HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-08-14-LBAC-min.pdfTown of Lexington
Bicycle Advisory Committee 8/14/2025
August 14 2025 / 7:30 PM / Town Hall Parker Room and Hybrid
Members present:
Sarah Hews, Betty Gau, Tom Shiple, Jim Cadenhead, Jason Dearling, Jonathan
Schwarz, Suzan Chen, Jonathan Bernays
Also Attending: Mark Sandeen (Select Board) and Sergeant Nick Dell’Anno (LPD)
Chair Betty Gau opened the meeting and welcomed new committee member Jason Dearling.
1. Approve the June 12, 2025 Meeting Minutes
A motion to approve the June meeting minutes was made, seconded and all voted to approve.
2. Introduction to our Police Liaison Sergeant Nick Dell’Anno
Nick Dell’Anno was recently promoted to Sergeant and is assigned to oversee the Lexington
Police Department Bicycle Unit. He has volunteered to be the Bike Committee Police liaison
and will attend monthly meetings.
• Sgt Dell’Anno provided an introduction of his work. There are 18 officers in LPD certified
to ride the bike; they take a 4-day course to be certified. They are trying to find new
people interested in the bike certification; staffing is challenging. The police academy no
longer provides bike training, so LPD does private training (at Gillette Stadium). For the
Bike Unit, they take an officer off patrol and put them on the bike 3-4 hours. They try to
get the day shifters 1-2 people on bikes for 8 hours total, between 3:00 – 7:00 pm on the
Bikeway. During the time on the bikes the officers do not respond to regular patrol calls.
• Sergeant Dell'Anno
o Works night shifts.
o Has been active on the bikeway during daytime hours.
o Most recent patrol: July 4th, including Worthen Road area during Carnival.
• Sergeant Dell'Anno gave us a verbal overview of some recent bike crashes in town.
o The committee discussed the Aug 1st accident where a runner who was hit by a
vehicle in the crosswalk of the Woburn St/Minuteman Commuter Bikeway
intersection. The runner sustained serious injuries and an investigation is in process.
o Since January 2025, most accidents/incidents have been on the Bikeway
o Car and biker incidents generate a Massachusetts crash report but if two bikers
crash the LPD only creates an “incident report”; if a biker gets into an accident
due to road structure, such as hitting a pothole for example, it is treated as
medical incident.
o There were multiple questions about bike safety from the committee members
and Sgt Dell’Anno said he has reached out to the LPD Records Dept to get new
information and crash reports
• Discussion on identifying dangerous hot spots in town using the LPD system called RMS
• Sergeant Dell'Anno will go through the system codes to identify when bikers have been
involved with incidents to help find hot spots in town.
• Jonthan Bernays asked can police collect data and make notes of areas that look risky?
Sergeant Dell'Anno responded that when officers notice danger, impediments they radio
in and ask to notify DPW so it’s put on records. Sergeant Dell'Anno stated that cyclists
on cyclist incident would be a journal but not included in a crash report.
• Jim C asked about the bikeway crashes in May and Sergeant Dell'Anno responded that
an incident report is like a police report.
• Jim asked if I’m in a car and had an accident and went to the hospital would there be a
crash report?
Sergeant Dell'Anno explained that any personal injury or value of over $1000 would
generate a police crash report. When personal injury for cyclists, a journal entry will be
logged; Bike vs bike – treated as a medical and officer can write a full incident report
• Question on how is it different for an officer to be on a bike patrolling versus on foot or in
a cruiser? Sergeant Dell'Anno explained that officers on bikes have better access to
bikeway areas, especially with the recent uptick in calls.
o Compared to foot or cruiser patrols, bike patrols allow for quicker response and
more direct engagement with bikeway users.
o Cruiser-mounted bike racks have been ordered for all cruisers to facilitate flexible
deployment.
• Jim asked about putting directional information into the crash reports; have officer add
more information, especially direction of travel.
• A question was asked if LPD tracks complaints?
Sergeant Dell'Anno responded that if a complaint comes into dispatch he would not
know about the information. Same with walk-in complaints.
• Sergeant Dell'Anno’s Observations of Bike usage on the Bikeway:
o Officers are actively picking up on bike path behaviors and providing feedback.
o Common issues include:
Lack of helmet use among children.
Cyclists riding too fast; bike police are reminding them to slow down.
o Need for better signage and user education.
• Sergeant Dell'Anno emphasized the need for Public Education & Enforcement:
o Emphasis on educating the public about safe biking practices.
o Enforcement efforts are ongoing on the bike path.
o Police are using community resources like Facebook and the Lexington website
to share safety messages.
o Consensus: Education is key to improving safety.
• Discussion on safe routes for students to bike to schools, especially from the Bikeway to
LHS. Muzezy Street Concerns:
o Frequent accidents on Muzzey St involving student bikers going the wrong way.
o Anticipated increase in bike traffic due to high school encouragement of biking.
• Sightline Issues – Hancock & Meriam Streets:
o Discussion at the Traffic Safety Group (TSG) meeting highlighted poor visibility at
Hancock Street and Meriam Street.
o Ross (Assistant Town Engineer) volunteered to conduct a sightline survey at
both locations.
o For Meriam Street, Ross agreed to park a truck in the designated parking spot to
assess visibility impact.
• Bikeway Safety Discussion
o A Committee member proposed the idea to consider replacing stop signs with yield
signs on the bikeway to improve traffic flow and reduce confusion.
o Rationale: May better reflect right-of-way expectations and reduce abrupt stops.
• Bike Parking at Police Station:
o Tom raised concern about lack of bike racks.
o Suggestion to Sergeant Dell'Anno to “nudge” the police station to install racks.
o Mark Barrett has a design proposal; discussion on understanding rack types.
o Recommendation: Install at least two racks.
• Sergeant Dell'Anno’s Response about Bike Patrol vs Other Methods:
o Officers on bikes have better access to bikeway areas, especially with the recent
uptick in calls.
o Compared to foot or cruiser patrols, bike patrols allow for quicker response and
more direct engagement with bikeway users.
o Cruiser-mounted bike racks have been ordered for all cruisers to facilitate flexible
deployment.
3. Bike Parking and Review Planning Board By-Law Changes & Projects
Tom provided an update:
• LHS Bike Parking: Not a currently a priority of the project team.
• Bike Parking Regulations: Approved; bylaw ratios will be presented at the next Spring
Town Meeting.
• 89 Bedford Street: Revised bike parking plan reviewed.
• Original design included 50 bike parking spaces across two buildings, including a
shed.
• New design has 16 spaces in the car garage, and 32 spaces in the carriage house. All
spaces have access to electrical outlets.
• LBAC approves the redesign.
• Action Item: Betty and Tom will draft a letter to the Planning Department confirming
LBAC’s approval.
4. MWRA Bikeway Work and Detour Plans
No discussed but Ross provided an email update, sighted below.
5. Liaison Reports
Ross Morrow - DPW
Ross did not attend but provided the following email responses to our questions from the June
meeting
1. RRFB – Flashing Beacons
Our contractor wants to start installing the RRFB’s on Monday, July 28. If you could pass that
along, I’d appreciate it. We will be working at the crossings at Westview, Revere, Meriam,
Fletcher, and Woburn, not sure what order we’ll move in. The first step is digging for foundations
and conduit. We don’t expect any full closures of the bikeway, but users should use caution as
they approach the work areas; both directions will probably be squeezed into one lane to get by.
2. July 21 Email: MWRA bike detour:
The plan is still to have the closure start in November. If you see work out there now it's either
MWRA on Bow and Mass Ave but they shouldn't be on the bikeway or there's an Economic
Development project kicking off from Fottler St past Bow that starts with removal of invasive
species and includes new plantings, wayfinding signs benches, etc.
The detour plan is still to have MWRA resurface the outside 13' on each side of Mass Ave and
stripe (with green) new bike lanes, standard ones next to the car travel lanes (parking will still be
at the curb line). Note their contract calls for removal too, but I'm hoping we can leave them in
place.
Mark Sandeen, Select Board Liaison
Adam Street Roundabout: Public hearing expected in September/October; awaiting update
from Ross.
Worthen Road Sidepath:
• Suggested approach: Engage a developer to initiate construction.
• Funding concerns due to long budget cycle.
• Included in the LHS project scope (Skate Park to Waltham Street).
• Proposal to accelerate LHS project schedule to prioritize bike path as Phase 1.
LHS Safety Concerns
• Select Board is following up on accidents at LHS, in response to LBAC’s February letter.
• Discussion on next steps; signage alone deemed insufficient.
RRFB (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon) Discussion
• Proposal to have an RRFB at Hancock St: Current funding insufficient to complete all
planned installations.
• Funding Inquiry: Request to Ross to confirm if funding covers five RRFBs.
• Senator Barrett: Allocated $25K for RRFBs.
• Town Manager Concerns: Steve Bartha raised issues about motion sensors causing
false alarms.
• Recommendation: Pilot program proposed:
o Install one RRFB with motion sensor (e.g., Revere).
o Compare to RRFBs without sensors
• Motion: LBAC to write a letter to Town Engineer requesting confirmation of funding for
at least one RRFB with a motion sensor, possibly at Revere St., as a pilot project to
compare it with RRFBs without motion sensor. Motion passed.
• Action Item: Betty will draft a letter to Ross regarding the RRFB.
Transportation Safety Group – Jonathan Bernays liaison
• LHS was a major focus of the last TSG meeting.
• TSG (Transportation Safety Group) is taking the lead on most related actions
regarding the new LHS.
• Traffic Concerns: Ongoing complaints from LHS neighbors about cascading traffic
effects.
• Potential Solutions: Exploring installation of 4-way stop signs in affected
neighborhoods.
• Sightlines: Reviewed as part of safety evaluation.
• Action Item: Jonathan will draft a letter to Ross requesting collaboration with DPW on
traffic and safety improvements and the sightline survey.
6. Other Business
• DPW Bikeway Counter – Betty sent link to everyone to view the bike counter data
• Bikeway Block Party – Sept 14 – Sunday
• A big party with many performers scheduled from 10 – 3:00 at 3 parks in
Lexington, 2 parks in Arlington and 1 park in Bedford.
• Volunteers are needed that day