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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-12-15-TAC-min DRAFT--Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) Minutes December 15, 2020—Virtual Meeting Place and Time: Remote Participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:17 p.m. Members Present: Sally Castleman, Co-Chair; Sara Arnold; Andra Bennett, Elaine Dratch; Pamela Lyons, Vinita Verma Members Absent: Hank Manz, Co-Chair Liaisons Present: Mark Sandeen, Select Board (SB); Bob Creech, Planning Board; Sudhir Jain, Council of Aging Staff: Susan Barrett, Manager, Transportation Services Other Attendees: Shefali Verma In accordance with the Governor's March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law; Ms. Lyons reviewed the guidelines for holding a remote meeting and reported that the meeting was being called to order at approximately 7:17 p.m. on December 15, 2020. Ms. Castleman confirmed attendance by roll call. Minutes: After discussion, a motion was made and seconded to accept the November 10, 2020 Minutes. A roll call vote was taken. VOTE: 6-0 Update on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) by Ms. Barrett: In Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) meeting, MBTA service cuts were proposed. After significant public feedback, the proposed cuts were scaled back. In evaluating these cuts, a framework was created to determine what would be added back to base service. This framework prioritized access and span of service. They added back funding for the Suburban Bus Program, which includes Lexpress. They initially had this on the chopping block, but because these services provide critical access, the funding was restored. For Lexington, MBTA bus #62 & #76 still remain consolidated and will be looked at ongoing basis. The quarterly MBTA bus schedule (winter schedule) will go online on Dec. 20, 2020. Liaison Update by Mr. Creech: The Planning Board has no new current projects. Approved current projects include: Residential -- 840 Emerson Gardens Rd Balanced Housing - Demolition of the Excel center is complete - Site work has been underway for at least a month - The project includes 1 attainable unit at 150% of AMI. Commercial 1. 1050 Waltham St - A bunch of permits are either Active or Complete. - The demolition permit is Complete 2. 91 Hartwell Ave - This is still in the planning stage 3. 475 Bedford St (Boston Sports Club property) - Rezoning via Article 17 failed at Special Town Meeting (STM) 2020. - The property owner feels the need to do something and has met with Planning Staff and The Town Manager, Mr. Malloy. Planning Staff-- The Planning Staff is working on the following: - The Comprehensive Plan - Hartwell Innovation Park Design Standards that will come to Annual Town Meeting (ATM) 2021. It is conceivable that some changes to what was approved with Article 16 this Fall may also be brought forward Potential Planning Board Articles for ATM 2021 - There have been a number of complaints about setback requirements for placing sheds on residential properties. The idea is to allow some sheds to be located closer to lot lines than current zoning allows. Review regarding December 14th Transportation Forum: - Eric Bourassa, Transportation Director- Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) mentioned MAPC is responsible for forecasting jobs and need for housing. - Peter Sutton, State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator- Mass DOT gave a lot of information about creating spaces that would include bicycle usage &walking spaces. Lexington Center should have a much narrower street. Basically, it is like a highway and there should be a street "diet" with a new Lexington center streetscape plan. New funding of$10 M is released to help manage the impacts of the pandemic during the winter months (including bus shelters). Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis through March 26, 2021 and projects must be mostly or completely implemented by May 31 st. Up to $400K is available for bike/ped/transit improvements on local roads. Spring 2021 grant round opens April 1 sl until May 1 sc - Lispeth Tibbits-Nutt, Manager of Communications, Research & Education discussed managing transportation demand. -A bus lane on Hartwell Ave was suggested. The Town would have to make such a decision. - Request was also made for more sidewalks - Ms. Castleman suggested that one thing people can ask money for is bus shelters. Also, how do people get from where the bike path ends to the actual buildings. These are not necessarily a big demand, but we need to acknowledge that they are important. -According to Mr. Sandeen, transportation folks have proposed to the Select Board budgeting $115K for a Transportation Management Overlay District (TMOD) plan for Hartwell Ave. & South Lexington and would appreciate some advice from TAC. - Ms. Bennett suggested that projects should be based on Transportation Demand Management (TDM) recommended designs that are useful and actionable considering high level goals for transportation. The approach should be more systematic and should replace the high frequency trips to serve more people in the way that it can fully benefit the community. - Ms. Lyons stated that Ms. Tibbits-Nutt suggested that this is the time to request more bus stops by REV in town, if needed. However, Ms. Lyons has been trying to add more REV stops in town on its way to Alewife, but with no success for last seven years. Ms. Barrett added that there are not enough riders because of COVID these days. FY22 Budget Update by Ms. Barrett: During the brief meeting with Select Board, there were questions about where does age friendly live initiatives within the Human Services budget, and whether MBTA grants will be provided. Regarding the need to change our plan in FY22, it was decided to stay the course where we are right now and keep moving forward with some of our planning that we hope to carry out for transportation services. A level service budget was presented and are still waiting to hear if we got the community transit grant. Lexpress Update by Ms. Barrett: Ridership is still about 25% of the pre-COVID time and 75% of the riders who came back are adults. Senior ridership is back at the rate of 23% and only 2% of students are using given their schedule (not attending school in person, and lack of after- school activities). In a way, it is good that the bus is not crowded because of COVID limitations. A minor change was made to the Lexpress Route C. Mr. Hom, who is a frequent rider of Lexpress, recommended having bus shelters, better snow clearing at bus stops and better aligning of Lexpress services with MBTA. Other Topics Discussed: - Cleaner sidewalks for Fiske for children walking to school - Ms. Castleman mentioned about her assessment of Grove Street bus shelter. This shelter has a seat and a roof. It's a simple structure and looked like they were a very minor expense. Ms. Barrett added that Bedford township worked with their Public Health Department to address this issue. Before COVID Ms. Barrett had reached out to Lexington's former Public Health Director, who was interested in doing work related to active transportation and transit but since COVID struck other priorities took precedence. - There is always a request for bus shelters. The Council of Aging, Lexpress riders and MBTA riders have requested bus shelters. We had an opportunity to work with MBTA to install bus shelters, and MBTA sent a list of bus stops with the ridership and how much space would be needed to have a bus shelter in each of those stops. This information was passed on to the Lexington engineering department but since some of those locations were in Lexington center and there is a center streetscape project coming up this spring, the project has been postponed for now. - The need to advocate for a bus shelter near Lexington High School on Worthen Street was discussed. This bus stop is used by students who are traveling to Boston. Additionally, the lights surrounding these shelters in the evening is sub-optimal. It was discussed that it would be ideal to upgrade the bus stop from a safety standpoint. Also, marking on the street for the bus stop, hasn't really moved forward. According to the Town Manager, it presents challenges for street cleaning during winter season because of snow. - Ms. Lyons suggested to install bus shelters near the intersection of Pleasant Street and Mass. Ave, and at the intersection of Woburn and Mass. Ave as these are a high boarding location. - In the past, people have opposed having bus shelters and the reasons to oppose could have been due to the cost of regular maintenance and cleaning of snow in winter season. - Does the Town have money for bus shelter?According to Ms. Barrett, the biggest hurdle is that people think that there should not be any bus shelters. Certainly, there are funds like Transportation mitigation funds that could be used to install a bus shelter for$40041000. For the shared street plan that was managed by economic development, funding was recently used to create outdoor dining spaces. Moving forward, this funding could be used for walking trails, biking trails or for other infrastructure like quick build items or for promotion of safe routes to schools or for better buses and transit signal priorities. Another drawback could be that there is not enough staff time to work on these projects at this point. -The Town of Lexington is planning to submit a cohesive application in January 2021 for what they want to do but Transportation Advisory Committee can still apply for grant for the bus shelters with Mass DOT. In order to request for grant, Mr. Sandeen recommended evaluating different types of bus shelters for the amount needed to request. - Mr. Jain suggested considering having bus shelters on the Lexpress routes along with the MBTA routes, as seniors would greatly benefit from it. - How much is Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) involved with Transportation Demand Management (TDM) budget? According to Ms. Barrett, we used to be involved and we provided input for how those funds were spent. This topic was deferred to the next TAC meeting. - For better coordination of tasks, it was suggested to create a chart with all the different committees with their tasks and the different departments involved within the Town offices. - Shefali Verma suggested contacting Lexington High School's Volunteer Coordinator who posts volunteer jobs for students for services like leaf raking and snow cleaning for seniors. - Diana Bishop of Drummer Boy wants to know if there is a potential of having Lexpress extended to Drummer Boy. At present, it is close to MBTA stop and therefore not the best choice if extending the route. -We have been offering replacement rides for FISH (that provides non-emergency medical transportation), as FISH has been on hiatus due to COVID and are planning to be on hiatus for all of calendar year 2021 as most of their drivers are seniors themselves (however, that could change). MAPC has been paying for these replacement rides. - Safe Routes to School was promoted and the Transportation Safety Group (TSG) help for the same was mentioned. The TSG is a Town Manager appointed Working Group which meets monthly to evaluate issues and concerns relative to traffic, transit, pedestrian, bicycle and parking safety. - LexConnect is still operating. -FY2021 is the last year of M&L's four-year contract to provide Lexpress service. There are two optional extension years. It was noted that the Town has usually extended the contract to get additional use of the buses and thus minimizing costs. Future Meetings: It was agreed that TAC would meet on January 12th, 2021 from 7-9 p.m. Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:40 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Vinita Verma Approved: