Somerville is reconstructing Western Pearl Street and recently presented two design concepts. You can find the design concepts and other project information on this page: https://voice.somervillema.gov/westernpearl
We are disappointed in the city’s retreat from safe street commitments and wrote a letter with our feedback and an acceptable compromise. While Western Pearl is parallel to the GLX path, the parallel GLX path has some hills while Western Pearl is flat and best serves the connection between East Somerville to points of interest along Medford Street towards Magoun Square. Here is our letter.
Dear Mobility team,
We are writing to provide feedback on the design options provided at the recent open house in Ed Leathers Park.
Both options presented would be better than the status quo and significantly improve the pedestrian experience, but both options also fall short of the commitment to advance an all ages and abilities protected bike network enshrined in law in the Safe Streets Ordinance of 2024 (SSO). The alternatives presented at the open house also fall short as the alternative routes do not include building new or upgraded bike lanes or using Neighborways treatments. We note that this disregard for a bike network commitment compounds the also unfulfilled vision of pedestrianizing the Medford Street bridge in the same neighborhood, as presented at the Gilman Square Community Meeting on November 22, 2021.
We share the city’s concern about having safe loading space for Sarma and other businesses on the street, where delivery trucks are currently driving onto the sidewalk, creating a safety hazard. We believe that the design option laid out below can accommodate this concern. However, we also do not think that illegal behavior by drivers should be the basis for not designing our streets to be safer and more equitable. Also, retaining public street space for storage of private vehicles beyond accessible parking is not, in our opinion, a legitimate technical constraint that justifies not complying with the SSO.
Please consider another design that better aligns with the bicycle network plan and that provides accommodation for commercial loading. Please combine the two ends of the design options to provide two-way protected bike lanes on the south side of Pearl Street from Medford to Skilton Streets and again from Walnut Street to McGrath Highway. Please include improvements in Ed Leathers Park, including proper curb ramps at the Western edge of the park and appropriate shared path widths. This combination would allow bicyclists to avoid the steep inclines of Walnut and Medford and protect pedestrians in the park.
Please avoid mixing bike lanes with dedicated bus pullover locations as this creates a dangerous merge conflict between bicyclists trying to go around and forces them into the car travel lane. Commercial loading zones and accessible parking should be added on the side street corners and businesses should be encouraged to use abutting parking lots.
In the near future, Gilman Square will be redeveloped as a people-friendly, vibrant place. McGrath highway will be replaced by an at-grade boulevard reconnecting Winter Hill and East Somerville. This corridor needs and deserves a safe, all ages and abilities bicycle connection on western Pearl Street, and now is the time to build this.
Thank you,
SASS Steering Committee