Belmont Traffic Committee Chair Tells All

By Sumner Brown

Dana Miller chairs Belmont’s Transportation Advisory Committee. She has been a member of the Traffic Advisory Committee, the predecessor to the Transportation Advisory Committe (TAC), since 2009. I talked with Miller in November 2020.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

BCF

The name of your committee changed from Traffic Advisory Committee to Transportation Advisory Committee. Why?

Miller

The Select Board changed the committee name in 2019 to make clear that the committee’s responsibilities encompass safety for pedestrians and those on bicycles, as well as those traveling in vehicles.

BCF

Who are the members of TAC? Do they have transportation credentials?

Miller

We are eight Belmont residents. We are volunteers. We are not transportation professionals. We represent Belmont residents in discussions with town staff experts, including Glenn Clancy, our town engineer and the director of community development; Jay Marcotte, director of public works; representatives from the police and the fire departments; and any transportation and/or traffic consultants that the town engages for our initiatives. The town staff and consultants bring to our efforts their expertise in engineering, state regulations, and law as these relate to our work.

Some committee members have particular interests. Jessie Bennett, committee vice chair, has worked with the Safe Routes to School program and is very intuitive about the challenges facing pedestrians. Because of his long service in the Belmont Police Department as a crossing guard and in parking enforcement, Larry MacDonald—who has in the past served in every officer position on the committee—brings a wealth of knowledge about Belmont pedestrian and vehicle behavior and Belmont road design. The TAC also has a few committee members who are very attentive to the bicycle experience in Belmont.

Beyond that, the committee also has members who, at almost every meeting, raise important issues and perspectives that might otherwise go unexplored.

I have a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard and worked on public health and welfare issues. My work involved making recommendations to the administration and Congress about ways the government could improve the programs that it funds and/or oversees.

BCF

If someone thinks his or her neighborhood might benefit from TAC help to relieve heavy cut-through traffic, what should the person do?

Miller

If people are interested in exploring how TAC might help with cut-through traffic or speeding in their neighborhood, they should first read Belmont’s traffic calming policy to learn how the town approaches traffic calming.

They should then consult with their neighbors to discuss the neighbors’ perceptions of the traffic and the neighbors’ ideas about ways in which the traffic might possibly be improved. The neighbors should work together to submit to the town engineer a completed traffic-calming request form, which can be found at the end of the policy document.

The town engineer will review the request, and if the request falls within the boundaries of the policy, the town engineer will order a preliminary traffic study and then present the study results to the TAC during a public hearing to which the neighbors will be invited. The TAC and the neighbors will discuss the problems documented by the traffic study and the pros and cons of possible traffic-calming improvements that could be considered.

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Measuring Traffic

In engineering, measuring is important. You can’t hope to improve something if you cannot measure it. To measure traffic, count it.

Data for the graph below came from hand counting done by Sumner Brown with a clipboard, pencil, paper, and watch. These data show that traffic on Rutledge Road has gone down during the COVID-19 epidemic. The traffic measured for this graph is judged to be mostly cut-through because it was turning right at the western end of Rutledge Road to leave Belmont during the evening rush. While we have enjoyed lighter traffic, our traffic mitigation efforts have been halted because we can not measure the effect of cut-through traffic while traffic is abnormally light.

To assess cut-through traffic, Belmont measures traffic with technology in a box. The box is attached to thin tubes that sense tires rolling over them. A box can sit beside a road for days measuring vehicle speeds and counting traffic in two directions. If peak traffic for any one hour exceeds 10% of average daily traffic per hour, the town considers that cut-through traffic bad enough to merit mitigation. The town also measures traffic post-mitigation to see if traffic counts were actually reduced.

 

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BCF

Why is it important for neighborhoods to approach the TAC as a group?

Miller

Because the TAC wants to minimize the possibility of unintended negative consequences of roadway changes, it proceeds cautiously and incrementally.

When neighbors are unanimous in their support for a change that is consistent with good engineering practices and allowed by the state law and guidance, then the TAC can recommend this change for the Select Board’s approval. When neighbors are in disagreement about the definition of the problem or an acceptable course of action to remedy a documented problem, then the TAC may be inclined to defer deliberation until the neighbors have reached an understanding among themselves.

BCF

So any change made to calm or mitigate traffic is likely to inconvenience or annoy some neighbors.

Miller

Exactly.

BCF

How many neighborhood groups have approached the TAC for help?

Miller

Currently there are seven outstanding requests for assistance. All are awaiting traffic counts, except for a request related to Winter Street/Concord Avenue and Mill Street/Concord Avenue, which will be addressed through a formal design process.

BCF

What measures for traffic calming and mitigation have they proposed?

Miller

Motor-vehicle traffic has been increasing in Belmont for many years. People are concerned that this cut-through traffic is traveling at unsafe speeds, above the legal speed limit.

Most people want to limit this cut-through traffic without inconveniencing themselves, but there are usually tradeoffs to be made when considering traffic-calming measures. Because we cannot implement traffic restrictions that exempt local residents, when we restrict movement onto a road, for instance, this affects all drivers, including the residents of that road. Residents should weigh the net benefit of the possible traffic-calming changes by considering both the possible inconvenience to neighborhood residents of such traffic restrictions and the possible improvements—in pedestrian and bicyclist safety, the residents’ ability to enter and exit their driveways, and quality of life more generally—that might result from diminished traffic speed and volume.

People tend to focus on the problems on their own street and don’t always consider the possible effects that changes to their street might have on other streets.

People tend to focus on the problems on their own street and don’t always consider the possible effects that changes to their street might have on other streets. That is one reason that we have a town-wide Transportation Advisory Committee which is charged with considering the implications of proposed changes to our streets for all residents, in all neighborhoods.

Residents sometimes request signage to restrict turns onto their streets. Some request that parking be limited on the street. Some people have asked that the town post lower speed limits or install stop signs, but such changes cannot be made at the town’s discretion. The use of speed limits and stop signs is governed by state regulation and law.

The town’s approach to finding traffic-calming solutions involves triangulating between the neighbors’ interests, good engineering practice that is consistent with state and federal laws and guidelines, and Belmont’s budgetary constraints.

BCF

How about signs saying, “local traffic only,” or “Belmont residents only”?

Miller

It is illegal to restrict traffic on public roads to residents only. Even if it were legal, it would be impractical. For example, most homes are visited by friends and family from elsewhere, and delivery and service trucks must access the homes.

BCF

During this pandemic I have noticed a lot of cars with loud exhaust being driven hard. This raises the question of speed bumps, speed humps, and speed tables. Are those possible?

Miller

The town has had mixed results with speed tables and has removed at least two after their installation. One speed table caused intolerable disruption for the neighbors because of the vibration and noise associated with cars and trucks moving over the speed tables.

The other speed table caused confusion for pedestrians and drivers moving toward the path of cars that had slowed in their approach to the speed table. Pedestrians and other drivers wondered if the cars slowing in approach to the speed table did so to allow the pedestrians and other drivers to cross the cars’ path safely, or if the cars were slowing only to traverse the speed table.

With increasing budgetary constraints, the town focuses on traffic-calming measures that are most cost-effective. Signage and road markings are less costly to install and maintain than are three-dimensional road elements like speed tables which require annual maintenance because of the wear to the speed tables that is inevitable with use.

BCF

What is traffic calming?

Miller

Drivers adapt to different roadway configurations by driving at different speeds and with different levels of  attentiveness. Traffic calming uses the perceived physical characteristics of the roadway to reduce the speed that feels comfortable for motorists. While traffic calming is not intended to reduce the volume of traffic, it can have that effect when implemented on local streets subject to speeding or cut-through traffic.

The Massachusetts Highway Department divides traffic calming into three categories.

1. Narrowing the real or apparent width of the street, including

• pavement cross-section features such as on-street parking, spot narrowing, bike lanes, travel lane width reduction, medians, islands, and road diets;
• placement along the street of buildings, trees, signage, and street furniture (e.g., lights, benches, bike racks, bus shelters);
• pavement edge treatments such as raised curbs, neck downs, chokers, and bump-outs.

2. Deflecting (introducing curvature to) the vehicle path, including:

• mid-block deflection measures such as chicanes, lane offsets, short medians, crossing islands and mini-traffic circles;
• intersection measures such as roundabouts, traffic circles, curb bump-outs, lane offsets, crossing islands, and neck downs.

3. Altering the vertical profile of the vehicle path, including:

• speed tables;
• raised crosswalks and intersections;
• textured pavement (such as pavers and stamped concrete).

  Signage limiting access to roads—such as “no-left-turn” and “do-not-enter” signs, and signage that limits travel to a single direction such as “one-way” signs—can be used at the town’s discretion.

Residential streets that are relatively wide, straight, and flat, and are accessed with wide openings from major conduits can seem inviting to drivers and can feel safe for travel speeds above the posted limit. Altering the path of the street by, for instance, tightening the turning radius onto the street so that the driver must make a 90-degree turn, will result in slower driver speeds and sometimes reduced traffic volume on the street.

While the town budget doesn’t generally allow for three-dimensional traffic-calming measures such as neck downs, bump-outs, speed tables, or raised curbs, when larger projects with state funding allow, the town can sometimes offer residents such improvements as part of the larger projects to help mitigate traffic problems on the streets.

BCF

At the October 19, 2020, Select Board meeting, the Board approved the TAC recommendations for traffic mitigation for Rutledge Road and Village Hill Road. Congratulations! The measures suggested and approved are the simplest, least expensive measures imaginable: new signs, for example, “DO NOT ENTER, 8 TO 9 AM.” As an  engineer, this approach makes perfect sense to me. Try simple things first.

When will you know if the signs work?

Miller

To determine the effects of our traffic-calming efforts, we would normally measure traffic approximately three months after implementing changes. COVID-19 has significantly reduced traffic, however, and any studies conducted in the short term might not reflect the effects of our traffic-calming effort as much as the effects of the business and school closings related to COVID-19.

When traffic increases again, we will take measurements on Rutledge Road to determine the effects of our efforts to mitigate the cut-through traffic on that street. We invite residents to communicate with the committee and the town engineer about their experience of the traffic calming measures that are implemented. If neighbors have concerns, follow-up hearings can be scheduled and additional changes can be considered.

Often, the initial traffic-calming change yields an improvement in the volume and speed of traffic on the street. Sometimes we need to consider additional changes. The committee doesn’t view its work as a once-and-done effort, but as an ongoing dialogue with residents.

Sumner Brown is a director of the Belmont Citizens Forum