Boston City TV, MA City of Boston Transportation Department, 22 Oct 2021

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From YouTube: Lower Roxbury Workshop, June 2021

Description

During the workshop we got acquainted with the Lower Roxbury Transportation Study. We confirmed your priorities and made sure we did not miss anything and shared our toolkit for street design.

For more information about the project visit boston.gov/lower-roxbury

A

uh The presentation portion of this meeting will be recorded um for others that aren't able to join us today can watch it at their own time. uh Please update your zoom to include your preferred names and your pronouns.

A

Your microphones are turned off from the start and you will need to unmute to speak if you're joining by phone, all you have to do is press 6 to unmute. Otherwise, if you're in zoom, you can press the little make button, you can also use non-verbal feedback options. You can raise your hand or leave a message in the chat box. If you have any questions.

A

I'll go over briefly. Our outcomes for the meeting that we're hoping to achieve first is meeting one another and the btd project team, getting acquainted with the project and learning a little bit more about the goals of the project and what we've done so far confirm your priorities and make sure we haven't missed anything and then learn a little bit about the toolkit that we use to make street changes.

A

So first on the agenda is uh introductions, so an introduction is in place. Hi. My name is daniela um sanchez and um I am part of the actor transportation team in the boston transportation department, and here with me, is my colleague jen jen. Would you like to unmute? Yes,.

B

Hi, I'm jen. I.

C

B

A member of the active transportation team with daniela at the boston transportation department.

A

And the actors, transportation team is aims to dramatically improve safety on boston streets, with a focus on people, biking, walking and with particular attention to younger folk, older folk and people with assistive mobility devices.

A

So sorry before we do that, um since we're so few people I'll just give a chance for everybody to introduce themselves, so I will do a call out um ashley. Would you like to go first sure.

C

Hi everyone, my name, is ashley pierre louie. I I'm from howard stein, hudson and I am supporting the boston transportation department, with public engagement.

A

So we'll move on to getting acquainted with the project sort of review the project goals and what we've done today and I'll pass it on to jen to enter this expression.

B

Thanks so much daniela hi, so um I'm gonna, mention kind of uh just talk a little bit about the project um where it came from what its goals are and where we are now.

B

Okay, thank you. Let me begin again um uh so, uh as I was basically just echoed um daniela and that we're gonna take you through the project um where it came.

C

B

What its goals are where we are now and what we are would like to hear from you today, so the project began in the spring of 2019.

B

At a meeting at the people's baptist church residents and stakeholders asked us to take a broad look at walking and biking throughout lower rock spray. They asked us to listen to what people who live here now want for their community and to help them realize their goals related to transportation and safety and so to those ends. We started this project focusing on the city-owned streets that are between, but not including massive malneacast and columbus ave, so basically, all of the areas highlighted in blue in this map.

B

I'm just checking the chat, because I see something: is there ah thanks? Kirsty.

B

And so this um is really a unique opportunity, because we already have funding set aside for improvements, but that funding isn't yet allocated to anything specific.

B

um So we're excited, because that means that we have the freedom to really co-create the project and the process with you and make sure that our transportation investments are really highlighting neighborhood assets and creating positive changes to your streets that respond to your community's needs.

B

So we want to be very clear that this is not a development project and it's not geared towards the needs of new people moving into the neighborhood.

B

It's our aspiration that this project builds ownership and pride so that people living here now have even more of a reason to resist displacement, and so this diagram here uh shows what how we're thinking about outreach. um As you can see, it begins with listening and that's to as many people in the neighborhood as possible. um So we started this um step actually.

B

Quite a bit ago, uh august and september of 2019., we began by hosting six six ideas on the street workshops or sorry pop-ups, um and we asked people what they love about the neighborhood where they find joy. We also ask people to envision the future of their streets in lower roxbury, and we gathered over 250 comments from residents and visitors of all ages, and then we really.

B

We also wanted to confirm that what we were hearing uh were shared community priorities, so we hosted a series of open houses in the fall and early winter 2019 2020 at mandela, homes, people's baptist church campfield estates and st stephens. Church participants could look over the comments that were shared by others and then add their own.

B

And then, after that, we compiled all of the ideas we heard both from the pop-ups and then for the from the open houses and we mapped them. And what we'll do today is walk through those maps with you. um So we can receive your feedback confirming whether they resonate with what you would like to see changed.

C

B

Also, of course, want to make sure that we're not missing anything important and afterward we'll share with you the types of tools we could use to help.

B

So that brings us always um so that brings us to the next part of the agenda where we're envisioning going into breakout groups. But since it's a pretty small group today, um we can all stay together.

B

um So what I'll do is I'm just going to pause my share for a moment and pull up the maps all right, so I'm going to pass it back to daniella who will walk us through the toolkit of design changes that we can use to potentially address some of these ideas or implement these ideas.

A

So well present this sort of our toolkit for designing streets and feel free to come off, mute and ask any questions. If we're able to answer them, we will and if we're, not able, we'll always write them down and ask our engineers and get back to you they're sort of the experts.

A

So so our design, toolkit, sort of the city of boston uses many tools to improve safety and comfort on city streets. So we have tools that can help, encourage safer crossings or safer, turns or safer speeds or all or some.

A

So not every tool can work on every street, and sometimes we use multiple tools in the same location, to sort of address, specific issues or multiple issues.

A

But most importantly, I think it all starts with an understanding of the concerns and issues at specific locations or on certain streets and how they affect as well the whole network or neighborhood.

A

So we'll go over one of the tools that we will be using most likely because of the request, which is installing new crosswalks. um I think um crosswalk is a marked location where people can cross the streets and they include when they're new built, curb ramps and crosswalk stripings.

A

I'm sure you've also seen us uh rebuilding some curbs to make sure that they're accessible, but when we're building them new, make sure that they already are and walmart another type of crosswalk. We have is a race crosswalk, um and these are at the same level as the sidewalk.

A

They hope to slow down drivers and make it easy for for people to that are crossing to be seen, so they improve the safety but also visibility at crossing locations.

A

I just want to note that we generally don't propose race crosswalks on busier streets or on streets that have mbta bus routes.

A

Another tool that we have is curb extensions um sort of a curb extension is where a sidewalk extends into the parking lane, and this means that people who have to cross have a shorter distance to cross from one side to the other. um They also make room for people to wait before crossing, and sometimes we build curb extensions to ensure that the crosswalks are accessible for people who use wheelchairs help. Curb extensions can also help to slow down drivers as they turn making the intersection safer for.

A

Everyone I'm sure some people here lived close to cremon street and in carmel tremont street you can see uh crossing islands, so crossing islands uh provide a space for people to pause when crossing multiple lanes and um they make the intersection feel safer because you can take the crossing into stages.

A

Crossing islands can also help slow turning vehicles by ensuring that the turns don't cut, cannot cut, turns quickly and we usually create. We can create crossing islands with pavement markings and flexible posts, but we can also build them with more permanent materials like race, areas of concrete and granite.

A

Another intervention that you can see, for example, on massachusetts, is a rapid flash. No sorry, you see those on germans as well. Maybe um anyway, uh rapid flashing beacon features a small rectangular, bright flashing lights, underneath a pedestrian warning sign the light flash just temporarily when someone pushes the button on the signpost, so rapid, flash and beacons are used for mid-block or unexpected locations, and they are effective at gaining driver's attention and improving the yielding for pedestrians and crosswalks.

A

Whenever we do a project, we also look at the signal timings for all the signals in the area, and one of the things we can do is make sure that pedestrians have enough time to cross or improve those times, the time available that they have the walk signal. But we can also also provide pedestrian head starts, which means that you can start before traffic, so you can get ahead.

A

Another treatment we can do is separated bike lanes which provide a dedicated space for people, biking, separated from people walking and protected from people and cars.

A

These facilities are more comfortable for more people biking than traditional bike lanes that don't have any sort of separation or protection from the traffic of cars, buses or trucks.

A

The other type of bike lane that we can introduce is a counterfeit bike lane. This provides more direct routes for cycling and it allows people viking to go both ways on a one-way street for motor vehicles, and these are very useful, for example, to help bicyclists avoid obstacles like hills or busy streets that don't have proper bike lanes or separated bike lanes and where there's major near destinations like parks or trails. That would be helped to have an access point.

A

This is from sf. This is a speed feedback sign and a speed. Feedback sign are digital signs that display the driver's speed combined with a speed limit sign. So if the driver is exceeding the posted speed limit, the digital sign flashes- and this can help reduce the number of drivers going very fast on the.

A

Roads and another treatment that we can do as part of our toolkit is uh teen intersections, and this is when we redesign irregularly, shaped intersections by extending the curve to fill the extra space and create intersections with right angles. This helps improve the visibility at intersections and reduces conflict, but it can also help reduce the speed of turning vehicles and make it safer for people to cross the stream.

A

If nobody has any questions on those, I can briefly go over what our next steps are. I just want to give a brief pause in case. Anybody has any questions.

A

Okay, um so our next steps, um we will keep so currently there's a survey available on the website um in english and in spanish.

A

We will keep the survey open until the 18th of june, which is next friday, um and then once we close that we will start incorporating the feedback that was um on the survey as well as the one that we've gathered from these meetings um into a draft design that will highlight the neighborhood assets.

A

So if you have a friend or a neighbor that wasn't able to make it to any other meetings or just encourage them to fill out the survey, we have an outreach advisory group that was convened last year to help us guide and improve our engagement efforts throughout this project in the neighborhood.

A

You can find more information about them on the website, but we will also be meeting with them on the 24th of june to check in and see how the this outreach effort went and sort of what will be our next steps. And then we will check with you again in the fall um in regards to what this draft design will look like.

A

If you want to stay informed, then if we have any updates or let you know about anything- feel free to sign up for our main list on our website, which I think ashley will drop, the link.

A

C

A

To provide you a brief timeline of where we're at this is sort of our last stretch of confirming priorities and receiving your feedback and then all the feedback that we receive will be incorporated into this feedback we've received until now, as well as the feedback we've received in this part of the outreach will be incorporated into a plan uh design and then once we have that by the fall, we'll do another round of outreach to confirm that this is the right track and then incorporate your feedback from then into refining the design.

A

Based on your request, based on the requests and some of the projects, the timeline is long because you know there might have to be things like planning, curb ramps, moving drainage and things that take a little bit more to plan and design, and then once we have that more finalized, we will again consult make sure that it's ready to go and finalize the design by hopefully spring summer 2022., and I will give it to jen to let you know what else is happening nearby in the neighborhood, because there's a lot of things happening this summer.

A

B

All these older things all at once, uh we've all been holding back their pandemic and but yeah. um So one thing we're really excited this summer to restart our women's learn to ride clinics. These are a place where they spread the joy of biking and help more women and gender non-conforming people travel by bike.

B

If the place for you know if you haven't never learned to ride a bike or you're, looking up to pick up some new skills um learning to ride on the street, for example, um the clinics are for you they're, going to begin this july in matapan and then in august, we'll move to franklin park and then in september, they'll be close by and lower roxbury at the boston, water and sewer parking lots.

B

Yes, I actually put the lincoln thank you, and then you can also discover all of the transportation projects that are happening in roxbury and elsewhere in boston. By visiting our department's project map and from that map, you can often click onto the individual pages, to learn more about the projects and upcoming events and then to sign up for project mailing lists and outside transportation. Our colleagues under the broader or sorry, our colleagues at the boston planning and development agency, have a number of projects uh in lower roxbury under um planned nubian square.

B

Their epda is hosting the fourth workshop on parcel to discuss. Roxbury demographics explore some trade-offs for that parcel and report back about a diverse development survey.

B

Then for the roxbury strategic master plan, they have a couple meetings coming up this summer on june 7th. There are some developer presentations for the crescent parcel and then on july, 12th they're going to share some updates about transportation and also about the development of a number of parcels and then uh within.

A

B

The bpda is preparing a request for proposals for open space and community gardens at parcel x26b that will be expect to be issued. This fall, and our colleagues at the vpa have told us that some local stakeholders plan to hold community visioning exercises to plan for an rfp response.

B

So if that's something of interest, we can always connect you with the folks over there um and then. Finally, as part of the plan, new market effort,.

C

B

Bpa is hosting a workshop focused on defining 21st century mobility. Sorry so used to saying 21st, century mobility, 21st century industrial uses and jobs um connected to mobility. We do talk about transportation too, but um for this particular workshop is really focused on keeping the industry in the new market area.

B

So that's coming up as well and then um finally, there are applications still open for funding for murals and other forms of artistic expression from the mayor's office of arts and culture.

B

uh You can learn more via the link that we put in the chat shortly and the um community preservation committee announced in late february that there's going to be some funding to go to the design and construction and infrastructure improvements to create a new, frederick, douglas plaza and green space and lower rocks free. I don't personally have further details about that, um but we'll be sure to share them. When we do there's a the environmental department is hosting a heat resilience study idea session coming up.

B

The focus of this particular meeting on the 16th is roxbury and then there's also opportunities that I believe, don't have a particular deadline.

A

B

To receive a grant to post a block party, it's always fun so yeah with that. um A huge thank you for spending time with us today, and I've mentioned before. We'd love it. If you sign up for the project newsletter and if you have further questions uh later on, you can always email, daniela or this email address or call us on this uh line, which is kind of a project phone number and yeah.

B

That's all we had, but I thanks again for coming and hopefully stay have a nice time like I said I used to be like stay cool, but now it's nice so go out and enjoy yourself.

A

Damn daniella, thank you so much. uh Thank you so much for the entire team and all those joints. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Karen.

A

Okay, all right! Yes, we can stop.