Brookline Transport Board Endorses Chestnut Hill Ave. Redesign With Protected Bikeway
This story originally appeared on Brookline.News, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing comprehensive local news coverage for Brookline.
The Brookline Transportation Board voted last week to redesign Chestnut Hill Avenue with a new protected bikeway in a two-way cycle track and 65 new parallel parking spaces.
The avenue, which serves as a major connector between Cleveland Circle and Route 9, has been the subject of heated debate for almost 18 months, as neighbors of the project opposed the addition of bike lanes because of the removal of curb access for parking and deliveries.
The board’s unanimous vote marks a major milestone, although it may not be the final step – the Select Board, the town’s elected executive branch, will have to consider the redesign if anyone appeals.
Funding for the project is mostly included in the town’s budget for this fiscal year, and construction is likely to begin in the spring, according to Transportation Board Chair Brian Kane.
“It feels good to get it done,” Kane said, although he said he wished the process for making safety improvements did not take so long in Brookline. “We want to make the town’s roads safer for everybody, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The plan
The design put together by Apex Companies includes a two-way protected bike lane, sometimes called a cycle track, along the entire western curb of the avenue.
Some of the cycle track will be shielded from traffic by new parking spots, while other portions will be protected by intermittent precast concrete curbs and “flexible delineator” posts, like what is on place on Harvard Street near Coolidge Corner.
The consultants, board members and bike advocates say the protected lanes will be a major safety upgrade for bicyclists from the existing conditions on Chestnut Hill Avenue, which include narrow shoulders that don’t offer very much of a buffer from fast-moving traffic.
The design was one of three considered by the board; the other two included one-way bike lanes on either side of the street, with various levels of parking and protection for cyclists.
See Apex’s full, updated presentation on Option C here.
The plan will also add new crosswalks and other pedestrian safety improvements.
Kane said there are still details to sort out, including coordinating around bus stops with the MBTA and designing either end of the road in conjunction with the city of Boston in Cleveland Circle and the state, which owns Route 9.
More parking
The 65 new parking spaces will be split up into groups of one to eight parallel spaces. They’ll be on the southbound side from Cleveland Circle to Ackers Avenue, and the northbound side from Ackers to Boylston Street. The spaces are split roughly evenly between each side.
While some drivers currently park on the avenue, the shoulders are narrow and they are often forced to place two wheels on the curb or stay for only brief deliveries. Over the redesign process, the town has said different things about whether parking there is technically legal currently.
Kane said that the existing parking situation is unregulated and a “little bit of a Wild West that didn’t necessarily work.”
“This is going to be much better for all users,” said Kane. “It’s going to make it a lot clearer where folks can or cannot park.”
Critics of the redesign have repeatedly pointed to the loss of curb access as a major point of criticism.
“I think that the key to all of this is to preserve the distinction that curbside access is important to everyone, not just bicyclists,” said John VanScoyoc, a former Select Board member who has been critical of the redesign.
“The plans in front of you … do not honor the principle of sharing curbside access. Instead, they create a principle, which could be very consequential for other streets in Brookline, of allowing bicyclists exclusive access to the curbs where there are bike lanes,” VanScoyoc told the Transportation Board. .
Toby Sillman, a Brookline High School alumnus and bike advocate, argued that the design “manages to do the impossible” of both providing parking and fully protected bike lanes.
“It just really shows that this isn’t a zero sum game,” he said.
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