Hi everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started officially opening the November 2025 Traffic and Parking Commission public meeting. We do have a Spanish interpreter with us here today if anybody needs it. And as a reminder, uh, if you do wish to speak, I need you to sign in and then when it's your turn,
um, just come to the microphone and state your name and address. First up is the approval of the minutes from the October 7th, 2025 meeting. >> I'll make a motion to accept the approval of the minutes from October 7th. >> Second.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Next up, we have a public hearing to receive comments regarding the International Street Safety Action Plan Vision Zero. Chelsea, >> good evening.
Sorry. Good evening. Hi, I'm Jason Shriber. I'm with Consulting with Ben question. I'm happy to take your questions. I'm going to talk briefly about what Z switch on the mics
>> tested one two >> um [Music] >> results By the way, background is a international focus on United States.
Give me Give me one second. Just give me one second. I think we're having a technical difficulty. Testing one, two. >> All right. Is this better? You're hoping. We're all hoping >> the most important part. Public engagement. >> Public engagement. It is good. We're now hearing the most important part.
Everything else was just the the early information. So, public engagement um was obviously focused on trying to share that information about what the safe systems approach is, but in particular the data that we had collected about crashes throughout the
city, but especially to get information and feedback to guide the plan. Um we did all sorts of things like walk audits. We had a steering committee that we met with regularly. We also had some of these larger public events. Um, we were up at the schools a few times, meet
the machine event, Chelsea day, lots and lots of interactions. Um, hundreds of people being able to kind of touch and feel and get a sense of this. There was also an online survey that had nearly 200 responses that was open for a few months. Um, that was advertised through
businesses and certainly through the city's website and as many places as possible. And some of the key feedback from that survey was that the majority of people in the city have been touched by traffic violence whether they were involved themselves or knew somebody who
had been involved. Um and you know that truly says that this is something that everybody is aware of and it is near and dear to many hearts. Um, a lot of folks who responded to that survey also were asked where do they feel safe and where
they don't feel safe. The survey was um provided inputs in both English and Spanish. You could take either one depending on how you wanted to, but they were pretty much consistent regardless of how folks responded, which is that maybe they felt good waiting for the bus
about half the time and and a little less safe walking, but then it went down from there. not so great driving and definitely not so good on a bicycle or definitely at the very bottom of that list in a wheelchair. Um, two- wheeled
vehicles uh really did not farewell in terms of people's perception of safety and the data actually uh does support that as well. And then what was very poignant is as I said with the safe systems approach, speed being the primary factor, people responding in the
survey said that was the thing that was the most important factor that led to injury crashes in the city. Um followed very closely by distracted driving. As we all know, cell phone usage and talking during driving has been a
problem. a lot of the other concerns about uh turning vehicles or enforcement and infrastructure were actually much lower on the concern list. So our solutions are actually tilted towards the idea of dealing with speeds. The the
places that we have to focus on in are inferior many but it's not actually every street in Chelsea which is good. Um, it turns out that threearters of all of the crashes that occur in Chelsea in
the leftmost map are occurring on only 18% of all of the linear miles of street. That's only about nine miles of street. You can see the dots indicating some of the crashes with the larger ones indicating where there have been
fatalities, pedestrian and vehicular or or motorist or passenger. The middle map is the what we call the riskbased network. It's larger because it's indicative of places that are similar to where crashes occurred. It could be a
variety of factors that it was near things like schools or bus stops that the roads were similarly wide or similarly fast or had similar other conditions. And then lastly on the right in the survey we asked people to point out specific locations and many people
did point out specific issues and that added to the network. We combined all of these into what we call the priority investment network. This is the network that to the US DOT are the streets that are most likely eligible for funding
though not exclusively. They expect that there is going to be a priority network in this plan where most of the funding requests to them would come from and on that network is virtually all of the
crash locations, but also it includes virtually all of the locations that we've recommended for actual physical improvement projects. There's many other recommendations, but there's five top safety locations shown in red that are
really a high priority due to their crash characteristics and also their severe risk factors. But there's another 15 locations that we're recommending that improvements could happen. We've provided conceptual designs for those as
well. The green triangles are places that we already identified as problematic through the crash analysis. they're on the priority network, but they're places your staff is already addressing projects that you're already have underway or in the pipeline or in
design. And so that's great. Um, this map combines mostly the crashes, but it is influenced by the riskbased network as well as the community-based network. So, we've been able to blend all that information and come up with this. We have one spot that is circled which is
by the high school on Carter Street that's technically slightly off the network but it's another location that we recommend improvement for. That's the off-ramp from southbound Route One. So I'm going to talk through just at a high level the recommendations in the four
categories. Um roadway design sort of systemic overall policy which is important and then of course further continued outreach. One um note, all these recommendations while developed certainly in coordination with the community and many folks here and
certainly um other staff um is a hopefully a consensus type of um product. We know that it isn't the end all. There's still going to be a process to implement recommendations particularly when it come to roadway design that's still going to go through
normal processes of review. So nothing in here is final and set in stone, but it is a heavy recommendation um to be able to be implemented. The first set of recommendations um and I'll just do really one slide per grouping um is the
roadway recommendations and this is much more focused on improvements or guidance related to roadway uh and traffic uh safety. First off, those pop top five safety locations. There's another 15 we say is good, but those five really are
things that are needing money most likely needing curb reconstruction, signal reconstruction, some level of investment. Those are the ones that uh you've already put in an application for early funding from the DOT this past
spring. There will be another round coming up this spring. um we do not yet know about the first round. The next round, you know, will be probably not announced for another year, but that's an opportunity to fund these projects. In the meantime, they can be designed more fully. We also recommend
that the the city is tracking and maintaining this information more regularly, maybe piloting some of these things. We had a few pop-up demonstration pilots in the city. You may have known we just installed with paint that lasted a few weeks. you might be able to do those a little bit more permanently with more permanent
materials yourselves. You actually do a lot of those already um with a lot of the crosswalk visibility work throughout the city. So, that's a great thing. The NACTO guide is a guide that we use and most cities use for design. The National Association of City Traffic Officials
guidance is sort of the next generation above and beyond what has been standard ASHTTO guidance for years. And we really think that that should be adopted and formalized so that when you're talking about streets, you're talking about designing them in a safe and and and
efficient manner for all modes of travel. So, um, the systemic recommendations sort of build off of those physical ones, but take it to the next step and saying you will eventually not just look at these 20 locations we've talked about
and others, but start thinking about actual corridors in particular, how traffic signals and maybe pedestrian signals can be utilized to improve some of these corridors that are longer that have conflict along them. At the same time looking at many corridors in terms
of their actual travel width, one of the number one things to reduce speed has to do with lane width and the perceived friction. When lanes get to be above 10 feet wide, which many lanes in the city are 11, 12, 13, even 14t wide, the Mass
Pike has lanes that are only 12 feet wide. So we really want to think about that narrowing. And then also focusing on crosswalks in general, being able to do the latest and best practices at crosswalks, also near schools and
eventually to have a set of tools that can be applied in both those places and elsewhere to do the thing that is best, calm traffic a little bit and reduce speeds. Um, second from last set of recommendations is policy and first and
foremost is a vision zero policy. This is something now that city staff are drafting with our input as much as possible to be able to bring to the council. A formal policy that should be adapted by the end of the year is
actually one of the expectations of the program in order to receive continued streams of funding. Um, and that also is the way to set the bar for going forward. Many of the other programs here have to do with policies that encourage safety education, that encourage sharing
of data. For instance, there's already some departmental crash data that's out there. Can that be explored and expanded? How can we maybe increase resources for traffic enforcement? Are there opportunities to continue to do updates for safety both out on the web
to be more visible with people and make that more institutionalized but across departments? Across departments is really important. Having greater coordination, police, fire, public works planning to be able to talk about different problems that need to be
addressed. In fact, the the third recommendation there is to actually set up sort of a rapid response team when there's a crash to be able to at least have engineering and maybe public safety look at that, but then bring it to other departments and say this is a systemic
problem we need to address. We already know having worked in other cities that greater collaboration amongst departments can be hard, but it is often the best way to be able to address and tackle many of these problems with infrastructure and operations. And the
last set of recommendations is about outreach and it really has to do with making the citizens know that you are continuing to try to address these problems. is not only establishing a toolkit for that and having an ongoing um vision zero task force which is
hopefully going to be enacted very shortly building off of the task force that that we interacted with during our study but to actually have an an annual campaign so there's a website folks know that you're continuing to do this that there's a presence we already have a bunch of tools associated with this and
other materials um that we're sharing with the city that were produced throughout this project but there's other ways of doing this and That's a really important part of vision zero is education and maintaining momentum. Um lastly, you know, we are not going away.
While we are produced a draft plan that's going to be adopted and have a final report that needs to be submitted, let's say by April, um we know that the process of getting things implemented can be sticky. So, we're here as a
resource as well in a whole second year of a contract to be able to come in when needed. Uh, it's not tons of work on our part, but if you need us, we're here. And that really goes to city staff, particularly in terms of collaboration, in terms of needing resources to be able
to implement a lot of these recommendations. So, if you have any questions, I'm I'm happy to take them. No, I don't have any questions. Emily, I sat briefly with Sarah Sarah Sarah Hand and she went over the whole program with me. So, I I have no questions about it. She answered whatever I had back before.
>> Great. >> Thank you. Anyone here from the public wish to comment on it? >> Hi, counselor. >> Hi, everyone. Lisa Santigate, 221 Sherliff Street. Um it just so happened that the data you
saw Jason chair with people having experienced some traffic trauma uh particularly as a witness. Um that has happened for me many many times in Chelsea and that prompted me to take advantage of an invitation that I had
from Smart Growth America and Transportation for Mass to be part of a program called a street champion for elected officials. And it just so happened that that program which was last fall for six months was um
concurrent with the work that Jason and his team were doing. And I just wanted to say that it is fascinating. It is horrifying. Um, this plan is amazing and I can't endorse it enough. So, I just
wanted to come and say that. >> Great. Thank you. >> Doesn't look like anybody else here from the public wishes to speak on it. I don't know if this is just something where we make a motion to >> Yes. So, I think the The appropriate motion would be that this commission
votes to approve the vision zero policy as described within the report and the presentation and formally moves it to city council for their adoption. Um that would be the motion. >> I agree. I will second one.
>> All in favor? >> I >> I >> I thank you. >> Okay. Okay, so next up we have a communication of April 28, 2025 from Linda Doo requesting speed humps on Pine Street. I know Emily is not here tonight. I
don't know if Ben got any guidance from her before she was able to attend, but we basically been we've been talking she's been trying to find some alternative way or some alternative speed bump that the fire department can also get on board with. So that's kind of where we stood at the last meeting and we kind of left it open for this
meeting. I don't think she got to anything. >> Yeah, we're fine >> for items no this item and actually the next item as well. Um we're going to table those to the next meeting so that we can continue to do internal analysis and offer an appropriate recommendation. >> So I'll make a motion to table uh Pine
Street uh communication. >> Second. >> I. >> All in favor? >> I. And then the next communication is September 4th. >> Similarly, motion to table to next meeting.
>> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> just just for the public at home, the next item that we're tableabling is a communication from Edwin Berentos requesting to make Hawthorne Street a oneway for marginal to street and the central a intersection table next month.
Yeah, >> that's right. That's right. >> Next up, we have communication of September 29th, 2025 from Steve Ki of Commonwealth Electrical Technologies requesting the approval of four electric vehicle charging installation projects
at Highland Park, Crescent A, Cabbage Street in Washington A. So, this consultant notified us tonight that they're not able to attend the meeting. So we're going to table this to December as well and they will give us a presentation then.
>> Second. >> All in favor table >> I. >> Next up is a handicap application from October 7th, 2025 from Daisy Lazo of 122 Charlotte Street.
>> I believe from Central down to Chester. There are no handicap signs on that section of the whole street. So I make a motion to accept the handicap application for Shirtless Street. >> Second. >> Second. Second. All in favor? >> I >> I >> approved.
Next up is communication of October 16th, 2025 from Nia De Young of 175 Cottage Street requesting the installation of stop signs at the intersection of Willow and Cottage Street. Uh there's another one. She also reached
out in terms of of parking. You can see on the paperwork that she provided for us that they do park pretty close to the corners over there. DPW is has been looking out about adding that for uh no parking here at a corner intersection because it probably is tough for a firet truck to make that turn, especially a
plow truck in the winter. That would not stop the cars speeding down from there. So, but I'm more inclined to put that to a public hearing because coming down that there's four there's four intersections right down Willow Street from Bellingham all the way down that there's no stop sign. So, you know, that'd be something that we can also
maybe have Ben and his team maybe want to look at a broader study because like I said, going down those four blocks, Ben, it's pretty there's no stop signs at all down there. They were coming off of each Chester and Cottage and and Bellingham, but you know, Bellingham's got a four-way stop sign, but then the other intersections
do not. I would say that since the item is sort of singular in what it's requesting, I think that the implementation of no parking from here to corner of that signage would be a good first start. If there's a separate desire to bring a
study forth, I think I think that would need to be a a new item, but we'd be happy to do it internally through coordination with DPW. >> Well, I mean, she's requesting for the stop signs. Like I said, initially the DPW can put up with in conjunction with fire about no park can hit a corner if they're just if the block if the
intersections are not able to make access with the emergency vehicles. But her motion is to put a stop sign there. So I think we have to vote either way on that. >> Well, if you want to table to December and have us take a look at actually installing stop signs, we can have our on call consultant look at the warrant
and what's required for stop sign installation. So we can do a table to month be enough or would you want to do it for longer than that? I know we got the other two issues so I don't want to >> um I think maybe buying us a little bit of time would be good. So to January would be >> let's let's do that. Let's do that. So
I'll make a motion to table it till the January meeting. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Next is a handicap application October 15, 2025 from Anthonyville and waiver of 69 Addison Street.
I believe this one there previously. Elsa, correct me if I'm wrong. I think there was already a handicap sign there. Is he one that didn't get his paperwork properly or was it a new was it a new application? Do you know? >> It's a new application, but it's a previous existing spot and it was uh
they were back to back. So 67 or 69 also has one. I mean, looking out, like I said, we typically in in my tenure on this board, we haven't put handicap signs back to back and taking up two direct parking spots, but it doesn't mean you can't.
So, um >> I think there was a few in that area. >> Yeah. In this one, he also, unfortunately, he also states are there off street of parking available to you and he says yes. >> Did you speak to himself at all knowing that he could park it even though he may not have been approved for a space that
they could share? I think that's been an issue. That's >> He did say Yeah, he did say right here that is off street available to you. Yes. the property does not have a driveway. So, I don't know what maybe he was confused by it. Like Joe said, maybe he didn't he doesn't know that he can
park there. >> I was going to say, let's table it so we can reach out because I think better clarification then we can and hear from him obviously if he can make it here. So, I make a motion to table the application of the 69 Addison Street handicap sign.
>> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> The next step is a communication October 24th, 2025 from Commissioner of Public Works Kate Foxland to provide an update on the downtown Broadway utility
project. I can read that, Joe. Chelsea DPW would like to thank all of our residents and businesses for their patience during the downtown Broadway utility improvement project. These were major upgrades to our water and sewer lines that will serve the community for
decades to come. As the project wraps up, the contractor will complete paving and the most affected parts of the road and DPW employees will reapply the painted crosswalks and other pavement markings. Please note that the right lane of Broadway continues to be a dedicated bus bike lane and the markings
will also be repainted. Over the next 12 months, the city will host several meetings about the upcoming phase 2 project which will implement the sidewalk, roadway, and traffic signal improvements starting in 2027. Please Check our social media pages and website regularly for any announcements
of these events. Great. Thanks, Jim. No vote. Uh, last up is communication October 27th, 2025 from project manager Thomas L. Quattromani, Jr. of the MBTA to present the bus network redesign.
>> Good evening. Sign in. >> Can you just sign in? Yeah, please. Thank you. Good evening. Uh my name is Tommani. I'm a project manager in the uh MBTA's bus project management office. Thank you for taking time in your schedule to allow me
to come in give you a brief overview of what the bus MBTA's bus network redesign is. I know quite a few have not heard much about that in the last year. Um and then a little bit more of an overview of what happened in phase one and where we are today and how we're trying to move
forward. Okay. Um so the uh bus network redesign is a program where the MBTA is trying to put out 25% more service onto the roads. Basically uh trying to ramp up the number of what we call key bus routes or frequent bus routes where a
bus comes by your stop every 15 minutes or less. Um, and we're trying to do that uh uh through bus routes like the route 104 which we have brought now through Chelsea which in just one year uh we've
seen we're seeing about 1300 boardings during the day a weekday excuse me a thousand on Saturday 8 on Sun 800 on Sunday which for a route that's just changed is actually very very good. Um yeah uh these goals uh the the goals of
these programs are basically to uh prioritize where riders like those in Chelsea who are transit dependent uh have uh you know better frequent buses in their neighborhoods uh more all day service uh uh the creation of
connections to new places like Assembly where there a lot more jobs a lot more retail opportunities and to basically simplify the network so they understand it intuitively and finally as important is to make it more reliable
and accessible to all. Uh BNR phase one um again it did see uh the route 104 change course. It now goes from Malden station over to all over through Chelsea to the airport and it's doing that in
increments of 15 minutes or better as of now. Uh we merged the 116 and 117 together so the 116 would now be more reliable and be every 15 minutes or better. Um and though I know the 110 is just a little north of the border, we
also made that a frequent route as well from Wellington to Wonderland. Um all those changes pick can tick off quite a few of the goals that I had just mentioned. more frequency, reliability, going to places people really do want to go, like the
airport. Um, to continue enhancing our efforts, uh, we now have a new program, uh, that we're trying to develop called the bus network redesign route 112, 113, 114 package. Um, in this package, the
112 will continue serving all points east of Quigley Hospital, Soldiers Home, uh, through Market Basket, up to Admiral's Hill, then back down through, uh, Chelsea to Meridian Street, and finally to Maverick Station. Why are we doing that? Because the general public
told us they want to go to Maverick Station. uh route 112 will replace the service uh that is less frequent and has a much shorter span on the 114. Right now the 114 roughly runs from 9:30 to 3. The 112 is going to run from, you know,
6:00 in the morning to 12 at night. So it it's covering those areas, but it's it's encompassing a slightly bigger geography. Um changes on the 112 and 114 basically were done in part to unlock the ability
to us for us to introduce a brand new route, the 113. The 113 will be the first new bus route since 2019, which is really no small feat. Um, basically this 113 was created again
because of feedback from the community wanting to have better east west connections and connections to places like Assembly Row, which has seen significant job growth and retail expansion. Your residents want to get there, so we want to try to get them
there with this one seat ride. But it's a little more than that. We're also having the 113 go through Sullivan Station. And we're doing that purposefully because from Sullivan Station, excuse me, they have far more connections and destinations they can
reach than they would at Wellington. They can get to Charleston, they can get to Harvard, they can get to LMA for their doctor's appointments and places like that. So, it's with no small bit of planning that we've purposely designed the 113. So um
sorry um so while trying to implement these changes, one of the several of the things that we try to do is to ensure that new routes for example have a place at the ends of their route where the bus can be blocked and the operator can go
find a restroom and take a break and basically turn around and do the return trip. Uh we also try to fix things that we are already a problem. So if we know of a bus stop where the sidewalk is far less than 8 ft, we try to make it a
little wider. uh if we find a place where we have a thing called bus stop failure where more than more buses are showing up than buses can pull to the curb, we want to try to address those if we can while we're going through this because we have the opportunity as we're
going through this through uh monthly coordination meetings. Uh the MBTA and Chelsea staff uh have been working together to coordinate the installation of proposed new landing pads at bus stops, tactile plates, potential shelters, things like
that. And tonight uh I'm here to present three stops uh to you where basically we need your approval to alleviate a problem or where we just want to make you aware of a potential future need that we may have to come back to you for
so we catch you by surprise several months down the road. So, in the table on page four, you'll see I have three uh three stops. The first two, we're looking for votes of approval after I describe what we're trying to do there. And then finally, uh there's a uh a bus
stop on well, a proposed bus stop on Cottage Street uh at Chelsea busway that we want to just make you aware of that we're looking at. Okay. Now, before I go any further, are there any any questions that you may have about bus network redesign or phase one?
>> I I have some I have a couple of questions. >> Sure. >> So So you're saying both the 16 113 and 112 be 6 to 12 now? 6:00 in the morning to 12 at night? >> Yes. >> And what's the frequencies of both of these? >> 50 to 60 minutes.
>> So that they will all be 15. Okay. 15 minutes. >> 50 to 60 minutes. Oh, 50 to 60. >> Yes. >> So, not not 15 like the 104. >> No, I wish we could. >> Okay. Okay. They're going to be less frequent, but there's going to be more of them. Okay. >> Right. The uh
>> they'll run longer during the day. Uh but they will not be a frequent route like the 111 or 116. The >> 112 and 114. >> Well, the 112 today is a 45 minute route. It's going to be stretched a little bit to 50 or so.
>> Yeah. because of the bridges, it's actually extends much longer and that's one of the reasons why it doesn't have a lot of riders is because it takes too long. So, this is going to be another one where it's going to be up to 60 minutes. It's not going over the Chelsea Bridge, but it's going over Mardle Bridge. >> The 113 will end or hoping will end in
the Eastern A uh bus way. >> Okay. >> A bus station. >> Oh, so it won't cross the bridge. Correct. The other question is is if because before I mean I'm not you can go from the blue line to the orange line. Now it sounds like we're going to have to get off the bus to get to the orange. Is is
there going to be transfers or anything like that that people who pay cash and want to transfer from one bus to another? is that >> well um if you're starting your journey uh on like the 113 in Eastern A you could take the 113 all the way to the orange line
but uh along the way there are different starting points from which uh for example if you're a market basket you'd probably jump on the 104 or the new 113 to end up on the orange line. So if you're on Admiral's Hill, you would take the 112. >> So >> So that would go to the blue line, right?
>> Correct. Now if you were in >> wanted to go to the orange line, you would have to go to Market Basket switch. >> Correct. >> Okay. So unfortunately the one seat rides for people in Admiral's Hill and Soldiers Home will turn into two seat
rides. >> So the question is, is there going to be because like when I was a kid, you you got a paper transfer and you didn't have to pay again, >> right? Is there going to be something like that for people because I a lot of people pay cash >> in in Chelsea. A lot of people do pay cash in the luckily in Admiral's Hill
and Solders's Home not too not as isn't as prevalent as the writers along Broadway for example. >> That's still a two fair ride. >> Um yes, if they pay with cash. >> Just wanted to >> Yeah.
Uh my question was so so I mean obviously this is just a a broad communication but it does imply it does have two or three different uh pieces into it. So I I don't know if we can not I don't know but like voting on all of them to pass is not going to I mean I
don't see it going to be happening only because like you have like the one issue you have is at Pearl Street. So it seems to me you just want to widen the sidewalk there and clean up the sidewalk a little I was going to wait uh until if to field any questions you had on bus network resign and then get into the
specific asks for votes tonight if if you don't mind. >> I don't have questions about that. >> No, I know. I'm just saying like so for instance the the the first part of this where the where the Pearl Street is we're showing that they want to do the sidewalk there. Pearl Street is is part of this communication. So it's still something we have to vote on. >> Oh yeah. I was just going to give you a
chance to comment so I wasn't talking too much. >> That's fine. No. Yeah. No, that's why I'm asked before you got into the the Broadway at fourth intersection and talking about that. That's why I wanted to bring up that. Um, >> but in terms of So, there's already there's already just it's already a bus stop there anyways. You're not taking
away any parking. Correct. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, there's nothing in in the in the beginning part, which is Pearl Street. >> So, my question though, isn't the city doing a redesign of this whole area or is that am I incorrect on that? I mean, is that I mean, is this going to be part of that or, you know,
>> for for Pearl Street? >> Yeah, for that whole I thought there was going to be a whole redesign of that area. >> Yeah, there's going to be a full depth reconstruction of Park and Pearl. Um, but this is a a just like two to three foot bumpout.
>> No, I understand that, but like why put something in play if you're going to be redesigning it anyways, I guess, is my question. >> Just because that construction project will probably not commence for the for another three or four years. Okay. >> Yeah. And we want to make sure that the buses can be as efficient as possible in that time frame.
>> Yeah. Just I just don't want to like duplicate them. >> Oh, e either do we? Absolutely. We try to piggyback on many uh municipal projects as possible and get them coordinated so we're not ripping up something that was just put in. But, uh,
it sounds like we're ready to go ahead and talk about this. >> Yeah. You cl you clarify, but on Pearl Street, I'm I'm fine with that. You can go to the next. Yeah. So, um, as you can see on page four, I'm just giving an aerial view of where the bus stop is. It's a little further down than the intersection itself. Um, it's the 112
that would be serving there once we get this package going. As of right now, it's the 116 and 114 that service that stop, but they do it on a on a a sidewalk that's about seven feet wide. And that's good. That's not bad. But
when we try to lower our wheelchair ramp, we need to make sure that there's at least four feet at the end of their ramp, which goes out four feet, so somebody can turn on in their wheelchair. So, because of that, I mean, it's a nice sidewalk. Uh, as you can see, it's clean and all that. Uh, on
page five, uh, on the bottom of page five, my label for that little blue line is missing. Sorry. But I'm just showing you uh in an aerial view where we were hoping to bump that curve out, even if it's just a foot, which is really all we need to get that 8 foot depth that we
really need. >> U so on page six, I'm just showing a graphic of what that would probably >> What's the Do you know the width of that street right there at Pearl and Essex? Do you know the width of that lane? >> Oh, uh >> it's pretty wide. I'm pretty sure >> it is pretty wide actually. Yes. Okay. >> Uh I I had it off.
>> That's okay. I was just curious. I I I measured it years ago. I just don't remember it. Okay. Nobody. >> But the stat that there's 260 people getting on there is the one that sticks in mind, Mike, because that's a lot of people in that space. >> A busy stop. We've seen it. Y >> So, uh, somebody with a wheelchair would have trouble there. So, this is one
place, uh, that we're hoping you we can get a vote of approval so we can forward this, uh, to our design people and see if we can get this addressed while we're implementing this package. Oh, by the way, the implementation of
this would probably more like August 2026. >> Okay. >> Would you like to vote at the end or uh stop by? >> I just have one more question. Sure. Like the bus stop here that's not interfere with the street. There's a street that goes where Roa, you know
parking lot is. >> No, it doesn't interfere. >> Okay. So, it's like ahead of it. All right. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We'll wait till the very end. Then we'll discuss I mean make a motion. >> Okay. All right. Uh if you don't mind, I'll move to the next one. Uh before we go to the next one though, I just want to talk
about bus stop failure and what that means. It's I was I was looking for visuals of what it looks like at a bus stop when there's a bus already there and another one's coming by and there's no room for that bus to pull to the sidewalk. If I I think you've all
>> the other buses there. >> If you're going to Dunkin Donuts across the street, you know what it looks like. There buses everywhere. But what you're also seeing is buses letting people off and on in the street, which is a very unsafe condition. And it's inaccessible for anybody in a wheelchair who happens
to be out on that sidewalk or is in a bus and needs to then try to get on that sidewalk. So we really try to eliminate those when we can. So we have these things called bus bus bus fail birth failure rates and what that how that
gets calculated is by how often a bus comes by that stop and how often they stop at that stop which is based off of their ridership. So a place like right out here in front where you have a ton of people getting on and off a bus is stopping there almost all the time consistently.
So, uh, places like Broadway and Fourth Street right now in the AM peak, which is 6:30 to, you know, 9:30 thereabouts, uh, 19% of the time or 19 about 19% of the time in an hour, there's more buses
there than the stop can handle. So, they're out in the general purpose lane blocking traffic. >> Um, just for reference, those other stops, uh, we were thinking of trying to bring those to you today, but we had some more design ideas. So staff and I wanted to look at them some more and
come up with something that we thought was palatable that might have a chance of getting a yes. Um so uh we're hoping to maybe bring those in December. But for today uh for tonight rather Broadway and fourth is actually a fairly
straightforward situation. Right now, we have uh 75% design plans that have the traffic sign and pavement markings that are showing that stop as a stop that's a bumpout where basically the curb is pulled through the parking
lane right up to the travel lane. So, parking is eliminated there. And it's showing right now one bus where there's a front landing pad and a rear landing pad. But it's doing so kind of in an inefficient way or inefficient use of that between the crosswalk and the
leftmost part of the busway. So if you turn to the next page, just to illustrate the point, if I left the first bus the way they have it designed and put a birth right behind it for bus number two, unfortunately bus number two would partially be blocking the
crosswalk right uh right uh after it. And that's an unsafe condition that we would like to avoid. Easy fix here is basically just to take that bus stop uh sign with the bus routes on it and the the those two buses you see in that
picture and move them up a mere 10 15 ft. That's more than enough to allow one bus number one and bus two to move past that crosswalk, have their front landing pads and rear landing pads in safe areas and allow for two buses to service that
stop. and in doing so lower the bus stop failure rate to a much much more acceptable level where it'll be less common for you to see buses up in the uh out in the street. So we're hoping for a vote of approval on uh Fourth Street
here, Broadway and Fourth, excuse me. >> Any questions about that one? >> So I'm visual. So is it you're going to be taking away parking? Like I said, uh right now this design which is at the 75% design phase and is moving towards 100%.
>> Uh has the curb being pulled up through the parking zone. So that design itself is eliminating quite a few stops right along there. But Ben, forgive me. This has already been worked through, right? This design I thought it was.
>> Has it already been implemented? No, it hasn't been implemented. >> It's under review right now for um acquisition, but it's at 75%. >> Right. >> So, it's not a done deal, but it's being >> the very clear answer which is in the packet is that it says
um would allow the second bus to service the stop without partially blocking the crosswalk with no loss of parking. >> So, there's no loss of parking. Yeah, there's no uh I should say further loss of of parking if this design is approved.
>> Okay. So, I think what's being stated is that the downtown Broadway plans, we're going to be doing surface work sometime next winter. Those plans have already been approved
by this commission, right? And accepted all loss of parking along the corridor. This improvement from the MBTA is not resulting in any further loss of parking, if that makes sense. >> Y >> So negating this would not negate the
eventual loss of parking that's going to be occurring when we actually do the surface work, which is an entirely separate mass DOT funded effort that the city's overseen. Does that make sense? >> Thank you for helping me out there. Um,
>> any other questions? Okay, the uh last one, Cottage Street and Chelsea busway. Uh this is just for your awareness at this point. Uh the bus network redesign route 113. Again, it's that the first bus route since 2019.
basically will run from Assembly Road in uh Somerville through Sullivan all the way basically to the Chelsea busway ending at the Eastern A Eastern A bus station. It's our hope that we can have that bus turn around within the bus way
itself so it does not have to go on the surface road and get caught potentially caught up in those bridge lifts. We're forwarding uh concept designs now. We've already gotten through dashport. We're now working with uh Inter Park, I
believe is the name, uh to try to persuade them that this is a a plan that we can implement without operational negative operational impacts on their operations uh for the Massport shuttles and the SL3 and all that. And
uh it turns out that uh Inter Park actually has their own shuttle as well. Passport has given us the green light and now we're working with the property owner of that that uh parking garage to see if we can get them to come along as well. If for some reason, and they
shouldn't, but if for some reason they put their foot down and said, "No, we're not letting you bring the bulldozers in here to alter the bus way in any way, even though it says it right here on your easement, you can do that. Uh we need a plan B." uh at least uh well we
need a plan B potentially temporarily or permanently. Temporarily if for example our engineers say this is going to take a year and a half for us to do because that busway is only inactive for 2 and 1/2 hours a night a day you can't do much with a backhoe in two and a half
hours. Okay. So it may take them a while. If we want to go live with that 113 service, we will need a temporary place to allow passengers to get off and get on. If uh Interplay Inter Park comes back
and says, "No, sorry. You just cannot do this no matter what you want to do." Then we would need a permanent place for the 113 down at this end someplace. A place that looks like we might be able to work something out with your approval
would be on Cottage Street. Um, and that would be that last photo uh the bottom of page 10 where if right now we could extend the sidewalk to the curb so we would have an 8- foot landing pad and a rear landing pad. the 113 conceivably
use that as a drop off lo location, lay over there, and then we wouldn't like it, but we would send it down Eastern Avenue and around to pick up in the busway and then head back towards assembly. To do that safely, though, Cottage Street would have to become a one-way
operation. Right now, it's a two-way operation, and it's very narrow. a bus could conceivably get stuck if somebody was coming the other way. And that's something we wouldn't be able to uh handle in a safety conscious way.
So, I bring that up just to let you know that one, we've talked to Massport. We're now talking to the property owner of the uh of that busway. We're trying to get an agreement. I think we're going to get an agreement, but if we don't, we may be coming back
in December or January saying, "All right, we tried. Can we consider something on Cottage Street to allow there to be a bus stop there so the 113 can go all the way to the eastern end of the Chelsea busway and utilize that
facility. That's all I have for you today. I do plan uh be be back uh the next few meetings to present more stops to you as designs are reviewed and ideas are brought forward. Um, do you have any
more questions about the first two or the last stop? >> I have a questions about the last stop. Uh, sure. Like I said, Broadway and fourth is is pretty cut like Ben specified. That's okay. Um, my my issue probably is more that if you don't get that approval, like I know we said it's not going to go over the bridge, but
unfortunately you're going to get caught up in the bridge traffic. So on the bridge traffic and I know uh Ben's team is implementing and I think we already approved some of it uh >> signals coming out of that out of the there which is which will help but if the bridge is up there it's just not you they come out there with double deckers
they have they have twin buses that are just not they just block the intersection and they just make it a mess over there. So unfortunately even though you're not going to be literally going over the bridge traffic is going to be affected for you to come in there and turn around. But you're basically saying is if they don't allow you to turn around on that lot, you're going to
continue down the green. How how are you going to get to Cottage Street? You're going to come down the green the greenway and take the right onto Cottage. Is that what you trying to do? >> At the moment, we have the 113 coming down Everdave, taking a left on Spruce and from Spruce entering the busway.
>> And we had to do that because we have to we can't cross a railroad track at less than a 90 degree angle. We wanted to go in by the Chelsea bus uh uh bus stop, >> but we can't go there because we would have to take an immediate left going over those tracks and that wouldn't
work. So, sorry, long-winded way of saying we're going down Spruce, taking getting into the bus way off of Spruce and going all the way to the eastern end. Now, the designs we have actually show just enough space where we could
have a turning lane in there without the uh Massport shuttles and the SL3s getting in the way. Could they still get in the way? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Um they don't come in in ones, they come in in bunches. But
>> one of the advantages of this is we also see this as a potential for the SL3 to short turn and go back, which isn't a concern right now. But if we get the SL3 to Sullivan, it becomes paramount to allow more buses to go that way if the
bridge lifts block buses coming from South Station. So, we're playing the whatifs game a bit. We're trying to do some forward thinking for the SL3, but we're also trying to implement a uh a a route for the 113 that will be able to
stay on schedule by staying off of Eastern A. That's our hope. But push comes to shove, if we have to because we can't use the busway, that's what we're thinking of doing partly because again, we we we want to put more service on
that busway. It's it's an asset that Chelsea benefits greatly from us using. So >> So this is a stupid question. So why would they deny you >> for using that? >> Uh they well one they really can't but they
what they'll probably do is put conditions on us uh or try to put conditions on us and if we say no then they may try to litigate and that would delay the thing so far that we'd probably give up and put the 113 somewhere else. Uh but uh We have worked
with city staff to identify where we could end the 113 and the preferred location is here. We do have runner-ups, but it that's the place where we would get the biggest benefit for the 113 pulling people from as east in Chelsea
as you can all the way over to assembly. So that's why we're trying to go there. But I I I hope they don't say no. >> And just remind me is the 113 also a 50 to 60 minute frequency? So far, yes. >> Okay.
>> Because I mean, is there I mean because like what he was saying, that area is jammed. >> Um so 50 minutes, 60 minutes is probably going to be like an hour and a half. >> Hopefully not that bad. If it stays in the bus way, it'll be fine. >> If it gets stuck,
>> right, >> there'll be issues. >> I'm just afraid because the infrequency of the buses makes it less powerable for people to use. One of the reasons why people don't use the 112 is because >> it's like you could be there in a half an hour, three hours.
>> Yeah. >> I mean, the convenience, like you said, you're looking to make it that street being convenient for the bus when it's actually I mean, it's quite convenient for the for the cars, especially coming off Eastern A. There is the option of going Bellingham, but that that just shows you how much traffic goes up off
Eastern A between Bellingham and Cottage Street. So, I mean it I mean obviously we would not obviously we wouldn't vote to make this a oneway tonight anyway. So, it's not if if that had to be the option, but I I don't think we'd even want to discuss that until you got approval or denial for turning around
inside the park and go to be quite honest. >> This was just the heads up that hopefully we don't have this conversation but >> okay >> uh we might >> I mean I have more issues obviously with with that. I mean, obviously I I hope you can get into there and like Mara said, why would they turn you down? But then again, they have their own buses to
worry about. So when they have, you know, they might think of it that way, but >> they get what you're trying to do. >> One interesting caveat by going through this exercise, we did find out that Massport is planning to move their operation across the street by 2020 uh
2030. So that is just a few years away and it would take all those blue buses out of there. >> Yep. Um the the parking garage does have a shuttle, but it's nowhere near as frequent as those blue buses which were showing up. >> Blue bus quite frequent. Yeah.
>> Five to 10 minutes. So u with those out of there there's all kinds of room to work, >> but that's a few years off. >> Just how come we don't have a subway yet? >> I think we need one. We have more ridership than some cities that have
subways. >> I I believe it. And it's probably one of the reasons you're one of the also one of the only communities north of Boston with three uh high frequency routes. >> Yes, it it's needed. It is needed. >> But it's all Boston centric which is
>> unfortunate and also it doesn't service people in certain hours instead certain parts. So it's it can be difficult to get around. >> Absolutely. >> But I know you can't answer that. I'm just being >> so for tonight the two items that were brought up on Pearl Street and Broadway
at 4, >> the ones that don't take parking away and ones that don't >> I mean definitely yeah I mean obviously the Pearl one and like Ben said the other one was already been approved to already take that. So we're not taking any any existing ones on top of that. So I guess if we want to we'd have to make
some kind of motion to accept those parts of this this and and just hold off on the >> 113. >> Oh yeah. Hold off 113 until confirmation of you know because a cottage street being a oneway would have to go to a
public hearing and even taking up that many spots I would think we might want to hold that a public hearing as well one or two spots we've done that typic not two spots we've done one spot but once you start to get three four five six spots we want the public to have some say unfortunately there is a goodiz complex building down there and they
have off- streetet parking but it doesn't fit everybody so they have to park on the streets and and that neighborhood is just really congested some of the cause that park down on that bottom of cottage in Bellingham live all the way at the top of the hill and they have to walk down because of the park crunch we have around here. So that'll be but that's a different story for a
different day. Um but I I would make a motion to accept the first and second parts of this proposal and just table the third section of it if that's what we can do Elsa. That's something we can second. >> Second all in favor for that I
>> I great Are we tableabling or moving into a public hearing? >> No, just going to table the third section because he's not 100% sure if if he has approval yet. >> Can can we just make the motion more descriptive so that it runs easily for Elsa in the record? So, it's motion to approve a curb extension at Pearl Street
and motion to approve the movement of a sign at 4th at Broadway per discretion of the MBTA per as instructed in the packet. >> Precisely. >> And the rest we don't need to because they'll come back to us as a separate agenda. >> That's fine. Okay, that's fine.
>> Thank you, Thomas. >> Thank you, everybody. >> Thank you, Thomas. >> So, there are no other items left on this month's agenda. Thank you all for attending. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. >> Thank you.