Central Transportation Planning Staff
Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization
10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150
Boston, MA 02116
Attention: Anne McGahan
February 26, 2002
I am writing to comment on the Draft Regional Transportation Plan, as a follow up to my
participation in the Public Workshop which you held in Somerville on February 11, 2002. In
my capacity as Alderman at Large, I am elected by the people of the entire City of Somerville,
and have an obligation to advocate for the interests of the entire city. Since the transportation
needs of almost the entire city are grossly underserved, there is much to be said with reference
to the most recently updated plan.
1. A Short Transportation History of Somerville
Starting in the late 18th century, the area of Charlestown which became Somerville had a
number of privately-developed toll roads and bridges. A portion of the 27-mile long Middlesex
Canal ran through the city, until discontinued in the 1840s. The Boston and Lowell Railroad in
1835 began constructing the right of way where the Lowell line of the MBTA commuter rail
now runs. This corridor saw consequent residential, industrial, and commercial development.
The Fitchburg Railroad was constructed in 1841 in the location where the Fitchburg line runs.
Its development sparked the creation of a flanking industrial corridor,the remnants of which still
exist.
Somerville was incorporated as a separate town in 1842, due to the efforts of citizen-lobbyists
who also "encouraged the development of transit between Somerville and Boston." In 1843, the
Fitchburg Railroad commenced passenger service. The availability of mass transit led to the
rapid development of Prospect Hill and Spring Hill as residential neighborhoods. This pattern
was repeated all over the city: in 1864, with the creation of a street railway from Union Square
to Boston (extended in 1871 to West Somerville); in 1870, when the Arlington Branch Railroad
was extended to Davis Square; in 1889, when electric streetcar service was introduced. In every
location where mass transit became available, residential neighborhoods were built at high
densities, giving urban mobility to thousands.
By the turn of the century, the Boston and Maine Railroad alone had eight large and
architecturally imposing stations in Somerville. A Somerville Journal editorial about this time
expounded that "The city of Somerville, without the Boston and Maine Railroad, bisecting it and
linking it with the great world without, is simply an unimaginable community." Somerville was
by this time the most densely populated city in New England. It still is.
In 1925, the Northern Artery, later re-named McGrath Highway, was completed. Hundreds of
buildings were demolished, and the several streets eradicated along its route, including the tree-lined Fellsway that had once linked Somerville to the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Yet the city's
population continued to grow, reaching its peak of 105,813 during World War II. Somerville's
trolley system and street railways were on their way out. By 1958, all passenger train service
in Somerville had ended. The "unimaginable community" was taking physical shape in
Somerville.
By 1969, many more buildings were demolished for the construction of elevated I-93 through
Somerville, a project supported by then-Mayor James Brennan. In his inaugural address in
January, 1970, Brennan's newly-elected successor, S. Lester Ralph, denounced the I-93 project.
Ralph said that "[t]hese roads will take more of our precious land from our use and our tax base.
They will merely provide another corridor for people from the suburbs to drive right on through
Somerville and into Boston. They will create the need for new roads, just as all other roads have
done. They will add to the already serious problem of air pollution. They merely postpone
facing the real solution... developing mass transportation systems through the cities."
Elevated I-93 in Somerville was the only part of the Inner Belt project to be built. Then-Governor Frank Sargent cancelled the rest of that enormous Highway Master Plan, saying, on
February 11, 1970, "Then, nearly everyone was sure highways were the only answer to
transportation problems for years to come. We were wrong." State transportation policy did
change direction for a time afterwards. The commonwealth and the MBTA invested in an
ambitious project to extend the Red Line to the north and west. In December, 1984, a new Red
Line station opened in Davis Square Somerville, leading to the economic and social revitalization
of west Somerville. This renaissance was enhanced by the development of a linear park, the
easternmost part of the Minuteman Bike Path, in the formerly abandoned railroad right of way
of the old Arlington and Lexington Branch Line.
2. The Regional Importance of Somerville
The intensive development of Somerville as a corridor for every kind of transportation since
early in the nineteenth century is not a coincidence. Somerville's location between much of the
northern and western parts of Middlesex County and the regional powerhouses of Cambridge
and Boston made such development almost inevitable. Such inevitability seems also to have been
determined by another curious feature of Somerville's history: unlike most municipalities in the
area, which were incorporated in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, Somerville did not
achieve political autonomy as a town until 1842, and as a city until 1872. Politically, it was
weak and unsophisticated compared to its neighbors. Most of its transportation and other
development was privately directed before the city had any chance to form its own civic identity,
structure and institutions.
Yet those nineteenth century transit routes still have enormous utility - though more for those
outside Somerville than in it. The Lowell line commuter rail gets 9,400 riders a day, the
Fitchburg line 8,700. The Haverhill line gets 9,800, the Newburyport, 8,800, the Rockport line
8,2000. (These latter three lines, which run through Assembly Square, use the 1845 right-of-way
of the Boston & Maine R.R., and the 1854 Eastern Railway.) A total of 45,000 transit riders
daily pass through Somerville from their suburban communities to North Station. None can
board in Somerville, which has no commuter rail stops. Somerville also has substantial use as
a freight corridor by the Guilford Railroad, which generates costs of its own.
The northern end of the Orange line has two stops in Malden and one in Medford before it runs,
without stopping, through Assembly Square on its way to Boston. The daily ridership on the
Orange Line is 164,000. The Red Line sees over 200,000 boardings daily; 10,000 of these
passengers board at Davis Square. Every "T" passenger who drives to Alewife station to park
then travels through Somerville. Many more travelers drive their vehicles through Somerville;
on I-93, about 135,000 per day. On McGrath Highway, there are close to 50,000 per day. Since
the closing of the City Square ramp of I-93 in the summer of 2001, Mystic Avenue has gone
from about 25,000 to over 28,000 vehicle trips per day.
Roads which are not the Interstate or arterials also bear heavy traffic. Washington Street through
Union Square gets 28,000 vehicle trips per day, 18% of these trucks. Medford Street, formerly
a trolley corridor, accommodates one lane of traffic in each direction. Most of the street is
residential; it sees over 2,000 vehicle trips per hour during the morning and evening peaks.
Many residential street in Somerville only 40 to 50 feet wide, including sidewalks nd on-street
parking, bear one to three thousand vehicle trips a day, most of it commuter cut-through traffic.
As part of its regional truck study, the MPO has recommended Broadway in Somerville, a
primarily residential street which is home to thousands, to be designated an official truck route.
3. Costs to Somerville of its Transportation System
The old railroad lines through Somerville, currently MBTA commuter rail routes, place a
significant burden on the city. They chop it into isolated parts, and increase street traffic
congestion. Since vehicles may cross the tracks only in a few places, these become bottlenecks.
Pedestrians and bicyclists are likewise inconvenienced by having to be routed over bridges.
The Lowell line cuts diagonally across the northern portion of the city for about two-thirds of
its length, from southeast to northwest. The tracks divide the easternmost part of the city,
restricting access to the Inner Belt Industrial Park area to a loop running off congested
Washington Street. This situation has limited the economic development of that area. The tracks
cross a railroad bridge over Washington Street, west of that point, the tracks may be crossed
only by bridges owned by the commonwealth and controlled by the Massachusetts Highway
Department. The first crossing, traveling east, is at Cross Street. That bridge is slated for
reconstruction, and therefore temporary closure.
The next bridge is at Walnut Street. It has long been in bad condition, and subject to a weight
limitation. The first week of January, 2002, it was struck by a Guilford R.R. freight train, and
damaged so badly that it had to be closed. Mass. Highway has already announced that it will not
build a handicapped-accessible pedestrian ramp for use while the bridge is under repair. The city
has asked the Architectural Access Board for a waiver from the accessibility requirement. That
request has been denied.
Consequently, during the period of bridge repair, no pedestrian will be able to travel this section
of Walnut Street. It is the main route from East Somerville to the city's central library and its
only high school. These travelers, and those trying to get from Central Hill to the Medford
Street bus routes, or from East Somerville to the Highland Avenue bus routes, will be forced
to make a detour of over a mile to get to the next crossing place. Another unfortunate, but
difficult-to-quantify cost to Somerville of this bridge project is the fate of the nearby Kemp Nut
factory site. The city in 1998 bought this 12,0000 square foot site to develop as open space in
this densely populated section of the city. Mass. Highway, however, wants to use the site as a
staging area for the bridge project. So it sits, vacant and fenced, providing neither tax revenue
nor public amenity, in a community starved for both.
The next bridge, heading west, is the School Street Bridge, which was abruptly closed after an
inspection in September, 2001. Fortunately, the design work had already been bid, so the traffic
chaos only lasted until construction was finished in December of that year. The next bridge west,
the Sycamore Street Bridge, underwent emergency closure in 2000, then re-opened in 2001 with
the loan of a surplus Bailey bridge from the Central Artery project. The city paid the costs of
installation from its own operating budget.
The next bridge west, Central Street, was re-built several years ago, allowing it to handle the
detour traffic from the School Street bridge last year, and from the Lowell Street bridge to its
west. That bridge was closed in May 2000. It remains closed, design work for its replacement
is ongoing. Beyond it, the Cedar Street bridge was closed in 1997 for reconstruction. Mass.
Highway used the adjacent city-owned tot lot as a staging area for that project. Their heavy
equipment destroyed five irreplaceable mature trees, and all the underground piping for the water
play area. The tot lot opened again in Summer of 2001, still incomplete, and lacking trees and
water feature, another Somerville open-space casualty of commuter convenience.
There is one last bridge on Broadway, near Ball Square, and the city line of Medford. West
Medford actually enjoys a commuter rail stop. If Ball Square, Somerville, residents lived just
a mile and a half further west, they could take a one-seat, twelve minute trip to Boston for one
fare. As it is, these residents can take one of the Broadway buses to Sullivan Station in
Charlestown, to transfer to the Orange line to Boston, paying two fares, and a trip of about 30
minutes, depending on connections. Or these residents could walk the mile or so to Davis Square
for the Red line. These are about the best transit connections to be had in Somerville, except for
those who dwell in the areas closer to Davis Square or the Somerville side of Porter Square,
where housing costs have skyrocketed well beyond those of the neighborhoods less well served
by transit.
The story is similar along the Fitchburg line: state-owned bridges confine travel to Webster
Avenue, Washington Street, and Dane Street; there is a grade crossing at Park Street, on a
stretch of track where schoolchildren and other wanderers are sometimes struck and killed.
There is a pedestrian underpass at Sacramento Street, presently closed for reconstruction and not
scheduled to reopen until late this summer. There is another bridge at the intersection of Beacon
Street and Somerville Avenue, then one arrives at Porter Square, Cambridge. From that station,
there is a choice of the commuter rail directly to North Station, or the Red line through
Cambridge, into Boston, and ultimately South Station, for the same $1.00 fare.
Somerville also experiences costs from the hundreds of thousands of commuter vehicles that cut
across Somerville each day. Quantifying these impacts would be a huge task, but attempts have
been made in the past to measure air pollution and noise associated with, for instance, the
construction of I-93. We have enormous wear and tear on our roads from heavy use. Public and
private property, including fences, signs, other vehicles, and sometimes buildings, are damaged
or destroyed regular by careless drivers, most of whom escape detection. In December 2001,
for instance, a vehicle drove onto a plaza in Union Square, smashing up not only hardscape and
street furniture, but also the monument memorializing the spot of the Union Army recruiting
station for which the square was named. Like most urban roadkill, when such items are repaired,
it is at the expense of the people of Somerville.
We pay extraordinarily high automobile insurance costs in Somerville, much of it attributable
to losses occasioned by out-of-city drivers. Properties on streets with high levels of traffic have
demonstrably lower values than comparable properties on less-traveled roads, and for good
reason. Pedestrians are unsafe in many areas, parents fear for their children, there are injuries
and deaths of bicyclists and pedestrians by motorists. Traffic is a major quality-of-life issue in
Somerville.
It may be that the greatest cost to the city from its transportation infrastructure is that of land
taken from other uses and removed from the tax base. Somerville encompasses only four square
miles. Almost 44% of its land is tax-exempt, much of that includes the vast tracts of East
Somerville rail yards and tracks owned by the MBTA or the Guilford Railway. Sizeable areas
are also consumed by McGrath and I-93. In 1970 Boston Globe column, Alan Lupo reported that
the I-93/Inner belt project would take 98.7 acres of land in Somerville. Lupo stated that
construction of I-93, just at its start then, had already removed $303,340 in tax revenues, or
1.5% of its tax base, from the city. The acreage and taxes are still gone, multiplied by thirty-two
years. As for "hard" costs, Somerville pays the fifth-highest MBTA assessment in the state,
$4.81 million in Fiscal Year 2001.
4. Benefits to Somerville of its Transportation System
This section will not be so lengthy, as the present benefits are skimpy. Somerville does have one
very popular, successful MBTA station on the Red line. Somerville has buses, those mobile
social service agencies of the mass transit system. At "peak" hours, these run with some
frequency, but they are generally not frequent, punctual, or reliable enough to be useful to
anyone with responsibilities. In support of this contention, I offer your own tables on schedule
adherence appended to the October 31, 2001 Memorandum regarding the Recommendations of
the Environmental Justice Subcommittee. I would also refer you to the Environmental Justice
Indicators for Somerville on pages 58 and 59 of your Draft Plan. Additionally, buses do not
generally offer a pleasant transit experience. Anyone who wishes to see how foul it can be
should visit the Union Square bus stops under the McGrath Highway, with its incomparable mix
of noise, fumes, and pigeon droppings.
Somerville has many roads to use, but they are congested during commuting hours, which are
extensive. The existence of I-93 and the arterials simply brings vehicles to the city; indeed, they
are the main traffic sewer for Cambridge and Boston. These roads have not brought Somerville
development, jobs, or taxes. The cars, the trucks, the SUVs, do not come here to stop, spend
money, engage in productive activity. Manufacturing in Somerville has gone, no destinations
have replaced it. The motorists are just passing through.
Somerville is a city, and one understands and accepts the need for regional transportation
facilities, for a certain volume of traffic, and even congestion. Yet for Somerville, the costs of
the regional transportation system are so much internal, and the benefits so much external, that
the system is out of balance. It's clear that, in the past, Somerville greatly benefitted from its
transportation network. The city shaped itself around streetcars and trolleys, railway lines and
stations, infrastructure which is now either gone, or has become locally inaccessible. Somerville,
substantially built before the invention of the internal combustion engine, has become a city
stuffed with cars, lacking significant mass transit. From our hills, we can see stunning vistas of
nearby Charlestown, Boston and Cambridge. Getting there is another story.
Somerville's transportation future could be more like its rich past than its impoverished present.
Its fate is partly in the control of the MPO. The most expensive part of the infrastructure is still
here: those precious rights of way that fan out through the metropolitan center into Essex and
Middlesex county. All that urban land currently dedicated to transportation use, which does not
have to be purchased and cleared, is a treasure. Since that treasure has been subtracted from
Somerville's portion, only restoring a significant part of it to Somerville's portion can work
justice to compensate for the recent past.
5. Comments on the Draft Boston MPO Transportation Plan Update, 2000-2025
A. General Comments
Undertaking to do regional transportation planning is a task of daunting size and complexity. The
fact that transportation spending is already Balkanized by the many agencies, jurisdictions, and
separate pots of money involved must complicate the process for the MPO. It also produces an
MPO plan which is difficult to evaluate. Since the plan includes only federally funded projects,
its transportation "universe" omits, for example, MBTA and Mass. Highway projects. The entire
actual "universe" of transportation projects is thus not visible in one document, nor can the
relative overall public investments in highway and transit projects be compared.
B. Specific Comments: Universe of projects for the 2025 Build Scenario, Jan. 23, 2002
I. Projects Previously Included in an Adopted Future Build Scenario
The Charles Street Station reconstruction of the Boston Red/Blue Connector is a project that will
benefit many in Somerville, as elsewhere. Many frail elderly who go for treatment to the
Massachusetts General Hospital simply cannot climb those stairs. Does the $220 million figure
include the $27m that the EJ Committee recommends applying from the MBTA Accessibility
program? Somerville could certainly use that $27m for an Orange Line station at Assembly
Square.
I am delighted to see the inclusion, with funding source, of the Medford Hillside Green Line
project. I started working for the City of Somerville in 1984, the year that the MBTA's "Beyond
Lechmere" report was issued. The project goals of improving transit service, providing fare
equity, and facilitating transit-sensitive development within the corridor were, and are, right on
the mark. Yet I feel it is quite important to expand the scope of this project to extend the Green
Line to Union Square, as referenced in the "Projects Included in Comments on the 2001 RTP
Update" Universe.
The transit need in Union Square is just as great, and the economic development opportunities
for the city greater, due to the availability of more appropriate land. If I had to prioritize the
projects, I would say that Union Square probably has a stronger argument for taking precedence.
I would also point out, though, that the Green Line Extension itself has been offered to the
federal funding authorities as one of the "transit mitigations" for the Central Artery project. It
keeps slipping in the mitigation schedule in a manner which is unconscionable. I am told that
this and other Artery transit mitigations are to be funded from the MBTA budget and not the
Central Artery project budget. If so, that is the probable reason for the slippage, and is itself a
great injustice. It is time to deliver some "transit mitigation" in Somerville.
Interestingly, Union Square and Park Street were both historic sites of stations on the Fitchburg
Line. The Boston and Maine Railroad, as immediate predecessor to the MBTA, had stations on
the Lowell line at Prospect Hill, Winter Hill, Somerville Junction (Lowell Street), and North
Somerville (Ball Square). These are all adjacent to still-extant bridges, are fairly evenly spaced.
All suggest appropriate locations for stops on the proposed Green Line extension.
II. Projects Previously Studied, Currently under Study, or in Development
This list includes the I-93/Mystic Avenue Interchange, at a cost of $50,000. I had been told by
other city officials that this item was eliminated from the MPO plan. It is impossible not to be
concerned about cuts in funding for any improvement along Somerville's McGrath Highway
corridor. There are several intersections here overdue for thoughtful attention. I am concerned,
however, the intersection design for which this funding is dedicated is the 1993 Vollmer Study
design posted on the City of Somerville web site.
If I am reading that diagram correctly, the Mystic Avenue exit from I-93 will no longer access
Mystic Avenue directly. It appears that this exit route directly into Assembly Square. If this
design is built, persons bound for other Somerville destinations will have to drive through
Assembly Square to get on to local roads. If they leave Assembly Square via McGrath, they
must go north to Wellington Circle, Medford, and then return to Somerville in its southbound
lane. It is not at all clear to me that the public is aware of the ramifications of this design, or
would accept it. I cannot endorse the application of funds to this design in the absence of a
major public information and hearing process. I understand that Route 28 is a state road, but it
is also a local road.
I am also concerned about the implications of this design for the successful redevelopment of
Assembly Square. The Assembly Square Planning study commissioned by the city and performed
by Steve Cecil in 2000 does speak of the need for "redesign of the I-93 interchange to address
capacity, safety, and operational difficulties," but makes no evaluation of any particular design.
Moreover, the I-93 interchange reconstruction is ranked seventh on Cecil's list of recommended
transportation improvements. The list is topped by a "new Orange Line T stop." I would be
profoundly wary of the redevelopment consequences of a transportation strategy which put the
I-93 interchange at the top of the list, and relegated the T stop to any lower position.
This concern is reinforced by information I have received at seminars sponsored by U.S.E.P.A
and others on "Smart Growth" development, and by articles in the professional and popular press
on the relationship between road building and "sprawl" development. Such an article in the
Boston Sunday Globe, Dec. 9, 2001, quotes EOEA Secretary Robert Durand as saying that the
development around the new interchange of I-93 and Route 128 in Woburn "is a good example
of how not to do something. The impact around that interchange, encouraging big box
development - in the long-term that could have an adverse impact, as the interchange becomes
unusable because of congestion." The same possible outcome must be considered as the result
of an unsuitable design for the I-93/Mystic Avenue junction at Assembly Square. I would
scrutinize the "I-93 Capacity Improvements, Somerville to Woburn" listed in your "Projects
Identified through RTP Planning Efforts" in the same light.
III. Projects Included in Comments on the 2001 RTP Update
The first of the two Somerville projects listed in this "universe" is "Depress I-93." Almost
ironically, this was the plea of those East Somerville residents who fought so hard in the 1960s
and early 70s to stop that highway project. When the plans for depressing the Central Artery
were unveiled, and it was revealed that this act of repair was designed to end at the boundaries
of the City of Boston, fresh insult was added to historic injury. I suspect that the Boston area
will not soon undertake another artery-depression project. I would like to point out, however,
that in a fair, and fully-funded world, this feature would have been part of the Central Artery
project. It is another measure of how little Somerville, and especially the working-class, poor,
and minority residents of East Somerville, are traditionally regarded in the planning of regional
transportation projects.
The other Somerville project listed in this section is the "Extension of the Somerville Bike Path
(Cedar Street to Lechmere)." This is an important and valuable project which would link the
Minuteman Bike Path from Bedford almost to Boston, with the potential of opening East
Cambridge and Boston to serious bicycle commuting. These riders, as well as walkers and other
users of the path, would enjoy relative safety from vehicular traffic. It could be a valuable green
space addition to Somerville, provided that trees along the route are not destroyed wholesale.
Secretary Durand commented most favorably on the project in his comments on the proposed
developments at North Point in Cambridge. Somerville has already invested in a design study,
and plans to bond some of the cost. This relatively inexpensive project would be a big gain for
Somerville and for the region.
6. Environmental Justice
The theme of environmental justice has been the major motif of my discussion. It is an idea
whose time is overdue. I am pleased that this concept is being taken seriously, and I hope that
it will cast a new light in which Somerville's transportation predicament may be understood.
Very truly yours,
Denise Provost
Alderman-at-Large