Winthrop Transportation Advisory Committee TAC Recommendations for Winthrop

Winthrop Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC): Recommendations for Winthrop Bike Improvements Town Council Meeting June 4 th, 2019

Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) Agenda in Brief • Background/Overview on Research • Winthrop Community Bike Survey Results • Recommendations for Winthrop Bike Improvements (Phase 1) • Road Safety Research & Recommendations

Resources to Guide our Recommendations

Bike Improvements Considered • Shared Use Paths: Off-road pathways physically separated from traffic and designated for shared use with pedestrians. Such paths may have separate areas for bikes and pedestrians. • Protected Bicycle Lane/ Cycle Track: A bike lane that is physically separated from vehicle lanes and sidewalks by fixed objects, curbing, bollards, or flex posts. • Bicycle Lane: An on-road lane designated for exclusive use by bicycles through pavement markings and signs. • Buffered Bicycle Lane: A Bicycle lane with an additional painted buffer area that provides additional separation from cars • Contraflow Bicycle Lane: Bicycle lanes installed on a one-way street that allow for bike travel in both directions. • Shared Lanes: Shared bicycle and motor vehicle travel lanes denoted by pavements markings (“Sharrows”) and signs

Street Considerations for Bike Improvements • Desirable curbside bike lane width = 6 feet (minimum 3 -4 feet) • At least 38 feet of street width is required for bike lanes. • Most arterial streets in Winthrop are 34 -36 feet wide and cannot safely accommodate a bike lane. • Research has shown that narrower lane widths can effectively manage speeds without decreasing safety, and that wider lanes do not correlate to safer streets. To this end, Winthrop’s mostly narrow streets can be made safer for biking primarily through the use of signage, pavement markings and traffic calming (overall efforts to slow driving speeds). • Bike lanes themselves are only one small part of creating a successful, robust Winthrop Bike Network.

Winthrop Bike Improvements: A Phased Approach PHASE 1 1) Main St - Pauline St - Walden St 2) Veterans Rd - Shirley St - Lewis Lake 3) River Rd- Cross St- Main St

PHASE 1: Winthrop Bike Improvements: Main St - Pauline St - Walden St

PHASE 1: Winthrop Bike Improvements Veterans Rd - Shirley St - Lewis Lake

PHASE 1: Winthrop Bike Improvements River Rd- Cross St- Main St

Complete Streets Prioritization Plan 2017

Winthrop Community Bike Survey • Conducted in person and online (email, social media) between 4/30 -5/30 in partnership with Bike Winthrop • 6 questions • 200 responses • 64 comments

Winthrop Community Bike Survey: Key Findings - 69% of respondents currently bike in Winthrop - 44% of people who do not bike cite safety concerns at top reason for not biking - 62% of all respondents would bike or would bike more often if they felt more safe - 80% of respondents support efforts to improve streets and intersections for bike safety

General Comments/Feedback We need to make our streets safer for pedestrians before we worry about bikes. Especially streets in front of schools. Cycling needs to be the best option. Complete Streets, and bike lanes are important. So is covered, secure storage. Who’s going to risk their expensive cycle getting stripped, stolen or damaged in storage areas that are afterthoughts? Anything to make bicycling safer in Winthrop is a positive thing, thank you! I would bike more but there’s no bike lanes in town. I want to see more bike lanes and possibly a bike path. I applaud this initiative and given it is such a lovely coastal town with pretty scenery and a friendly community. Biking is a heap of fun! I would love to see more bike lanes. There are many streets that are wide enough to implement them. I would love to see a bike path connecting the Belle Isle Marsh boardwalk to the East Boston bike path. Make improvements soon please. It’s dangerous out there. Too much speeding Safety is the biggest issue. As I noted in my editorial last year there is quite a glaring contrast between the measures found in Boston and other surrounding towns (bike lanes, signs, etc. ) and Winthrop which has nothing. And people should be thankful for bike riders because for every person on a bike that is one less car on the road to create traffic and pollution. It would be nice if there were clear bike lanes or share the road signs for awareness of bikers. Now that we have the Lime Bike program, I think more people would use the bikes if they felt safer.

Complete Streets Implementation The Town Council approved a Complete Streets policy in March 2017 but has yet to pursue the Best Practices and Implementation sections of that policy, such as the creation of a Designated Complete Streets Committee (or department) to prepare annual reporting on the progress of the policy to the Town Manager. TAC would like to participate in planning and make recommendations which… • Continue to improve the accessibility and safety of our streets and intersections in accordance with the existing town policy • Incorporate Complete Streets guidelines as part of the process for planned and future improvements.

Additional Recommendations: Greenway Expansion The East Boston Greenway is an enormous asset to our region and provides both transportation and recreational opportunities to residents and visitors of East Boston. Currently it stops just short of reaching Winthrop, but there are opportunities to expand it in a way that would make it possible to safely walk or bike to the Orient Heights T station from Winthrop without encountering on street traffic. • • Support efforts to extend the East Boston Greenway beyond its current terminus at Constitution Beach to Orient Heights and in to Winthrop by way of the Belle Isle Marsh trail (behind CVS) and potentially the old “boat yard”. BUDGET AMENDMENT details: It appears that money will be provided in the State Budget to study the initial portion of an extension to Winthrop.

Future Projects to Consider - East Boston Greenway Connection via New Belle Isle Bridge to Morton Street - Reconstruction of Pleasant and Main intersection with improvements continuing to Shirley (potential Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) project) - Add secure bike parking facilities at all commercial centers

Future Projects to Consider

Thank you Julia Wallerce, Chair Christopher Aiello Charles Southworth Jerome Falbo Benjamin Schad