Public Comment – Dr. Jesse Hefter

Select Board Meeting - April 1, 2025

Good evening

My name is Dr. Jesse Hefter, a Town Meeting Member in Precinct 14, and a resident of Chestnut Hill Avenue. This evening, my comments relate to item 10 on your agenda, the approval of a contract totaling $118,518, to Kittelson and Associates, LLC, to begin work on Contract PW/25-29 entitled a "Bicycle Network Implementation Plan".

In the Memorandum of Understanding from the Town to the Vendor dated March 25, 2025, we read “The Green Routes Bicycle Network Plan, developed by the Bicycle Advisory Committee, has served as a helpful resource for the Town in understanding the streets that the bike community wants to focus on and the types of infrastructure that they would like to see.” The first item in the MOU that the Town is asking for is: “conduct public outreach activities to help identify key issues and opportunities related to planning and implementing Brookline’s bicycle network.” This is very troubling as it seems that we are about to consider spending a lot of money to get a set of guidelines about how to engage with our community as these proposed transportation changes occur.

We heard from several citizens at the Select Board meeting of March 25, 2025 about significant deficiencies in both the Town’s process for convening neighborhood meetings and significant issues with the Engineering Department’s design of proposed changes, including improvements to the existing bike lanes on Chestnut Hill Avenue. The initial proposal was already drawn by an outside vendor based on input from our own Engineering Department and is being revised as we speak and now, we are adding another level of consulting services?

According to statistics recently shared by Mr. Van Scoyoc, biking as a commuting choice in Brookline were 4.4% in 2013 and 4.8% in 2023, showing minimal growth over 10 years.

Accordingly, it is important to note that, while providing a level of safe accommodation to bicyclists in Brookline is an important goal (whether they are from Town or just passing through from neighboring municipalities), it is critical that we take a pause right now and reexamine the capital expenditures that are planned and the road designs that are being proposed for our bicycling infrastructure in Town.

As an example, Chestnut Hill Ave carries over 15,000 vehicles per day while the total number of bicycle riders on the street, on average, ranges from 5-10. Our Town has already begun to create new and safer bicycle lanes (for example, the Fall 2024 Beacon St repaving and line painting project between Washington St and Ayr Rd near Cleveland Circle).

Spending nearly $120,000 within DPW to develop a plan by a consulting firm on how to develop an implementation plan for bicycle infrastructure when we don’t yet have neighborhood-by-neighborhood and street-by-street buy-in seems irresponsible. This would be true at any time but is an even more acute issue in our times of financial stress and budget pressures.

In conclusion, it is crucial that we re-examine our biking infrastructure needs and capital expenditures before committing to such a large sum for outside consultants. Let's work together to ensure responsible spending and effective community engagement.

Thank you.