MEMORANDUM TO: Mr. Vincent MacNutt FROM: F. Giles Ham, P.E. 101 North Beacon LLC Vanasse & Associates, Inc. 60 Thoreau Street #262 35 New England Business Center Drive Concord, MA 01742 Suite 140 Andover, MA 01810 (978) 474-8800 DATE: June 10, 2019 RE: 8047 SUBJECT: Proposed Residential Development 101 North Beacon Street Watertown, Massachusetts As requested, Vanasse & Associates, Inc. (VAI) has conducted a preliminary traffic assessment of a proposed residential development to be located at 101 North Beacon Street in Watertown, Massachusetts. The site location is depicted in Figure 1. The site was recently occupied by an approximately 10,000 sf building tenanted by AA Rental. Store hours were between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM Monday – Saturday. Access and egress to the site is provided by curb-cuts on Irving Street, North Beacon Street and Ladd Street. The proposed project includes 28 residential units. As part of the site development, the North Beacon Street curb-cut will be closed with the Ladd Street curb-cut accommodating exiting traffic with entering traffic accommodated on Irving Street. Existing Conditions North Beacon Street in the vicinity of the site generally accommodates one (1) lane per direction with on- street parking. Figure 2 depicts the existing lane use and geometrics. The area is serviced by MBTA bus service with stops currently located on Mt. Auburn Street and Arsenal Street. The bus schedules are continued in the Appendix. Existing Traffic Volumes In order to establish traffic-volume demands in the area, existing traffic volumes in the area were researched. In addition, a 24-hour traffic count was conducted along Irving Street on May 9, 2019. The Irving Street traffic volumes are summarized in Table 1. G:\8047 Watertown, MA\Memos\V. MacNutt 061019.docx 1 Transportation Impact Assessment - Proposed Residential Development - Watertown, Massachusetts ARSENAL STREET SITE BOSTON NORTH VOLKSWAGEN BEACON NORTH IRVING 20 STREET CHARLES RIVER RIVERSIDE STREET PARK LADD STREET STREET SOUTH IRVING STREET IRVING BEECHWOOD AVENUE PARK ROYAL THURSTON ROAD FIFIELD STREET PRIEST ROAD WATERTOWN PERKINS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND Source: Google Earth. 04/22/2018. N 0 350 700 Scale in Feet Figure 1 Site Location Map Vanasse & Associates, Inc. Transportation Engineers & Planners R:\8047\8047slm.dwg, 9/25/2018 2:58:46 PM Transportation Impact Assessment - Proposed Residential Development - Watertown, Massachusetts Legend: S Signalized Intersection U Unsignalized Intersection Sidewalk Crosswalk Bike Lane Lane Use and Travel Lane Width U 20 S SITE N Not To Scale Figure 2 Existing Intersection Lane Use, Vanasse & Associates, Inc. Travel Lane Width and Transportation Engineers & Planners Pedestrian Facilities Table 1 2019 EXISTING TRAFFIC VOLUME SUMMARY Directional Location/Peak Hour AWTa VPHb K Factorc Distributiond Irving Street, south of North Beacon Street: 654 -- -- -- Weekday Morning -- 27 5.6 54% SB Weekday Evening -- 74 11.3 54% SB aAverage weekday traffic in vehicles per day. bVehicles per hour. cPercent of daily traffic occurring during the peak hour. dPercent traveling in peak direction. SB = southbound As can be seen in Table 1, Irving Street in the vicinity of the Project site was found to accommodate approximately 654 vehicles on an average weekday (two-way, 24-hour volume), with approximately 37 vehicles per hour (vph) during the weekday morning peak-hour and 74 vph during the weekday evening peak-hour. North Beacon Street traffic volumes were research and from the Arsenal Street Corridor Study and are contained in the Appendix. During the weekday morning peak hour, North Beacon Street accommodates 1,045 vehicles and during the weekday evening peak hour, accommodates 1,130 vehicles. Area Improvements In the immediate area of the project, on-going studies and implementation of improvements are currently underway, these studies include the following: Watertown Square Improvements Project: “The Watertown Square Improvements Project aims to take a multimodal, Complete Streets approach to the square, while recognizing the regional role it plays in the transportation network”. This study is underway with several alternatives under review. The Arsenal on the Charles – Phase 1 Off-Site Improvements: As part of off-site traffic mitigation, both the Irving Street/North Beacon Street and Irving Street/Arsenal Street signalized intersections will be retimed, upgraded and coordinated to facilitate better and safer traffic movements. These signal changes are contained in the Appendix. Trip Generation Existing driveway traffic counts were conducted at the site driveway in October 2018 for the weekday morning period (7:00 to 9:00 AM) but during the weekday evening period the store is closed. In order to develop the traffic characteristics of the proposed project, trip-generation statistics published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)1 for Land Use Code (LUC) 221 – Multifamily Housing were utilized. 1Trip Generation, 10th Edition; Institute of Transportation Engineers; Washington, DC; 2012. G:\8047 Watertown, MA\Memos\V. MacNutt 061019.docx 2 Table 2 provides a comparison of the recently vacated AA Rental use and the proposed residential project. Table 2 TRIP-GENERATION COMPARISON Increase AA Rental Proposed (Decrease) Weekday Morning Peak Hour: Entering 6 3 (3) Exiting 7 7 (0) Total 13 10 (3) Weekday Evening Peak Hour: Entering - 8 8 Exiting - 5 5 Total - 13 13 Source: Institute of Transportation Engineers – Trip Generation 10th Edition. As shown in Table 2, the redevelopment at 101 North Beacon Street will result in three (3) less vehicle trips compared to the prior use during the weekday morning peak hour and 13 additional vehicle trips (8 entering/5 exiting) during the weekday evening peak hour. During the evening peak hour, the project will increase traffic at the North Beacon Street/Irving Street intersection by 0.8 percent and will not be noticeable to the driving public. It should be noted that based upon US Journey to Work data, up to 15 percent of the residents will utilize public transportation further reducing the project’s impact. Recommendations Careful consideration has been made by the project proponent to minimize the project’s impact while providing safe conditions for the project and the public. To this end, the project proponent has committed to the following: Safe Access and Egress In order to minimize the project’s impact to the neighborhood, and Irving Street, the site access will be from Irving Street and the site egress will be onto Ladd Street. Each driveway will be approximately 20 feet wide with appropriate STOP-signs and Do Not Enter signs installed. Pedestrian Improvements The site design has included many pedestrian amenities to enhance the walking environment and promote safe conditions. These improvements include: - Closing the North Beacon Street curb-cut which eliminates a pedestrian – vehicular conflict point. - Upgrade the sidewalk along the site perimeter to current standards - Relocate signal pole at the corner of Irving Street and North Beacon Street - Construct a pocket park/landscape area at the Irving Street corner G:\8047 Watertown, MA\Memos\V. MacNutt 061019.docx 3 - Install curb bump-out on North Beacon Street to shorten crosswalk. Details to be coordinated with Watertown DPW. Bicycle Amenities The project proponent will provide 34 bicycle spaces on-site in addition to a public bicycle fix-it station located adjacent to Ladd Street. Visitor bicycle parking is located at the North Beacon Street and Ladd Street building entrances. Promotes Public Transportation In order to promote public transportation, the project proponent will post transit schedules at a centralized location on-site. In addition, a Transportation Demand Management Plan is recommended for the project which is attached in the Appendix. In summary, the project will generate a minimal amount of traffic in comparison to the prior commercial business use on-site. Specific mitigation with respect to transportation alternatives have been made to reduce the project dependence on vehicular traffic and minimize the impacts to the neighborhood. The project, as currently planned, provides safe and efficient access and egress. cc: File G:\8047 Watertown, MA\Memos\V. MacNutt 061019.docx 4 APPENDIX TRANSIT SCHEDULES TRAFFIC COUNTS TRAFFIC SIGNAL DATA TRIP GENERATION TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT PLAN TRANSIT SCHEDULES TRAFFIC COUNTS Main Street Mount Auburn Street 55 505 195 40 530 55 5 195 455 545 220 S 5 350 Arsenal Street 255 Neg 5 500 145 330 70 335 435 15 25 370 210 195 105 255 5 10 S 375 5 5 5 20 Galen Street 5 North Beacon Street 10 10 Irving Street 20 15 10 95 305 Neg 615 15 5 140 10 Neg 35 S 700 Neg 10 Neg 15 Riverside Street 5 75 250 15 10 5 20 210 395 Charles River Road Neg = Negligible S Signalized Intersection Main Street Mount Auburn Street 50 460 135 20 515 40 15 215 610 410 300 S Neg 525 Arsenal Street 390 10 Neg 400 200 465 195 355 360 10 20 230 130 275 45 415 5 10 S 295 5 5 15 10 Galen Street 5 North Beacon Street 15 10 Irving Street 70 130 10 325 150 5 720 15 5 200 5 Neg 20 S 575 5 5 5 Neg Riverside Street Neg 45 210 25 10 5 10 360 260 Charles River Road Neg = Negligible Weekday Evening Peak Hour S Signalized Intersection TRAFFIC SIGNAL DATA TRIP GENERATION TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT PLAN TOWN OF WATERTOWN DRAFT BASIC TDM PLAN Project Name: 101 North Beacon Street, LLC Project Address: 101 North Beacon Street, Watertown, MA Owner Name: 101 North Beacon LLC Contact Person: Mr. Vincent MacNutt