Pages
Stay In Touch
More
© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)
More public input and process is needed
By Howard E. Horton, Esq.
The City’s new Bike Network Plan is comprehensive and, generally, well-thought out in its attempt to make biking safer – and, of course, the plan has had a lot of input from bike riders. More than 50 new miles of interior streets and roads will be impacted by new bike lanes, safety markings and related equipment. But, what is less apparent is how these changes will impact parking, automobiles and other users of our streets – as these new bikeable miles are all contained within Somerville’s very small footprint of 4.2 square miles.
With a growing population which will approach 100,000 in the next decade (back to pre-93 days); a huge housing boon; and, the electrification of cars, we need to assure we have a balanced approach to all of our public ways. It is an admirable objective of the new bike plan that “every resident” of Somerville should have free and ready access to a bike. The problem is that not every resident wants a bike, and many are actually unable to use a bike to get around the City (especially in cold months) to accomplish day to day objectives like shopping, banking, visiting neighbors and accessing professional offices.
Of particular concern is the Network Plan’s design for Highland Avenue. A major spine for the City, and a street that is steeped in tradition, the plan to incorporate two bike lanes running in either direction is not tenable. This would cause substantial parking displacement at a time when both ends of Highland (the Central school campus and government center on the East – and Davis Square on the West) already have inadequate parking. Housing along Highland continues to grow, unabated, with no City requirements for onsite parking – but with the average household still holding on to an average of 1.1 cars. Unlike, Broadway, Highland is too narrow for bike paths – and it is not surprising it is one of the most frequently complained of street for bikers. Along Highland, we have many small businesses, churches and professional offices which rely on foot traffic and car parking to remain viable. Some are minority owned or centered, and many employ people of color. We cannot sacrifice these for the purpose of expanding biking when there are good alternatives.
We need to remember that Somervision 2040, while bullish on improving and expanding bike riding, was just as bullish on balancing equities for small businesses, minority populations, persons with disabilities, the elderly and young families – many of whom will not be using bikes in their daily Somerville lives. But, an even more compelling reason to abandon the bike plan for Highland, is that just a few hundred yards away, we have the parallel Community Path, which is an excellent and even safer alternative for east/west biking in the City.
The advent of the Network Bike Plan also elucidates the need for more public process and public hearings about our public ways. Currently, it does not appear that the City has a standard requirement for public hearings when it comes to changes in the disposition of a public way. Even the Massachusetts Department of Transportation held public hearings when it redesigned some intersections of state-owned roads in Somerville. Why is the local process less deserving of the same? In fact, the City Council would be wise to amend the Charter to require that the Traffic and Parking Commission hold public hearings before changing the status of any street – whether for bikes, directionality, or fixed facilities and should have a requirement (as we do with Zoning) to provide advance notice to abutters of proposed changes – we don’t need a municipal agency making these kinds of decisions about our streets in absentia.
Again, the Bike Network Plan is a very good piece of work – but, it should be considered a starting point for conversation– not the finish line. And, in the case of Highland Avenue, well…. some things in the City just merit conservation.
Howard Horton is a member of the Board of Directors of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce; He previously served as Co-Chair of Somervision 2040; as Chair of the Somerville Zoning Board; and in the respective Somerville administrations of Mayor Ralph and Mayor Brune.
If you found this article of interest, please consider sharing it.
Highland needs bike lanes exactly *because* it’s a “major spine for the City, and a street that is steeped in tradition.” And the fact that there is a bike path nearby doesn’t change the fact that Highland has businesses, childcare, and public buildings that bikers need to access without using the bike path. As an example, I regularly take my children from Winter Hill Community School to the YMCA for swim classes, then to the library, and then home. There is no logical way to do this using the community path (even when it opens,) and I am thankful I no longer have to do this by car as I have found a bike solution for transporting my 4 and 5 year old children.
I hope you appreciate that fewer cars on the road means less congestion for all!
I appreciate your concern about folks who may not have access to bikes and would love to hear more from you about how to improve public transit for such folks.
I could not agree more with the opinion. I am a Somerville resident for 30 years. The City takes a “data driven approach”. This has been a skewed approach. The City takes survey’s & opinions from known friendly or overly aggressive groups. Some of these groups participates do not live in Somerville. I believe in the green approach. I believe we need to get off of fossil fuels. This biking network plan has been a white wash by City Hall. They do not listen to residents who own, senior citizens or handicapped citizens that are not included in this option. It is actually about getting state & federal funds in a pre determined outcome.
This process in redesigning Somerville’s infrastructure should have a legitimate democratic process!
CIONCERNED RESIDENT.
“steeped in tradition” Speaking of that Highland ave used to have two trolleys running down it (88 & 90) and of course was first built without cars in mind. Adding bike lanes to “a major spine for the City” is both exactly where bike lanes should be and an appropriate nod to that tradition of car free travel. It is the desire to preserve car parking that is out of step with the tradition of the street.
“We need to remember that Somervision 2040, while bullish on improving and expanding bike riding, was just as bullish on balancing equities for small businesses, minority populations, persons with disabilities, the elderly and young families – many of whom will not be using bikes in their daily Somerville lives.” Except they do. Bikes are without saying significantly cheaper than cars and expand the distance you can comfortably and quickly travel without one tremendously. Elderly people and people with disabilities often ride bikes for exactly those reasons and there are all kinds of bikes that cater to various specific needs. The proliferation of e-bikes also makes that argument more and more out of touch with reality as well. You simply don’t live in somerville if you don’t see young families on bikes constantly; families riding together, kids on the back of bikes, kids riding in cargo bikes, etc. They are a constant feature of the city and should be able to access the schools, daycares, libraries, hospitals, shops and other services on Highland safely. On top of all that Numerous studies indicate people on bikes and on foot are more likely to support small businesses than people driving by in cars and are more frequent customers, with the consistent finding that bike lanes are a net benefit to the businesses on the streets they run along.
This is a misguided and poorly informed article. In a climate crisis parking spaces are not ever worthy of “conservation” and it is absolutely laughable to suggest they should be.
I appreciate the passion that Slaw has for biking as an environmentally friendly and inexpensive method of getting around. But, to think that cars will be going away and that parking is not an issue – especially now with the push toward electrification – is just a naive perspective. As well, the City is planning to grow its population with 8000 more housing units, many affordable by 2040 – this will bring even more cars to the City, despite wishful thinking that all new residents will simply rely on bikes and public transit – the data indicates otherwise. Let’s engage in appropriate and good faith debate about where bike lanes make sense – where we need to preserve parking – and let’s be respectful of different points of view – rather than being dismissive toward concerned residents and businesses.
There is a geometry problem with adding more cars to the city, see the work of Jarrett Walker/Human Transit for more on this. There simply is not space to store even more private vehicles in public space (which are stationary 95+ percent of the time according to several studies). Space is limited in the city and If the city wants to grow in a sustainable way we simply cannot do so by prioritize adding more space for cars. Public transit and bikes both move people in far more space efficient ways than cars.
Cars will only end their dominance in our lives and infrastructure if we create alternatives that make it possible, which is a good reason why we need more bike lanes. If we keep prioritizing infrastructure for cars over everything else it is a self fulfilling prophecy that they will remain dominant, but that is a choice.
If you were actually interested in “good faith debate” you would listen when common anti-bike talking points are refuted with facts, especially when it is done by people who live in this city and rely on bikes to get around. Refuting suggestions that young families don’t bike in somerville, that poor people don’t use bikes, that the elderly and disabled don’t use bikes is not bad faith, if anything the suggestion that they don’t is, given how common all of that actually is in this city. likewise for refuting that preserving parking is “conservation” or the idea that bike lanes hurt businesses. This article makes claims that simply are not true and saying so isn’t dismissing “residents and businesses” it is dismissing nonsense that poisons debate.
Residents who bike have concerns about are safety on the existing infrastructure (residents and people who bike are not actually two separate groups as you suggest) but since we don’t drive, by choice sometimes but often by necessity, we clearly don’t count to you.
I very much agree with Ines Santos — Highland does need bike lanes exactly *because* it’s a major spine for the city.
I bicycled my children to school every day for years along Highland and had to use the sidewalk — dodging pedestrians, flaunting the law — because there aren’t other continuous east-west routes in the area. When my kids reached the age that they didn’t want to be escorted to school by their father they just returned to walking because I did not consider it safe for kids their age to be biking around most of Somerville due to the lack of purpose-built biking infrastructure. I appreciate that we built an automobile-first city for the last half century but it’s time for a more modern and safer vision.