Blue Mass Group

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2,000+ citizens ask for Green Line to Route 16

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Here is the update:

Petition and Demographic Data Support Route 16 Station

for Green Line Extension to Medford/Somerville

MEDFORD (August 4, 2008) — The Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA) today presented state transportation leaders and local elected officials a citizen petition and a demographic report in support of extending the Green Line to Route 16 (Mystic Valley Parkway) on the Medford/Somerville line.

At today’s meeting of the Green Line Project Advisory Board, MGNA delivered a petition with 2,022 signatures stating support for extending the Green Line to Route 16.

In addition, MGNA presented census data analysis that showed a Route 16 station would put Green Line service within a half-mile walk of 9,116 residents of Medford, Somerville and Arlington who would not have such access if the extension were terminated at a College Avenue station at the intersection with Boston Avenue.

The MGNA report also pointed out that a Route 16 station would provide transit service within a half-mile walk of five environmental justice neighborhoods that would not be similarly served by a terminus station at College Avenue.

The Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) is currently evaluating the College Avenue/Boston Avenue site and Route 16 (Mystic Valley Parkway) as possible locations for the terminal stations. EOT is analyzing factors such as environmental impacts including air quality, right-of-way impacts, costs, and ridership projections. A decision could come as soon as September.

“The citizen petition and demographic data quantify MGNA’s position that a Green Line station at Route 16 has community support, and that it will help the extension project meet two of its most important objectives – improving air quality by providing better transit alternatives to car travel, and providing fair and equitable service to environmental justice communities,” MGNA said in a statement.

The petition signatures were collected online and in paper form over seven weeks, from June 5 to July 31, 2008. Petition signers added numerous comments in favor of a Route 16 station, particularly citing the need to improve public transportation options in the wake of record fuel costs.

“In today’s world of high gas prices, this addition could provide many of us with a cleaner, faster and simpler way of transportation. [It] would be nice to leave my car and walk to the T,” wrote Medford resident Rick Weir.

“The Green Line at Route 16 is an ideal location to be served by transit,” wrote Medford resident Roberta Cameron. “The site directly abuts around 250,000 square feet of existing office and retail space, as well as two affordable multifamily housing developments, with a substantial density of single and multifamily housing in Medford and Arlington, as well as a school all within close walking distance. This dense, mixed-use neighborhood would not be served at all by a station a half mile to a mile away.”

The Route 16 demographic data was analyzed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyst Benjamin Krepp and GIS research consultant Barbara Parmenter. Using 2000 U.S. Census data, the most recent available, they determined which portion of each census block group fell within prescribed distances, or buffer areas, of the Route 16 station location, then estimated the population within each buffer area.

By putting nearly 10,000 additional residents within a ten-minute walk of Green Line service, a Route 16 station increases the potential for the project to shift more person trips from autos to transit, and therefore to improve regional air quality in the corridor, a legal requirement that emerged from the Big Dig project.

And, a Route 16 station would help provide fair and equitable access to stations, ensuring that the project adheres to environmental justice principles that no segment of the population should be denied environmental benefits, or bear a disproportionate burden of the environmental impacts.

A report on the MGNA petition, including all the signatures, and demographic analysis are available on the MGNA website, www.medfordgreenline.org.

# # #

Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance

The Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance is a group of citizens who support the Green Line extension being planned to Medford, and who advocate for proactive involvement from the city, its residents and all stakeholders to ensure that the extension is completed in a manner that is most beneficial to our community. For more information visit www.medfordgreenline.org or email info@medfordgreenline.org.

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Comments

  1. Get ‘er done.

    <

    p>I wonder though: if you’re going that far, why not go all the way to the West Medford Station on the Lowell Commuter Rail line?

    <

    p>It would open up oodles of Medford and Somerville to folks who live up toward Lowell, allowing them to take the commuter rail to work without having to go all the way in to North Station only to turn around and take the Green Line back north to work?

      • Either (a) you let us run the green line to the station, or (b) we close the station down.  You don’t get to play it both ways.  Either you’re a part of the public transportation solution, or you’re not.

        • No one is going to close the W Medford commuter rail station, and the logistical problems of turning that stop into a Green Line station would be fierce.  The worst possible way to deal with transit issues is to bully communities in exactly the way you are suggesting.

          • is to discover which neighborhood wants the multimodal (rail, green line, and bus) station on the new green line.

            <

            p>The point is that such a nexus is critical to achieving best transit bang for this (considerable) bunch of bucks.

            <

            p>If West Medford can’t be induced to take it with some sweeteners, then it ought to be moved elsewhere. Not divvied up.

            <

            p>No way should local abutters be allowed to hold the rail component hostage and separate from the rest of the transit network.

            • I asked Ken Krause (member of the Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group as well as MGNA) about prospects for other connections.  He reports that, “the EOT [Executive Office of Transportation] is required to study a possible commuter rail connection at the Tufts and Gilman Square Stations.  So far, it has not reported to the project advisory group on its analysis of either of these options.”

              • New transit can bring tremendous change and that can be disruptive.

                <

                p>Even when something produces a net social benefit there are still individual winners and losers. Some people like things the way they are.

                <

                p>Fruitless to argue aesthetics with people, and I’m in favor of sweetening the deal with mitigation programs when possible. But sometimes local concerns may have to yield to broader ones.

                <

                p>That’s why I say that if West Medford wants the benefits of a commuter rail station it should be prepared to accept the costs (and benefits) of the transit connections that come with it.

          • shouldn’t be used to destroy the network effects available to an entire region’s transportation needs.  Either you want to participate in the public transportation team or you don’t.

            <

            p>I’m not suggesting that we level entire neighborhoods a la Robert Moses, but the mere fact that the neighborhood around the commuter rail station doesn’t want it shouldn’t be enough to prevent the advantages that station would provide to at least a dozen towns.

            • to say that the local community in West Medford doesn’t want it.

              <

              p>Our legislators gave up on it very early.  (There may have been some legitimate engineering/feasibility obstacles that made it appear untenable.)

              • just like the ones that prevent connecting North and South station by heavy rail.

                <

                p>Just like the ones that prevented the Airport stop from actually being attached to the airport.

                <

                p>Just like the one that prevents the Blue Line from connecting to the Red Line by connecting Bowdoin to Charles/MGH.

                <

                p>Just like the one preventing both parts of the Silver Line from being connected.

                <

                p>

                <

                p>The MBTA is half-assed in implementation because things don’t quite connect efficiently, because the Lege/MBTA always bails out from spending the money to make that final connection, resulting in a huge decrease in the number of origin-destination pairs for single mode or even double mode trips.  Amazing how we were able to raise the money and willpower to do it for roads in what was widely considered the most complex transit project ever implemented in history.  Even with a progressive Governor, even with a Lt Gov who ran a campaign around commuter rail, even with a super-majority Democratic Lege, even with gas at $4.00 a gallon, even with MBTA ridership up, even with traffic jams on 90 and 93, even with our understanding of climate change, even with all of that we as a Commonwealth can’t find the willpower to do public transit right.

                <

                p>I wonder why that is.

  2. See below for instructions on submitting public comments.  (Maybe tell ’em that the Green Line & commuter rail need to connect in Medford or Somerville.)

    Here are some notes from the eighth meeting of the Green Line
    Extension Project Advisory Group, conducted by the Executive Office
    of Transportation on Monday, August 4, at the Somerville Public
    Library.

    EOT UPDATE
    Project Manager Steve Woelfel reported that:

    + Last week the Environmental Protection Agency approved the Green
    Line extension project and the other remaining transit enhancement
    commitments the state agreed to as mitigation for the Big Dig and to
    improve air quality.

    + EOT has been working with a Project Management Oversight
    Consultant provided by the Federal Transit Administration who is
    assisting with the preparation of cost estimates and other
    assessments.

    + Given the present uncertainty about the future of the stalled
    North Point development project, EOT has moved the relocation of
    Lechmere Station into the scope of the Green Line extension project.
    (Previously, the relocation of Lechmere Station – which is required
    to facilitate the Green Line extension – was to be undertaken by the
    North Point developers.)

    + EOT expects to present documents on the evaluation of potential
    sites for the maintenance facility and on ridership projections at
    the September advisory group meeting. The next round of community
    meetings is expected to take place in mid- to late September.

    + EOT filed its required Annual Report on the Green Line project and
    other remaining transit commitments on June 30. The report is
    available for review on the EOT website,
    http://www.eot.state.ma.us/. Click on Transit Projects under What’s
    New. Written public comments on the report are being accepted until
    Sept. 12, and there will be two public comment meetings on Sept. 8,
    at 2 and 5 p.m., in the Department of Environmental Protection
    office, One Winter St., Boston.

    TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS

    + Noise and Vibration: Jason Ross of environmental consulting firm
    Harris Miller Miller & Hanson explained the noise and vibration
    impact assessment methodology being used for the project. The
    process entails measuring existing levels of noise and vibration;
    modeling future noise and vibration levels based on the addition of
    the Green Line trains and relocation of the commuter rail tracks;
    assessing impact; and determining locations for mitigation, if
    required.

    + Air Quality: Tom Hooley, Director of Air Quality Services for
    consultant Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, explained how the air quality
    analysis is being performed for the project, which is part of the
    State Implementation Plan for transit system improvements intended
    to bring air quality in Eastern Massachusetts up to standards
    required under the Clean Air Act. Ozone is the “pollution of
    concern,” as the region is currently at a “non-attainment” for
    ozone. The objective of the Green Line project is to reduce the
    number of vehicle miles traveled by offering an alternative to
    driving, therefore also reducing the amount of vehicle emissions.

    + Community Path: John Burkhardt of consulting firm Parsons
    Brinckerhoff gave an update on work done to date on coordinating the
    extension of the Somerville Community Path with the Green Line
    project. The current phase of the Green Line project requires
    conceptual designs of the Community Path extension, as well as an
    analysis of the viability and potential impacts of including a
    community path in the Medford Hillside and Mystic Valley Parkway
    station alternatives analysis.

    All of the materials from these three presentations are available on
    the project website, http://www.greenlineextension.org, under Reference
    Materials, Current Materials, Advisory Group Meeting #8.

    PUBLIC COMMENTS

    + Doug Carr of the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA)
    presented two documents in support of a Green Line station at Route
    16. The first was a demographic analysis that showed a Route 16
    station would serve a population of 9,116 and parts of five
    environmental justice neighborhoods within a half-mile radius. These
    constituencies would not be similarly served if extension were to
    terminate at College Avenue. The other document was a citizen
    petition with 2,022 signatures supporting a Route 16 station. The
    documents and petition signatures are available on the MGNA website,
    http://www.medfordgreenline.org.

    + Carolyn Rosen, chairperson of the Green Line Advisory Group for
    Medford (GLAM), submitted a response to VHB’s analysis of its
    request for an alternative proposal study that would extend the
    Green Line to Clarendon Hill, Somerville. GLAM submitted the
    alternative proposal study at the October 2007 Project Advisory
    Group meeting; VHB submitted its analysis, and a recommendation that
    the alternative not be studied further, at the June 2008 Project
    Advisory Group meeting. GLAM questioned the methodology used by VHB,
    asked for more documentation on how it arrived at its
    recommendation, additional analysis, and requested information on
    how it could appeal the VHB decision. GLAM issued several other
    requests to EOT, including documentation of outreach to the
    disability community and environmental justice populations, and a
    comparative analysis of construction costs and environmental impact
    of tunnel boring for the Green Line extension to College Avenue
    versus construction above-ground.

    NEXT MEETING
    + The next Project Advisory Group meeting will take place in
    September, date and location to be determined.

    – Ken Krause
    Project Advisory Group member

    • It would be a very good thing if environmental-justice criteria made a difference in an actual outcome.

  3. With the price of gas, and the congestion inside 128, every line should eventually reach Route 128.  For the most part, 128 is the demarcation between densely populated communities that can avail themselves to mass transit, and the areas where shuttle buses and park & rides would prevail.

    <

    p>The widening of Route 3 from Burlington to NH has created a tremendous conduit for cars with no place to go.  When they reach I-95, they are dumped onto a hyper-congested ring road.

    <

    p>A huge park & ride at the end of the Route 3 freeway would be an effective way to reduce congestion without building more highways.

    <

    p>

    <

    p>Meanwhile, I think the Green Line should extend past Route 16 to the present West Medford location.  It’s a business center that grew up around a rail station.  How can you NIMBY a rail station in a neighborhood that grew up around a rail station?  The trains were here first.

    <

    p>I also find it interesting that some people want to end this thing at Route 16 (walking distance to nothing interesting) because they can’t get the Green Line across the Mystic River – Mystic Valley Parkway bridge.  Over 100 years ago there were people who found ways to construct trolleys across bigger barriers than this.  My motto:  TOGETHER WE CAN!  (I still have the blue bumper sticker.)

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