Residents Question Details of Hartwell Avenue Transportation Plan

In a third community meeting on proposed plans to mitigate traffic in the Hartwell Avenue and Bedford Street area, community members expressed concerns over forbidding lefthand turns, the safety of modern roundabouts for pedestrians and bikers and how best to incorporate travel for recreational bikers.

The proposed plan seeks to ease traffic in a heavily-traveled area that several thousands of cars per hour pass through during morning and evening rush hours. It is also an area where street lights have received failing ratings for delays and overall funtion, and five intersections have been identified as having higher-than-average collision rates.

Several solutions and alternative plans have been considered until this point, according to Rick Bryant, vice president of Tetra Tech and tranportation consultant for the plan, but currently two options are the front runners: adding and improving traffic signals and adding another lane; or putting in medians, restricting left turns and implementing several modern roundabouts where drivers can reverse direction.

For residents, the devil is the everyday details of life under the new plan.

Alan Linov, who works on Hartwell Avenue just outside the Hanscom gate, said at the meeting that he commutes to work by car half the week and by bike the other half.

"On the days that I do drive and I pass Wood Street, I have noticed about two-thirds of the traffic in the mornings takes a left into Lincoln Labs," he said. "So for those who are turning left there - I looked it up on Google Maps -  it's about two extra miles where you have to stay on Rte. 128, go up Bedford Road and down Hartwell. It would add traffic to Bedford and Hartwell, not to mention the environmental impacts of being in your car for a longer amount of time."

Margaret Counts-Klebe, a Winter Street resident, said she travels on Bedford Street every day and she and her neighbors have a number of concerns about a possible switch from a traffic light to roundabouts without traffic lights.

"If children need to walk from Eldred Street to Bedford Street, if we eliminate the stopped traffic at lights, how do young children get through?" she asked. "My gut reaction is that the Concord rotary is failing, other rotaries are failing, why would we take a situation that's already unsafe and create something that feels unsafe to us? How is this different than the failing rotaries?"

Bryant responded that the proposed roundabout is different than a rotary.

"The inner section is much smaller, and by making it smaller, it slows traffic down," he said. "People move through it more slowly, and if there are accidents, they are not as severe because they are going in the same direction."

Bryant added that the roundabouts are safer for pedestrians, too, since cars are moving slower.

Another concern was the part of the plan to add bike lanes to the road for commuters, which several residents, including Stewart Kennedy, chairman of the Lexington Bicycle Advisory Committee, felt would alienate recreational bikers in the area and cut off the proposed West Lexington Greenway.

"Children and families are not going to want to bike on Hartwell Avenue in a bike lane – they should have a shared path," he said.

Bryant said multi-use paths for pedestrians and bikers were considered, but he had previously heard feedback that putting lanes in the street would be a better solution.

"Our recommendations are not final, which is why we're having these meetings, but what we've heard up to this point was to do sidewalks and bike lanes," he said.

Gregory Zurlo, chairman of the Planning Board, said there are still considerable steps to be taken in terms of plan details and final design.

"In each and every presentation we've heard some good questions and comments from the audience and the process is working well and actually informing and shaping the designs," he said. "It's designed this way to get your input and feedback and give you direct access to the consulting team."

The Planning Board will hold a meeting on the proposed plan on June 16, and there will be an official public hearing on the final draft of the plan on the evening of June 23.