Concept of Lake/bikeway intersection. / Green International Affiliates
UPDATED, Aug. 2: The Minuteman Bikeway has crossed swords with Lake Street throughout its quarter century, but as traffic of all kinds and in all directions has grown, safety issues — or at least fears about them — have increased.
The intersection that brought public pleas to Town Hall’s attention in 2011 is moving toward changes — a new traffic light at the bikeway synchronized with the one at Brooks Avenue, near Hardy School, and more visible crosswalks, with separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists.
Of an estimated 55 people who attended the Town Hall hearing on Wednesday, July 26, 22 provided a range of feedback to a design committee working on the changes. That group is to weigh these ideas and return in late September for a hearing at the 75-percent design stage.
The concept to date aims to make the intersection safer. It does so by proposing to restrain traffic with a light at the bikeway crossing, a suggestion offered by the selectmen’s Transportation Advisory Committee in 2014. The plan would expand the bikeway from 12 to 25 feet wide, as shown in the graphic accompanying this summary.
Besides adding signals for drivers and pedestrians, cyclists will have a traffic signal, with signs in the middle of the red, yellow and green light. The bike signals would be parallel to walk signal.
Range of public suggestions
Suggestions from the public ranged from acceptance of the current plan to other changes deemed less expensive. There were three clear cases of outright opposition in an audience whose majority appeared to be those favoring cyclists.
Gene F. O’neill of Spy Pond Parkway said the intersection’s “choke point” occurs “because cyclists don’t stop.” He suggested at least a dozen bollards arranged to slow or stop cyclists.
He called the change cheaper than the $400,000 that at least two speakers said the new design would costs. After the meeting, Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine told YourArlington that project estimates have yet to be made.
“How many [here] stop at the stop sign?” O’neill asked the audience.
As many as 15 hands went up. He asked how many don’t stop, and one audience member raised his hand. A murmured chuckling followed.
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“Cut back the vegetation,” he said, adding that the pedestrians are not the problem — bicyclists who don’t stop are.
Cyclists, for and against
A speaker who did not give his name provided a far different view of cyclists, but still concluded that a traffic light is not the answer.
He said he has been cycling for 75 years and is surprised how few cyclists block the intersection. He called applying brakes “a curse,” adding, “Give me warning, I’ll coast.” He called cyclists “a law unto themselves …. I have been doing this for 75 years, and I’m still alive means I get it.”
Tim Masters of Brooks Avenue said the main issue with the intersection occurs in the morning. “The major problem is with bikers. They think they can cruise through any time,” he said to some applause.
A traffic light won’t solve the problem, he said, calling it “a lot of money for nothing.”
He noted that the crossing guard near Hardy often pushes walk button, and “that holds up everybody.”
Joseph Barr of 24 Park St. resident asked the committee to focus on Brooks/Lake light: “Fix that first and then look at whether we need a light at the bikeway.”
He asked, “Could the bikeway intersection work without a signal?” He said he feared a light would lead to a “false sense of safety.”
Find another way to pay for the changes, he said, saying the money could be better used for bike lanes and sidewalks. He said it was “not a good use of Complete Streets money.”
Favors plan, eyes longer view
Phil Goff of Grafton Street, representing the East Arlington Livable Streets Coalition, said he favors the plan and raised broader issues, focusing on safety of the intersection in the future.
He said the relative infrequency of crashes or injuries yearly — one or two — is likely because of uncertainty, which slows motorists. He urged the design committee to configure the lights at Brooks and the bike path differently at night.
He called configuring the lights the same 24/7 “the worst option.”
Jason S. Sobel, project manager for the transportation group at Green International Affiliates, a consultant to the design committee, said how to cycle the two lights continues to be discussed, but the current plan is to have them coordinated at peak traffic hours and left uncoordinated off-peak.
Chart showing traffic on Lake, bikeway at peak hours.
Sobel said he expects a 15- to 20-second delay for pedestrians and cyclists during peak-traffic times.
Goff also suggested considering a raised intersection at the bikeway. So did Chris Porter of Lakehill Avenue, but he went further, suggesting removal of the signal at Brooks. He said the option, like one at Rindge Avenue, Cambridge, might be a cheaper, more efficient way to slow cars.
Sobel said that option had not yet been reviewed.
More questions, answers
Glenn Koenig of Hopkins Road, who has experience in traffic issues, got answers from Sobel about a number of queries: Would cars be detected by loop detectors? (Yes.) Would the Brooks signal be fully functional through night? (Yes.) How would pedestrians/cyclists be detected? (Options include push buttons, video or infrared setups, loop detectors — details remain to be worked out.)
Asked about “tipping points” for waiting drivers and pedestrians — that is, how long is too long to wait before someone decides to go anyway, Sobel said the aims is to keep the cycles of the lights short as possible.
Joan Seltzer of Freeman Street also expressed concern about wait times. Sobel said he thought the longest for pedestrians would be 40 seconds.
Two residents asked about traffic pressure on take Orvis, which is often backed up. “What’s going to happen with crossroads?” one asked.
Sobel said lights will aim to be coordinated to keep cars from stopping twice, on Lake and at Brooks.
Another speaker, from Orvis, noted backups all the way to near Newcomb and said an incident of road rage caused $100,000 damage. He said that without coordinated signals, “we’ll have more issues arise.”
Sobel said the signal at Books will be replaced and coordinated, but there will be no change for the Lake/Mass. Ave. signal coordination, a conclusion in the 2014 TAC report.
INTERSECTION’S CRASH HISTORY
• 2011 to June 2014
— 110 crashes reported along Lake St. corridor
— Four crashes involved bicyclists or pedestrians
— Three injury crashes
• Jan 1, 2014 to Dec 31, 2015
— 14 crashes at Bikeway / Lake Street crossing
— Two crashes involved pedestrians
-– Five injury crashes
This list does not include a cyclist hit by a car last December.
Source: Green International Affiliates
Opposes raised brick
Barbara Engel of Egerton Road ask the committee not to raise the pavement or use raised brick. She said it “heat up in winter.”
Holding a cyclist’s helmet, Todd Spivak of Summer Street suggested adding a curb and softer, removable pavement at the Minuteman intersection. Using a term to describe cyclist’s resistance to full stops, he called himself “stoppish.”
Arthur Prokosch asked how current counts of cyclists are. Sobel said the latest is June 2015.
John Kelly of Sunnyside Avenue asked whether a left-turn lane at Brooks might be added, to prevent blocking through traffic. Sobel said one has not been proposed.
Christian Klein of Newport Street asked whether pedestrian signals would be at both lights. Sobel said yes. “Cyclists need to be stopping,” the Town Meeting member said.
A cyclist and also another Town Meeting member, Steve Revilak of Sunnyside said he likes the segregation of pedestrians and cyclists. He suggested following the kinds of signs used at Southwest Corridor Park in Jamaica Plain.
Warning light instead?
Meeting member Jim Ballin of Swan place wondered whether the traffic warning used where Mill Street and the Minuteman intersection could be employed.
Sobel said the rapidly flashing beacon at Mill does not require a full stop. He said several alternatives are available, but TAC has agreed using a full signal at Lake.
Former Selectman Jack Hurd of Spy Pond Parkway that all involved for their work. “I know it’s expensive,” he said, but with some tweaks, he said he favors the outcome.
Not all was serious. Andrew Freeman of Kimball Road drew some laughs, calling the design “a little too nice …. I’m afraid a car is going to turn on to the bike path.”
ACMi broadcast of July 26 hearing
July 26 slide show online
Feb.-Jan. 2016: emails, memo
Design review committee, appointed Jan. 17
This news announcement was published Friday, June 30, 2017, and updated Aug. 2, with a complete news summary.
