WESTFIELD – A special committee created to enhance alternative transportation in the city initiated a broad discussion yesterday of a sustainable transportation plan which could translate into an element of the city’s master plan.
The Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Advisory Committee was formed by the Planning Board “to promote, enhance, and restore physical, social, political and economic environment in which bicycling, walking, and alternate transportation are valued as essential for a clean, safe, healthy and vital community.”
The committee membership includes city officials, as well as residents. The Friends of the Columbia Greenway, the Westfield Senior Center and the Westfield Police Department were all represented.
This initial meeting was a scoping out session as members attempted to determine the directions in which their efforts should lie with so many possible vectors of interest.
Don Podolski of a number of bicycling organizations at the local, state, regional and national levels, opened a discussion on ways to make Westfield “more bike-friendly” by improving bike security.
“We don’t have adequate (bike security) facilities downtown,” Podolski said. “Right now if you want to go into a store or restaurant you have to secure your bicycle to a tree or lamp pole.”
Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said that the Planning Board plans to add a bicycle racks requirement to future commercial special permits as a condition of that use and that the city will add secure racks as an element of the Gaslight District Improvement project.
Joe Giffune said that the Columbia Greenway will be much more than a facility used for recreation.
“We’ll be seeing a lot more bicycle traffic (downtown) with the opening of the new section,” Giffune said. “It will become more utilitarian as people use bicycles to do their business and we’re not ready for that. We’re going to see a big impact downtown as people start using bikes to get things done.”
Planning Board member Peter Fiordalice said his concern with that increase in bicycle traffic is people, both bicyclists and motorists, knowing the laws, which were amended several years ago, pertaining to the rules of the road.
“It’s going to take a long time to get that message out, to change the mindset that Westfield is a bicycling community,” Fiordalice said.
George Hart said that the city needs to implement a broad education plan for all constituencies using the roads, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, an educational program which could be as diverse as painting lanes on the pavement, to outreach through schools, social and religious networks.
Podolski said that currently state law prohibits riding bicycles on the sidewalks in a “commercial area” while the city’s ordinance is a prohibition against riding on any sidewalk in the city.
“I’d like to amend that by age of the rider and location of the sidewalk,” Podolski.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti agreed that in rural areas of the city bicyclists should be allowed to use sidewalks because many rural roads are narrow and winding which limits the sight line of both bicyclists and motorists, but added that for downtown that approach will create a bicycle-pedestrian conflict.
Vinskey said that some of the recommendations coming from the committee will require ordinance changes recommended by the Planning Board and approved by the City Council.
The committee members identified law enforcement as a key element in making the city pedestrian and bicycle friendly for all the constituencies using the city’s roadways.
“In bicycleafriendly communities, enforcement is one of the six areas of focus,” Podolski said.
A priority of the committee will be to solicit public input through meetings and perhaps a website. The groups schedule includes a “public input event” to be slated for Nov. 13 as part of the public hearing on the Columbia Greenway northern section, which is the railroad bridge across the Westfield River.
The state Department of Transportation will conduct that public hearing which Cressotti plans to piggyback on to seek input on the sustainable transportation program.
