Two weeks after announcing her decision to sacrifice a bus lane on Boylston Street, Mayor Wu's administration is moving forward with a "30-day review" of safety and transit improvements that have been implemented in the past three years, according to a City Hall memo.
"The goal is to make adjustments to projects that improve functioning of roadways for all users without compromising core safety goals, and to demonstrate how community input shapes post-project followup," according to a memo dated February 21st that multiple sources shared with StreetsblogMASS this week.
The memo goes on to list the City Hall employees who will be involved in the review. The team will be led by Mike Brohel and Stephanie Costa-Leabo from Basic City Services, and the project's "core team" will include Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Deputy Chief for Infrastructure and Design Julia Campbell, Boston Transportation Dept. (BTD) Director of Planning Vineet Gupta, Capital Projects Design Director Lydia Hausle, Director of Engineering Amy Cording, Deputy Chief for Transportation Nick Gove, BTD Director of Operations John Romano, and Streets Cabinet Chief of Staff Sarah Anders.
The memo also says that "street infrastructure changes from the last three years" will be subject to this review process. That timeframe could put the following projects under scrutiny:
- New neighborhood speed humps citywide
- Flexpost-separated bike lanes on Berkeley and Arlington Streets in Back Bay
- Dedicated bus lanes for MBTA Route 39 buses on Huntington Avenue
- The dedicated westbound bus lane on Saint James Avenue in Back Bay, which benefits MBTA routes 9, 39, 501, and 504
- The eastbound protected bike lane on Boylston Street from Mass. Ave. to Arlington St. (pictured at the top of this article)
- The two-way protected bikeway on Dartmouth Street from Commonwealth Ave. to the Charles River Esplanade
- The two-way protected bikeway on southern Mass. Ave. from Melnea Cass Blvd. to Everett Square in Dorchester
- Flexpost-separated bike lanes on North Beacon St and Western Ave. in Allston
Ambiguous public process
According to the city's memo, this group is planning "one-on-one and small group neighborhood meetings (phone calls, in person, etc. – largely people who proactively reach out) led by Mike Brohel, targeting completion by 3/7 (March 7th)."
"All information will flow into a project tracker that PMs (project managers) and engineers will use to review," the memo continues.
At the end of the 30-day review, the team has been directed to consider "alternative plans/proposals we could pivot to."
StreetsblogMASS reached out to Brohel, the Mayor's press office, and the Streets Cabinet to ask how constituents could schedule one of those one-on-one meetings to provide their input, but none of those people responded to multiple queries by phone and by email.
The lack of clarity around how citizens can weigh in – and who, exactly, is being granted access to these meetings – stands in stark contrast to the dozens of meetings, outreach events, and open houses that the city has hosted for other public infrastructure projects.
"Key stakeholders are being excluded from the conversation," said Katie Calandriello, interim Executive Director of TransitMatters, told StreetsblogMASS on Friday. "Advocates who have tirelessly fought for our streets to be reallocated to pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation riders have yet to be called upon by the city, and the MBTA – whose service benefits from bus-priority infrastructure, and who have paid for some of the city's bus lane projects – have yet to be included in a review process."
Proactively reach out, see what happens
If you're a Boston resident who wants to weigh in on the city's new bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and other street safety improvements, you can try taking the Mayor at her word and "proactively reach out" to the review team by emailing Mike Brohel (Michael.Brohel@boston.gov) or calling City Hall (617-635-4500) and asking to be connected to his phone extension.
If you email, add mass.editor@streetsblog.org in the cc field so that we can follow up. We also plan to file public records requests for Brohel's calendar, phone records, and email correspondence to keep track of who's being allowed to participate in the review process, and whether anyone else is being ignored.
This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. Friday to correct John Romano's job title in the third paragraph. Due to the editor's error, a previous version of the story incorrectly identified him as the city's Neighborhood Services Chief of Staff.
