Newsletter Archive
Email Newsletter 12/06/99
From pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org Wed Dec 8 16:43:30 1999
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 01:35:54 -0500 (EST)
From: "James D. Lowenthal" <pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org>
To: Undisclosed recipients: ;
Subject: December News
Contents:
* Next meeting: Wed. 8 Dec.
* Northampton Rail Trail 75% design hearing Tue., 7 Dec.
* Bad news from MassHighway: UMass Rail Trail Connector ditched
* More bad news from MassHighway: no budging on bridge bike access
* PV Bike Week 2000 planning underway
* Northampton Safe Streets Task Force: ambitious goals
* MB/PV tasks and projects -- How you can help
* Critical Mass
* Template letter to Stan Rosenberg
Dear Pioneer Valley Cyclist,
Next meeting of MassBike/Pioneer Valley
===================
Wed. 8 Dec., 7:00 pm
Room 204, Seelye Hall, Smith College, Northampton
Agenda (send add'l items to pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org):
-- Brainstorming session to jump-start PV trail projects
stalled by MassHighway
-- Coolidge Bridge strategizing (appeal to local towns? PR?)
-- Bike Week 2000 organizing
Northampton Rail Trail 75% design hearing Tue., 7 Dec.
==============
Time: 6:00 (plans available for review)
6:30 (presentation begins, followed by public comments)
Place: Northampton City Council Chambers (behind City Hall)
This is the public hearing to review plans for extension of the
Northampton Rail Trail from Look Park to the Williamsburg Town Line.
It's an important meeting, because it's the last major public hearing
before the plans are completed. Opponents will probably show up, as
they have for two RailTrail meetings in the last week alone. Led by
well-organized Williamsburg residents with funding from a national
property-rights organization, they will try to convince anyone who
will listen that the Right of Way is being illegally wrested from
private hands, and that they are victims of big government run amok.
They are probably reading this message, too.
All supportive Warm Bodies are encouraged to attend. During the
public comment period, just stand up, identify yourself (as a
MassBiker, if you don't mind), and say why you support the Rail Trail
(assuming you do) -- especially if you're a Northampton resident, but
that's not a requirement.
Bad news from MassHighway: UMass Rail Trail Connector ditched
=====================
VERY bad news. Despite promise after promise from MassHighway, and
support from the highest levels (US Rep. John Olver, State Sen. Stan
Rosenberg, State Rep. Ellen Story) as well as UMass and the town of
Amherst, and years of careful planning and engineering, MassHighway
has ditched the UMass Rail Trail Connector, a 2-mile spur trail from
the Norwottuck RT to the UMass campus. MassHighway let the project
(the No. 1 Federal "Enhancement" project in the Valley) slip past the
annual bid deadline, then promised to pay for it with special funds --
but now has announced that the funds are already allocated to other
projects.
Read about it, complete with full angry quotes from Rosenberg and
Story, at:
http://www.gazettenet.com/12031999/news/19317.htm
Write to Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (State House, Room 212, Boston, MA
02133, 617-722-1481) and/or Rep. Ellen Story (State House, Room 167,
Boston, MA 02133, 617-722-2692), thank them for their support, and let
them know you want MassHighway to lift Massachusetts from its current
dismal ranking as 51st out of the 50 states plus Puerto Rico in using
its allocation of federal "Enhancement" funds.
More bad news from MassHighway: no budging on bridge access
===================
Another round in a long correspondence between MB/PV and the
MassHighway leadership in Western Mass. and Boston regarding the lack
of safe bicycle accommodation on the soon-to-be-rebuilt Coolidge
Bridge between Northampton and Hadley has produced: nothing. In a
letter dated Nov. 23, 1999, MassHighway Chief Engineer Thomas
Broderick states the party line: "we feel that the 12-foot lanes
provide the most appropriate width for overall safety," and therefore
MassHighway refuses to widen the shoulders from the skinny 2-1/2 feet
currently planned. The only concession so far is an agreement to post
"Share the Road" signs on the bridge.
Write to Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (again! see template letter below, or
write your own) and let him know that (1) cyclists need safe,
year-round access across the Connecticut River (the Norwottuck Rail
Trail is not plowed in winter); (2) federal guidelines allow for
travel lanes narrower than 12 feet but recommend shoulders at least 4
feet wide for safe bicycle access; and (3) there is no evidence
demonstrating that 12-foot lanes are safer than the 11-foot lanes
MassBike suggests.
Even just ten letters could make a big difference in how
Sen. Rosenberg views his consitituency's commitment to alternative
transportation in the Valley.
PV Bike Week 2000 planning underway
===============
Two organizational meetings for Pioneer Valley Bike Commute, led by
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission's Catherine Ratte, have taken
place, and momentum is building for this major series of events.
MassBike/Pioneer Valley has agreed to take on a big role in the
planning and execution of the Bike Week 2000 program, which will
include free breakfasts for bike commuters, educational programs,
urban history tours by bike, and lots of press coverage. Please come
to the MB/PV meetings and/or the Bike Week meetings to find out how
you can help.
Next meeting: Monday, Jan. 10, 2000, 4:00 pm
(location in Northampton TBD)
Northampton Safer Streets Task Force: ambitious goals
============
The Northampton Mayor's Safer Streets Task Force (chaired by Andrew
Crystal) continues to grapple with the many-headed beast that is
Traffic. Several subcommittees are meeting frequently to do the bulk
of the work identifying problems and recommending and implementing
solutions: Downtown and Florence; School Zones; Outlying Areas; Elm
St.; and Traffic Management/Policy (I sit on the latter two). A
letter has been sent to the mayor recommending several improvements to
pedestrian and bicyclist safety on Elm St., and some of the
suggestions (e.g. improving crosswalk safety by adding mid-road signs
and expanding the no-parking zones; ) have already been implemented;
improved School Zones are also being pursued.
The Traffic Management/Policy subcommittee, chaired by Catherine
Ratte, is charged with the ambitious task of recommending an
organizational structure and protocol within the City that would best
be able to monitor, control, and improve safety of pedestrians,
bicyclists, and motorists. Some possibilities include paid Traffic
Calming city staff member(s); a permanent Traffic or Transportation
Bureau; and guidelines for accommodating bikes and peds in all roadway
projects. The subcommittee is also communicating with the town of
Amherst, which is also in the process of codifying its
bike/ped/traffic policy.
Meanwhile, bike parking racks should appear "soon" in downtown
Northampton, following a site walk-through attended by (MP),
Jami Albro-Fisher, and James Lowenthal from MB/PV, and Guilford
Mooring (DPW) and Cynthia Williams (Mayor's Office). If they DON'T
appear soon, call your City Councillor and let her/him know that YOU
know the racks are sitting in DPW's garage and that they would work
much better if they were installed in the city's sidewalks instead.
MB/PV tasks and projects -- how you can help
====
As you can see, MassBike/Pioneer Valley is engaged in many exciting
bicycle, pedestrian, and transportation-related projects in the
Valley. Currently, a small cadre of die-hard volunteers is doing most
of the work -- happily, but with limited time and energy. In an
effort to share the responsibilities a little bit more broadly among
the many people out there who I know are committed to clean air,
sensible transportation policies, and livable communities, I've
identified a list of tasks and roles for which I'd love to see
volunteers sign up. If you think you'd like to get more involved but
are daunted by taking even one of these roles on, I or another
MassBiker would be glad to help out and share the responsibility.
Thanks for your time and effort!
-- RailTrail coordinator (attend public hearings, maintain
contact with RT planners, legislators, and funding
agencies)
-- Bike Week 2000 contact (attend monthly meetings, act as
liaison between MB/PV and BW2K Coordinator)
-- Coolidge Bridge coordinator (communicate with legislators
and MassHighway; review plans; get local towns to
support better bike access)
-- Public relations (write press releases, speak with reporters)
-- Newsletter: print (collect and write reports on Pioneer
Valley bike advocacy efforts, oversee layout of
newsletter, organize mailing to list of 200)
-- Newsletter: electronic (this email; collect and write
reports on Pioneer Valley bike advocacy effort for
monthly E-news)
-- Webmaster (maintain MB/PV website with up-to-date archives
of email and meeting minutes, events calendar, and
news items)
-- Meeting notetaker (type up brief minutes, post to www)
-- Membership coordinator (maintain list of MB/PV members and
friends; strategize growth of membership)
-- UMass coordinator (work with UMass planners and other
officials to improve bike/ped conditions on campus)
Critical Mass: December 31
======
Last Friday of every month, Amherst Town Common. Meet at
5:15, ride to Northampton at 5:30. Don't forget your lights!
Don't be discouraged if it's a only a small group -- just enjoy the
ride!
Template letter to Stan Rosenberg
=============
Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg
State House, Room 212
Boston, MA 02133
Dear Sen. Rosenberg:
I am writing to express my concern about the lack of safe bicycle
access in the current plans for reconstruction of the Calvin Coolidge
Memorial Bridge. Cyclists, like drivers, need year-round access
across the Connecticut River (the Norwottuck Rail Trail is not plowed
in winter), and the bridge reconstruction represents an important
chance to improve that access. Unlike automobiles, bicycles do not
pollute the air, kill thousands of pedestrians, or contribute to
suburban sprawl. MassHighway, however, apparently prioritizes
automobiles over all other forms of transportation in its current
plan, resulting in unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.
Federal guidelines allow for travel lanes narrower than 12 feet on
urban arterials, including National Highway System highways like Route
9. Travel lanes of 11 or even 10 feet are common in many parts of
Massachusetts and elsewhere in the country; even large trucks are only
8.5 feet wide. Federal guidelines also recommend shoulders at least 4
feet wide for safe bicycle access -- significantly wider than the
2-1/2 foot shoulders in the current plan. Narrowing the travel lanes
by a mere 12 inches from 12 to 11 feet would allow the shoulders to
expand to a full 4-1/2 feet, greatly improving safety for bicyclists
on the 1/2-mile span.
Meanwhile, there is no evidence in the traffic safety literature
demonstrating that wide lanes or roadways are safer than narrower
lanes or roadways. MassHighway admitted this in a 1996 citizens'
appeal of a road widening project in Lenox. However, there is a very
direct link between motor vehicle speed and severity of injury and
likelihood of death in the event of a crash -- especially if it
involves a bicyclist or pedestrian -- so over-wide travel lanes that
encourage speeding should be avoided.
I urge you to meet with MassHighway and negotiate an improved plan
that guarantees the safety of all bridge users, not just motorists.
Thanks very much for your support.
Sincerely,
MassBike