HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-21-TAC-min Transportation Advisory Committee
Town of Lexington, Massachusetts
Draft minutes for the meeting of July 21, 2020. The meeting was held remotely pursuant
to Governor Baker's executive order dated March 12, 2020 suspending certain
provisions of G.L. c. 30A, section 20. The meeting began at roughly 6:30 pm.
Committee members present: Sara Arnold, Sally Castleman, Elaine Dratch, Pamela
Lyons, Hank Manz, Vinita Verma, Andra Bennett
Liaisons present: Sudhir Jain, Council on Aging
Others: Richard Canale (Lexington Planning Board), Sheila Page (Assistant Planning
Director), Katherine Scotti (Planning Intern), Shefali Verma
Transportation Manager: Susan Barrett
There were no public comments.
The Transportation Advisory Committee voted six to zero by roll call vote to approve
the minutes of the meeting of July 1st and July 22nd,2020.
Revising TDM Agreement
Richard Canale described motivations for developing a process for infrastructure
funding from building developments (a.k.a TDM). Transportation section of the town
zoning bylaw requires developers to abide by certain rules; TDM policy allows
flexibility on how that is implemented . The last TDM town policy was written in 1998.
Updating the current Lexington policy has been one of the recommendations from the
tri-town transit study recommendations.
Policy around TDM needs better guidelines for enforcing (only commercial?/ certain
size commercial). It also needs more zoning aspects - for example only Hartwell has a
plan, as well as a revised process (fund allocation/withdrawals etc).
Another focus of the TDM policy should also be better transparency/prescribing of
TDM fund allocations, as those resources have not been prescribed a given purpose and
they have ended up in various 'mitigation' funds (e.g. transportation demand
management, traffic mitigation fund). They have decent balances but these are one-time
funds but they would not be sufficient for general transportation community needs
(commuter shuttles, bike safety etc).
Watertown TDM- goal includes, based on census data, reducing single occupancy
vehicles by 20%. Based on development sizing (basic/comprehensive TDM) they have a
point system: point system (e.g. supply of bike racks).
Timeline for TDM policy development- Sept time frame we need to review next steps
to review results from discussions Transportation/Planning Board.
Lexpress Service
Need for Town-Wide Coordination of Transportation Goals
Staff recommends that Lexington Town administration assign transportation goals
explicitly to one of the Senior Town Managers to ensure a proper cross-department
coordination of resources and initiatives. Next step would be to review the town org
chart as it pertains to transportation needs. TAC body would be important for a
recommendation/way of setting the direction in town.
Lexpress - Resume Routes
Lexpress routes resumed in August on new routes and ridership started at 15% and
then climbed to 25% (without additional promotions/marketing on the new routes).
Despite the pandemic situation and route changes, Lexpress has gained new riders.
Discussed issues with new routes in Liberty Heights (safety issues versus no place to
turn around) and mitigation will continue.
Flex�ass
Susan Barrett started discussion on whether Lexpress should offer Flexpass for this
year. Furthermore, a school transportation representative had inquired whether
flexpasses could start at 12 this year instead of 3PM, to better reflect school release
times. Safety issues related to overcrowding in buses are considered. Both arguments
pro and con keeping/cancelling Flexpass were discussed.
TAC voted 5-1 in favor of keeping the Flexpass start time at 3 PM. A second vote on
whether or not to discontinue the Flexpass was discussed but not completed.
Flexpasses will be honored this year, but the start time for the flexpasses will remain the
same as for previous years (3PM).
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm.
Next meeting will be Tuesday September 8th at 7PM.