Meeting #2 with Department of Transportation—March 2023

Meeting Attendants:

Muazzez Reardon, Project Manager, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)
Dan Fielding, MassDOT Legislative Liason
Erin Kinahan, Raj Kulen and Mark Abbott from MassDOT District 6 office
Chris Cassinello, MassDOT ROW, Right of Way Bureau
Tracie Lenhardt, Nikki Hastings, Christine Trearchis, and Alan Beliak, Mass DOT’s design consultants
Vanesse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB is a multidisciplinary American civil engineering consulting and design firm headquarters in Watertown, MA).
Alan Belniak, Moderator and producer of meeting

Purpose of meeting:

The purpose of this meeting was to identify, evaluate, and develop short-and intermediate-term
concept-level improvements to address safety and operational deficiencies associated with the ramp network.

These improvements would target:

• Pedestrians, cyclists and transit (as discussed in the October meeting).
• Access to businesses and neighborhoods adjacent to the rotary

NOTE: Long-term infrastructure modifications are not included in this scope of work. Three presentations were made by VHB consultants, representing the work done by them since the October meeting.

1. Extensive data collected by VHB produced the following findings
(most of which duplicated concerns reported by residents in the previous meeting)

• Walking in the area is difficult.
• Many sidewalks are narrow and lack buffers to adjoining traffic.
• The rotary lacks crossings at key locations and the waits to cross are long at signalized intersections and multi-leg instead of direct.
• Cyclists find the rotary intimidating and unsafe.

2. A separate report was presented on Safety & Crash Data

• Newton Corner is rated Level 4, i..e., the least safe intersection level.
There are no safe conditions for either pedestrians or cyclists in Newton Corner.

• The highest number of crashes occur at the I-90 eastbound off ramp and the terminus of I-90 westbound off ramp. There were nearly 400 crashes in a three-year period—eight of which involved pedestrians or cyclists. It is important to note that many minor crashes are not reported. This was acknowledged in the meeting.

• Two sites on Washington Street northbound are in the top five% crash clusters, making them eligible for federal safety improvement funding.

3. A third presentation summarized public feedback on the ranking of 6 goals for the Newton Corner Rotary Intersection

These are presented as combined first, second, and third place rankings below. i.e. the percentage of respondents who made this their primary concern:

#1 Enhance safety 1–3 = 73%

#2 Improve traffic operations and reduce congestion: 1–3 = 57%

#3A Improve transit: 1–3 = 44%

#3B Expand multimodal infrastructure: 1–3 = 42%

#4 Land use/placemaking: 1–3 = 10%

#5 Property access and parking Issues: No first place. 2–3 = 8%

The meeting concluded with a question and answer section during which residents were able to submit questions online or address them directly to panel participants. It was noted, during this discussion, that the air quality in Newton Corner was often compromised by the excessive amount of traffic. The request was made to have these conditions studied more closely. Questions regarding the meaning of terms used during the presentation, access to a recording of the meeting, and where to submit comments were also discussed.

The questions listed below were also asked by residents at the meeting, These inquiries, however, were not answered by the MassDOT panel and instead elicited the reply, “Thank you for your comment”. It must be noted, however, that these were questions, not comments.

Unanswered questions from Newton Corner residents, interested parties, and City of Newton officials:

Q1 How will you model your statement that biking and walking will improve with changes to intersections?

Q2 What are numbers regarding car flow data and changes to bus schedules?

Q3 Can further figures and data supporting these slides be made available for the next meeting?

Q4 Will the towns of Newton and Watertown assist with these changes for continuity?

Q5 Let us focus more on pedestrians and transit and not just on moving vehicles more efficiently and quickly through Newton Corner. Please evaluate how a bus lane would be more beneficial.

Q6 How many people go through this intersection a day?

Q7 Are there things we can do while waiting for this project to be fleshed out? While heading down Centre Street approaching the Evans Park Senior Living Community, I have seen so many accidents in the merge lane. Could someone look into putting yellow traffic things to allow merging earlier than right at the stop sign?

Q8 Transportation is a regional problem. How will you address the impact of Watertown development on Washington Street on the north side and Oak Square in Brighton on the south?

Q9 I have a concern about the yield sign and two lines of traffic on the eastbound off ramp.

How will people coming around from the north side safely merge to exit onto Centre Street?

Q10 Does anyone at MassDOT envision adding a bus-only lane on the Mass Pike? This would make bus travel more valuable and potentially reduce car traffic in Newton Corner.

Q11 When will short-term improvements be made as referenced in the fall session? Some quick changes would improve quality of life dramatically and none from the fall session have been implemented.

Q12 Why is the most simple improvement of maintaining clear lane lines throughout the seasons not being pursued regularly?

Q13 Going farther down Washington Street toward Walnut Street—the whole mess near Adams Street, Jackson, etc. Is that going to be addressed? Also a traffic quagmire down Washington Street. Is that being considered now or will it be in the future?

Q14 Newton Planning is trying to improve our village centers, but problems crossing streets depresses businesses. How will this be addressed?

Q15 MassDOT data shows on and off ramps had 50,000 vehicles per day in 2007 and 65,00 per day in 2019. What can we do to advocate for additional exits?

What happened to the results of fall meeting where we also met to discuss these issues in the fall. Seeking clarification of time line.

Q16 If MassDOT won’t implement improvements quickly, would it be willing to cede responsibility to the city?

Q17 Buses by themselves do not warrant having a dedicated bus lane on the Mass Pike but would adding carpooling lanes be a better idea?

Perhaps the most important moment of clarification came in response(s) to a question from Maria Scibelli Greenberg, City of Newton Ward 1 Councilor, who asked:

“Most folks are very impatient with how improvements have and have not been done with this rotary. Could Mass DOT give us a time frame for when we can see these improvements?

Most folks on this call are imagining these short-term improvements will occur in the next few years.”

Response 1: The report will be ready for end of this year and then design will start. Don’t have time frame.

Response 2: Medium term begins immediately after short term—once we identify issues such as signs, markings and any minor signal timing—after three to six months. We haven’t really defined that.

Response 3: MassDOT projects are multimodal. Projects are not currently funded on transportation improvement plan.

Response 4 We’re just right now at phase of data collection and coming up with alternatives. Then we can move into design but there is no programming for any improvements right now.