Special DSNC Meeting June 3rd on the Elm Street Short-Term Quick-Build Improvement Proposal

[Elaine Almquist]

Hi Neighbors,

This message is to inform you of a special meeting of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council on the Elm Street Short-Term Quick-Build Improvement Proposal.

Wednesday, June 3, at 6:00 PM on Zoom.

Agenda to be posted shortly.

This is a full member meeting dedicated to the topic of the Elm Street Short-Term Quick-Build Improvement Proposal. Please review the information on the proposal here: https://www.davissquarenc.org/projects/elmway

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

[Christopher Beland]

The full text to be discussed, possibly amended, and voted on at the June 3 DSNC special meeting is in this Google Doc.

I've included a copy below for accessibility. The document is also linked from the DSNC homepage.

Chris

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Motion: That the Davis Square Neighborhood Council send the following letter and advocate for the completion of the requests contained in it to the degree feasible.

To:

Brad Rawson, Director of Mobility - transpo...@somervillema.gov

Suzanne Rinfret, Director of Traffic and Parking - SRin...@somervillema.gov

Luisa Oliverira, Director of Public Space and Urban Forestry

Cc:

Mayor Jake Wilson

Councilor Lance Davis, Ward 6 Councilor

Councilor Naima Sait, Chair, City Council Traffic and Parking Committee

Rachel Nadkarni, Director of Economic Development

Ted Fields, Economic Development

Subject: Elm St. Quick-Build Safety Improvement Proposal

The Davis Square Neighborhood Neighborhood Council (DSNC) asks the City of Somerville to implement the following short-term safety improvements on Elm Street between Davis Square and Grove Street as soon as possible. Please see our attached slide deck for graphics and elaboration on these proposals.

These changes aim to fix chronic problems with double parking, improve safety on a block with high foot traffic, and make a more pleasant experience for residents and customers of local businesses. These requests are the result of extensive feedback from local residents and businesses, including a walk audit of the street, visiting all public-facing businesses in person twice, multiple community meetings advertised with flyers and via DSNC channels, and engagement with groups including the Davis Square Merchants Association, Somerville Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, Somerville Commission for Persons with Disabilities, and MassBike. We believe it is important to make these improvements without waiting for the completion of the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan or planning the long-term future of Elm Street, especially as the impact of these changes may inform those decisions.

• Reduce the travel lane width to 11 feet by expanding the pedestrian realm on the northeast side of Elm Street using planters. 
• Make the new pedestrian area contiguous with the reclaimed slip lane.
• The Greening Davis Committee and Somerville Gardening Club have volunteered to maintain planters on Elm Street if authorized.
• Add one or more bike racks in the northeast side pedestrian realm.
• Paint curb extensions to narrow the travel lane around crosswalks, adding pre-cast concrete curbs or flex posts for physical protection.
• Preserve outdoor dining space for all establishments without dimensional changes that would require reconstruction of private on-street structures.
• Install a modular in-lane bus platform at the Elm St @ Chester St stop (in front of the HMart) similar to the one installed at Grand Union Blvd @ Foley St in Assembly Square.
• Add a new mid-block crosswalk between Davis Square Plaza and 263 Elm Street (Sakura), either with modular ramps or new curb cuts.
• Remove parking on the northeast side of Elm Street and expand the number of spaces on the southwest side by reconfiguring it as back-in diagonal parking.
• Neighbors who signed their support for the project voted 50% preference for diagonal parking, 17% preference for parallel parking, and 33% no preference.
• The preference for diagonal assumes a 14-foot-wide aisle as measured as shown in cross section slides. If an additional 5-foot buffer is needed, this would not leave enough space for outdoor dining on the northeast side, and would create a temptation for double parking, so the community preference would be to maintain parallel parking on both sides.

• Eliminate 2-hour metered parking from this block and redesignate all street parking spaces as one of the following:
• Accessible - HP tag/plate required (near curb cuts).
• Loading zone for deliveries and ridehailing services. Diagonal parking may require some spots to be a loading zone only in the morning for large truck deliveries for establishments with no truck-accessible rear entrance.
• 30-minute parking near stores to reserve these spots for quick errands and increase turnover to make shorter walks more likely for people with intermediate mobility.
• 60-minute parking near longer-term service establishments like hair salons and doctor’s offices.
• Add navigational (green "P") signs so drivers can easily find all five municipal parking lots from Elm Street and other major streets. (See attached list for suggested locations.)
• Change or dual-use the underused taxi stand on Day Street near Elm for passenger and commercial loading or metered parking.
• Add missing crosswalks where pedestrians currently cross Elm on the south side of the Grove/Bowers intersection, and the south side of the Russell/Cutter intersection.
• Install more enforcement cameras (“SafetySticks”) to enforce parking durations.
• Consider reducing the three-minute grace period for SafetySticks to prevent the bus stop from being used as a loading zone.
• Work with blind people in the community to design tactile cues to guide them safely and easily through the expanded pedestrian realm.
• Crosswalks must have some way to orient a person crossing at a right angle to the travel lane.
• The unusual geometry of the reclaimed slip lane requires clearer tactile cues connecting the curving Highland-Elm sidewalk with street crossings. Directional block tactile paving would be an obvious choice, as it is used internationally for this purpose. A set of four parallel raised lines marks e.g. the best route to a fare gate in a train station, or where a vehicle door will open at an in-lane bus stop.
• Make sure new tactile strips are deep enough that a person with a cane cannot sweep past the strip and walk into the street.

Elm Street also needs a long-term reconstruction and maintenance plan to address issue like:

• Non-ADA-compliant curb ramps
• Loose or missing bricks that have been patched with asphalt instead of restoring the bricks correctly, creating an uneven surface
• Adding raised table intersections at Day, Chester, and Grove Streets or broader traffic calming treatment

(to be signed by sending DSNC officer)

Suggested locations for navigational (green "P") signs

• Parking lot exits, directing drivers to the next one in case this one is full (maybe in addition to a map of all five lots)
• College Ave approaching main Davis intersection (pointing to both Holland and Elm)
• Buena Vista Road headed uphill toward the upper entrance
• Holland Street approaching Buena Vista (southbound has no sign, northbound has broken and non-standard signs)
• Holland Street approaching main Davis intersection (multiple options)
• Elm Street at Grove Street (going toward Grove and Cutter lots)
• Highland Ave approaching main Davis intersection (pointing toward Buena Vista Lot)
• Elm Street approaching fork, pointing toward Summer Street and existing sign at Cutter lot entrance)
• Summer Street at Cutter Ave, pointing left
• Cutter Ave at Highland Ave, pointing left
• Entrance to parking lot on west side of Grove Street
• Grove Street northbound at Highland Ave
• Day Street entrance to Herbert Street lot
• Dover at Meacham Road
• Meacham Road at Buena Vista
• Day at Orchard Street
• Orchard Street at Day Street

[alexcla...@gmail.com]

Good Evening,
I may not be able to attend the ZOOM call tonight, here are a few observations/comments.

Response to the temporary and permanent Elmway design proposals:

1. The 45 degree parking option is shown, one has to dig to find the parallel parking option; even though 45 degree is used at Union Sq., it is dangerous and inappropriate to be backing into traffic (parallel parking is an inherently different process). I would stick to the parallel parking recommendation with spaces on both sides of the street, perhaps staggered to lessen the impact visually of the cars. If Uber drop zones and door dash are included that really needs to be thought thru and given consideration.

“Policing” the gig drivers is one of the biggest issues on Elm – more so than drivers.

2. Today Elm street is inherently safe because traffic gets “bogged down” and moves so slowly. The design channelizes the driving lane with the effect to accelerate drivers.

Turning radiuses are shown way too tight (I know this is not a professional engineered drawing, but the chokepoints for delivery vehicles, fire trucks and simply cars are too tight. As an example: The left side neck down at Day street makes sense as this is a right turn only intersection, but the right side should be kept wide since it is not a 90 degree angle.

Consider a short right turn only lane at Chester Street where a lot of backing up can occur (quite a few cars turn down Chester).

One thought on de-channelizing Elm would be to shift the lanes side to side with shoreways (not sure if that is the correct usage here) – see sketch below – sorry, a bit messy with my stylus :/ ) – these must be designed to not impede buses or fire trucks, but would be better (hopefully) than speedbumps.
A final design would be nice to lift the street to match the sidewalk height (and material) so that when the street is closed for special events it feels like a plaza – using bollards to separate traffic and pedestrians. The main plaza at the new high school was designed this way , Denver 16^th street mall operates similarly on a much larger scale.

3. A bike lane is warranted here. Thinking about the entire square we should assume the intersection in front of the Somerville Theater will also someday get improvements – it’s a tight spot for bikes when both lanes are taken.

Note that the through drive lane is the left side lane from Highland Ave eastbound and should be the lane that carries straight on to Elm…

I personally don’t prefer the flex posts as a biker in these tight area – a bike also needs to be able to get out of tight situations – so a painted lane should suffice and make things feel less tight.

There are many Urban design studies that show most pedestrian only streets are failures – I think Elm succeeds as a temporary closure for special events and hopefully planted with better green areas and hardscape materials (and well maintained).

The city has a great mobility and engineering team – ultimately we should propose but also listen to them, the fire dept., and business owners.
I personally liked the 4 way intersection design from a few years back, two-way streets are slower and safer here. If the goal is to limit “drive-through” commuters cutting through the square but never stopping, then cutting off Dover street certainly would accomplish that…. And create much larger pedestrian islands at the heart of the square.

Regards,
Alex

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Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC
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