Tag: roxbury crossing

WalkBoston Comments on 2022 MBTA Bus Network Redesign

WalkBoston Comments on 2022 MBTA Bus Network Redesign

July 31, 2022 

Andrew MacFarland
Manager of Bus System Enhancements, MBTA 

via email: BetterBusProject@mbta.com

RE: WalkBoston Comments on 2022 MBTA Bus Network Redesign

Dear Andrew:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ primary pedestrian advocacy organization, working across the Commonwealth to make it safer and easier for people to walk for all activities of daily living such as access to transit, school and jobs. We are writing with comments about the MBTA Bus Network Redesign. 

We are happy to see this project continuing to move forward. This is a critical process to achieve the significant goal of increasing service hours and high frequency service throughout the greater Boston area. This redesign proposes to make connections that do not currently exist because development patterns have changed since many of these routes were initially created; it also does not focus solely on work commutes, and introduces seven day a week service for more routes than before. This plan is also a climate plan, since transit is necessary to support mode shift. We need to get people out of cars for more of their everyday trips. It is essential to expand the reach and frequency of our bus networks and provide complete mobility networks with safe, accessible options for walking, biking and transit.

We believe this plan has the opportunity to help communities prioritize funds to modify streets and sidewalks. Cities and towns will know where they can make bus service even better by creating bus-only lanes, upgrading signals for transit signal priority and for pedestrian safety, adding shelters and benches at bus stops, adding shade trees to make walking access to transit cooler in the summer, and shoveling bus stops and sidewalks in the winter to allow for safe, accessible access to bus stops year round. 

Our comments focus on three main conditions that will impact people walking, and we have provided an example location for each.

  • Ensure that locations where an increased number of transfers will occur are safe and prioritize pedestrians by including fully accessible and safe street crossings, providing clear wayfinding, and providing seating.
    Example: Roxbury Crossing, Boston.

At Roxbury Crossing, more people will be transferring between buses and the Orange Line at the intersection of Tremont St/Columbus Ave/Malcolm X Blvd, which also includes a crossing for the Southwest Corridor path. These are wide roadways that have high volumes of vehicular traffic, and, especially at off-peak times, high speed traffic speeds. The MBTA should work with Boston to ensure that street and sidewalk changes are made to make it safer to cross the street for people transferring between modes.  Possible changes that the City of Boston may consider include setting shorter signal cycles so people have shorter waits to cross the street, or mid-block crosswalks and crossing islands or raised crosswalks directly outside the Orange Line station doors to enable a direct walking connection to the bus stop.

  • Ensure locations are weather resilient throughout the year.
    Example: Union Square, Somerville.

We are already starting to see the effects of an unstable climate through increasingly frequent intense storms, flooding and heat. In Union Square, heavy rain storms in previous years flooded the square and overwhelmed the combined sewer overflow system. A massive sewer separation project has been underway to mitigate these issues, and bus shelters, rain gardens, and additional street crossings have been added during this effort.  

To ensure safe, accessible, and comfortable mobility year round, we need investment in public realm resiliency: reflective, porous surfaces, and shading tree canopies during the hottest days of the summer; and street and sidewalk maintenance to keep pathways clear and accessible after winter storms. Our transportation system must be as resilient as possible, and that includes bus stops. The MBTA should consider adopting recommendations that they can share with all municipalities for bus stop benches and shelters to give people the chance to sit down in a shady or dry location. We urge you to look at best practices for creating inclusive spaces.   

With the adoption of more high-frequency routes and corridors to replace the 15 “Key Bus Routes,” we believe the snow clearance commitment that those Key Routes had should be extended to the high-frequency routes. People must be able to walk safely to a bus stop and not have to wait in the street or climb over an inaccessible snow pile to get on or off a bus. Ensuring stops are clear will also benefit bus drivers, so that they can fully pull into the curb. Many bus operators report concern for the safety of riders as they witness people trying to climb over snow mounds or walking in the street because sidewalks and bus stops are not cleared.

  • Consider impacts to transit dependent senior housing locations.
    Example: Route 112 (Soldiers’ Home, Chelsea).

While WalkBoston has not analyzed individual bus route modifications, additions and eliminations, we have reviewed comments from a number of different communities that are focused on changes that may significantly impact locations with large vulnerable, transit dependent populations. In Chelsea, the 112 bus currently serves two hills, with low income senior and veteran housing. It will be replaced with a high frequency line that will forgo the two hills. The hills will be connected via a local shuttle, where residents will have to transfer at the Market Basket Plaza or Bellingham Sq. to access the key bus routes. This will be detrimental to these two vulnerable populations.

We urge the MBTA to take those comments seriously and to consider changes in access between such uses as grocery stores and senior housing, or dense housing and parks that serve those neighborhoods. The service areas of such facilities often cross municipal boundaries. We also ask that the MBTA consider the comments which note that route changes will require people to walk some distance in very hilly parts of the MBTA service area.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Stacey Beuttell 

Executive Director, WalkBoston

Comment Letter: Tremont Crossing Draft Environmental Impact Report MEPA #14900

Comment Letter: Tremont Crossing Draft Environmental Impact Report MEPA #14900

November 23, 2016

Matthew Beaton, Secretary
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Attn: MEPA Office
Analyst: Erin Flaherty
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston, MA 02114

RE: Tremont Crossing Draft Environmental Impact Report  MEPA #14900

Dear Mr. Beaton,

WalkBoston has reviewed the DEIR for the Tremont Crossing proposal in Roxbury. We believe that the very auto-oriented proposed development is inconsistent with the urban character of the neighborhood and needs to be substantially modified to benefit its neighbors.

Parking Spaces Proposed are Excessive
The development calls for a multi-level parking garage of 1,371 spaces that will generate 8,000 vehicle trips per day.  WalkBoston questions the need for such a large garage given that the development will be less than two blocks from Roxbury Crossing and Ruggles Transit Stations, and within a 10-minute walk of Dudley Square that is served by twenty bus lines.

By comparison the two large Target Stores in the Fenway (Boston) and Cambridge have only a couple of hundred parking spaces.  Numerous parking studies of big box stores and shopping malls throughout the country have shown that parking lots/garages are underutilized.

The emphasis on parking and downplaying of the use of transit suggests an imbalance for so large a project in the heart of the city.   As stated in the 2012 comment letter from Boston Transportation Department a consistent supply of available parking will counteract efforts to encourage alternative travel modes.

Tremont Street Should Not Be Widened
To accommodate the large number of vehicles accessing and exiting the proposed development Tremont Street is projected to be widened to eight or nine lanes.  Such a wide roadway at this location is incompatible with the urban character of the street and will create safety hazards to the pedestrians and bicyclists moving to and from the transit services, residences and institutions.

Also, the environmental review should include an assessment of the impact of increased traffic on the busway at Ruggles.  Numerous buses leave Ruggles headed for Dudley and WalkBoston has concern that at peak hours buses will be waiting through numerous traffic signal cycles to exit unto Ruggles Street.  The result could be a backlog of congestion from Ruggles to Malcolm X Boulevard.

Roxbury Crossing Development Should be Integrated into the Neighborhood
As currently designed, the development will be an island, separated from its neighborhood setting.  The proposed development has the opportunity to contribute to the street by creating easy walking access from the transit stations as well as nearby residential developments (Madison Park and Whittier Housing) and institutions (Northeastern University).  The Tremont Street Development is located in an area where Transit Oriented Development is particularly appropriate.

Proposed Project Could Acknowledge Changing Retail
The retail environment has changed since the project was proposed 4 – 5 years ago.  More and more shopping is done on line and traditional walk-in retail is struggling.  Evidence of this is in Dudley Square, the heart of Roxbury.  WalkBoston would like to see the City devote greater efforts to supporting viable retail in Dudley.  Promoting retail within a 10-minute walk of Dudley will only further depress the market for shops in Dudley Square.  However even within the proposed development the liveliness of the retail is questionable given that the proposed network of bridges will connect the garage on the second floor, discouraging patronage of the ground level retail.

Ensure Safety of Major Pedestrian Crossings.
The major pedestrian crossings of Tremont Street will take place at intersections with Ruggles/Whittier Street, South Drive and Prentiss Street. The primary crossing is likely to be at Ruggles/Whittier Street, because of the direct access it provides to the Ruggles MBTA Station. Care should be taken to provide for significant numbers of people wanting to cross Tremont Street at this location. Retention of the median strip in the center of Tremont Street would be useful as a refuge for pedestrians who may not be able to cross the entire width of a widened Tremont Street in one signal cycle. Similarly, leading pedestrian signal intervals should be incorporated to facilitate safe pedestrian crossings at the intersection. Analysis should also be undertaken to determine if a crosswalk is truly needed at South Drive, in view of the nearby Prentiss Street crossing.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this proposal. Please feel free to contact us with questions you may have, and we look forward to hearing how our suggestions are incorporated into subsequent revisions to this plan.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

Dorothea Hass
Sr. Project Manager

cc: Councilor Tito Jackson
Byron Rushing, State Representative
Deirdre Buckley, MEPA Director
Dana Whiteside, Boston Planning and Development Agency
Kay Matthews, Friends of Melnea Cass Boulevard (FMCB)
Marah Holland, FMCB
Alison Pultinas, FMCB