HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-02-08-TAC-min RECEIVED
2022 25 Mar, 9:00 am
Transportation Advisory Committee
Minutes for the meeting of Tuesday, February 8th, 2022 " Clio.E R I'
LEXINGTON MA
Members Present: Vinita Verma, Chair, Pamela Lyons, Co-Chair, Elaine Dratch,
Sally Castleman, Andra Bennett, Sara Arnold
Liaisons: Joe Pato, Select Board, Melanie Thompson, Planning Board, Sudhir Jain,
Council on Aging, Shefali Verma, Lexington High School; Susan Barrett,
Transportation Manager
This meeting was held on Zoom pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021.
Vinita Verma opened the meeting by letting us know that Nagarjuna Venna has
resigned. Joe Pato indicated that he needs to let the Select Board (the appointing
authority) know so that a new member can be appointed.
Susan Barrett noted that she had received another request for service from
Drummer Boy Way (and that she receives such requests periodically.)
The Transportation Advisory Committee voted Five to Zero to approve the
minutes for the meeting of November 30th, 2021. The TAC also voted Four to
Zero to approve the minutes of the January 11th, 2022 meeting with the
clarification that the HDC "provided informal support" for the installation of a
bus shelter at Depot Square.
Melanie Thompson gave us an overview of transportation zoning articles coming
before Town Meeting in the spring. There will be a hearing on February 16th of
Article 36 which concerns Planning Board proposed changes to zoning in the
Center that will encourage more housing. Article 40 concerns incentives to
increase sustainability in new housing. Article 38 concerns rezoning for a
commercial development at 128 Spring Street. Article 39 concerns rezoning 475
Bedford Street from residential to lab space (now used as a tennis club). Article 35
is coming back for a second time — encourages more affordable housing and
incentives to preserve historic buildings. Pamela Lyons noted that the developer
proposing Article 38 referenced the MOU at 1050 Waltham Street (elements of
which TAC advocated for two years ago) as the model for transportation elements
of the MOU being negotiated with the Town. Melanie noted that Article 36
(proposal for more housing in the Center) has many moving parts and needs a lot
of work.
Susan showed a slide presentation (link here) about why regionalization is so
important. The problem is fragmentation and duplication among transportation
services. People can get help from multiple agencies. There are many different
transit services (Susan identified six) that can get kids to school. We need to
break down barriers and silos. There are 36 school buses and 15 vans for school
transportation. Susan also discussed the challenges of running Lexpress during
waves of COVID especially fluctuating ridership and driver unavailability.
Susan also discussed the upcoming spring activities such as the Bike Rodeo, Bike
Training, and the Spring Pedestrian Bike and Safety Fair. We are trying out a
modest fee of $5 for the latter to help offset the costs of reflective gear and other
safety items.
Joe Pato discussed the sustainability incentives of Article 40 — buildings that meet
sustainability targets can be bigger. Elaine Dratch asked about the parking garage
proposed for 475 Bedford Street and asked if TAC should get involved in this.
Shefali Verma discussed her transportation survey (link here) for parents of LHS
students. She plans to send it out to the PTA list. The goal is to "gather
information for future decision making." Susan suggested modifying the opening
paragraph so as not to raise expectations among parents. Some tinkering of
survey questions took place — in particular how to frame the question regarding
travel safety— is it about how parents or the kids feel about safety. As we often
do, we acknowledge that we need a change in culture so as to prevent major
congestion at the schools. Susan suggested that Town leadership really needs to
promote mass transit and have Elaine Celi (school department) promote public
transit to schools. The bulk of Lexington's transportation funding (over $6 million)
goes to school buses. We need marketing to promote increased use of mass
transit.
In response to Andra Bennett's question about the redesign of Lexpress routes,
Susan noted that Lexpress was stretched too far before and buses ran late. The
route redesign of two years ago streamlined routes, made the routes simpler, and
put the buses back on a reliable hourly schedule. Lexpress is operating on time,
even with increased traffic but we have less coverage. Microtransit is too costly
and serves fewer people. Susan talked about the challenges of getting all mass
transit actors to work together. "If people thought differently we could solve a lot
of problems." How can we better utilize the resources that we have. Susan
discussed the Lexpress Twitter feed "people of Lexpress."