Goal of Monday's CPDC Meeting Is Better Streets For Reading

Ever walked the streets of Reading? How about on a bike? Or a car? If the answer is yes, and it probably is, and you have thoughts on how to improve travel in the town, there's a meeting just for you.

On Monday at 7:30, the Community Planning and Development Commission (CPDC) will review and discuss the Prioritization Plan for Reading crosswalks, sidewalks, and bike lanes at their regularly scheduled meeting in the Selectmen’s Room at Town Hall. Town staff, including the Town Engineer and Community Development Director, will be at the meeting. Your feedback is welcome.

‘Complete Streets’ are defined as: streets that provide safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit and vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities. Complete Streets improvements may be large scale such as corridor-wide or focused on the needs of a single mode.

The Complete Streets Funding Program, authorized by the 2014 Transportation Bond Bill, provides funding to Massachusetts municipalities that adopt policies and practices that promote the implementation of Complete Streets. Reading’s Complete Streets Policy was adopted in 2014 and has been approved by MassDOT; the next step is the development of a Prioritization Plan for projects across a 5-year time horizon.

Town staff have compiled available resources and studies, such as: the Town’s sidewalk update schedule, recommendations from the 2005 Regional Bicycle Transportation Plan and the 2014 Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Priority Plan, and have ranked the projects based on location, existing conditions, feasibility, and whether they accommodate an additional travel mode.

For more information consult the Community Planning and Development Commission webpage: http://www.readingma.gov/community-planning- and-development- commission. Please direct comments or questions to Julie Mercier, Community Development Director: jmercier@ci.reading.ma.us or (781) 942-6648.