 My name is Daniel Amstutz. I'm the Senior Transportation Planner for the town of Arlington with the Department of Planning and Community Development. I'm here with folks from Killton Associates, which is the consultants that we've hired to help us work on this project, the Land Event Bikeway Planning Project. So this is our first official public meeting presentation about this project and we're going to learn a lot about it tonight. And if we can go to the next slide. Thank you. So here's our agenda for tonight. We'll do, I will let Kittleson introduce themselves in a couple of minutes when we get to their slides over a very brief background about this project and how we got here. Kittleson and folks staff are going to go over some initial findings about that. We'll talk about some next steps and then there'll be some Q&A and the idea is that we'll have some breakout groups here. We had quite a few people that are registered for this meeting and so if we get over a certain number of people it'll be able to do the breakouts but we'll see when we get there. I hope we'll be able to do them because I think that'll be a really good part of the session and the idea is that after those breakout groups we'll report back. So in the next slide I think we've got some general ground rules. So this is a Zoom meeting. This is being recorded. It will be rebroadcast or plan to be rebroadcast and put on the YouTube page for ACMI which is the Arlington Community Media Inc. Everyone is muted. Please keep yourself muted during the presentation. We'll have the opportunity of course to have some Q&A and then the breakout groups like I mentioned where you'll be able to unmute yourselves. When we get to that point, if you feel comfortable, put the camera on so that we can see you and have this chat conversation. That would be fine. We have the chat open but it's really just for asking questions of the host and the presenters. So not for asking other people questions or having exciting conversations and here's some information about the mute and unmute buttons. They should be on the lower left corner of the Zoom screen or if you've got a toolbar you can raise your hand. They sort of move things around. It should be now under reactions that you can raise your hand and that's sort of the method that we can use for the Q&A and if you are calling in by phone you can R9 for muting and unmuting and R6 to raise your hand. So on to the next slide. So I'll give just two minutes or so of a brief back. This part of the Minimum Bikeway, so we know the Minimum Bikeway is about 10 miles long. It goes from Cambridge to Bedford and also through Lexington. But in 1993 it was built in the Arlington area. We had our 25th anniversary just a few years ago and it runs 3.6 miles through Arlington, Massachusetts. And it's a really critical non-motorized travel corridor. It runs over an old railroad bed, as you can see on the right side, a picture of the Team Locomotive in the Lexington Center Depot back in the 1950s. It's become a really, really critical, important benefit for the town. It connects people to public transportation, schools, parks, commercial centers and other trails, whether in Cambridge or in other places, Bedford, Lexington and other towns and cities. Like I mentioned, Cambridge and then, you know, from then on you can go on to Boston or get on to Somerville or some other areas if you're going into the big city. So it's really important it's it so it connects to many destiny for people to walk and bike and use other other means other than driving. And so it's a really mature kind of shared use path. We call it a bike way, but it is really used by very large number of different people using different means of wheeling or walking. And we really decided or thought that after this time that it really really really need to understand better how to keep the past safe and accessible to all and plan for future investments. As we know that there are a lot of people that use a path that's been growing. It was before the pandemic growing in popularity, but it's still retained quite a lot of its usage over the last year, year and a half. The last thing I want to say I do want to recognize that this project is also funded through Community Preservation Act funds. So this is a CPA funded project. So we want to acknowledge the committee and also the town meeting for helping us get this project going. So on to the next slide. And at this point, I'm going to hand it over to Liz Flanagan from Kittleson and Associates and she introduced everyone and move on to the rest of the presentation. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. So my name is Elizabeth Flanagan. I'm a transportation planner with Kittleson and Associates. And I am joined tonight by some of my colleagues. Some of the people who have facilitator in front of their name and will be helping with the breakout groups later. So Connor Semler, Megan Morrow and Caitlin Milner. And then as well, we are being supported on this project by our partners at GPI. So this map, just an overview of what Daniel was just talking about, that we're focused on the portion of the Minuteman Greenway that's within Arlington, so that 3.6 miles extending from just north of a wife station all the way to Lexington, which is just north and west of Drake Street. And the purpose of this project, the Minuteman bikeway is incredibly popular, but it is to some extent a victim of its own success in in the sense of how many people are using it and some maintenance issues. And so while it is extremely important for commuters and people running errands and as a recreational destination in and of itself, we want to also work to identify opportunities to improve safety, comfort, access and user experience throughout the corridor. And we'll be developing an action plan for pursuing site specific improvements, as well as thinking about programmatic strategies for ongoing success. In terms of the timeline for this project, we're currently in the existing conditions and outreach phase. So that's the first part that you see from September to November. We are currently doing a survey, which we'll talk more about in a little bit. And then as we move into December, we'll be taking all of the feedback that we receive through this community meeting as well as through that survey, synthesizing that and then drafting a vision for the bikeway. So a community driven vision for what the bikeway should be in the future. And with that, we'll be developing goals and priorities to help support that vision. Once we get into the spring, we'll be developing recommendations. Those are policy corridor wide and site specific recommendations. And then lastly, as we get into April and May, we'll be putting that all together into an action plan to help the town implement the recommendations. So what we're currently working on, really just gathering background documents and reviewing them, we've conducted a couple site visits and done data collection. And as I said, we're in the existing conditions phase, we're analyzing the existing conditions, identifying issues and opportunities. And then lastly, we've been distributing a survey you may have seen us on the path a couple weeks ago out there in person handing out surveys. And that survey will be open until November 15. So if you have not had a chance to fill it out yet, we really encourage you to do so you can either scan the QR code that's here, or we will be we will be providing the link later on at the end of the presentation, we'll have that hyperlink for you so you can access it. And the it says 899 responses to date, I actually checked this morning, and we are over 1000. So that's very exciting. And we look forward to hearing from the rest of you if you haven't already filled it out. So diving into the initial findings, what we're presenting tonight will just be a first look at the emerging themes and patterns that are helping us identify specific challenges that are being faced by the Minuteman, and then the opportunities for improvement. So these are the focus areas that have come to our attention to really look into. So the first is crowding and speed disparities. We know that the Minuteman is is very popular there's lots of people on it at any given time. But these people all have different priorities, they're traveling for different purposes, and they have different needs and different speeds. So really a wide range of ages and abilities, as well as modes. And with that, we're seeing increasingly issues of speed disparity between these different user types come to the forefront. In terms of wayfinding, consistent, consistent signing. I also want to use this opportunity to kind of define some of the terms that are going to keep coming up in this presentation. So wayfinding is really any sort of signage that helps people navigate. And so that could be along the bikeway itself, or it could be helping people identify how to get to local destinations, and vice versa, helping people who are maybe in the town centers, understand that the bikeway is nearby and how to access that. And then we'll also be looking at signage in terms of regulatory and warning signs, and think that dictate how people use the path. Visibility on maintenance, we'll be looking at tangible maintenance. So the things that are currently issues that could be vegetation, it could be paving, so we'll be looking at those. And then we'll also be thinking about maintenance as a as a plan programmatically, so that the town can anticipate and address issues moving into the future. Visibility is a key issue. And this includes visibility of the path itself. So that could be at night, helping path users see the path and see any hazards or lumps and bumps that might be in the way. But it also means site distance, so site distance at curves, access points and roadway crossings. We'll be looking at opportunities to activate the path and support a consistent path identity. And this means creating consistency along the bikeway, in terms of infrastructure and design, as well as the look and feel of the place, and making it so that there's activity and areas of interest all along the corridor. For safety and ADA compliance and access points, this is a really important focus area. And access points are anywhere that someone can enter or leave the path that is not at a roadway crossing. And then lastly, we'll be looking at safety and consistency at roadway crossings themselves. So as we've said, the Minimum Bikeway is extremely popular and there's people walking, biking, running, but there's also people rollerblading, skateboarding, there's people in wheelchairs or using other mobility aids, people with toddlers, people with dogs. So really that wide range of users and user priorities. And one thing that we've noticed, and you can see in the bottom right photo, we've highlighted where adjacent to the path itself, the path has kind of organically expanded to accommodate some of this capacity need. In this case, it's kind of a goat path running next to the Minuteman itself. On average, the Minuteman Bikeway can see 2,600 users a day. And these counts were taken just south of Swan Place, there's a permanent eco counter there. So getting data every single day. This data is from pre pandemic. And this was mentioned a little bit earlier that before the pandemic counts were going up. And then when the pandemic hit, the use has gone down a bit. And that's kind of a nuanced situation, because people are commuting less. But people are also resorting to outdoor recreation much more as a means to just get out of the house, have a place to meet up with others. On the flip side of that, it means that when the Minuteman gets crowded, it can discourage people from using it, just due to concerns about COVID 19. One thing that we've noticed is that the bike and pedestrian volumes are not that different throughout the year on average. But it's worth noting that bike volumes tend to be much higher in the warmer months, and then they dramatically drop down, whereas pedestrian volumes are really much more consistent throughout the whole year. So thinking about access points, again, these are those places where people can get to the bikeway or leave the bikeway that aren't roadway crossings. What we're seeing is that these access points are often subtle and lack wayfinding. And we're also looking at the frequency and distribution of access points, and whether there are opportunities to maybe increase the permeability of the bikeway with neighborhood streets that are about it. Something that we're seeing is limited site distances at access points. And this is problematic from a safety and comfort standpoint, because people might be entering the path, and they aren't path users who are on the bikeway aren't able to see and recognize and react to that person entering appropriately. With that, we're also looking at user expectations. So really establishing a set of expectations for what you do when you enter the path and when you leave, much in the same way that you would when you're on the roadway network, there's kind of that inherent set of expectations for who yields to who. Glope and erosion are issues that we see at some access points, as well as ADA accessibility challenges. And this map is just summarizing the access points along the bikeway. There are quite a few, but you can see that they're not necessarily evenly distributed throughout the bikeway. We recorded these points, the color coding associates to kind of a category of primary issues at the access points. The most common issue that we're seeing is obstructed sight lines at access points. And typically, this is due to vegetation overgrowth, but it can also be caused by the path alignment itself. There's a number of different signs that are on the bikeway. Some of them are informational, something like a kiosk that you can see on the bottom left or educational sign. There are gateways that let you know that you're entering the bikeway. There's a way finding which might be either on the bikeway itself or on an adjacent road to let you know how to get to the bikeway. And then there's regulatory and warning signs and path use signs, which help communicate how users should interact with one another and kind of set the etiquette for the path. And what we're seeing is that there's inconsistent application and design of signs. So you might not run into the same sign at every instance of the same situation, or you might run into different signs trying to communicate the same point, but in a different way. And so that can be confusing to path users. There is a lack of way finding between the path, the street network and local destinations. So we'll be looking at opportunities to really tie things together and just make it a more logical and navigable system. And then there's also varying path use guidance. So again, that goes back to the path etiquette. How are people supposed to use the path and how are they supposed to interact with one another? For maintenance, these are the four kind of main categories that we're seeing issues with. In terms of paving, there's a couple of different things that typically happen. You can have crack stealing, and that creates a bumpy ride for path users. You can also have more dramatic heaves, just when either the asphalt settles or you have a root underneath and it creates kind of a dramatic bump in the pavement. Just definitely something that we want to look out for. Transitions are another area that we're looking at. One example would be the bridge that is next to Yates Pond. So just north of Aleway Station, there's a timber bridge. And at either end of that bridge, the pavement transition is a challenging one. For vegetation, we're seeing overgrowth, sometimes encroaching on the path. In the bottom photo here, you can see that kind of tunneling effect of all the overgrowth. And it can be really nice, but it does reach a point where the overgrowth is inhibiting the lateral and vertical clearance of the path itself. And then overgrowth can also block sight lines, views and lighting. And another thing that has come to our attention is just the presence of invasive plants. Drainage throughout the corridor is fairly sparse. There's only about six catch basin structures along the corridor. And we do see some standing water and possibility issues near Lowell Street. And then lastly, there are a number of bridges along the bikeway. Generally speaking, these are substandard in terms of width to meet today's standards for a shared use path. But more specifically, the bridge again at Yates Pond, which is a timber bridge, has worn decking and rails. So that's something that we're looking at. We do want to raise two key challenges that are related to maintenance, but also really everything else that we're looking at. The first is that the MBTA owns and maintains the right of way outside of the immediate bikeway alignment. And so that's important to keep in mind. The other thing, we've put maintaining ADA compliant access points. So the transitions between access points and the adjacent either roadway or facility, something that we'll just have to be keeping in mind is jurisdiction and right of way, whether that's access points that are entering into MBTA right of way, or sometimes a private way, which is a residential, a residential street, but abuts the bikeway. For lighting, some of the key challenges that we're seeing are that street lighting is found at the Acre crossings, which are primarily in the southeast portion of the bikeway. But there's a lack of lighting at most access points. There is sporadic light spillage from a budding properties, which helps light the path, helps light the path a bit, but is not as effective during the summer months when the trees have foliage. And this map just summarizes the light propensity along the bikeway so that you can really see the areas where lighting is limited. The only area where there's dense lighting is at the Mass Ave crossing. And then we see sparse lighting in other locations. And then minimally lit segments, which are outlined in red. And that can make it really challenging for path users who want to take advantage of the bikeway year round. Other things that we've noticed are that the path currently does not engage the landscape it passes through. When we're thinking about way sides, we're thinking about opportunities to create kind of trailheads and places for people to sit, to rest, to regroup, maybe pull over and connect with the people that they're riding with. And it also can mean amenities and creating that consistent look and feel throughout the bikeway. There is public art on the bikeway, again, mostly to the southeast of the corridor. And there may be opportunities to incorporate more public art potentially through some partnerships. And we've been identifying some potential areas where public art could be incorporated. And then lastly, we'll be looking at roadway crossings. These are the locations where path users come into conflict with vehicles and where crashes are more likely to occur. Crossings are also really important because they're where path users can access the path if they're not near an off street access point. The key challenges that we're seeing are that there's varied stop control. So at an accurate crossing, you might have a stop control. You might have a yield control with an RFP, so one of those flashing beacons, or a signal. And there's also varied pavement marking application. So thinking about how we can make that more consistent, more safe and more predictable. Sightlines are also a challenge, just having it so that path users and vehicles can see each other approaching and then react appropriately. And then ADA compliance will be something that we're considering at every crossing. These are the focus crossing locations that we'll be looking at in greater detail. I do want to note that Lake Street and Swamplace, the Swamplace Mass Ave, Mystic Ave intersection or crossing, those were recently reconstructed. And so we'll be looking at opportunities to iterate on those designs and make some tweaks to make them even better. The other locations that we'll be looking at are Linwood Street, which is by Spipond, and then Water Street and Mill Street. So to wrap up our project approach, we are again completing that existing conditions analysis, and then we'll be moving into developing a vision and goals to guide recommendations. And with that being the next step, we're really hoping to get some of your input tonight, as well as through the survey to help us understand what the vision for the Minuteman should be. And once we have that, we can develop policy recommendations, as well as broadly applicable corridor wide recommendations. And then lastly, we'll get into site specific recommendations at select locations. In the immediate term, this is what we'll be working on. And this is really what we'll be doing before you next hear from us and next see us. So at this point, we're at the Q&A, I do want to just point out that the link to the survey is here. So again, if you haven't had a chance to fill it out, please do so by November 15. And if you have any questions about the project, you can contact Daniel and his email addresses at the bottom of the page. So I think we will we'll do some Q&A if everyone could use their raise hand function, and then we will call on you and you can unmute and ask your question. And then once we've done the Q&A, we will do the breakout groups, depending on how many folks we have in the call right now. Thank you, Liz. And thank you to Megan for putting the link into the chat. I was going to mention that this presentation has been uploaded to the calendar page that's on the town's website, where you can find the agenda for this for this meeting. And so you can probably link to it through there as well, but you can also go straight to the chat to link to it from there. So yeah, at this point, if anybody has any questions about the project, about the presentation, we're happy to entertain them. Okay, Beth, go ahead. Hi, thank you, Beth Milofchik. I have a couple of one question, and maybe two statements. My question is, I was surprised that the time for use of the bike trail wasn't mentioned. I believe that there's a certain point in the evening when it becomes closed or is supposed to be closed. I'll say everything and then take my responses off if that's okay, or what works best. Yes, that's fine. Okay. So what are the actual hours for the bike trail? I think that's important for a butters. Related to that, of course, the lighting would be important for a butters. I want to encourage the town to think of the bike trail as a potential. Well, it's an existing carbon sink now. But once all of the invasives, particularly the Japanese knotweed, is excavated in those trouble spots nearest by pond and sort of from the high school west, they present excellent planting opportunities for native trees. And anyone who knows me is not surprised by the statement because I'm a big tree advocate. And I would really love for us, you know, in this climate emergency that we're in, recognizing Code Red and that COP 26 is happening in Glasgow, that we also think of this bike trail, which is the fabulous resource you described as a green ribbon through the town from Cambridge to Lexington. And once we get rid of the knotweed, again, those fabulous planting opportunities for native trees that will then present wonderful sites for benches that were spoken of. And also I did put in the survey, those water fountains like at World's End, which I think has the best designed one at Stone, but it has a depression at dog level. So the overflow from when you you're finished drinking goes below for the dog doesn't just dribble away immediately. There's like overflow also for the dog. So it's a sort of conservation of water also. Okay, I think that's, I think that's everything now for now. Thank you so much. And I love the bike trail. I use it every day. And I also think there are opportunities there for pollinator pathways. So maybe some native milkweed in spots or ribbon of it. Again, once we get rid of the invasives. Thank you. Thank you very much, Beth. And thank you for those comments. I like what you're saying about the carbon sink and you know, how we can do that. And I will respond to the question about the the hours of the pathway. So this actually just came up at town meeting last year. I think it was special town meeting that previous to last year there was an hour. There was a time there were hours on the bikeway essentially like a park, I believe it was technically closed between like 9pm and 5am. But there was a warrant article for actually changing, actually striking that from the from the town bylaws. Or I should say the original idea was that it would, you know, the idea would be to change the hours so that it would actually had shorter or had, excuse me, longer hours so that wouldn't be closed for quite as long during the night time. But what happened was that there was a subsidy motion and that was actually stricken completely so that bikeway has no hours right now. It's basically can be used 24 seven. So that's what's going on with that. So next person I see is Rob. Hi there. Yeah, I was actually going to speak to to that point myself, but you've covered it brilliantly. The thing that, well, two two quick comments one on lighting. My understanding is that when the bikeway was originally stood up, there was a an understanding with the Conservation Commission that they're not the lighting. Now, there's a lot of time that's fast and we have on some adjacent trails in Cambridge and Somerville, for example, good lighting that isn't overbearing but does help. What in fact people do at this point is they bring their own lights. LED bicycle lights are actually quite effective. And so, you know, at any given time, there's there's some subset of the trail users who are using bicycle lights or using flashlights. Dogs have illuminated collars. It's very cute. But it's also it also makes a big difference. There are also invisibles. People dressed in black walking down the path, sometimes pushing baby carriages also in black. It's it's a little hair raising. Anyway, that's that's it for the moment. All right. Thank you, Ron. OK, next is Sylvia and we are taking notes on all this just so you know. So Sylvia, go ahead. Hi, I'm one of the people who uses this almost on a daily basis. I do about 120 miles a week on it. And there's a couple. Well, I second best comments around the vegetation aspect of it. And I think the path can always use more trees for sure. There's a tranquility that you go through just having trees around you, which is really incredibly nurturing to your brain. I can't describe it any other way. It's just so nice. I'm wondering how and when and who decides on when it gets paved. And the other thing is. It's really scary to me that you would never ever take your kid who's learning to drive on the highway. But parents take kids who are like three and four, maybe even five, who've never been on bikes on this bikeway. And I just find it incredibly dangerous. And in talking to other people who use the path a lot, biking, they think that these are the most dangerous times is when these parents have these kids that are just learning. There has to be some education component to this. I mean, it's just you just shouldn't be teaching young kids to ride a bike on the bike path. It's nice. It will be nice, but there's just too many people that are biking on it. So anyways, those are my comments. I think the bike path is one of the best things in Arlington. And if I ever, I mean, it would keep me from moving if I need to move. I just cannot believe how much I enjoyed this piece through Arlington. Thank you. Thank you very much. We I will mention I think we've got several more hands up, but we for more commentary and things we do, you know, have the breakout group session and more for that. So but happy to entertain a few more. Last few people that have their hands up now, I see Linston is next. Sorry, just I'm meeting myself. So I'm just kind of curious as to the outreach for the various like interest groups. So for lack of a better word, because I know there are a lot of different folks who I kind of don't want to not hear from that. I see on the bike path, be it seniors who use it to exercise, be it the stroller, the families with strollers, be it like little kids riding bikes, be it the people with the e-bikes, like there's a lot of different levels of usage. And I want to make sure we all consider that. And the reason why I ask is because there's like about 60 people here on this. I know there's more people who use it there. I've seen the survey going around to certain groups, specific groups. I just want to make sure that if whatever direction we go, it kind of encompasses as many of the users as possible, because that's that's pretty important to me, because I even though there are, you know, potential issues with that, it's great to see so many people out and using this great resource. Thank you. That's a good question. First, I'll say that we have tried to use a number of different methods for getting getting people to know about this project. We've put up some fliers around put up, I personally put up the art signs along the bikeway, so it has information about the survey and the project and also the this meaning here. I know that we've had a few somebody sent around information to the parent teacher organizations in town. We tried to distribute it through our town channels, but also through regional channels like Mass Bike. Since this is not just a town resource, but a regional resource as well. So we've tried a number of methods, of course, you do those intercept surveys or Kittleson staff did intercept surveys. I don't know, Liz, if you want to add anything more to that. Yeah, I think it's a great question and we the art signs that Daniel put out, those are an opportunity to hopefully get some people who just use the path daily. We did do intercept surveys. It was challenging to get people to stop who were running or biking. So, you know, that's that's just the shortcoming of of doing that kind of outreach. But in terms of proportions, the intercept survey where we did in person. Actually gave the survey in person. We got about 60 responses. And for the online survey, we've gotten already 1100 responses. So there is a lot of outreach. I would encourage you if you have other avenues that you think it could be distributed into to let us know. I did not know about the intercept surveys. That's great. So thank you for that. Welcome. Jennifer is next. Thank you. I really wanted to speak up in favor of improving the lighting and the way finding, you know, I use them in a man trail, both for walking and for biking, love it recreationally. But I think especially considering the climate crisis that we're in, it is incredibly valuable resource and tool for us for also transportation and getting around our neighborhood. I use it to get to ill life. I use it to go to, you know, medical appointments on Mill Street or shopping up Neutrator Joe's and other places further out of of Arlington. We really do need better lighting. You know, it gets dark in the winter months by four thirty five o'clock. That is a very reasonable legitimate time to be out there using it for transportation. And we expecting people to bring their own flashlights or strap lights all to themselves is not the way cities work. And so I think that is really an important complement to what we're already doing in other places. The way finding as well, you know, I have my little turn off memorized. I kind of know about when to find it and what the trees look like there. But it would be incredibly difficult to find. If you already know where it was. And then it goes on to a private light and there is no signage or anything there. So these shouldn't be hidden. People should be able to find out where they are and know that this spot is over there and the drugstore is over here. So thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Next person is Paula. Paula Herman. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. OK. I want to speak to the issue of small kids, all kinds of people on the bike way. I used to use a lot to walk to walk to places for exercise till I got knocked down and injured by a young child learning to ride who then wrote fast into my behind me because he was frightened of the adult riders coming in the other direction and was avoiding that. I have two questions in that respect. Could the bike way be widened anywhere and also could there be timing for who could ride it when like perhaps only bicycle commuters at certain hours, perhaps only walkers at certain hours. And I don't know about little kids learning to ride their bike. But I just wonder if those issues, those could be ways of addressing those issues. Thank you, Paula. Yeah, I'm very sorry that that happened to you. And I hope that you're on the mend. Liz, do you have any response you have to give? Yeah, so widening the path is something that we're looking into. So one of the things that we're doing is just looking at the engineering constraints along the corridor and also keeping in mind, as we said before, the jurisdiction in right of way constraints. But something that we've been talking about is other opportunities to kind of manage path user demand. So widening would be one opportunity to do that. And we're looking into that, the feasibility of it. But we're also looking into other strategies to to manage manage different types of users within the space that we have. So definitely an important consideration. Thanks. Thank you. OK, I see we've got Alan, Mustafa and Elaine. So after these three, then we're going to go into the breakout groups. So Alan, go ahead. I just wanted to briefly point out a couple of things. The introduction referred to this bike way for a non-motorized path. I just wanted to highlight that it's currently being used for motorized transportation, specifically electric bikes and similar kinds of vehicles. And the legislature is considering legislation that would kind of normalize that. Also, on drainage, just wanted to point out that one of the related issues is either rainwater or snow melt pooling on a path and then freezing and creating an ice hazard. All right. Thank you very much, Alan. And then Mustafa. Yeah, actually, Alan just mentioned what I was going to raise is there was a big fix done for the drainage near Lake Street, but further east of that, there's a place where it does pool and freeze. And also at the Water Street crossing and I'm missing the other crossing, but in that area, there's sort of a deep rut, frozen, mystery, puddle situation. You don't know what your wheels really going into. So I think overall, it'd be good for, you know, maybe do an assessment of the path after a few heavy rains or during a free stop period. And as part of this work, just really clean up a lot of these, because they're hazards for everybody in every sense of the word. And I just would reiterate, I think, the way finding and the access to Brattle Street and the access to Grove Street, which there really isn't one. These are, I mean, these would make it much more valuable to a lot of other areas of town. I know there's going to be a new access at the high school, but those access, you know, the Brattle Street access is a mess and they're really, you have to walk your bike down at Grove Street. And these are pretty sort of central areas of the town that you don't have access to. So I'd like to see that kind of overall infrastructure be focused on as well. Thank you very much for that. Yeah. And then the last person to have is Elaine. Yes, hi. I was interested in encouraging perhaps a hello. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. I was perhaps I'm encouraging some amount of assessment of areas where there are sort of rebounding or a little bit of rebound of native species along the bike path already and not having and to flag those and not have those completely destroyed by whatever equipment is brought on to redo various parts of the path. And the other thing is I know that there is interest in doing mountain bike pathways in the Hills Hill area and a pump part. And so I would encourage the town to sort of combine resources and think creatively about ways to perhaps combine efforts for this pump park idea that might take less more of the heavy traffic off of the Hills Hill area and site it closer to the bike path with bike path entrance so that kids could have a place to do that type of mobile riding without destroying other habitat. Thank you. Thank you, Paula. Excuse me, Elaine. Yes. Yes, thank you for your comment. I appreciate that and I've heard about the pump park. I think Paula, did you have one more thing you wanted to ask? I just forgot to take my hand down. Okay, no problem. Okay. So, Liz, I think we can move on. I think we've got not too many people for breakout groups, so that's great. Do you want to talk through kind of how we're going to do this? Yeah. So these are the question prompts that we have for everyone and what we're going to do is randomly assign you to different breakout groups where you will be met by one of us, someone with facilitator in front of their name and we will walk you through these questions and we will be recording all of your thoughts kind of on a shared board that you can see and interact with. So we will do that for about 20 minutes and then we'll come back to this main room automatically and we will, all the facilitators will do a report back to let everyone know the key themes that came out of each group. So I think at this point we can go ahead and join those breakout groups. Sorry, just to be clear, we won't be recording the, like, did you record the breakout groups but we'll be typing them on, typing comments onto like an online shared board. Okay, well thank you everyone for participating in those breakout groups. I think what we'll do now is a quick report back. So I'll start by sharing my screen and just talking quickly about what my group covered and then I will pass it to one of our other facilitators. So everyone can see what everyone else talked about. And then the last thing that we'll do is in the chat we'll post a link to another one of these boards. If you think of anything later that you want to add, if you have visioning ideas that you want to share with us, please feel free to add those later. So I will get started. Okay. So in terms of things that our group discussed that are enjoyable, safety from separation vehicles was brought up as not necessarily enjoyable but definitely a stress reliever. Green space and access to open space and recreational opportunities was a big one. So we have convenience. We have someone from Lexington in our group and so having that accessibility between communities all the way from Lexington and then to the T and into Boston. And then things that stand in the way of enjoying the Minuteman. Couting came up really as kind of the main theme throughout our conversation. Children and having unpredictable users was another thing that came back up. People mentioned that they actually avoid using the bike way on weekends because there's just too many folks out there. Predictability was a really big thing. So the types of users that are out there and having predictable interactions with them as well as at the intersections. So at roadway crossings as well. And it was brought up that there's a lack of trust when you get to roadway crossings. Trusting that vehicles will do what they're supposed to do when they are meant to yield and then also that path users will do what's expected of them. An example of something really great that was brought up is the Bruce Freeman trail as an example of landscaping and just identity of the trail as something to potentially emulate. And then in terms of our vision for this group we talked about just different ways to potentially separate out users whether physically or in time. The addition of more amenities and a desire to have fewer roadway crossings or at least address those roadway crossings in a way that is more amenable to path users. So that was our discussion. I will pass it off to Daniel next. Thanks. Then I guess I'll share mine. Okay. So. Yeah, thank you very much. And so I had a few people in a few people in the in my breakout group and I think everyone was living lived in Arlington. I think one person was actually about it the bikeway and definitely what I heard first was lots of love for the bikeway in everybody's short intro and the reason for some people why they moved to Arlington was the was the path and the ability to get around easily without a car. I think that was in the ability I think something that was really great somebody mentioned is that you can get into the city without having to drive and you can get out into the country into like sort of Bedford Acton Concord to go far enough you can bring you all the way out there. So what people really enjoy you know is that so it is car free you see everybody sort of on the path the great variety of people you know it's sort of a commons where you can meet kind of anybody and you know runs through the whole town so you can do you can get to lots of places you can get to almost everywhere in the town more or less all the commercial areas do your errands and your shopping and get to work and that kind of thing you can you know even though you know you can your kids can ride on there and before you know you feel comfortable with them going through riding on the road in car traffic so you know car free is important and some of the I think the natural aspects of it you know being kind of dark or being kind of like a more natural park like I think that was another piece of it and then I guess we didn't exactly get to what would be perfect but I think some of these sort of what stands in a way maybe it gets to the question about being perfect like more connections better connections especially on the south side between like Jason street and Brattle street past like the high school like there aren't very many good connections from the south side of town to the bikeway from from sort of that stretch of it some access points are not very or kind of ad hoc not very well done not even seemingly very safe for like children to use like once they're get more independent people are need to behave better sometimes people don't they sort of leave the path or jump off the path and don't think about looking to see if they're you know somebody's trying to pass them or they might run into somebody so you know speeds were also mentioned as an issue and sort of electrified vehicles that are not bikes even like scooters or skateboards or one wheels and then sort of an interesting idea that came up was about if we widened the path like could you put reflectors like on in the path like on the roadways so that if you do have a light that you can make sure you don't sort of navigate off the path accidentally I thought it was an interesting idea so I think making it better for children to use understanding like the rules about vehicles and making the access points better you know I think those would make it more perfect than a van thanks I guess I think go to Mallory I'll stop sharing all right hi everyone so we have a few technical difficulties so I don't have a screen to share but I have our groups feedback so I believe everyone in our group has lived in Arlington at least for a few years it's not much longer so there was certainly it was a lot of love for the Minuteman a theme that came up was simply having options for commutes for recreation for errands whether that was choosing between taking mass av biking and taking the bikeway taking the bus or another form of transportation there are simply fewer hazards and a more enjoyable experience overall another item that everyone loved was just access to nature and recreation both the bikeway itself being a peaceful place and having access to wonderful places like Great Meadows in that same vein that it's a family friendly area and it's a great opportunity for exercise there were a few things that stand in the way of enjoying the Minuteman or using it more one of those is having more having that there aren't enough access points to stores so running practical errands like getting to the grocery store or being in Arlington Center those access points are difficult another item was that bike parking is too limited in all areas and lighting so there were a few examples of a few hazardous encounters that folks that had due to lack of lighting and the perfect Minuteman bikeway one item that someone in our group brought up was having more waypoints or pull off points in the width an example of along the Somerville community path where there's a porous material where a lot of times people will walk or walk was used as an example and to round it out somebody else said that the perfect Minuteman means that we'll just have more bike paths in general in town we're asking a lot of the one that we have so that's our group's feedback, thank you we can let's pass it off to Megan so we had a lot of love for the bikeway as many groups did a lot of Arlington Heights residents people who use it for commuting for recreation school pickup, parents pretty much you name it generally the main themes were people come to the bikeway to experience some natural beauty to be in a quiet place kind of get out of the city life there was it was expressed that people feel comfortable walking and biking there pretty much any time of day but we did also hear some concerns about the lack of lighting especially when you might be relying on blue bikes with inconsistent lighting ability we also talked about how it does get pretty busy especially on those really beautiful summer days when it seems like everyone is out there at the same time and we talked a little bit about you know some people who want to ride for exercise or who are really trying to get somewhere quickly might end up on Mass Ave instead just knowing that they are going to not have as many people as kind of weave around and then when we talked about the perfect minute man bikeway we talked about improving some access points you know we recognize the difficulties in doing that but talked about how some of them you know ADA issues in paving are a real problem we talked about improving way finding and signs and also touched on a few problem intersections particularly Mill Street and we talked about how the way that Lake Street, the new Lake Street design separates users and what ends out as you reach the intersection has been really positive and that could be a good thing to emulate in other locations and I will pass it off to Caitlin. I'm going to share my screen. A lot of overlap oh are you seeing my screen? Yeah there was a lot of overlap I think we heard a lot of the same things so I'll try to point out some different things I'm going to go back to my breakout group we're all really from Arlington a lot of them had used the path today used it weekly to walk, to recreate to exercise dog walking is a common occurrence on the path so we talked about that a lot of a lot of us enjoy the minute man as an efficient and safe way to travel people enjoy traveling in nature being surrounded by trees and really just avoiding cars and avoiding traffic that's common during rush hour and peak hour travel so that was that was a common theme it's a great public space someone mentioned the diversity of users on the path is really nice another element one of the users in my group told a story about teaching her child how to ride their bike on the path and how it's really only one of the few safe spaces to do that in the city so kind of leading into things that detract from the minute man common occurrence are speeding users and considerate users people just traveling too quickly passing aggressively or even users kind of walking their dogs and not standing in the right area what else some recommendations to target some of those challenges we talked about adding in some speed signs or education and enforcement for using the path safely and effectively we talked about using that through like speed limit signs or pavement markings indicating slow areas or potentially having even shoulders or areas for users to pass to step aside to step out of the moving the moving lane benches were also mentioned as well as native plantings you know there's a lot of invasive species and poison Ivy specifically were talked about on different areas of the path so really focusing on removing those and adding in native plantings yeah we talked a little bit about aesthetic improvements and just kind of creating a destination throughout the path and when one user talked about liking the distinction on different segments of the path and really not needing to create a uniform branding necessarily but enjoying the characters of each path as a user travels along the path and I think the last facilitators Connor pass it over to you can get another screen showing right great yeah so as just pointed out a lot of the comments are great to hear a lot of the same themes across groups try to highlight some of the ones that really stood out I think people use the path for access and it's actually a functional means of life one parent talked about they can trust their responsible children to get to school and they can use the path to put sports fields on the path sooner than you could using a street like Massav being able to have a calm quiet experience but which allows for conversation that's something you don't get walking around on lots of other streets or biking on other streets so that's a unique amenity that the Minuteman provides and an important alternative to Massav in a number of ways not least of which is safety and comfort for people biking when we talked about things that stand in the way from enjoying more crowding came up from a couple of participants some people as was mentioned earlier some people in our breakout group avoid Minuteman all together in either summer seasons busy seasons and times when they feel like biking on it would be just courteous speaking of which etiquette came up and the need for clear guidance on what is appropriate etiquette for example calling out something like on your left as a cyclist is passing walkers is seen by some walkers as an important behavior and also at the same time probably some cyclists feel like it's rude so we have a little bit of a disconnect between what's helpful and what's perceived which could be helped by signs and guidance offered on the trail just explaining clearly what is expected at least puts everyone on the same page and then lastly having things to access right along the path whether they be pop-up coffee stations or other opportunities for businesses that are located not far from Massav I'm sorry not far from the Minuteman but might be able to pop-up nearby could be a really nice benefit to people we didn't make it to the fourth question so that's all I have for now back to Liz or Dan Dan I like I like I'm still thinking about that pop-up idea I think that's a that's a great idea it's interesting hadn't thought of that before so I don't know Liz do you want to share I think maybe had one slide or just sort of a closing slide after this just for anybody that hasn't taken the survey yet there's a survey link up there there's also a link the project page is the advisory committee page and I think I think that is pretty much it sorry Liz do you want to yeah sorry just getting my presentation back up thank you yeah so link to the surveys here link to the project website is here as well as the email address if you have any questions we did just drop in the chat a link to the concept board but I did just get a message from someone that they were getting a request for a password so we might need to just re-share that quickly oh okay and if anyone has tested it and can let me know if they can get in I think you have to sign in as a guest but you shouldn't need a password I'm seeing other I'm seeing several people in the in the board right now so I think it may just be the need to create a login okay and we'll leave that board open we'll close it tomorrow morning just that this is kind of a concise part of this public outreach effort so if you have any thoughts later this evening you can add those in and we will definitely get those and record them along with everything else that we heard tonight alright yeah we're right at time good timing exactly 830 yeah alright well thank you very much everyone thanks to the town staff for helping out into Kittleson for coming out as well it was a great presentation and I look forward to the next steps alright good night everyone thank you