{"id":2685,"date":"2021-11-05T17:25:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T21:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2021-11-05T17:25:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T21:25:34","slug":"comment-letter-on-proposed-massachusetts-legislation-for-automatic-traffic-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/2021\/11\/05\/comment-letter-on-proposed-massachusetts-legislation-for-automatic-traffic-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Comment letter on proposed Massachusetts legislation for automatic traffic enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in October, we submitted a comment letter supporting legislation that has been proposed up on Beacon Hill to allow for automated enforcement of bus lanes and speeding. The relevant bills are S1545<\/a>, H2426<\/a>, and H2494<\/a>. We generally support these efforts and hope our state legislators will move forward with these and other measures to help reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by dangerous driving behavior. If we get any updates on any of these bills, we will publicize them here.<\/p>\n

Our full letter is reproduced below. Please contact your own legislators<\/a> and ask them to lend support as well!<\/p>\n

To:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
Joint Committee on Public Safety & Homeland Security on Traffic Safety<\/strong>
\nMassachusetts State Legislature<\/strong>
\n24 Beacon St,<\/strong>
\nBoston, MA, 02133<\/strong>
\nMonday, October 11, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Chairman Gonz\u00e1lez, Chairman Timilty, and members of the committee<\/p>\n

We write to you today as residents and business owners in Roslindale to\u00a0express our support<\/strong>\u00a0for three bills which will make our roads safer and prevent dangerous driving related deaths:<\/p>\n

An Act relative to automated enforcement S1545, Brownsberger, William N. (SEN)<\/strong>
\nAn Act relative to automated enforcement H2426, Ciccolo, Michelle L. (HOU)<\/strong>
\nAn Act establishing automated bus lane enforcement H2494, Madaro, Adrian C. (HOU)<\/strong><\/p>\n

These acts would allow municipalities to install automated cameras which would issue tickets for violations for speeding, failure to stop at red lights, failure to stop at school bus stop arms, blocking the box, and parking or driving in dedicated bus lanes. This legislation is important to manage dangerous speeding and other anti-social behaviors, while minimizing direct police interaction and traffic stops for these offenses.<\/p>\n

Dedicated Bus Lane Enforcement Cameras<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
In 2018, our neighborhood of Roslindale was chosen as the first Priority Bus Lane Pilot within the City of Boston. The Bus & Bicycle-only Priority Lanes focussed on the inbound and outbound lanes on Washington Street, which runs from the center of Roslindale to the Forest Hills MBTA station – a 1.2 mile corridor which at last count carried around 19,000 bus riders a day and is likely to carry even more as people return from COVID-related remote working and the new bus lanes expedite the trip.<\/p>\n

Data analysis from the in-bound pilot (implemented pre-COVID) showed that travel time for buses was reduced by 25%, or\u00a026 hours<\/strong>\u00a0of passenger time per day. On the basis of these data and an increase in bicyclist safety, the priority lanes were made permanent in 2019.<\/p>\n

However, even now in the third year of the Priority Lanes, this critical improvement\u00a0\u00a0is blocked virtually\u00a0every day<\/strong>\u00a0by stationary vehicles, or by vehicles using the lanes as a shortcut, which interferes with the rapid travel of buses and threatens the safety of bicyclists. Furthermore, along Washington Street\u2019s Priority Bus Lane, there are three proposed condominium building projects, and one proposed marijuana dispensary location. Fulfilling and maintaining the integrity of the Priority Bus Lanes is therefore critical to their continued performance and safety.<\/p>\n

The Boston Transportation and Police Departments have only limited resources that can be spared to solve these issues, therefore the Priority Bus Lane abuse will only worsen, and the value of the Priority Bus Lanes will diminish over time.<\/p>\n

Automated Bus Lane Cameras would quickly free up these departments\u2019 resources and through automated enforcement provide an instant deterrent to these continuing behaviors.<\/p>\n

Automated Bus Lane Cameras should be installed on every MBTA and Regional Transit Authority operated buses and, like school buses, installations would not be limited by a city or town\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

We would also like to note that many dedicated bus lanes also explicitly permit bicycles, the definition of \u201cBus Lane\u201d should be changed to include dedicated bus\/bike lanes.<\/p>\n

Automated Speeding Cameras<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Like many neighborhoods of Boston, Roslindale contains multiple streets which would benefit from dedicated speeding cameras – as is evidenced from the City of Boston\u2019s crash data. This very part of Washington Street is one of them: only one stop light exists between Forest Hills and Roslindale Square. This short 1.2 mile stretch had at least 9 reported motor vehicle crashes in the first 6 months of 2021 (data from Boston Vision Zero).<\/p>\n

The American Legion Corridor of Roslindale is especially afflicted by frequent dangerous driving: in 2020, there were at least 82 reported crashes involving motor vehicles (including 4 pedestrian impacts and 1 bicycle impact; data from Boston Vision Zero). In 2021, the City of Boston reduced vehicle travel lanes in order to control speed: in the first 6 months of 2021 there were still at least 37 reported motor vehicle incidents on American Legion Highway, suggesting the reduction compared to 2020 was modest, and that implementation of Automated Speeding Cameras may be required in combination with restricting travel lanes.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we hope that the use of Automated Speeding Cameras is only a stopgap measure. Safe streets would control speeding and dangerous driving habits through smart street design without the need for automated enforcement. We prefer preventive measures over those which are punitive, but full re-design of our streets is unfortunately many years away, and in the meantime, automated enforcement will save lives and prevent serious injuries.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your time and your careful consideration of our neighborhood\u2019s experiences and recommendations in these matters,<\/p>\n

Yours,<\/p>\n

Adam Shutes
\nResident @ 318 Metropolitan Avenue, Roslindale, on behalf of the WalkUP Roslindale Board of Directors<\/p>\n

Ricardo Austrich, Resident @ 843 South Street, Roslindale
\nBen Bruno, Resident @ 27 Colgate Road #2, Roslindale
\nDevin Cole, Resident @ 169 Orange Street, Roslindale
\nSteve Gag, Resident @ 631 South Street, Roslindale
\nLiz Graham-Meredith, Resident @ 6 Crandall Street, Roslindale
\nSarah Kurpiel Lee, Resident @ 65 Cornell Street, Roslindale
\nMatthew Lawlor, Resident @ 15 Basto Terrace, Roslindale
\nMargaux Leonard, Resident @ 35 Harding Road, Roslindale
\nMandana Moshtaghi, Resident @ 12 Arborough Road, Roslindale
\nRobert Orthman, Resident @ 31 Mendelssohn Street #2, Roslindale
\nKathryn Ostrofsky, Resident @ 74 Birch Street #2, Roslindale
\nRebecca Phillips, Resident @ 10 Tappan Street, Roslindale
\nCourtney Pong, Business Owner, 5 Basile Street, Roslindale
\nAdam Rogoff, Resident @ 28 Ashfield Street, Roslindale
\nAdam Rosi-Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\nRachele Rosi-Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\nLaura Smeaton, Resident @ 61 Cornell Street, Roslindale
\nMark Tedrow, Resident @ 21 Conway Street, Roslindale
\nMarc Theiss, Resident @55 Prospect Avenue, Roslindale
\nGreg Tobin, Resident @ 1 Sheldon Street, Roslindale
\nNick Ward, Resident @ 35 Harding Road, Roslindale
\nAlan Wright, Resident @ 98 Birch Street, Roslindale<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in October, we submitted a comment letter supporting legislation that has been proposed up on Beacon Hill to allow for automated enforcement of bus lanes and speeding. The relevant bills are S1545, H2426, and H2494. We generally support these efforts and hope our state legislators will move forward with these and other measures to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,13],"tags":[543,541,542,545,540,544],"class_list":["post-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-safety","tag-enforcement","tag-h2426","tag-h2494","tag-pending-bills","tag-s1545","tag-state-legislator"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6X5no-Hj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2687,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}