A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 17-111, regarding the feasibility of implementing neighborways

City of Cambridge Cambridge Arts Council – Jason Weeks, Executive Director Community Development Department – Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager Department of Public Works – Owen O’Riordan, Commissioner Traffic, Parking, and Transportation – Joseph E. Barr, Director MEMORANDUM To: Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager From: Joseph E. Barr, Director of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager for Community Development Owen O’Riordan, Commissioner of Public Works Jason Weeks, Executive Director, Cambridge Arts Council Date: February 7, 2018 Re: Awaiting Report 17-111 – Report on the Feasibility of Implementing Neighborways This memo is in response to Order 7 from the October 16, 2017 City Council Meeting (Awaiting Report 17-111), which requests a report on the feasibility of implementing neighborways on streets in Cambridge. Based on discussions amongst staff from our four departments, we have the following information to report to the City Council. Communities in different parts of the country have been trying new methods to engage the community and introduce public art into the streetscape, while also working to increase safety on smaller neighborhood streets. Broadly known as neighborways, these efforts fall into two categories, which can be used independently or in combination: • Public art such as murals and geometric patterns that are painted on the street. Generally, these involve a significant amount of community engagement in developing the art installation, and can help with community building and raising the awareness of the need to improve traffic safety. • More typical traffic control and traffic calming improvements aimed at trying to reduce speed and discourage cut-through traffic on local streets. These can range from simple painted curb extension/bulb-outs all the way to more significant infrastructure improvements such as traffic diverters, speed humps, and pedestrian crossing islands. To better understand the potential for these neighborways, we have researched these efforts in other communities, specifically in Somerville (the most well-known local example), Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA. Each of these communities is taking a somewhat different approach, based on their specific needs and context, and the information from this research is summarized below:

Page 2 of 4 • The Somerville Neighborways Program uses paint and signs to engage neighbors in a community process to put public art on their street with the aim of community building, lowering traffic speeds, and increasing pedestrian safety. These are low cost projects that use paint to create public art murals on the street as well as painted curb extensions. These include a fairly extensive process to involve residents of the street and are usually installed and maintained by neighborhood volunteers with the city paying for paint and supplies. So far, data have not shown reliable reductions in speeds, although some residents may perceive lower speeds given the new look of the street and community building involved with the project. More recently, Somerville has considered additional measures such as speed humps, planters, and trees. In 2017, Somerville began to implement projects that include more traditional pavement markings to implement changes such as contraflow cycling on one-way streets and longer-lasting painted curb extensions. • The Portland (Oregon) Neighborhood Greenways Program is a capital construction program that uses traffic diverters, new pedestrian crossings, speed bumps, and stormwater infrastructure features to reduce vehicle speeds and cut-through traffic, provide safer bicycling and pedestrian connections, improve yielding to pedestrians at busier crossings, and encourage more biking and walking leading to greater safety. Follow-up data has shown mixed results, but often some reduction in speeds and diversion of traffic to other streets when diverters are used. Portland has also installed murals at intersections through their City Repair Project, but have found that any initial effect on driver behavior wears off over time. • The Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Program is a capital program that uses speed humps, spot street and sidewalks changes, signs/pavement markings, and wayfinding to improve safety, discourage cut-through traffic, protect the residential character of neighborhoods, keep speeds low, improve yielding at crosswalk, and help people reach destinations such as parks, schools, shops and restaurants. No data on speeds/volume are publicly available, but the City of Seattle conducts a follow up study one year after implementation to determine if motorists’ speeds have increased, and will consider installing speed humps if an increase does occur. In considering the potential for neighborways in Cambridge, it is also important to put it in context of existing City programs and activities. • The Cambridge Traffic Calming Program is a capital program with many goals that are similar to the other localities cited above, but with some exceptions. Traffic calming requests are collected and matched with streets that are listed in upcoming years of the city’s Five Year Plan for Sidewalk and Street Reconstruction. A community process is conducted to listen to neighborhood concerns and find traffic calming tools that may be used to reduce vehicle speeds, improve pedestrian safety, encourage cycling, and protect the character of

Page 3 of 4 neighborhood streets. These projects are not designed to move traffic off of one street and place it on another street. Funds from the traffic calming program are allocated per the city’s Percent for Art public art program and used for art projects (as funds allow), which could be used for both permanent and temporary works of art. In the past, a public art mural was painted on the pavement at the intersection of Fayerweather Street and Vassal Lane, but was then removed after vandalism and complaints regarding its appearance and the perceptions of neighbors and those using the street. • The Cambridge Arts Council formally implements a 40-year old Municipal Ordinance that requires and supports the development of public art as part of the City’s capital investment program. This includes projects that involve traffic calming; a good example is Jane Goldman's New England Oasis artwork at Sheridan Square off Rindge Avenue. The Arts Council is always interested in working with local communities that wish to use art as an opportunity for community building and neighborhood engagement, whether within the context of the street/sidewalk environment or elsewhere. This assistance can take the form of professional, technical, and financial support to residents, local organizations, and business districts to implement public art in both public and private locations. An upcoming example of this type of project within a street context is the Home Port Ground Mural and associated artwork that the Community Arts Center will implement on Windsor Street between School Street and Washington Street, as part of the overall Home Port Public Art program. The City has funded Home Port from inception via the Arts Council's Grant Program and this particular project will receive significant funding from the FLOW Grant Program related to The Port Infrastructure Project (www.cambridgema.gov/arts/publicart/flowgrants). However, it is important to recognize that stand-alone art projects are not a traffic calming tool and have not been shown to reduce speeds or calm traffic traffic, in the absence of other traffic control measures that are specifically targeted towards achieving those outcomes. In general, the existing traffic calming program provides an opportunity to address many of the same goals as the neighborways program in Somerville, including both civic engagement and enhancements aimed at calming traffic. Based on these findings, City staff do not recommend relying on projects where paint alone is used to achieve traffic calming goals, and do not recommend the establishment of a standalone neighborways program, particularly given the significant resources that are already available through the traffic calming program and the Cambridge Arts Council. However, we are very open to having future traffic calming projects involve more significant community building art components, to complement the physical changes designed to slow vehicle speeds. Other, standalone public art and community building projects could also be introduced without needing to be connected to capital construction projects, but would require approval from the Traffic, Parking & Transportation Department prior to installation. As noted above, the Cambridge Arts Council is willing to work

Page 4 of 4 closely with community organizations that are interested in pursuing civic art opportunities in either context.