Letter to the Editor: Traffic at McLean

To the Editor;

On June 26, Belmont Town Meeting approved the amended Traffic Monitoring and Mitigation Agreement between Belmont and McLean Hospital. Part of the agreement is to improve the intersection of McLean Drive and Mill Street. The plan is to install adaptive traffic signals at the intersection that use a camera and software to control the lights based on what is needed on a moment-by-moment basis.

In 2017, a high school student who needed community service credits and I spent the summer counting cars to estimate the cut-through traffic in Belmont during the morning rush. We did good work. I claim that I am an expert on Belmont traffic.

My intuition is that if McLean land could be used for the McLean Drive and Mill Street intersection, traffic flow could be improved more than adaptive lights alone could do.

Attached are two sketches of what might be done with more land—that is, more McLean real estate—to improve traffic flow. The sketches show how much land might work.

If McLean has no interest in using McLean land for such improvements, then I am finished with this project. If McLean has possible interest in using McLean land for traffic flow improvements, then we should meet at the intersection and talk briefly.

If there is some interest in seeing if my intuition is appropriate, I will recruit a high school student and we will take data by video filming an hour or so of intersection traffic during rush hour. Then the student and I will evaluate what works. If we are confident in our analysis and can convince both Belmont and McLean that using McLean land has merit, then we can make further decisions.

The Belmont Select Board and Town Engineer Glenn Clancy are aware of my interest in improving traffic flow at the intersection. Glenn Clancy can affirm that I can legitimately claim to be an amateur expert in Belmont traffic.

Sumner Brown is a director of the Belmont Citizens Forum and  a Town Meeting member.