Report On The Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Of February 4

Pedestrian & Bicycle Plan.
The Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) is moving forward and spent much of the first hour of its meeting doing detailed markups of the planned bicycle and pedestrian route map for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan, and will continue next meeting.

West Street & Pomeroy Intersection
Currently a consultant is analyzing options. The TAC will provide feedback to the Council after the consultant’s analysis is complete. TAC members raised important questions: 1) What are the main problems with the current intersection? (The intersection was analyzed previously as part of one of the subcommittee walk reports)
2) What are the current and planned land uses in that area?
3) What’s the future vision for W. Pomeroy as a village center? 

These things should all be considered, in addition to any transportation-specific analyses, in considering the best treatment for the intersection.

Requested And Planned Transportation Projects
A working list was reported to have been posted on the amherstma.gov website. However, it does not appear to be on the TAC page.

State improvements To Route 9
In contrast to state recommendations for shared-use paths on both sides of Route 9, the Town of Hadley has recommended them only on one side only. TAC members were unified in believing pedestrian and bike ways are needed on both sides in order to provide safe and continuous transportation along this corridor. Evidently part of the concern from Hadley is the cost to the Town of snow-plowing the sidewalk. TAC members noted that current snowplowing of the Route 9 roadway on the Amherst end has at times been dumping mountains of snow on the sidewalk, making it impassable. Superintendent of Public Works Guilford Mooring suggested that a complaint to Hadley could raise inter-town friction. Instead, the TAC passed a motion to write a letter to MassDOT with the recommendation to maintain the plan for shared-use paths on both sides of Route 9.

Prioritization Plan
Two subcommittee members planned to confer with the Superintendent of Public Works, the Planning Director, and the Pioneer Valley Planning Committee, to work toward completion of their proposed prioritization system, which can then be passed on – with continued involvement of the Subcommittee – to a consultant to develop a complete streets prioritization plan for the State Complete Streets program.

Whither The TAC And Transportation Governance?
The TAC is still awaiting guidance from the Town manager on possibly revising its Charge. In the meantime, the Town Manager this week asked the TSO whether maintenance of the public way should be handled by Staff rather than come to the Council. This is interesting as the TAC and its predecessor transportation committee (the Public Transportation Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee) have repeatedly called for changes in maintenance schedules, such as paint striping of bike lanes every fall, to make sure they are bright and visible as daytime shortens and bike commuters end up riding more at night, and these recommendations have not generally been implemented by staff.

The next TAC meeting is February 18, 5 PM.