By Khoa Tong

The Somerville Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee (PTAC) held their monthly meeting on Thursday, May 25, hosted by Alessandra Seiter, chair of PTAC. The primary focus this month was to present and discuss with the Somerville Traffic and Parking Department their plans for automated parking enforcement as well as reviewing the Committee’s letter to the mayor and City Council on FY24 budget priorities.

Suzanne Rinfret, Director of Traffic and Parking for the city of Somerville as well as Jacqueline Stagnari, Project Analyst for the Traffic and Parking Department joined the meeting to present general information as well as plans for the implementation of MPS Safety Sticks across the city to automate the ticketing process for illegal parkers.

The MPS stick itself will be placed on sidewalks near illegal parking spots such as bus stops or fire hydrants. The device will take a picture of the vehicle’s plate after three minutes. The goal with the MPS stick is to mitigate illegal parking to increase safety for buses and pedestrians, as well as covering more ground where Parking Control Officers (PCOs) may not be available.

After the MPS stick records a license plate, it will automatically upload the address, time period and duration of the violation to the Traffic and Parking Department. The information is then processed by the department to confirm that an actual parking violation has taken place, as opposed to a brief passenger pick up, a ticket will be mailed to the driver within five days for in-state and ten days for out of state plates along with the information gathered by MPS.

“Because the Parking Control Officers can’t be at every bus stop as every minute of every day, we don’t get every violation,” said Rinfret. “There’s so many violations in the city that we have to maintain, and we have to be everywhere but there’s only so many officers.”

Warning signs will be added alongside the MPS sticks to notify drivers that the area is under surveillance, with Rinfret explaining that educating the public and making them aware results in safer streets. “Just having signs and markings just helps to remind people, don’t park here,” she said.

The Traffic and Parking Department has already run a pilot for the MPS stick, catching four-hundred and twenty sessions of illegal parking with the longest violation being an hour and eight minutes. Rinfret mentions that when they begin implementing the MPS sticks onto streets, the Traffic and Parking Department will start out with a small handful such as on Elm St. in front of Bfresh and any streets the public may have higher concern over.

Rinfret concluded the presentation by providing general information about the Traffic and Parking Department and how they operate. The department focuses on administering, enforcing and maintaining maintenance on the streets of Somville, working closely alongside the Traffic Commission, City Council as well as the Somerville Police.

The members of PTAC were interested in the work done and services provided by the Traffic and Parking Department as well as the MPS sticks and discussed suggestions regarding improvements and future plans for the MPS. Rinfret and Stagnari addressed questions brought up by the committee and ensure that more research and planning is going into developing higher efficiency enforcement throughout the city.

After Rinfret and Stagnari ended their presentation, Seiter moved the topic to revising the budget priority letter they drafted before it is sent to the mayor and City Council. The letter focuses on the planning process for a North/South connector as well as hiring a curb manager for Citywide Parking and Curb Use Study implementation

Seiter went on to explain that under the bus network redesign, MBTA shuttle buses are not going through certain areas because of the grades on the streets of North and South Somerville. Their hope is that the city could experiment with smaller vehicles with fixed routes that can carry people in those areas who need the commute to high demand areas such as Union Square.

In addition, the Citywide Parking and Curb Use Study aims to compile data to better comprehend the parking systems in Somerville and create policies and regulations to better accommodate mobility and safety of the public. Seiter suggested in the letter to hire a curb manager to further support the study, stating that it has a lot of potential to influence travel within the city.

PTAC members briefly discussed the letter before coming to a full agreement to send it to the mayor on Friday, May 26.

More information on PTAC, the Traffic and Parking Department as well as the Citywide Parking and Curb Use Study can be found on their respected websites:

https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/somerville-pedestrian-transit-advisory-committee-ptac, https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/parking-department, and https://voice.somervillema.gov/parking-study