Bicycling & Shared Path Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes Salem Bicycling Advisory Committee Wednesday, November 4, 2020 6:30 p.m. Remote Meeting Members Present: Eric Papetti (Chair), Josh Gillis, Jayne O’Leary, Michael Williamson, Alex Maranto, Colleen Downie, Connor Ryan, Matt Caruso Members Absent: John Wathne, Michael Jaros, Kylie Sullivan Also Present: Tom Devine, Senior Planner Call Meeting to Order Papetti calls the meeting to order. Devine describes the remote meeting format and procedure for providing public comment. Public Comment Papetti opens to the meeting to public comment and there are none at that time. Staff Update Devine provides the following updates to the Committee: • The Willson Street quick-build protected bike lanes are complete and the City is collecting speed data for a before and after comparison. There is spirited discussion on social media providing an opportunity for the Committee to weight in. • For the Fort Ave. bike lanes, the City’s contractor is scheduled to install the zebra armadillos and parking stops the week of November 9. • The City is meeting on November 19 with MassDOT to review utility implications of the 25% design for the Boston Street corridor reconstruction. • Salem and Peabody received 285 responses to its Harmony Grove path online survey and will use these results to inform the development of a preferred path alignment for the Working Group’s review. Review of North Street Design Concepts Document reviewed: North Street, Toole Design (slide presentation), undated Lydia Hausle of Toole Design Group presents an overview of the project. This includes past studies, existing data, public input to date, and three design alternatives. 1 Joe Carrao of 143 North Street says he is opposed to removing parking because every building needs it for residents and their guests. He favors option 2 which preserves the most parking. Williamson says all design options presented are a big improvement, while he also understands the resident’s concern about parking. Hausle confirms that there will be barriers at the chicanes. Maranto asks whether the side streets are resident only. (Only Foster and a portion of Franklin Street are.) Maranto asks if the roadway is anticipated to handle u-turns. Hausle says people may already do u-turns because they prefer to park on one side versus the other and this could increase with this project. Alex asks if the proposed new crosswalks will be at signals (they will not). Ryan asks if the crosswalks can be raised. Hausle states that the project does not propose raised crosswalks and that if it did, there would need to be a discussion with emergency services about the impact on their operations. Papetti says that parking consolidation requires effective crosswalks and he hasn’t seen any great new ones in Salem. The North Street crossings should be better and Toole should be creative and come up a better design. He suggests using center refuges and better lighting. He adds that parking gets full at the cemetery during funerals and some handicapped parking spaces may be out of date. He thinks that another outreach blind spot may be users of North Street who are not Salem residents. Kat Tovat of 143 North Street advocates for maintaining parking. Her building has twelve units and twelve parking spaces. She supports option 2 because it maintains the most parking. She likes concept 3, with parking maintained on one side if it is her side, but recognizes that people on the other side of the street might disagree. The King’s Roast Beef parking lot sometimes overflows onto street parking. Moving the bus stop to the front of her home would impact existing parking. The North and School Streets intersection is a “death trap”. More buses are needed. The city should clean up trash, fix sidewalks, and trim trees. Bike lanes are not as important as these problems. She agrees that narrower lanes with chicanes will slow traffic. Ward 6 Councilor Meg Riccardi says she is concerned about moving parking for McGlew Park across the street. She wonders if there is a best practice for the placement of chicanes. She is curious about the impact of bus stops on business parking. She offers to help the City with outreach to businesses. Review of Washington St./Mill St./Canal St. Intersection Improvements Document reviewed: Mill & Washington Street Intersection – Short-term solutions to close an important gap, Toole Design (slide presentation), undated 2 Hausle presents a concept to connect the Mayor Salvo Multiuse Path to the Washington Street bike lanes. Caruso asks what protects cyclists between the intersection and the path entrance in the concept. Hausle shows a separated contraflow lane for this short segment. Caruso asks about markings in the intersection for bike crossing. Hausle suggests that the intersection could be marked to indicate that all crossings, including diagonal, are welcome, but wants to be mindful of the amount of visual clutter. Papetti states that it is important to give weight to the connection going west, since going east is easier. He appreciates the city keeping it simple and maintaining the traffic lanes, but he would like to see the city consider dropping a lane. He also suggests considering a two-way bike lane to Derby Street along the west side of Washington Street where there is ample space. And a parking protected lane on the other side would be beneficial to. Ryan describes his experience bicycling through the intersection. He finds the path exit to be disturbing. Currently he rides on a portion of the sidewalk and navigates the intersection. He says there is space on the path for a visual curve twenty feet before the exit to direct riders properly. Hausle describes how a two-stage queue box would function in the intersection and asks whether the Committee supports implementing it. Caruso says that if the project is not going to be more dramatic, then it is an appropriate. Papetti supports this, but emphasizes that it should be done in a way that makes a good first impression, since this would be Salem’s first two-stage queue box. Discussion of Salem Woods/Highland Park Trails O’Leary reports that there will be two volunteer workdays for a bridge in Salem Woods, November 14 and 15. She will email information to Devine to share with the group. Meeting Minutes – 9/2/2020 Williamson motions, Caruso seconds, and all vote in favor to approve the September 2, 2020 meeting minutes. Adjourn Caruso motions, Williamson seconds, and all vote in favor to adjourn and 8:34 p.m. Approved by the Bicycling Advisory Committee on January 6, 2020. 3