2015-01-12-TAC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) Minutes January 12, 2015 Members Present: Sara Arnold, Elaine Dratch,Peter Levy, Francine Stieglitz Members Absent: Matt Zhang, Sally Castleman, Bill Levison, Hank Manz Staff Present: Charlotte Rogers, Director Human Services Liaisons Present: Rich McDonough, COA; Richard Canale, Planning Board Guests: Sejal Patel (South Lexington resident) 1. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes • Minutes from the November 2014 meeting were unanimously approved. 2. Transportation Systems Update (presented by Ms. Rogers) • Ms. Rebecchi is on maternity leave. In her absence the Transportation Office is being covered by Pauline Burke (2 afternoons per week), Linda Judkins (5 mornings per week), and occasionally by other clerks from the HS Department who have been cross-trained for this purpose. Ms. Rebecchi is expected to return to work in early March. • Effective January 1st, round-trip bus tickets are available for sale on the Lexpress buses. A small number have been sold to date. Initially each bus was given a packet of 20 tickets; this has been reduced to 10 tickets. • There has been a brief communication between the Transportation Office and the MBTA about the Lexpress full price fare increase that puts us in compliance with the FTA regulations. MBTA grant money for this fiscal year has not yet been distributed. Additionally, a small modification to the grant contract is being worked out stating that the MBTA is providing para-transit service for Lexington. • The Minuteman ran a notice about the Lexpress full fare increase. The notice has run a couple of times and has a mistake in the explanation for the increase. Charlotte will contact the Minuteman; if they plan to run the notice again, she will point out the error and ask that it be corrected. • Lex-connect taxi service (provided through Veterans Taxi)is projecting about $38K in ride business this year. This is at least a 2-fold increase over last year's volume. Voucher sales have been limited to 10/person/month for the time being, but may be increased depending on purchasing patterns. Brookhaven is the largest user of the vouchers (over 20%). • The Lexpress GPS tracking seems to be running well. No public feedback on the GPS to report. 3. Reverse Commuting • Ms. Patel, who lives off Waltham Street near the golf course, attended the meeting and made note of the high traffic(and increased traffic)in the Waltham Street/Route 2 area. She also pointed out that Lexpress is the only public transit service that is available to her neighborhood. She asked if the 128 BC bus that serves Hayden Avenue could be made available to residents for the reverse commute in order to help reduce the traffic load. • The Lexington Economic Development Office has been in communication with the 128 BC regarding this topic. Discussions are planned for later this month. 4. Cubist Expansion (presented by Mr. Canale) • Cubist has requested time at the upcoming Town Meeting to present their plan to increase building square footage and FAR from 0.25 to 0.68. The Hayden Avenue businesses now have approvals for 1.2 million ft2. If all businesses in the Hayden Avenue district are 1