GREENFIELD — Members of the Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee recently met for a discussion on potential design plans for the downtown area, including the viability of including bicycle lanes and how parking would play into such a design.
Jeff Sauser, a member of the Parking and Traffic Commission who also works professionally as a city planner, and Public Works Director Marlo Warner II were both invited to speak to the committee at the meeting, held virtually late last month.
“As a planner, I work for public sector clients and private sector clients all over the country, and parking is always what everything boils down to,” Sauser said. “It’s the most important issue for approval. Often times, there’s a disconnect between parking quantities required, and how much somebody actually needs.”
He said if the city is rebuilding Main Street, it’s important to “get it right” and “maximize value.”
“Unfortunately, the place most people want to park is in the segment of Main Street that’s the narrowest, but you can’t have a broken bike network, so you have to choose — what are we going to solve first?” Sauser said. “I would argue having a first-class bike network is the top priority.”
Warner explained that the plans for the Main Street reconstruction project through the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) are “not set in stone” until the next round of funding is appropriated, at which point, there will be public hearings on the next phase of engineering.
He said bicycle lanes on a street with angled parking can be dangerous, with vehicles having to inch out nearly halfway into the roadway before having a view of oncoming traffic. Warner noted that draft plans for the MassDOT project include bicycle lanes with parallel parking.
Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee member George Touloumtzis said when he first reviewed the Greenfield Master Plan, he was struck by the concept of a “transportation ecosystem” that includes bicycle travel.
“I’m comfortable biking on Main Street,” he said. “I’ve done it many, many hundreds of times, but I’m really confident. … I don’t think you’re going to have much of a spectrum of cyclists who would be comfortable with that. So you want to make the built environment as safe as possible because that will increase the percentage of people who bike there.”
Sauser shared with committee members the conversation he moderated with business owners at a Greenfield Business Association forum, during which parking was the focus. Most who spoke at the forum had concerns for plans that included fewer parking spots than there are currently.
“I know there are business owners that don’t want to lose a parking spot, because they see those as a lifeline for their business, and that’s completely understandable,” Sauser said. “But if you have all angled parking, you can’t have bike lanes everywhere because Main Street isn’t wide enough to fit everything you’d want in every block.”
Acknowledging the concern of business owners over the proposed elimination of parking spaces, Sauser told committee members it isn’t just about the number of parking spaces an area has, but how they are used.
“I don’t think you need to have a bunch of two-hour parking spaces in front of an office supply store or a clothing store or a bakery,” he said, suggesting instead, the use of 30-minute parking meters. “You’d effectively quadruple capacity on that street, because you’d have more turnover of cars. … It’s a nuanced conversation, but there’s a way to satisfy everyone to some degree.”
Community and Economic Development Director MJ Adams said the city is looking into funding opportunities to better understand the city’s parking management.
“We want to see our Main Street parking used well and used adequately,” she said.
Sauser posed the possibility of incorporating bicycle lanes between the sidewalk and parking spaces.
“I think the first goal is to decide what’s the sacred thing, what you really want to do,” he said, noting that a mix of parking is also OK. “It doesn’t have to be all parallel or all angled.”
Warner said travel lane codes would need to be factored into any decision, but ultimately he thinks it is possible to accommodate parking and bicycle lanes on Main Street.
“There’s different ways we can do this, with what we have to work with,” he said, noting that regardless of what is decided, it would need to meet MassDOT standards.
He emphasized that there is still time to talk about and work through the plans as a community.
“I would hope that as things are talked through,” Touloumtzis said, “it could be seen as an opportunity to revitalize downtown, which I know is what we’ve all been working toward.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne