By Arthur Moore

Hopefully we can have a good meeting of the minds and bring some relief to Winter Hill. And I repeat, we are not anti bike. We mostly would like part of this to be temporary until construction is completed. I do have one concern is that the people making this decision are part of the Somerville Bike Organization. I would like to think they can put this aside and look at it from a practical side. The livelihood of many people is dependent on this. Never mine clearing up the congestion and getting things moving again on Broadway and bring back safety to our streets. This should not have to be a contest of who gets the upper hand or who wins or loses. Other cities have had to roll back this same thing as it did not work. In some places it will, Broadway is not one of them. This has become obvious. Many lives have been hurt be this. Sadly it has become more dangerous. I have seen too many near misses while out there only because of the red lane mostly. I have biked on these streets, drove on them, took the T and walked for years. So I am not one sided in this fight. The council has my contact information and I will avail myself to answer any questions or concerns they may have at any time. I am not an expert by any means. I just spent many hours on Broadway watching, listening and learning. I have spent many hours studying other cities across the US to try to learn what works and does not work. With this section of Broadway being so short and was working fine before the changes except for one spot is not now and that one spot has only gotten worse which is the Temple to School Street spot. I know I keep repeating some of this but I am learning as I go. And as I have said before this was not planned by me to get involved. I started rather badly but was just trying to get their attention to what was going on and how bad it is. This is not something I would normally do. Over the years when I was to get involved with projects I studied and learned before jumping in, this one has become a learn as I go project. Make your voices heard, email or write if you can’t go to the meeting. Whatever your views are. Some facts would be helpful along with it.

As for the meeting we are working on our statement to hand in to the council before the meeting so as not to take up too much time for us and leave time for the people to have their say. We want to be fair to everyone. Keep in mind nothing is permanent. We can make changes as technology changes or whatever changes may take place. We adapt. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. And please be respectful or the other person’s views even if they do not agree with yours. We need to look at both sides.