Those interested in the direction developments would take in the Central Broadway/Winter Hill Roadway and Streetscape Improvements Project took part in a community feedback meeting hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) and Somerville by Design.
— Photo by Douglas Yu

By Douglas Yu

An approximately 6-foot map of Central Broadway was set up in the Winter Hill Community School Wednesday, April 16, waiting for Somerville residents to post their advice about how to redesign their part of the neighborhood.

One of them wrote, “The timing of the traffic lights at Broadway and Boston Ave. in Ball Square seems ‘off.’ I’ve seen all the lights red, and the pedestrians crossing signals ‘red’ for what seems like 30 seconds many times.”

For many, it was their first time directly interacting with the city.

The Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) and Somerville by Design kicked off the meeting for the Central Broadway/Winter Hill Roadway and Streetscape Improvements Project by crowdsourcing the residents in the neighborhood.

They have several goals in mind, including improving accessibility and multimodal transportation and maximizing usable green space, as well as safety and aesthetic improvements.

Brad Rawson, a senior planner with the OSPCD, prefers to call himself a “Somerville resident.”

“The four-year planning process is associated with SomerVison, which has a very clear statement of what the most important issues are to us and things we know that need to change in our community,” he said.

SomerVision addresses preservation, housing growth and economic opportunity, according to Rawson.

“It really guides the city’s policy framework, encouraging us to invest in our historical commercial squares and corridor districts like Magoun Square and Central Broadway,” Rawson said during the presentation.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he added as he explained the approach Somerville by Design employs to track the neighborhood’s traffic. “Volunteers who participate in the four-year SomerVison process encourage us to set quantitative targets of how we tend to grow, preserve and change ourselves as a community. We really emphasize that this is a plan that focuses on our traditional role as a walkable and transit-oriented community,”

STV, a firm offering engineering, architectural, planning, environmental and construction services, is also partnering with Somerville by Design to take on the project.

Tony Timperio, a project manager from STV, said that during the traffic-data process, they would hire another consultant for the traffic counts.

“They put recorders across the roadway so vehicles trip the counters,” Timperio said. “They also do camera inventory, monitoring the vehicles going into the intersection.”

Considering traffic data fluctuates during different time periods throughout the year, the consultants will pick periods, such as mornings and afternoons, to monitor vehicular activity. Eventually, they will process the data and compile information on average daily traffic and peak-hour traffic, according to Timperio.

“Our traffic engineers take the seasonal change into account, too,” Timperio said. “That’s why they are careful of when they do the counts -not around school vacation weeks or holidays.”

Three tables were set up during the meeting for landscaping, civil infrastructure and traffic plans and suggestions. Residents talked about their concerns with members from the project team.

One of those residents, Jason Miller, expressed concern about the pavement on the Broadway at Winter Hill.

“There is a lot of buckling in the pavement, especially around the School Street intersection,” he said. “I hope that we don’t do too much to impede the traffic so that it pushes the traffic into other streets. It is a place where a lot of motor vehicles go to traverse the density of Somerville.”

Different from Davis Square and Porter Square, Central Broadway/Winter Hill has fewer small businesses and appears more resident friendly. But for residents in this part of the neighborhood who do not own a car, it might be a different scenario.

“Broadway is designed for vehicles, not for pedestrians,” lifelong Somerville resident Benjamin Levy said. “The city can do a lot by redesigning the sidewalks and roads. For people who don’t live here, they just cut in through the way to get into Boston.”

The project team and Somerville by Design got their first flavor of what people in this neighborhood want through the meeting.

“The corridor provides the traffic from east to west, but it also needs to cater to the residents and businesses along the corridor, so that’s a balancing act,” Timperio said. “Not only do you want to try to process the traffic through the corridor, but you also want to create a sense of a place that allows for development opportunities and growth.”