Letter: Expensive Consultants Are Not Needed to Create a Multimodal Redesign of South East Street

Thanks to Maura Keene and the Indy for covering the deliberations on possible changes to traffic flow on South East Street and for keeping a focus on ways we can use the incredible opportunity that the new Fort River Elementary School and the addition of several new low and mixed-income housing developments to the neighborhood presents to envision a multi-modal future for Amherst that prioritizes the safety of children and those with limited mobility, and encourages walking, bicycling, and rolling throughout our community.

I have previously submitted to the Town Council designs for South East Street that add American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant sidewalks that allow for safe access and travel to housing, shopping, dining, and the Fort River Elementary School; construct dedicated and separated bike lanes; and revitalize the South East Street Common to provide a green space for all members of our community. Since that initial submission, I have been working with the Amherst Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Disability Access Advisory Committee (DAAC) to address concerns both of committees had and hope to share the updated plans shortly.

I am not an engineer, but I think it’s scandalous that our town is considering paying consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together plans that focus only on reducing motor vehicle congestion while we can barely fund repairs to our schools and pay our teachers. If we take a multi-modal approach, however, there are many funding opportunities from the State including the Complete Streets Funding Program  and the Safe Routes to School Program  that we can use to make improvements to South East Street while also meeting our environmental, justice, and equity goals.

Unfortunately, Amherst is ineligible for all of these funds currently because the Town Council failed to adopt the 2019 Amherst Bicycle & Pedestrian Network Plan  and as a community we have failed to provide either a Tier 2 or Tier 3 Complete Streets plan to MassDOT. 

Please, everyone, contact your Town Council Members at  https://www.amherstma.gov/councilcomments and tell them to instruct the Town Manager to devote staff time to update the Amherst Bicycle & Pedestrian plan so that it can be adopted this year, and to create a Complete Streets Tier 2 Prioritization Plan and a Tier 3 Construction Application to MassDOT. Let’s be proactive as a community, take a multi-modal approach and seek funding from the State for these improvements, and use the cost savings from the Fort River Elementary School construction to fix our schools and retain our teachers rather than to pay consultants.

Jeremy Andersen

Jeremy Andersen is a resident of Amherst’s District 2.