. He's got friends who visit him his age. And so they want to walk a short distance. come park in his driveway at the head of the driveway so you don't have three cars they walk they have trouble walking so they park close to the house none of this was taken into consideration because no one went around to talk to the neighbors we did survey monkey we looked at aerial maps no one engaged the community that's why you've got people signing petitions 92 people

▶ 1:02:23 over a weekend that's why you've got people emailing and saying something's wrong here And, you know, I listened carefully, and I think this commission was struggling to find the right answer. And I think with the facts presented to you at the last hearing. I understood why you voted the way you did. What we're trying to do is present to you facts. That, um, uh, really. Indicate that this is not a safe. Choice that it is a burden to the elderly and disabled in our neighborhood. um and as i said before look i'm not as young as i look i'm 69 and you get on in years and all of a sudden all those little things you do to adjust they become they multiply and my wife has you know she has issues too and so to come home after a meeting at nine or ten o'clock and ask her to

▶ 1:03:14 come out take move her car so i can pull mine in so then she can leave in the morning first it's just it's a real burden that young people just don't understand the stress and strain on those of us who are really getting into our older years yeah you know when i when the mayor was here i was thinking like when i was 40 or 50 you know this is a good thing for bikers we just need that center lane fix and safety and then i saw the stress and strain of my wife and i realized that you know i can't think like that on their 30s and 40s this is harder and and none of that was put into this analysis and all of it was you know like this is a great thing for the bikers but the burden is is real for those who live in this area so thank you very much for considering

▶ 1:04:00 this and for listening um thank you for your patience um if you have any questions i'm willing to answer them well i think uh we're gonna take all the testimony first and then we can circle back if anyone has a specific question um does that sound reasonable to the commission Councilor Eccles? I just, I know we had this issue last time. I wanted to flag it. There's someone putting some stuff in the Q&A. I just wanted to know how you wanted to handle that again tonight. Okay, we can, well, let's take that after we take everyone with their virtual hands raised. Thank you for pointing that out. Okay, thank you, Bill. I'm going to put you back to an attendee. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I didn't do that right. Hang on.

▶ 1:05:20 Bill, I seem to have made you a host and I wasn't going to say that. Well, I, I, I guess I clicked host, which must have been right next to make attendee. But I think you have to switch the host back to me now for me to switch you back to. All right. All right. I think if you right click on your name, you can do change change status or change role. I think it says change. Yes, I see that. Change role, but it's not giving me. Oh, you know what? If you right click on my name. That's where I see a change role. Yeah, and then you should be able to make me the host. I just did. Did that go through? There's a red box by your name. Yeah, I see the red box too. Let me try it again. I'm sorry. See if it's there. Ah, okay. Okay, terrific. Thank you. Sorry about that.

▶ 1:06:22 Take attendee. This should work. Okay. Okay. The next in order to provide testimony is Connor McGuire. Connor, I'm going to unmute you. If you desire to be brought in as a panelist, let me know. Oh, this is fine. Um, you can hear me. Great, um, I appreciate some more of the insight into the neighborhood down there. Um, I, I, uh, I can understand and have some compassion for, you know, the safety concerns that that are being brought up. You know, I, I grew up in town here. Um, I'm raising my family here. I have 2 young kids and, uh, elderly parents that still live in the neighborhood. So I got 3 generations here and, um, yeah, safety is a top priority. Um, it's interesting how seeing the same evidence being presented can.

▶ 1:07:15 Lead to different conclusions, though, um, those trucks that are. Cutting over the, uh, the double yellow line and buses and things like that, you know, that generally doesn't happen if they're actually following the speed limit of 25 miles an hour. That's down there and, you know, designing the road. It's counterintuitive, but designing the road. So that the vehicles have to slow down, it's, it seems like it's less safe, but the data and, you know, the designs, the professional designs, these, uh, these, uh, you know, agencies that do the traffic studies, stuff like that. You can, you can put a speed limit of any kind of, um, miles per hour you want on the street, but cars generally drive as fast as they feel comfortable based on the road design, regardless of speed limit.

▶ 1:07:58 So, you know, to enforce those speed limits down there at 25 is really hard. And ultimately, you know, the data does suggest that making this multimodal area, it should be the way that the speed limit gets enforced by the driver themselves, because they'll see, oh, I'm constrained here and I have to slow down. And I'll admit, even my mother, who's, you know, obviously near and dear to my heart, when we did the redesign in Melrose of the Franklin Street corridor with the sidewalks that got bigger and, you know, this cafe seating outside and things like that, and the bump outs, she said, oh, my gosh, it seems so dangerous. I have to slow down when I drive through there now so much. And I said, yeah, that's the point, you know.

▶ 1:08:43 So that's really the ultimate goal. And I understand the neighborhood wants safety. And I don't think the safety is having this runway basically like an airport where cars drive crazy speeds down there. Again, I've lived in this city for more than 40 years and I know how fast cars can drive down there. So, I have that different conclusion. I support the multimodal transit for the, you know, as the name suggests too, it's the public right of way. This is more than just private parking for cars. you know the person alluded to a few times we're going to lose our parking or that neighbor's losing their parking you know it's a public right of way it wasn't invented for cars and so we're just trying to bring some equality and make it safer and hopefully ultimately they'll see the

▶ 1:09:28 safety get there and the speed limits followed by the better design thank you very much thank you okay next we have leilani nelson i'm unmuting you now if you wish to be made so we can see you just let me know. Leilani Nelson, are you there? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Sorry about that. No, and I don't need to be on video. I'll try to be really brief. And sorry if you hear kids in the background. I just wanted to say thank you to the TRAFA Commission for the original vote on this and for going through all of what you're doing tonight to hear it again. I personally was super excited at the decision that had been made a few weeks ago. i live on 76 linden road i bike and walk and drive down main street like every day my daughter's at

▶ 1:10:30 daycare just um kind of past pine banks and we bike her there if we can or i take the bus we only have one car um so we don't both get to use it all the time but anyways i was super happy with your decision before and i want to encourage you to keep with that decision even though clearly there has been some new evidence that was presented um i agree with the last person who was just speaking that it is a public space it's more about the public safety of all rather than some individual parking spots although it's unfortunate for those that will be losing it um and i also think it's important to consider cyclists and pedestrians are more vulnerable so when you're looking at safety and accidents that might happen yeah like it's unfortunate if

▶ 1:11:18 somebody gets in a car accident but they might not die if it's only 25 miles an hour but a cyclist or somebody walking can get seriously injured um and so to me it's more of an issue of safety for those that are the most vulnerable those users on that road and right now it is like an airport runway um personally as a driver i felt safer driving during the pilot stage where those lines were it was narrower lanes because people did drive slower and people didn't think they could create two lanes of cars right now when i drive down there it's it feels like a free-for-all and people go really fast even though those flashing signs are indicating and telling you what your speed limit is it doesn't seem like people are following it um so anyways i really like

▶ 1:12:02 the the original vote i hope you stick with that and i appreciate all you all are doing thank you okay next is paula berg i'm going to unmute you now and if you would like to be seen let me know all right okay we can hear you now paula okay my name is paula berg i live at 265 main street melrose i've resided here for more than 30 years i've witnessed slower main street from sylvan street to wyoming become a major thoroughfare for cars vans trucks and heavy equipment during commuter hours there are so many vehicles that are off they are often backed up for blocks waiting for the traffic signals to change during these busy times the vehicles simply speed down this straightaway since the double yellow line was moved off center large cars

▶ 1:13:04 trucks trailers buses and other vehicles going southbound don't fit in the travel lane so they cross over the double yellow line which in turn requires the north being found traffic to move into the bike lane or the parking spaces everybody keeps getting shifted over it doesn't matter it does matter how fast you go but even if you go travel slowly which i am one of those slower drivers, you still cross over that lane when you're in the southbound. If there's a prime truck or a UPS truck or there's an oil truck, there's the buses. So often, somebody is parked on that southbound lane. Previously, when you spoke, Elena, when you spoke and the commission spoke, the issue was, well, we'll just have the bike lane southbound, but with the lane being so

▶ 1:14:11 narrow, then these trucks and vehicles and somebody who's parked there temporarily, everybody is shifting and going over that yellow line. I've witnessed for days now vehicles continuously crossing the double yellow line. If a car is parked on the southbound side and a truck buses in the southbound lane, there is no way the moving vehicle can avoid crossing the double yellow line. While the southbound traffic lanes may meet minimal width requirements, it is unrealistic and unsafe for the kind of traffic moving on Lower Main Street. Most drivers have become less courteous and fail to slow down. They don't slow down for cars, they don't slow down for trucks, they don't slow down for people, they don't slow down for cyclists, and by making the

▶ 1:15:09 road so narrow, it's really an accident waiting to happen. Just this afternoon, I noticed that a car went by a stopped school bus that had blinking red lights. It was the safety of the vehicles, the cyclists and the pedestrians is our highest priority when main street from sylvan to mount vernon street must be returned the double yellow line down the center of the road with parking on both sides and sharrows to identify drivers and cyclists are shared during traffic place when a cyclist has to move in and out to go around a quote temporarily parked vehicle it's causing more of an issue and they're more likely to get hit again i want to stress that this is a safety issue a viable alternative for cyclists

▶ 1:16:12 is to create bike lanes along the rail tracks thank you everyone thank you okay next is uh garrett nelson thanks elena can you hear me all right yes all right thanks um i'm garrett nelson i live on london road in melrose uh appreciate city staff being here and traffic commission uh to having another go around at this conversation um i know there's lots of people who are very familiar with uh things like of course the manual and uniform traffic control devices in this group. I bike every day down this corridor with my three-year-old daughter to daycare. It's our primary way of getting around town. I would love the committee to think a little bit about the term compromise in evaluating this rehearing. We've heard a lot about compromise. The plan

▶ 1:17:11 before you is not the maximal plan that cyclists would like to have. I would love to have grade separated lanes. I'd love to have no parking on either side of Main Street. This city has already shown considerable uh adaptation and wisdom in responding to neighbors needs they've moved the parking back to the curb on the northbound side they've you at your last meeting uh elected to remove the the southbound lane in front of the caruso apartments which i disagree with but i understand the compromise the only compromise we've heard in the other direction is either that bicyclists should go away or not use this street um we've heard suggestions that they should go somewhere else we know that derby and waverly are too narrow to accommodate a bike lane

▶ 1:17:56 mount vernon is too steep for kids and families to bike on we're not talking about lance armstrong's here uh those are the only three streets that run north to south in this part of the town and in any case if we were to move it to mount vernon or to derby we'd just be taking parking away from those people and they'd be angry about it so i feel very strongly that the plan before you represents a equitable compromise um we're talking about its concordance with melrose statue um of course you're well aware of the 2016 complete streets policy which gives the city engineer quote working with dpw staff best judgment in incorporating complete street principles including an emphasis on an equitable approach to accommodating multiple modes of transportation

▶ 1:18:40 so i encourage the committee to uphold your previous decision as i bike this way every day with my daughter i find it frustrating that there's only a few private cars parked here and i do think ultimately the safety of families of kids in melrose is more important than the ability of people that temporarily store their private cars on road that belongs to all of us and is paid for with my tax dollars as well as everybody else's so thanks a lot i appreciate you all being here once again you're unmuted jonah hi thank you uh this is jonah karenza on lebanon street and um former chair of the pet bike committee executive director of bike to the sea um and a transportation planner by by profession um i just wanted to point out a couple

▶ 1:19:41 things um the the argument that mr gordon made regarding and the evidence that he he cited many if not all of those pictures had cars parked where there technically should not be any parking per the prior vote of the traffic commission and where the lane has been sized to accommodate a travel lane and a bike lane and so to to take pictures and submit those as evidence of the lack of safety is is really disingenuous because those the design of those sections of the road is not meant to accommodate parked vehicles and and other vehicles driving correctly within the lane so i just want to submit that to the record many of those exhibits really should not be considered because they're just they're not legitimate examples of what the

▶ 1:20:39 proposed configuration is the other thing um and this has been said several times but you know asking people to walk across the street um to get to their house if they you know have occasion to to need extra parking on the street um for those residents that are on the southbound side of main street um you know isn't is not something that went unthought of in this proposal there are four or five i think in the final proposal additional crosswalks being added to make it more convenient for people to cross the street that with the narrower lanes with out parking on one side of the street daylighting at the crosswalks to improve visibility and the potential to add rapid flashing beacons if they're warranted really will make the street safer for

▶ 1:21:36 not only the the cyclists traveling through many of whom you've heard from tonight many of whom are actually in melrose residents not just sort of commuters coming through from from elsewhere which by the way is a lot of the people driving on main street um it will make it safer for the people on main street driving um into and out of their houses um parking having guests over crossing the street as well as the people that use buses um and have to cross the street because they live on the west side of the street but they're taking the bus home on the northbound um i think we need to consider everybody who uses and lives on main street um not just the older residents who have certain circumstances um like trucks responding to

▶ 1:22:28 to power outages during blizzards, which thankfully is a relatively rare occurrence. I'll leave it at that, but I appreciate the traffic commission hearing all of this again, and thank you for your time. Okay, next is Jonathan Berg. I'm unmuting you. Jonathan, if you're interested in being seen, please let me know. Sure. Would you like to be seen? Obviously. Okay. you are now a panelist okay all right let me first of all say something uh right off top i'll be uh cyclists that have spoken tonight saying that uh the road belongs to everybody the people that are in opposition to this are not based on anti-cycles what they're based upon is public safety and mr uh the evidence submitted by uh mr cordon clearly shows and if you think that having a flashing sign

▶ 1:23:40 is going to stop people from going more than the speed limit they're just fools and i want to know why are there no cameras to record the license plates of both commercial and private vehicles that are going above the speed limit why isn't that being done that is mission critical whether we have lanes or no lanes there is an alternative and i've talked about this for years to utilize the mbta uh right of way down right there to create a bike path that takes it right out of any conflict with any vehicles provides a an adequate transportation mode for people who are cyclists i am a cyclist but i will not cycle whether there are bike lanes or not on main street it is a danger and i can just see now channel five or channel four standing out here

▶ 1:24:45 you know when we have the first tragedy and say why did this happen why did this happen we don't need a study we need a we need an investigation we are telling you now there's going to be maiming and there's going to be death here not just in the winter time not just in the fall but all year round it is a mistake it is a mistake and one of i've said before one of the problems with government is it's refusable to recognize mistakes and the most glaring example of it is the 40 billion dollar hole in the ground called the quote-unquote big day they knew from jump street that it was inadequate and it was going to be a nightmare but they just would not admit a mistake republican democrat liberal conservative we've got the same situation here

▶ 1:25:42 Ryan Williams: microcosm this is a mistake and mark my words you people are going to be held responsible for this that's all i have to say okay the next uh in line to speak is ryan williams i'm unmuting you now if you'd like to be seen let me know no thank you i do not need to be seen um i'm going to share a very brief personal anecdote at the risk of further angering the traffic commissioners who have been dragged away from their lives tonight my grandmother was god rest her soul convinced that the whistles on the front of her car i came from rural illinois so she had these whistles on the front of her car and they were supposed to scare animals deer specifically so that a deer would not run across a cornfield and jump in front of your car she was convinced and i mean

▶ 1:26:54 Ryan Williams: religiously convinced that those whistles changed traffic lights and I would ride with her in her car and we'd pull up to a light and it would turn green and she would say see I told you the whistles changed the light we'd pull up to a car light and it would turn red and I'd say what about the whistles she said just give it a minute and the light would turn green and she'd say see I told you the light turned green this this is an example of confirmation bias right we go into a situation we think we already know the answer to it and so we provide all these facts and all this evidence to try and convince other people that actually everything we're saying is right but there's there's there's a problem with that and it's that we blind ourselves to outside information so i

▶ 1:27:38 Ryan Williams: want to just kind of provide a little bit of counterweight to some of the statements that have been made tonight by folks who are well-meaning and who have you know the best intentions but are saying things that don't actually hold true in reality the first is that narrowed lanes cause congestion it's kind of a no-brainer if you narrow a road lane from 14 feet to 11 feet it doesn't make more cars appear on the road just doesn't happen narrowed lanes uh cause um accidents that because the lane is so narrow people will just drive all over the road to try and get out of it this is not true at all uh lane lane road diets have been shown to reduce accidents in fact the federal government found that they reduced accidents by up to 29 percent

▶ 1:28:26 Ryan Williams: um anybody can park their prius outside of their house for a couple hours and go out and cherry pick photographs of trucks passing them to try and submit it as evidence to try and scare people on a commission into changing their vote it doesn't make it true uh bike lanes don't cause accidents Bike lanes don't cause drivers to drive into other people's cars. Those actions are the responsibility of the people who are driving in their cars. There are people who drive recklessly on Main Street, and the reason is that they have been allowed to drive recklessly on Main Street because the previous design on Main Street has enabled reckless driving. The lanes are incredibly wide, which is proven to increase vehicle speeds. There's little to no clarity

▶ 1:29:14 Ryan Williams: at intersections especially Sylvan and Maine for where people are supposed to go and how people are supposed to proceed which is why you get the situation where sometimes people decide to drive in the parking lane and now the biggest threat to safety on Main Street and Melrose is this petition itself and the reason is that the petition has halted a project in midstream resulting in a design that absolutely makes no sense and the reason is because it's unfinished As the person who a couple commenters back noted, there's a lane that is intended to fit a bike lane and a travel lane. It is not intended to fit parked cars. People who park their cars there are parking them illegally. They are parking them outside of the context of this design. On the other side, there should be a painted parking lane and a painted bike lane, which provides a visual cue that there is a limited amount of space to travel in.

▶ 1:30:09 Ryan Williams: because this doesn't exist and again the reason that it doesn't exist is because we've had a petition that was designed to interrupt the design and delay the project i'm sure there will be more attempts to delay the project but i sincerely hope that this isn't true that this is the last one i driving down main street just before thanksgiving had the unfortunate experience of a woman trying to pass me on the right while driving in the parking lane she was able to do this because there's nobody parked there there's almost never anyone parked there and sure you can go put your car out on the street and go take pictures but that doesn't mean that it's an everyday round-the-clock occurrence this woman almost ran head first driving abreast of me

▶ 1:30:48 Ryan Williams: as if it were a two-lane road into the police sign that was parked up near mount vernon ave so the design that the committee i'm sorry the design that the commission agreed upon was a compromise we all wanted things to go a little differently some of us got some things others got other things i think that it was a good decision and a good design i think there's a big difference between being ignored and being heard and being disagreed with and i really implore the commission to please stick to your values vote the same way that you did before and move past this so that we can have a safer and more inclusive complete street for main street and for melrose thanks very much thank you okay steve lombardi you were next

▶ 1:31:39 Good evening. I just want to dovetail and react to that gentleman that just spoke. You basically had to design all summer on the roadway, and it was abject failure in my opinion. All the things that I stated in my letter came true. It was very difficult the back out of my driveway crossed the southbound lane into the northbound lane people coming out from the side streets had difficulty going left to right and that gentleman just reiterated my point he's talking about here's our plan here is what we want again the local residents did not have an opportunity to participate in that planning and we keep saying and stamping our feet we are not anti-bike we are not anti-safety and furthermore i maintain an office in my house i have a bird's eye view

▶ 1:32:46 what goes on basically 24 7 on lower main street there's not enough utilized by bikers on this road to have this what's so special about our stretch of road that we have to have a dedicated bike lane take the parking away the limited parking is actually an advantage for the bike riders during the morning they have a wide view they have a wide lane it's probably the safest stretch of road for a biker in the city of melrose both commuting in the morning to oak grove and coming home the lack of parking or the the usable parking that's existing is an advantage to them the people on this street only use it when it's needed that's an advantage but on the other hand you're going to create cause and effect of now there's no parking on the southbound side

▶ 1:33:43 where are we going to go we're going to go across the street we're going to go on side streets Again, I don't want to be part of the record earlier. But I have a background in site selection for 3 or 4 corporations. And if I presented this proposal to a corporate board. They would say, where are the customers? I'm using the bike riders as the, where are the customers for this. Big investment on Main Street recall, but there was just a slight. Increase the numbers of bike riders right now. I can kind of 1 here in the mornings, the number of people that go down my street. I just don't get why we can't have the shadows. Ample signage saying, share the road and I also disagree with when you narrow the road.

▶ 1:34:37 That is going to slow traffic down the local law abiding citizens are slowing down. The ones that are the law breakers are continuing to speed and speed and a high rate of speed. It's going to take 1 distracted driver on his or her cell phone. And it's going to be a major issue. And the gentleman that said, all the old folks that have. You know, he referenced the, the attorney using the, the buses. Showing it well, that's real life. That's what's going to happen. Mike lane and no bike a biker or a bike lane or a bike up a bus is going to come down there. And if there's a park car, which is there temporarily dropping off passengers, or if it's a delivery vehicle. Or if it's a service vehicle, that is going to happen what that.

▶ 1:35:29 What Mr Williams go ahead and showed with the bus. Going in the middle of the lane, the heavy trucks go in the middle a, that's going to happen all the time. Because no parking on the cell phone. In effect is going to be unenforceable. There's always going to be an oil delivery. There's going to be name any service vehicle is going to be pulled up. Amazon, they're not going to turn around and park across the street. They're going to temporarily park. Go out and make their delivery or whatever they're doing. If there's a bus or a truck coming northbound. And at the wrong time, there's going to be a tragedy. Um, so I just want to express my, uh. Feeling that the bike is. Obviously group is continuously making this an adversarial proposition.

▶ 1:36:25 We're not here to fight you and disagree and stay up our feet. We were brought late into this. Um, project in any commercial project. You have a given take by both sides that keep talking about compromise and this, and there was none of that really given us late in the game and we got to react. And now that they're paying us with a broad brush brush that we're a bunch of old timers and we were, we don't want change. That's far from the truth. We, we embrace the safety and we want bike lanes. We want a bike lane that works for all. And given the fact that you have a straight site of line from 244 main street. The silver street, that's the very advantageous for all concerns. So, thank you for your time and I hope that you reconsider.

▶ 1:37:20 And put shadows with heavy duty signage, and we can all get along fine and I guarantee it won't impede the bikers and I want to be this safety. And it will also help people have to back out of the driveway. It's like me. And it will help traffic both ways have a good wide lane. Like, we've always had. Thank you. I believe we just have 1 more. President or a person who hasn't spoken named Don. There's not a last name with it. So, I'm unmuting you now. Hi, my name is Don. I have a business at 145 main street. And I just want to speak, um, as the rest of your butters, um, we feel that it's unsafe not only for the. Bikers, but for the people backing in and our driveways. If you let let this go through, um, Cheryl's on North main street coming down through the square. I can go on and on about many other streets.

▶ 1:38:34 So, I don't know why the big change for South Main Street. So, that's what I have to say, and I appreciate the other boards time. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I, I, there are a lot of hands that are still raised from people who have already spoken. I don't know. Anyone was trying to speak a 2nd time, or if we want to entertain any. Repeat, uh, speakers. But it is hard to tell with so many hands still raised. When, in the Q and a, it looks like a style McDonough is asking to speak. Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay, still, I'm going to unmute you now and. I still are you the 1 who had multiple people with your group? There are 2 people here. I'm not sure if the other person wants to speak, but. a chance to uh let us know by the time i finish because i really won't do that

▶ 1:39:50 okay if you could speak if you could speak up a little bit too it's a little hard to hear you can you hear me now yes much better okay good this this is my uh mother voice can you hear me now okay um i don't see why we can't use the shadows on both sides and have packing for people We need the packing when they need it. On both sides, it's it's happens in many places. It happens down the street in Malden. It happens here in Melrose. And what about the downtown area? They have the shadows, I mean, talk about congestion. Ingestion, so that's number 1. I really that's in the central lane. uh the the uh line in the center of the road that would give adequate room for parking the shadows and also the signage is extremely important for people to really know

▶ 1:40:57 i'm a nurse by profession but i've been retired a few years i wouldn't want to go in and take care of a patient today it's complicated just like this is complicated But safety is very important. I went on the website today to read a little bit about the shared streets. I read a little before and I picked up something else that I missed. We've been talking about a lot tonight. It was safety. Shared streets really emphasizes one of the most important things is safety. As a nurse, I've watched ambulances go up and down the street all hours of the day, and we're on the road to go to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. We're also, on occasion, on the road to go to Boston. Those cars, those vehicles really move.

▶ 1:42:03 They are very, very well-trained people. No matter how well-trained you are, if you don't have the space it's going to be a problem fire trucks i talked to a fireman today he told me he thought for safety's sake having parking on both sides having the shadows and having the line in the middle and i said that's how i feel i feel the same way there's something else too when megan mcdonough's car was hit one driver was trying to get out of the way of the other when these vehicles these fire trucks these ambulances we have a law in massachusetts and it says we have to move over so we're going to move over but we need the space to move over without going in the other side of the road where we might run into an oncoming car or truck or whatever it is.

▶ 1:43:14 So I really questioned and I really would like to hear what the police chief has to say when you get to that point about the move over law and how this narrow little lane on one side is going to affect that. You're putting those people at a great disadvantage that happened to be driving down when one these vehicles needs to have room to get by i'm not saying they won't go over the line but having the situation predictable is extremely important having the extra space to provide that thank you very much um i want to see these bikers out there i want to see lots of them out there and uh if they want to drive to the north end god bless them because that's quite a ride however there's also a lot of pleasure drivers and there's a lot of kids too but i would suggest that an

▶ 1:44:18 inexperienced driver drive on the street because it is a questionable street for them to be on thank you very much i hope you really take this into consideration It comes from my heart, and I think it's very important. My bless you people for spending all this time. I've been through all of these meetings. I've been at the high school, and I've been a couple of these virtuals, and I know nothing about running a computer. If I didn't have someone to do it for me, I could never speak. I think it's great that we've been able to do that. I've been nice in person, but it's just the way it is tonight. Thank you. We have another speaker this. Yes, go ahead. Okay. I'll do. Okay, this is Megan. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. We have like, 1 computer in the middle.

▶ 1:45:18 So, um, you know, thanks for staying conversation with us. It's, you know, what we were looking for all along. I feel like we. See, the neighbors, um, down here, we could have. Probably had less meetings and maybe a much more fluid transition to a final project. If we were just brought in at the beginning. I'm really glad that, you know, is here and they're helping make these changes and they're. Closely with the, but if there's not pods of neighbors brought in at the beginning, it just. causes polarity and that's because one group has said from a very early stage you have this invest yours right so that group starts you know is working on it and it has ownership over it and then should anything enter that conversation that is different it might not be heard it might just

▶ 1:46:11 Leila Migliorelli: be seen as this we are a tiny little town we're you know one community and i feel like when we find solutions that work it's like looking at a pie graph and everybody's need comes in as that piece of pie and at the center we find our answer so yeah so we're really glad to be here tonight there were over 92 people that signed a petition I before I have done petitions before in other cities and I have never had people grab the clipboard and say how do I plug in so there were just so many voices waiting to get plugged in and you know it's just it would have been really great if it happened earlier I hope that that does happen for other friends that maybe this project is going to go I noticed on the complete streets

▶ 1:47:03 Leila Migliorelli: website for this for the state of mass they say bring the neighbors in early so a much more fluid transition. So, I know there were no residents involved, but they weren't really all part of this area. I also learned at the disabilities or the disability meeting that I saw through with McSweeney and was glad to be there also recently this month That the Complete Streets Working Group hasn't really met since 2019. So, maybe that was like a point of facilitation that would have helped us out. Right now, we're talking about bike safety. Everyone's talking about bike safety. At this table for bike safety and shared use of the road. There's always been bike travel in this area. I was first put on the back of a bicycle on Main Street in 1981.

▶ 1:48:05 Leila Migliorelli: And I myself was car free for over a decade. And I dared my friends to give up their cars because they didn't want to pay for oil. I didn't want to pay for oil wars. And then I got disabled and so now I need multiple modes of transportation. Thank God there are some days I can still ride a bicycle. I want to address what Ryan Williams had said. According to the statute that formed the traffic commission, the commission has to file notice of their votes on new measures in newspaper circulations for 2 weeks following making the traffic commission for following making the vote. And the traffic commission had not done this and somewhere in the process of them filing this, we submitted our petition.

▶ 1:48:51 Leila Migliorelli: So, I feel like that timeline is a little foggy and now here we are. So great. We're still moving forward. That's great. I want to call into focus that in light of the traffic commission meeting of 1028 that made these bike lanes from Sylvan to Mount Vernon Street. We're only talking about a couple blocks and we have to have meetings and hearings and all this stuff about a couple blocks. On the southbound side, we've, you know, had more original parking on the curb and Cheryl's come up from downtown. And then that another 300 feet was gained at the 1028 meeting. So, it's been like, edging its way up. And then if you measure the southbound side by the northbound side, what we're talking about for a bike lane here is two city blocks.

▶ 1:49:47 Leila Migliorelli: And I think that there's 2 conversations going on because of that polarity where 1 group. Was involved someone so less to be very involved in the planning. No, 1's trying to get rid of bike travel. No, 1's trying to get there with bike lane. We're just trying to negotiate for 2 more blocks. Um, and we also. We feel like we need to keep the parking. We need to have shares of shared traveling and keep the parking on both sides. Another reason why we're negotiating for those 2 blocks is because the traffic is so crazy down here that it makes sense for bikes and for drivers to have, um, you know, to have an intuitive design within a small space. So, West Wyoming to Sylvan is a really small space. That's what is that 3 or 4 blocks? We're talking about 3 or 4 blocks there. Um, and then from.

▶ 1:50:40 From West Wyoming, or sorry, from Mount Vernon Street, where the bike lane would now start in the middle of the road, a road that's often traveled by people that aren't familiar with it. From Mount Vernon Street to Sylvan Street is 1,582 feet. So, if you're using, say, like, Google directions or something, It usually tells you to take the next turn with a 1000 foot warning or we're in this hearing right now about 1582 feet. We're not into bike lane. We just want the best configuration right now. The reason why, um, and also to give you a little bit more about me. Um, I've done a lot of things in my life and and for a long period of time, I was a stage technician. Sometimes I was doing design work, but most of the time I was implementing someone else's design.

▶ 1:51:34 So, someone handed me that CAD drawing and they said, there's this many lights here. This is where the stage goes. These are the measurements, you know, and they said, we designed this with the measurements here, put it in the space. So, people have the measurements for the street, they designed it. Now we're trying to put it in the space. And we've already found that some aspects aren't really working and they have to be moved around and that's a normal thing. for design to implementation. And one of the other variables in that that's not at the design table and isn't in the measurements is how people use the space. So you put a design on a stage and the actors move around on it and you're like, oh, wow,

▶ 1:52:13 we really have to change this. There's a shadow here. This other part doesn't work. Let's make it work. That's what's already happened with the northbound side. So that's what we're looking for now. We're saying, it just doesn't really work. comments earlier about well the pictures that bill horton showed were um showing parked cars and things moving over i met a neighbor i didn't know last night i knocked on his door he was so excited to talk to somebody that we walked up and down the street looking at things so we stood on main street and we watched there were no cars last night parked on the southbound side and cars were still going over the center line so there's there's something in that design

▶ 1:52:54 Leila Migliorelli: that just needs to be wedged over a little bit and it just doesn't really work i don't know why the cars want to go over that line i don't think pulling people over would help i mean the speeds are a little bit lower we did watch that when we clocked a cyclist at 17 miles an hour that was pretty cool um so we went out and we canvassed we canvassed 10 streets we talked to over 100 neighbors i want to say probably 120. um we now have an active email list or about 70 people and i found a handful of people that weren't like yeah this is design is the best they were like i think it could be better i wonder what else we could work for and i saw a handful of people are sorry the majority of people think we could do better and think that somebody's gonna get hurt

▶ 1:53:44 Leila Migliorelli: and then a handful of people said i don't just don't really care so there wasn't like there There isn't, you know, there isn't a gap. It doesn't seem like there's like, really competing opinions and people want to stay in conversation with the traffic commission. They want to stay in conversation with the public works. You want to see in conversation with the, um, everybody seemed really interested in the bike transit way. Next to the train, and 1 of the folks that lives down here in lower Maine, he is the every tape representatives of city. He's done the space numbers. He thinks it's possible. That's definitely something long term. We want to explore. We also, we also want to talk with Derby. It's already a bike way. People are just left and right.

▶ 1:54:33 Leila Migliorelli: Riding backwards up the street all day long. Bikes are always going to be on main street. So, it's more of how, you know, how are they used on Main Street? I rode a bike on Main Street for years in the traffic and then I could jump out of the way. And sometimes I had to. So, you know, my car was totaled on the street and now where my car was totaled, there'll be a bike lane. So if someone tries to do them over, they'll be moving over into the bike lane. If you give the cyclist the most width to use by giving them a full travel lane, We feel like that gives them safety and the center line being off center right now has to be off center if there's a dedicated bike lane on the northbound side. There's just nothing, you know.

▶ 1:55:16 Leila Migliorelli: So, if we had sharrows for both sides, we'd have full road utility for cars and bikes on both sides. And then have that 1,582 feet that is also often traveled by emergency vehicles by by giant tractor trailer trucks um you know as really a shared space and then it opens up afterwards it opens up at Sylvan there's seems like there's more you know there's more space there there's more there's more available space um and then for all the reasons that the curb utility was seen valid to be preserved from west Wyoming um to potomac all of those reasons exist for the expansive space from potomac to sylvan and those reasons we're needing curb utility for home health care workers delivery um parking stop and go and

▶ 1:56:19 Leila Migliorelli: um i don't know if you guys know what a home health care worker is and they don't mean to be facetious but that's often somebody who later in life maybe even post career has gone back to work so then those are older people helping older people and that's what it is for some of our folks in the course of canvassing we were able to also find a lot of information about the demographics of the area and while derby road is a younger street with a lot of houses having sold recently to younger families uh the southbound side of main street particularly is senior citizens a lot in their 70s and 80s some of which are completely homebound and only the result like from potomac to sylvan i can tell you that i only knocked on

▶ 1:57:09 Leila Migliorelli: maybe three doors when people were under 65 and other than that it's uh 65 to over 80 years of age which is a little bit unique it's not like oh there's a couple senior citizens it's like it is a scene that side of the street is a senior neighborhood with senior need who aren't necessarily going to be on webex they may not email some of those people don't have computers um some of the people with me in this room tonight don't use computers regularly and so they're sort of caught in that uh digital divide that's happened especially since coved where you can't really go to a meeting and and so then we are also trying to be places for them uh people we talked to on kingsley on lodge on uh derby on woodruff on ledgwood on sylvan on mount vernon

▶ 1:58:01 Leila Migliorelli: street on Vernon Ave and on Potomac, they already are at, their parking's already at a premium. Like I don't think that some of this conversation would have happened if Melrose wasn't already in a parking deficit. And then the city is asking to have people develop more units for their buildings or their houses or put in law rents an apartment, do something, you know, Airbnb in the back, whatever it is and the closest parking uh the closest parking public parking lot where you can get a permit for it is berwick street and from where i am right now 185 main street it's 0.9 or sorry uh nine tenths of a mile from here so i know some neighbors we have a shared drive here there are five cars are in so at least one or two of those cars is already always moving in the

▶ 1:58:54 Leila Migliorelli: street um and and uh they looked into it and they said i just can't you know i can't walk that far in the snow so there isn't there there isn't a municipal yard if you if you take 20 22 i think it was many spaces off the street then the side streets are full so when we just had the roadwork done the side streets were completely full like it looked like it was somebody was throwing a giant new year's party in the neighborhood and it was just people trying to um just people trying to park um i feel like i had a couple other quick things you know people people are organized now they would like to work with the city we would like an answer for main street and then we'd like to continue to stay in conversation so it's not this isn't an end but just a beginning of relationships

▶ 1:59:45 Leila Migliorelli: that are now opened up um the assessor's office also said the loss of parking will affect market value on the free market it will not affect technical value for per property according to the assessor but it will affect what people will pay um i know that my mom bought her house in the 70s for twenty thousand dollars and had to fix up all of it um even the ceiling floors walls And now the houses down here are quarter of a million, pushing a million dollars, like money that people never thought they'd see in their lives. And maybe not all those seniors will stay in their houses for the rest remainder of their lives, but they'll be able to sell that house at the highest profit so that they can pay for assisted living,

▶ 2:00:33 Leila Migliorelli: so that they can give things to their kids. And so they feel like that is also being taken from them. so this so what we're having right now is a conversation about a conversation about a a the greatest bike lane ever we're talking about a narrow road that needs utility for all and um and it's you know it i it just it doesn't get bigger you know it doesn't you put a bike lane it doesn't it doesn't mean that the problems go away it'd be nice if it if it did I hope that, you know, when, when I'm in my working life, I guess, just to try to wrap myself up here, in my working life, I did gig to gig work. I would assume that when you're planning a project, you do project by project work, really focus on one thing, do it successfully, you move on to the next thing.

▶ 2:01:29 Leila Migliorelli: In my industry, we used to say, you're only as good as your last gig. So, I would hope that as the commissioners vote on this project, they see that, you know, they do want to put their name on that. They want to put their name on it. Professionally. They're comfortable putting their name on it in the community where they're going to see these people where, if there are accidents. If anything happens that they're not, you know, they're going to be able to live with the decision that they made tonight. And we're going to see what the grocery store, you know, any town stuff. I lived in really big towns where you don't know what people look like, but I've seen some of the traffic commissioners and Whole Foods already. And I was just, you know.

▶ 2:02:11 Try to give them their privacy to not try to talk to them in the grocery store. Um, yeah, I guess I guess I could still say a lot of other things. I could say that, you know, there's, there's another, there's a local business at Sylvan that's really affected. They're a Brazilian owned gym, woman owned gym, woman's from Brazil, and she has trouble with her classes right now, getting parking in the evening, getting parking in the morning. I know that she tried to send a message to you. I guess it didn't get through. We all want safe travel and we think that for all the reasons that we've been able to preserve the parking and add sharrows from downtown to Potomac should be no reason why we can't add sharrows and preserve the parking from Potomac to Sylvan another 1,582 feet.

▶ 2:03:06 Thank you for having us here tonight. Yeah, the only other person well, actually, we have 1 in the Q and a, that I'm just going to read into the record. Um, it is from. Liam McHale, and it says, thank you for taking the time to set up this meeting. I'm a resident living in this area of Melrose and would like to state that my family and myself support the bicycle lanes. And multimodal modifications being made to the section of main street. I support keeping the bike lanes and road modifications. Slowing speeds and modifying the flow of traffic will make this section of road safer. Melroads needs this. Thank you for your time. Okay. And actually, there's a second message from Liam McHale saying, I live on Derby Road with a young family. We need more bike lanes in Melrose. We strongly support the bike lanes on Lower Main.

▶ 2:04:05 So, I think that's it. Fin McSweeney. I see you have your hand back up. I will unmute you now. Sorry about that and thank you. I'll be very brief. I just wanted to make sure that on behalf of the committee. The commissioners did receive and were aware of the almost. 400 signatures we obtained in support for this sort of improvement on lower main. Um, it's tremendously popular city wide, um, people want to see this and we've talked a lot about planning. The last point I'll make is if you go to the master plan from 2017. There's a section which asks residents. What is the most single most important characteristic to you? Uh, that we, that we preserve and maintain in Melrose and by a long shot, the answer was.

▶ 2:04:55 Ability to get around safely by multiple modes of transportation. Rail bus car bicycle on foot this, the proposal that we saw in front of the traffic commission, and that was approved on the 28th. is the type of road that Melrosians want to see in Melrose. So that's it. Those are my comments. Thank you everyone for the time. Thank you. Okay. We have four folks with their hands still raised from before. I'm gonna unmute Bill. I'm just gonna unmute you and see if you had your hand raised on purpose. Yeah, a couple of people were referring to some of what I presented I wanted to just reply very quickly if that's okay yeah if you can try to keep it brief just given that we've we've been going over two hours but yes I see

▶ 2:05:55 I see I just wanted to say that what we did is pursuant to the Melrose Traffic Commission statute was exercise our rights to petition it's in almost every traffic Commission statute in the state it's standard practice because these kinds of decisions have local impact and it's built in for people to raise these concerns um second um it is we were told at the last commission meeting that people pulling into the driveways would be totally allowed if the bike lane came in so what those pictures show is when a car is parked on the side how much trucks and buses go over the line as well as number of other cars so we would contend that was legitimate uh evidence for this commission to consider given the the uh the the plan as as is uh given where the center lines are now and that

▶ 2:06:51 is supposed to be the center lines with the bike lanes that's all i i i'm keeping a brief on purpose thank you for your patience okay thank you thank you okay if anyone else was actually still wishing to speak who spoke before if they can um put something in the chat or the q a um because i don't i think it's just people with their hands still up from before um just give people a moment we do have one last comment in the chat here from steve lombardi that says idea let's put our design of sharrows and parking on both sides for trial run and let's agree to review it in several months we had the design bike riders wanted and it was not viable you had your trial run let's try ours so i i think that concludes the public testimony

▶ 2:08:14 um we have a motion to close public comment a motion made by commissioner parenti a second by chief lyle i saw a bunch of hands come up i saw his first um so all in favor of closing public testimony all right by unanimous consent public testimony is now closed so we have four items um on the agenda and the first item is and this was the wording of the petition um the first item was the parking on the wet changing the parking on the west side of main street southbound from 244 main street south to sylvan street um so we can we can talk about each of the items individually or if you want to just talk about them as a group um all four items that i read in at the beginning of the meeting that's fine too um whatever the will is of the commissioners i'd suggest taking the whole thing

▶ 2:09:29 okay okay so the four i'll read all four then to refresh everybody what we're discussing it's the parking from 244 main street to south to sylvan street the dedicated bike lanes on the east side of main street northbound from 338 feet north of the melrose malden line to mount vernon street the dedicated bike lane on the southbound side from from 244 Main Street to Sylvan and amending the code for consistency with existing signage with respect to both parking and time limits on Main Street south of Wyoming to the city limit. So the bike lanes on the southbound side from south of Sylvan were actually not specified in the petition as being um being brought into question so um so those are the four items councilor eccles before i um speak on it it'd be helpful to

▶ 2:10:42 understand um how we go from here tonight based on posting requirements and the way that the petition goes and the implementation yes so the the items that we if we vote consistent with what we voted on october 28th and we've already posted for two weeks in uh the newspaper that's still printed which i believe is the weekly news um we've already posted all of our decisions from october 28th including everything including electric vehicle charging lanes uh restrictions and crosswalks and everything so if we vote the same then all those votes stand um and we don't have to republish those the only exception is that in the um in the ad and in on the agenda rather than mount vernon street i wrote mount vernon ave mistakenly um i would contend that the

▶ 2:11:44 The, the discussion was very clear that we were talking about Mount Vernon street and not Mount Vernon have I think the commissioners. We're aware, I think the public was aware of the, that was. Those were the limits we were discussing, um, however. You know, from a, from a technicality perspective, it is correct. That is not what we put in the newspaper. And so. the bike lane from the 338 feet i believe it is north of the city limit up to mount vernon street would have to be put in the newspaper again for two more weeks if we decide that we still want to approve that um if we vote something different tonight then we would have to put whatever that new vote is into the newspaper for another two weeks

▶ 2:12:39 On on the Mount Vernon. Have a issue would that. Be something we could vote on at our regularly scheduled meeting, which I think is. December 15th, because there would be 2 weeks before that if we. Well, so we can vote on it tonight and then publish it for 2 weeks. And then and then we're all set, but the only thing is that. If, you know, a potential delay tactic for the project. Could be for folks to file another petition about just that 1 item. But if all other items passed. And we were painting, we can after the, the publication. Last Friday, we can now paint all the crosswalks because those aren't part of tonight's discussion. So, you know, we can paint the crosswalks after tonight. We could paint everything else other than that northbound bike lane if everything was approved again. And so.

▶ 2:13:43 You know, to to file another petition just about the northbound bike lane, if everything else passes. It would appear to be simply a delay tactic. The unfortunate thing is that at this time of year, it's very difficult to paint anything at all. And so. Our painting contractor has indicated that he, that they've wrapped up for the season. And we're unlikely to get them back until the spring. We are hopeful that we can maybe get if we have 1 on seasonably warm day, we can just detour the road and. Do some painting at least get the crosswalks down. Um. I think we've actually created a less safe situation by. Putting in just the center line, and then leaving it for the, for the whole winter, the whole idea of.

▶ 2:14:30 The traffic coming is that you paint those fog lines with the 11 foot travel lanes and that's what slows the traffic. And so. Painting the center line and leaving it is. You know, it does nothing compared to what was there before. It's still just a center line and then. So, those are really the paths forward and the question as to how quickly we can, we can paint anything. In addition to the legal requirement to post for the bike lane. It's the weather, the temperature and the contractor. Chief, just a quick question. What Dan brought up. Are we voting on all 4 items at once? Are we going to break it up individually? we'll vote them we'll vote on them separately still but we're just we're going to discuss all

▶ 2:15:20 four together so that we're not repeating discussion i just have a technical question here can you guys still see me i seem to have lost you all but i can hear you as long as you can hear me we can see and hear you just fine isn't that funny i can't find how to get back in and i'm afraid to go back out so i can't see you but i i am still here okay maybe it just be a matter of uh finding the cisco um tab down at the bottom of your screen that's what i'm that's what i'm looking for and it's it's gone so i can't figure out why i can hear you but that's okay because i won't move so that you can still see me i guess and and hear me funny i don't know Hmm, do you think I should jump out? Should I jump out if you want to jump out and back in or if you want to just try if you want to try closing any other windows you have open, maybe you'll.

▶ 2:16:23 Be behind something or not to. Not to get into a technical discussion, but if you do control tab. You will, you will see a small selection of all your windows and you might see 1 with our faces. I'm going to jump out and jump back in. Okay, can I ask a process question? Well. And burners doing that, or do we, um. Do we have options aside from an up and down vote? Is there an avenue open where we can make an amendment. To the decision we made previously now that this is. Reopened there were a few people who testified that. The proposal that we made does not go far enough. And I'm wondering if we have latitude in both directions here. It's an interesting question. I mean, typically we have, when we've wanted to be able to discuss things more broadly and perhaps not only decide on one particular option, we've tried to state that on the agenda, you know, advertise the agenda broadly enough that it's obvious what we're covering.

▶ 2:17:52 Um, I would say, given that this is a public hearing relative to a petition on 4 specific items that we probably need to just vote up or down on each of those 4 items. But at a future traffic commission meeting, we can always reopen a discussion on. On something different if we chose to. Okay, thank you. Okay. Chief, I have a question as far as item 2, then. Adding the bike lanes on the East side of main street. Based on the numbers that were presented from the pilot. When we flip flopped it from the bike lane from outside inside to the curb. When you add up the numbers, it seems to me that we're about 2 feet plus short. On the web, I went down there today and I measured all over the place. It's been a good hour and a half.

▶ 2:18:51 And it seems to me that with 2 feet plus short. On the northbound side northbound yes based on what that where the yellow line or the stripes are. Yep. So, and they should have. See, if if the road was roughly 41 feet. It's funny, I went out there and was measuring all sorts of things today, but I was only measuring on the southbound side. But if we have 41 feet, yeah, there should be at a minimum 23 feet on the northbound side, which would be an 11-foot travel lane, a 7-foot parking lane, and a 5-foot bike lane. So that comes out right to 23. Well, based on the pilot, what's written down here, it's 11 foot, a seven and a half parking lane, a 1.5 foot buffer striped lane for the bicycle, and then a five foot bike lane.

▶ 2:19:57 Yeah, so we moved that buffer, we moved the buffer to the other side at the last meeting. we opted to move, as part of the final recommended plan, we moved the buffer onto the southbound side because that would give people a little bit more room to pull out of their driveways. Originally, it was a five-foot bike lane on the southbound side with then no buffer and then the 11-foot travel lane, but we moved that buffer onto the southbound side so that the center line wouldn't be quite so off-center. So, when I looked at the southbound side, It varies, up by 278, it's 17 feet wide, down at 238, it's 16.7, and that's a pretty good number, 16.7, 16.8. So if you, over there. Just finish please. If you moved it over to that side, the south side,

▶ 2:20:49 it gives you 11 foot travel lane, five foot bike lane, and then you really have nothing for any type of a fog lane or buffer lane to the curb. Were you measuring to the center of the center line or you went from the curb to the. Yeah, that's that's not the center of is that's considered a, a, a non travel way. So you shouldn't know. I was just curious. Yeah, I went to the edge. Yeah, I measured. Were you measuring with a tape measure or a wheel? Wheel. Yeah, I measured with a wheel as well. I measured at. So, interestingly, the most narrow point of the entire southbound lane that I measured was in the area that we did not restripe in front of the ionic. 306 main street, or maybe that's not 306 in front of the ionic building the, the 2nd apartment building down. Yep.

▶ 2:21:47 From the curb to the edge of the double yellow, the beginning of the double yellow was 16 feet, 7 inches. And then from there, outside 306 Main Street, still in the spot before we, before where we repaved, where we didn't restripe, then it went to 18 feet. And then throughout the area that we restriped, it was 17 feet, 2 inches, 17 feet, 3 inches, 17 feet, 9 inches, 17 feet, 2 inches, 17 feet, 4 inches. That's. I just measured 5 spots in the area. I went from 278, 238, 212, 180, 164. And I varied from 17 feet to 16.7. And I went from the curb to the edge of the yellow line. Not into the yellow line. That's the same that I was doing right to the edge of the yellow line. So, I mean, obviously this thing is not a calibrated certified, you know, measuring device, but it's approximate.

▶ 2:22:47 That's my only concern. Um, yeah, and everybody in the nation knows that the main street is a dedicated truck. Yes, and the 11 foot travel lanes are given. 1 way or another, it's the buffer and the bike lanes that that and the parking lanes that would vary. Um, when we go to stripe it. With the fog lines, the way the company would do it is they actually just set an offset from the center of the double yellow. and they just set their their machine and then they just go and so the the 11 foot travel lanes would be consistent the whole way um yeah and then everything else would the buffer is what would probably you know lose if anything and then maybe i get it the road does vary and it's surprising that a road isn't exactly you know even all the way through it moves in and out slightly

▶ 2:23:48 i get that that was just an interesting point that's all yeah and and you know i found it interesting that the narrowest point that i measured was was in the was not even in the area that we re-striped i was surprised to find outside the ionic there that it was um folks call me question me as far as the bend um in the area 278 that area where the actual i'll call it the sharpest area of the turn and up there and i was surprised that it was wider than some of the other areas so yeah yeah and i and i do think that the i drove it many times in the last two weeks and you know a lot of it really does depend on your speed if you go 25 miles an hour through that whole corridor it is very easy to stay in the lines whether someone's parked on

▶ 2:24:45 the on the right-hand side or not in both directions um but the reality is a lot of people are not going the speed limit but i think once we paint the fog lines that would that would um increase speed uh um to increase the likelihood of people going the speed limit two last points i have a cdl so i know it's like to drive a semi and attract a trailer so i understand that but there was someone estelle wanted to know about you know affiliate to pull over for an officer emergency lights or an ambulance it's a hundred dollar fine and you have to use reasonable less when you pull people over if they're doing their best to get to the side of the road whether it's a one lane road or a super highway um it's a judgment call

▶ 2:25:33 anytime in meadows when you know we're going down main street for instance everybody's splitting the road for us or an ambulance or a fire engine whatever it may be an emergency vehicle so uh very seldom in a city you'll see someone cited for that maybe on the parkway but not in the main street mill that's all i have thank you helpful sergeant gawk i have a couple questions for you if if you don't mind um i was curious so i i in discussing with some residents leading up to tonight's meeting i heard some comments about bus routes and you know the bus having adequate space to pull over and cars be able to get around them and i was driving on franklin upham lebanon you know other streets that have bus traffic which are all much narrower than main street and so i'm just curious

▶ 2:26:36 do we have problems with the crashes that result from people going around buses right good question i know it was brought up earlier by one of the citizens uh with the pictures and stuff and uh Obviously, it's a natural occurrence in a lot of our main arteries in the city, Franklin Street, Main Street. And what generally happens is in most of these areas, the sight lines are very good, which would be the same thing as this corridor on Main Street that we're discussing. So, if a bus pulls over and let's say it's not all the way against the curb, the average driver will We'll maybe stop for a minute, slow down, and then they'll look, and if it's safe to go left and pass the bus a little, you know, if they go over the line a little, that's generally what happens all the time.

▶ 2:27:32 It's sort of a natural occurrence, and again, the reasonable, proper, prudent driver will only do that seeing the sight lines of the other lane coming at them and knowing that it's safe to do so. So I don't see that as an issue. Certainly, it could happen, whether it could be an accident. It would obviously be the driver's fault for going around the bus when it isn't safe to do so, especially if they crossed over the center line. Elena, if I may help up with a side here. I actually checked some of the other areas in the city and surprising. West Wyoming is probably the narrowest, heading eastbound on West Wyoming. Some areas of that road are 9 feet, 10 inches. 197, so that's pretty narrow. Especially going by the Lincoln school, that is the narrowest I could find today.

▶ 2:28:34 I'm just kind of following up on the accident question. Do we have any other history of accidents on that section of main street? I know that the new center line move hasn't been there long enough for there. Probably. History, but, uh, even during the trial period with the. Other configuration, do we, whether were there. Any accidents or many accidents to what happened? All right, Tom, we obviously we had the 1 in front of the McDonough house. Um. Uh, they live in the, uh, on the southbound area. Um. The accident occurred at night time. It was dark. I think in September and the, it could have been October. And what happened was the parking lanes were the ones that were projected out at the time. So people were parking six feet out from the curb as the design was in that design stage of the trial.

▶ 2:29:36 So there was a, the McDonough's car was parked, you know, six feet off the curb. A party was driving, excuse me, northbound, and they approached that area at a significant speed. And they said that the car in front of them slammed on the brakes, took a quick left onto, I think, potentially Woodruff. I'm not sure which side road. And that caused them to, they said, steer to the right as the car was going left, and they slammed directly into the parked vehicle. So, had they been going with the speed limit and paying attention and potentially not following too close, that accident would never have happened. It wasn't so much that the car was parked where it was, six feet off the curb, I know we're changing that anyway, but it was more, again, driver error, speed, failure to pay

▶ 2:30:37 attention, following too close. That's what happened with that accident. as far as the rest of the um the area in the past couple months uh i know of of nothing in particular um could there have been a minor accident possibly um i don't recall anything that that i have had to be really aware of um and the general history in that area um it's hard to get the general history in the area because i didn't look it up i i did do a five-year look back but it was just um this afternoon um and um the average on main street you know for a year is something in the effect of 55 accidents a year but that's the entire city so i just don't have the direct data in that corridor but if i had to guess it would be it's definitely not come to my attention

▶ 2:31:26 that it's a problem area that we're talking about and um that was a pretty serious accident involving the park car but it was absolute operator error um and um it was speed i i just wanted to make one point that seems to to be coming up a lot in terms of the process and the involvement of the neighborhood and the timeline and such um just so that that the public and the commission too understands what the timeline actually was from the city perspective so and And we go into detail on this on the web page with the recommended plan as well, but. The city identified this as a priority project for a road diet back in 2017 when we did the complete streets prioritization plan. And we identified it as needing to be paved in 2018.

▶ 2:32:25 I believe it 1st was, and then after that point. The city was not working on a design for the road diet. until this summer or late spring you know june june time frame of this year so we had we we have an ongoing relationship with the ped bike committee we used to have monthly meetings with the ped bike committee where we would say these are our upcoming projects if you have any ideas if you have any you know sort of a wish list we'd love to hear it similarly with the north south bike route when we were doing that we asked the ped bike committee you know hey here's something great you can do come up with what you think would be the best routes for the north south bike route and then when we were ready to design the north south bike route we looked at

▶ 2:33:13 the report that the committee prepared and we said okay we like these ideas and we don't like those ideas i remember one big one was greenwood going down greenwood um from franklin street which i I said, well, that's fine and good until you get into Wakefield, and it's all curves and narrow and really not very safe for that to be a residential route for the less comfortable cyclist. I thought that's a really tough route. So we opted for going up Highland and Briggs and that route instead. So, you know, we solicit the opinions of the Ped Bike Committee because they're a very active and very knowledgeable group with a lot of People who work in this industry and and know about transportation design.

▶ 2:34:01 And so that happened in this case to the bid by committee. Probably around 2019 timeframe, because I believe it was before coven. Um, had put together a report that was again. A wish list report of what the committee thought would be great for lower mainstream. The city didn't start to. Consider what our proposed design was for the pilot project. Until about a month before our 1st meeting. And so, and at the 1st meeting in July, that's where we presented what we were thinking of doing. We talked to ped bike. We talked to the who was offering us some free technical assistance. And we picked out what we. Thought we might want to see from the ped bike plan and from other ideas that we had internally and we put together the pilot project.

▶ 2:34:53 So, there was not this protracted period during which the city staff were planning. And not involving the residents of Melrose outside of the ped bike committee and I. I just can't stress that enough. We, we're doing 1 of the residents said something about doing 1 project at a time, you know, and then moving on to the next. We're doing. 10 to 15 roadway and and utility projects capital projects at any given time we're designing them we're constructing them we're in various phases of many projects at once and so we realized that we were nearing the fall for when we thought we could get paving done and you know understanding that eversource was finally done and national group was finally done

▶ 2:35:39 and we had finally finished our water improvements and then we said okay what are we going to do and That was the timeframe, so there was about a month. We talked to ped bike, we talked to, we put together the meeting notice in the July meeting. We put together a presentation. We held the meeting and then we did the striping 2 weeks later and then we did the survey and then we did the in person neighborhood meeting the meeting at the learning comments. That was both virtual and in person. And we hand delivered notices. To the main street abutters to the immediate abutters for several of those meetings. We also did ever bridge calls to the wider neighborhood. Pretty much everybody south of Wyoming got an ever bridge call for each of the community wide meetings.

▶ 2:36:30 And so I have a hard time with the. Lack of the claims of a lack of involvement. Perhaps the residents would have liked it if we spent longer. Having the discussion, it was, you know, a fairly short timeframe from June up until now. But I think we had robust discussions at every meeting. I'm not sure there are too many discussions or ideas. That I don't think there are viable ideas that weren't considered, or that would have been considered had we had more time. So, my personal feeling is that we made the decisions that we made in October with a wealth of information and a lot of public input. And there was no decision that was going to make everybody happy. And, and I do feel that the decision we arrived at was a compromise.

▶ 2:37:26 Jack Eccles: And it was a compromise that I felt comfortable with then and continue to feel comfortable with. recognizing that there are challenges for there are challenges in every direction um with the proposed plan but i think it's i think it's an appropriate balance um for for this particular roadway anyone else have any thoughts or anyone like to make any motions answer echoes just on you know kind of what's before us tonight and any new information we might have had um specifically you know some of those exhibits that were presented i appreciate you know the time and everyone took to show up to this meeting and gather information um the real truth of the matter is that the configuration that's on south main street

▶ 2:38:31 Jack Eccles: right now is not the one that any of us voted for so looking at pictures of it and issues it might be causing that's not really what my intention was with the street with the parking on the southbound lane forcing people into the other travel lane i mean a car with enough space to um pass it safely is about like eight feet wide and that's not the same as what the bike lane would have been um so that being kind of most of the only new information that we hadn't been presented with i do agree with you elena that you know the the process was extensive um i was able to we had even the week that we voted we had the meeting at the high school the it came before the council because councilor announced her proof forward as a neighborhood

▶ 2:39:22 issue and then we had the traffic commission meeting so i felt like i heard from many members of the public personally and in the meetings and and i'm i will stick with my vote that i I took on October 20th. Tom? I think that we all agree that the primary consideration we have is safety, that safety kind of trumps everything else. But safety also is not just for, you know, for the drivers, it's also for the bicyclists and the pedestrians. And I think that that's what we weighed in in our previous discussions and our previous deliberations and ultimately our vote whether it was safer you know overall to have the bike lanes you know which does make it safer for the bicyclists in my opinion um and acknowledging that you know everything is is somewhat of a

▶ 2:40:29 of a trade-off, but I didn't see that it was terribly more hazardous for the drivers with the configuration we voted on compared to what it was before the trial. I did appreciate the exhibits that we saw that were presented by, I think it was Mr. gordon um and i understand that they you know the parked car was you know sort of a proxy for a car pulling into the driveway we know that cars won't be allowed to be parking there under the what was voted on but that there will still be at some times cars there whether they're pulling into driveways which are really just a few seconds or pulling out of driveways or sometimes when someone stops to pick someone up or drop someone off you know or you know an amazon truck or whatever

▶ 2:41:28 so there will be times when that happens and there certainly will be times when cars cross over the center line um i don't think that necessarily creates a huge hazard by itself as we've all noted the sight lines are very good there so pulling over across the line generally happens when someone can see that there's not another car coming i you know one of the reasons i asked about the accident history because if there were head-on accidents which is the kind that you know you would be worried about with cars crossing the center line you know we would know about them um and you know we do know that that happens in other parts of the city where the streets aren't as as wide um so ultimately i do think that what we voted on last time was safer overall

▶ 2:42:20 um and obviously there is a benefit of you know you know encouraging you know more people to to not use their cars even though i think the you know the overall it's not that i don't think this is going to you know eliminate congestion in melrose or anything like that but uh it is Is better to give people another option for, you know, besides driving. So, that that's why I had my vote, you know, the way it was last time. And I do think we did see some new evidence, but in my view, it didn't wasn't enough to. Cause me to switch over Dan. Just 1 point on the, uh, on the exhibits and, you know, I do appreciate everybody who came forward on. All sides of the issue and took the time 1 thing you noticed in those pictures was that there was often a fair amount of distance between the vehicle.

▶ 2:43:21 Going over the line and the parked vehicle. The bike lane would be even narrower. And I think part of the reason for that difference is that there's no fog line there right now. Which I think would tend to keep people in the lane and guide them forward. So. Again, not, you know, I kind of agree with what Tom said about it. There will be times with no parking where people pull into a driveway. People may go a little further out to for one reason or another, but it's not likely to be the issue that it appeared to be in those pictures. I also say as a cyclist and one who's fortunate to be, feels fortunate to be able to cycle at all at my age, there's no question in my mind that bike lane is safer than Sharrows and safer than an unused parking lane

▶ 2:44:17 that has a car every now and then. It's just a no brainer if you ride a cycle regularly on city streets. Thanks. Thanks. I do wanna mention one thing that I hadn't mentioned before, which is that the, the striping of the center line and part of the reason why Mr Gordon was presenting the pictures that he did is that I had indicated. That the reason why we felt confident in putting down the center line was at the center line where it is can accommodate. Any vote up or down or of any of the items. That are on the agenda tonight, and that would. Assume that the, um. In its narrowest points, there's a 6 and a half foot. Parking lane and an 11 foot traveling, um, on that southbound side and so. That would that would be part of the reason why Mr Gordon was presenting, you know, if there's a car parked there.

▶ 2:45:14 It a, um, a large truck or something might cross the double yellow. Um, to get around the parked car and and I, like I said, I drove in, I parked my car. a lot down there in the last few days and just watched people's behavior and it was generally the people going too fast who who go out in terms of cars who go out around that far around another car um it's because there's nobody coming the other direction and they just don't feel like slowing down and so they just you know drive fast and go around um so i think those i think the photos were valid points but i also go back to um you know the configuration that this board voted for before that no longer is relevant when it becomes a bike lane and not a parking lane

▶ 2:46:09 except for the occasion when someone pulls over to pull in a driveway or to drop off a package or whatnot um you know it's it's largely irrelevant and then the fact that it's even narrower in an area where we do allow parking just after wyoming that the travel lane and the parking lane total are narrower than anything we did south of of where the paving limit was um so obviously you know it's a it's a layout that the city has found acceptable in the past in terms of widths and has not had a problem with people having crashes or crossing the wlo uh mayor inferno did you have I, I do, they haven't changed too much from the last meeting and and while I understand that mainstream that this is main street and it's used by many.

▶ 2:47:07 Gail Infurna: It's also a residential area with a couple of businesses on it. So, I think that makes a difference when we consider bike lanes here. Main street is mostly a shared street going right from. Starting from Wakefield all the way down into the shared street, we go right through downtown Melrose, um, as a shared street. Um, so we're looking at about 200 yards. Of of a bike lane, and I'm not quite sure and once again that I'm very hesitant to support any of this because for 200 yards. We're really disrupting the neighborhood and making a big change in the neighborhood. We always try to be consistent. With our signage, which, you know, with everything that we're doing throughout the city and if we have main street as a shared road.

▶ 2:48:02 Gail Infurna: Except for about 200 yards of this. Because then we go right after Sylvan street. It, you know, you can park again once you get through, um, I was going to say the old parking lot. Once you get by. You can park again, so I think we're being a little inconsistent for the bike rider going down that they're going to. Come down main street all the way as a shared street. If they choose to stay on main street through the through the center of the city. And then then they have just 200 yards of a. Of a bike lane, I'm not quite sure. That I can support that in a residential area where it's going to disrupt people's. Lives and be a safety issue for. You know, the pedestrians as they go back and forth.

▶ 2:48:55 Gail Infurna: And the park cars that could be impacting the side streets, because now. During a holiday during visitors during any. anything that visitors aren't parking on that and about 200 yards of that main street so um i am still going to not support this i i certainly support bikers and their their lane um but i think main street is main street and it's it's it looks different than other streets and for 200 yards i'm just not sure if i can if i can support this at this time I did have 1 question, and it was what Mr Lombard put in the question and I, I just want you to answer it. I'm not looking for it, but, you know, maybe to answer it. As to another trial, if you painted. You know, painted as a shared street.

▶ 2:49:51 And did that as another trial, what would that be like? And I think the answer would be is that it's hard to get rid of that paint. And it will always be there no matter if, you know, if we wanted to change it after the trial. Well, even if we were to do a trial of something different, we still wouldn't move the center line. I think the center line, um, you know, it. The center line makes a lot of sense where it is. You could. You could stripe all of the northbound bike lane and parking lane and on the southbound side, you could just stripe the fog lane. And, you know, see how that goes. I think I think there are some serious safety drawbacks for with not having the dedicated bike lane. And also, I think, honestly, pulling in and out of driveways is safer when there's nobody parked.

▶ 2:50:45 Locking sight lines, um, then. Then when people are parked there, so I think from a safety perspective, the proposed. Project makes more sense, but, um. You know, could we could we keep trying to let the southbound side be shared? We could, I wouldn't recommend having the northbound side be shared though, because I think since we have room for a bike lane in 1 direction, we should at the at the very least. Take advantage of that. It makes sense to look to look at the southbound lane as a shared road. Like, I say, it's about 200 yards. I. I don't know, I don't know what I don't I personally don't understand. The sense of it for 200 yards when we have all of main street as a shared street. From wakefield down, and then we're taking this 200 yards.

▶ 2:51:51 We do have a lot of dedicated bike lanes though. From Wakefield from Wakefield down to Highland. And then we have about that's about it. And we have along whole foods, there's a dedicated lane and then as you come through hospital square, there's a dedicated lane. And then along fire station, I guess it kind of acts as a dedicated lane, although it's. No parking anyway, because of fire station. And then there would be this portion from, it would be from Potomac all the way to the city limit would have a dedicated bike lane. So, I think it's a substantial. Segment of of main street that would have a dedicated bike lane. I think what stands, you know, what's different about this is that you have to change parking in order to get it along those couple 100 yards. And yes, that is.

▶ 2:52:50 Gail Infurna: That is different than all of the other locations. And it's really again, just a judgment call of. It's a give it's a give and take and thank you really for the work and I think the residents kind of, you know. I've come out and and and been heard there has been a good process. I wasn't part of a lot of it because I just kind of got on the traffic commission. In the sense, um, but, um, it, um, I think the process has been a good 1. It's it's just a tough 1, I think. Did you have comments? Yeah, I'll be brief. Um, I just wanted to echo what my colleagues here have said, um, just thanking all the input that we received tonight and the, uh, pictures and the, you know. The passion, um, on this issue, um.

▶ 2:53:50 And with that, I, I will leave it at that soon that we'll be moving to a vote. I'll make a motion to, uh. Prohibit parking on the West side of main street South bound from about 244 main street continuing South to Sylvan street. I'll second it. We have a motion by commissioner and seconded by commissioner. To restrict parking from 244 main street, South to Sylvan street. Ask a question. Yeah. So. I agree with that's the intent right to restrict parking, but the actual agenda says changing. Is that an issue so that's the, that was the wording of the petition. Okay, so those are these are the 4 items that the petition asked us to reconsider. So, we decided to go with literally that those very words.

▶ 2:54:59 But in terms of the motion, I think it's appropriate to have it be restricting parking because that is what. That is what the original motion did that was questioned by the petition. Understood thanks any further discussion. All right, seeing none, I'll call the role commissioner. Yes, yes. Mayor inferno, I didn't hear you, but I know you said no. Yeah, correct. No, counselor. Yes, yes. We should Rossi yes. File no, and I am voting. Yes. So we have. 6, yes, and 2, no. So the motion carries to restrict parking. From 244 main street to Sylvan to prohibit parking. From 244 main street down to Sylvan on the southbound side, or the West side of main street. Um, okay, the next item is adding dedicated bike lanes on the East side of main street northbound from 338 feet north.

▶ 2:56:17 Of the mall, Malrose, Malden city limit to Mount Vernon street. So move 2nd. Motion by commissioner seconded by commissioner. Um, to approve the dedicated bike lane from 3, approximately 338 feet north of the mall and Melrose limit. North to Mount Vernon street any further discussion. Okay, seeing none, I will call the role. Uh, commissioner. Yes, yes. Mayor inferno I don't know why we can't hear you when you're voting. Say it again. Yes, okay. Oh, you're muted, but we know you said I heard you say yes. I saw you say yes. Yeah, I'm going to unmute you. I just unmuted you. Uh, Councilor Eccles. Yes, yes. Rossi yes file. Okay, so we have 7 yes and 1 no. So, the motion carries to. Put in the bike lane on the northbound side.

▶ 2:57:47 As specified the next item is adding a dedicated by. line lane on main street southbound the west side from 244 main street to sylvan street um note that the bike lane south of sylvan street was not questioned in the petition so that is already approved um so any discussion or motion so moved okay second motion by commissioner parent seconded by commissioner parenti any further discussion right seeing none i'll call the role commissioner crutchburn yes commissioner yes mayor inferno i think you said no i don't know i said no yeah yeah no i can see you talking i think when you talk so briefly it just does the mic just doesn't pick it up for that second no okay councillor eccles Yes. Commissioner Ferrenti? Yes. Commissioner Rossi? Yes. Chief Lyle? No. Okay, so we have two no and also yes, so six yes, two no, so the motion carries

▶ 2:59:12 to approve the bike lane southbound from 244 Main Street thereabouts to Sylvan. And finally, amending the melrose traffic code for consistency with existing signage on main street both sides south of wyoming avenue to the melrose malden city limit as it pertains to parking restrictions and time limits and just as a reminder this was really just procedural this was not making any changes and this would be the the petition left out some of the wording on that but it is except as otherwise voted previously in this meeting and i think that's critical that's a critical piece of that motion from our original language so it would not supersede any of the other votes we've taken tonight but what it would do is um just have the traffic code match existing

▶ 3:00:04 signage so if outside let's say the apartment buildings just after wyoming if the sign says two hour parking and the code says one hour parking we would update the code to say two hour parking um so is that clear but it would also include no parking from 244 main street to sylvan it would not it's not intended to supersede any prior votes from tonight it's just in the areas where we didn't vote on something that relates to restrictions to make the traffic code match the what's on the existing signage out in the world so um you know aside from anything we've voted on previously tonight or previously at the october 28th meeting anything there that still stands would still carry this is just cleaning up the traffic code in other locations along

▶ 3:01:04 the corridor to match the existing signage motion motion by chief lyle seconded by commissioner rossi any other questions discussion seeing none i'll call the roll uh commissioner Mayor Kretschmer? Yes. Commissioner Peart? Yes. Mayor Inferno? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Ferenti? Yes. Commissioner Rossi? Yes. Keith Lyle? Yes. Okay, and I'm yes as well. So that carries unanimously. So that concludes this public hearing and vote. The whole meeting has been recorded and will be available upon request. Just note to the to the, um, those listening in the traffic commission doesn't normally post our recordings. We normally post minutes. But we were without a clerk for these last several meetings. Um, and so we made the recordings available upon request. Uh, and the last 1, we made available on the website.

▶ 3:02:17 we can do that again although we should have minutes hopefully soon because the great news is our new clerk started work today so I decided this wouldn't be a fair first day for her but she will be provided the recording and she will be making minutes from this meeting as well as the last meeting and another employee was doing the minutes from the earlier October meeting so we should have all of of those minutes for our December meeting in draft form for our approval. Motion to adjourn. Second. Okay, motion to adjourn by Chief Lyle, seconded by Commissioner Rossi. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, we have unanimous consent. So the meeting is adjourned by unanimous consent at 8.36 PM. Thank you all for your time.

▶ 3:03:16 Thank you, good night. Bye.

Original documents

• Agenda (IQM2 PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (IQM2 PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal