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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:18:26
Petru Sofio
It started with the bike lane, and then I decided to add in, you know, some landscape architecture, just just some sort of design that could really reimagine the corridors, something more bicycle and Christian friendly than than what we have today. Because short term solutions are great and a lot of cities are employing them because they're so easy to get out there.
00:00:18:26 - 00:00:41:25
Petru Sofio
But obviously the long term goal is to have, you know, what what the Dutch have, having separated the bike lanes on the sidewalks and bike signals and all those, you know, wonderful amenities that we can really have to transform our streets because we can make streets more bicycle friendly in the short term. But you don't really get the added benefits like landscaping that comes from you know, complete streets and Dutch style street design.
00:00:41:25 - 00:00:44:04
Petru Sofio
I mean, we really want to see everyone.
00:00:44:04 - 00:01:09:24
John Simmerman
Welcome to the Active Towns Channel My name is John Simmerman, and that is Petru Sofio from Arlington, Massachusetts, in the Cambridge/Somerville area right there in Boston. And we're going to be talking about how he got passionate about transportation, signal engineering, all that good stuff. And if I haven't already mentioned it, yeah, he's a senior in high school. Let's get right to it.
00:01:09:24 - 00:01:20:02
John Simmerman
TPetru, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns Podcast. Welcome.
00:01:20:04 - 00:01:21:29
Petru Sofio
Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
00:01:22:01 - 00:01:28:23
John Simmerman
Petru I love having my guest to say a few words about themselves. So in a nutshell, who is Petru?
00:01:28:25 - 00:01:52:06
Petru Sofio
So I am. And you know, I live in Arlington, Massachusetts, and I'm actually a high school student. I'm very passionate about transportation and always have been, even since I was young. A feel very deeply that everybody should be able to get around to that remotely. They they choose. And I'm also very interested in transportation, engineering and design, especially traffic signals.
00:01:52:06 - 00:02:04:27
Petru Sofio
So you get to the nitty gritty of engineering design to try to see how we can make things better for pedestrians, bicyclists, you know, everybody that uses our streets or our modes and abilities. Yeah.
00:02:05:00 - 00:02:26:23
John Simmerman
Yeah. And you mentioned in passing there that you are a high schooler. You are so and you also mentioned when I was young, well, you are still young, but 2.0, yeah, absolutely. Check this out. So this you sent this along. This is a drawing you did when you were, I'm assuming, much younger.
00:02:26:25 - 00:02:50:26
Petru Sofio
Yeah, I think I was about seven or so. And I when I did this. So I always would, you know, I would love to use paper and just color away drawing traffic signals, you know? And a lot of my drawings, the first grouping of sentences I went to type of style, I think I was five or so is actually no turn on read because I would be drawing traffic signals and I was like, what's that sign?
00:02:50:26 - 00:03:01:00
Petru Sofio
Because, you know, we're lucky in Massachusetts have a lot of neutral on red signs. So I would always see them on traffic signals and wanted to put them in my drawings. So that's what you see in this in this photo.
00:03:01:02 - 00:03:15:26
John Simmerman
I know. And, and in your background too. And clearly you were passionate about the of know turn on red aspect of any idea what kind of prompted that you know that passion for not turn on red.
00:03:15:28 - 00:03:35:17
Petru Sofio
I think first for me was just you know it was just a symbol of traffic signals when I was younger then, you know, I started running and biking a lot in 2020. And I actually got hit by a car and I turn on Red Intersection. But it was a right turning vehicle who is over the crosswalk. And I ran in front of them.
00:03:35:17 - 00:03:57:29
Petru Sofio
I mean, I was only 14 and they turned without double checking for pedestrians and I was on their hood. I wasn't hurt. I was able to walk away. So I was very lucky that it was not an SUV or truck or something like that. But it definitely drew me aware to like the danger that that right turns on red and turns on red in general pose to, you know, by cyclists and pedestrians.
00:03:58:01 - 00:04:13:15
Petru Sofio
And to me as like somebody who's interested in traffic signals, it seemed wrong that anybody would be able to do so, disobey a traffic signal, even to turn right. It just doesn't make sense if we already have this safety device installed that if you're turning right, you should just have to wait.
00:04:13:17 - 00:04:38:11
John Simmerman
Right? You know? Yeah. It's what's interesting, too, about your story. And as a runner myself, I have I've had plenty of those types of interactions with with vehicles that are turning right in in you're absolutely correct. They're they as drivers, they're looking to the left. They're looking for, you know, oncoming vehicles. And so they're like, I've got a gap or it's clear for me to do.
00:04:38:11 - 00:04:45:17
John Simmerman
And they're already turning by the time they're like, and then Petra's right there or John's right.
00:04:45:17 - 00:04:59:15
Petru Sofio
Yeah, exactly. It's it's just very unexpected because, you know, sidewalks are two way, so you have to cross that. And that's becoming an issue with bikeways, too, as we have more separated bike lanes that are too directional.
00:04:59:17 - 00:05:29:18
John Simmerman
Yes, exactly. But the other thing that you mentioned two things is because the speeds are were and typically are relatively low, oftentimes it's either a near-miss or if it is a collision, it's not a fatal or serious collision. But to your point, you made the clarification that it's a good thing it wasn't a huge SUV because it may not have been the same outcome because you ended up on on the hood.
00:05:29:18 - 00:05:56:18
John Simmerman
And I can remember quite a few taxicabs in Chicago that I would smash my fist down on their hood when they did that to me. And they were startled. And I'm like, Yeah, you need to first look this way, dude, before you turn. So yeah, so good point. A low speed, so good outcome in that sense. But also fortunate that it wasn't a big, huge behemoth of a vehicle.
00:05:56:18 - 00:06:00:08
Petru Sofio
Exactly. Thank goodness. Yeah.
00:06:00:10 - 00:06:28:06
John Simmerman
Absolutely. So you and I have have never met, but we have been connected through social media for the better part of a year or more because you're also very, very active out on social media and, you know, conversing and talking. And then inevitably your name comes up in other interviews that I've done, like your name came up in the episode that I was recording with Megan Raimi and she's like, yeah, that was awesome.
00:06:28:06 - 00:07:00:27
John Simmerman
He did this great diagram work for me. So you're like, so passionate about this stuff that you're not. It's beyond just, you know, what you saw when you were doing this. You're doing some formalized work now too, and you're you're like actually using sketch up and other types of programs. I'm sure really getting into this is your intention to to eventually go on and study in college to become a transportation engineer or a general engineer, or what's the direction that you're hoping to head?
00:07:00:29 - 00:07:19:14
Petru Sofio
Yeah. And so I'm a senior in high school, so next year I'm going to be going to college and I'm majoring in civil engineering. And that will be really exciting. You know, just to, you know, my goal eventually is to be a traffic engineer, which I know is is controversial to a lot of people because there has been a lot of harm done in the past.
00:07:19:14 - 00:07:40:00
Petru Sofio
But I like to think about it. You know, we have a new wave of planners. We can have a new wave of traffic engineers, too. And I would always prioritize people's pedestrian safety and bicycle safety when looking at that. I've also had an opportunity to do several internships, most recently over the summer at Tour design group, which is, you know, a great firm.
00:07:40:02 - 00:07:47:13
Petru Sofio
And in those internships I was able to learn more about traffic signal engineering and get to work on a couple of projects too. So that was really exciting.
00:07:47:15 - 00:08:11:07
John Simmerman
Yeah, and one of my recent interviews was with Stefan Baer, who is classically trained, you know, civil engineer. And then he, you know, made the point and he actually wrote an article about this is that, you know, in North America, in the United States, we don't really even have true traffic engineering. It's like, you know, you you basically become a civil engineer.
00:08:11:07 - 00:08:45:05
John Simmerman
You get that training, you may get a few classes in coursework in in transportation, in traffic, etc.. And he kind of, you know, identifies the point as he then went to the Netherlands and is now working for the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands and in really the that formalization of the types of study and the types of work that they're doing to really hone in on, you know, trying to create an environment where that is multi-modal, you know, and supports people exactly like biking and all these other things.
00:08:45:08 - 00:09:29:03
John Simmerman
And the fact that you're you're so interested in signals and in signalization and that's one of the great things that I think that they do very, very well over there is the signal phasing and signal timing that really helps make it easier for people walking and biking because really, you know, it's at that intersection where you're most vulnerable as a person walking or biking and if if you've got the engineers in the traffic engineers and the signals and technicians that are like honing in on, by the way, we can have the power to really help make this easier for somebody on a bike or walking to be able to make it to their destination
00:09:29:03 - 00:09:29:28
John Simmerman
successfully.
00:09:30:05 - 00:09:50:15
Petru Sofio
Absolutely. Yeah. I've been to the Netherlands once and, you know, I would just watch the traffic signals just for 15 minutes an hour. They were so interesting. The way they operate is fully actuated. That's the technical term. So that means that they basically operate based on what's happening at the intersection in real time. It's not free times at all.
00:09:50:17 - 00:10:14:07
Petru Sofio
So if a pedestrian comes up and they hit the button, they'll get a walk sign as soon as possible. So you do have to wait around, you know, like you do in the United States for often just waiting for vehicles that just aren't there. And it's extremely frustrating. And it really hurts our our compliance traffic signals because when drivers see I'm waiting for this pedestrian that doesn't exist or this driver, this car that's not here, like why am I waiting at this neutral and red sign?
00:10:14:07 - 00:10:20:28
Petru Sofio
And then they'll just turn and then the behavior is normalized. So once we have smarter signals, I think we'll have better drivers, too.
00:10:21:00 - 00:10:44:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. And into to your point too, is, you know, people who are riding bikes, bikes are not motor vehicles, you know, being able to keep your momentum up and continuing to travel at bicycling speed, you know, you know, 10 to 15 miles per hour. So at a very relaxed pace is essential for being able to to get around to meaningful destinations.
00:10:44:12 - 00:11:11:20
John Simmerman
And so one of the great things that the Netherlands is really working on and I noticed this when Bicycle Dutch and I met Mark Valkenburg, he had his app turned on that was interacting with the the traffic signal situation when we were doing a tour of his hometown there in De Bosch. And it was wonderful because there was that additional sort of anticipation, as you're mentioning.
00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:21
John Simmerman
It's like it's anticipating that we are actually cycling towards that intersection and it gave us the ability to actually successfully make it through many of those intersections because it actually knew that we were getting there even before the traditional sort of actuation period, which was it would be a loop. And there it was even earlier because it was an app based system.
00:11:34:25 - 00:11:37:15
John Simmerman
So really fascinating what we can have for the future.
00:11:37:17 - 00:12:01:22
Petru Sofio
Yeah, absolutely. And it's really inspiring to see that type of work. I know Cambridge and New York City and a couple other municipalities are experimenting with what's called a bicycle greenways, which is where the signals are set for a speed that's that's reasonable for cyclists, maybe 12 miles an hour, 11 miles an hour. And that really you feel really prioritized when you bike on a agree when in Greenway because you just are not stuck by the lights.
00:12:01:22 - 00:12:08:25
Petru Sofio
You know you can just continue through and you see the drivers stop and then they have to start again. And that's good for them too, because it makes them drive slower.
00:12:08:25 - 00:12:32:22
John Simmerman
So yeah, it's really, really good. You just mentioned Cambridge and of course you are actually in Arlington, which is really close to Cambridge and also Somerville. And we have a few images of some intersections and some fun stuff that you were working on. Why don't you guide us through this whole series of photos here and why you sent them along, what you want, what you wanted to talk about, and and you can just guide me.
00:12:32:22 - 00:12:36:07
John Simmerman
You can say the next image, you know, we'll all shovel it through.
00:12:36:09 - 00:13:02:03
Petru Sofio
Sounds good. So this is the Massachusetts Avenue Appleton Street intersection in Arlington. This is about a two minute walk from me to very close by right in my neighborhood. And in the pandemic. I was biking a lot of friends. And I would like through this intersection to get to the local bike trail. And in May, there was a cyclist that was speeding through this intersection and they were struck by a driver turning left and killed.
00:13:02:05 - 00:13:30:28
Petru Sofio
And once that happened, you know, I don't know what it was, but I really so upset about that. It just felt really scary that that something like died like that. And so I was kind of how I got into formal bicycle advocacy in a way, and wanting to really better, better my community. So as you can see, this intersection, it's got these really strange traffic signals that, you know, they aren't really traffic signals, but if you click a button then they turn red for you to cross the street, but otherwise they're not.
00:13:31:00 - 00:13:48:12
Petru Sofio
It operates like a normal intersection and it's super wide. There's just an abyss of a pavement. It's a very odd intersection. So people just used to fly up, set up that left turn, you know, really going 30 miles an hour and trying to get up the hill. And it just was a really dangerous situation. So you go to the next slide.
00:13:48:14 - 00:14:10:04
Petru Sofio
Once that fatality happened, the town kind of looked at it with a lot of pressure from advocates, you know, seeing what was done in Cambridge and saying, hey, we really need to make this better. So this was a photo I took of a trial that the town did to make the intersection safer. In a really short term. They put these curb bump outs out and and you can see people cycling already feel a little bit safer if you go to the next slide.
00:14:10:06 - 00:14:32:27
Petru Sofio
So this was one of the designs and this is one of the first designs. And I was new to the to the advocacy side. So I went into it was like, okay, everybody's going to be for this. Like it's going to be great and we're going to get a safer solution. But, you know, as it often is in America, there was a parking loss and that was really controversial to people in the neighborhood.
00:14:33:00 - 00:14:43:26
Petru Sofio
And I suddenly quickly learned that, so I guess there are other priorities beyond safety in traffic engineering and, you know, politics as well.
00:14:43:28 - 00:14:46:16
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.
00:14:46:18 - 00:14:58:22
Petru Sofio
Yeah. So as we went on, the design got altered into this, which is there's a block two of the shared lane markings and my car is deciding to join us. first colleges. Yeah.
00:14:58:22 - 00:15:08:17
John Simmerman
No, no, let's don't apologize. That's, that's we, we enjoy and frequently have a feeling guests on the on the show.
00:15:08:20 - 00:15:28:17
Petru Sofio
Yes Lindsay likes some cards Yes but if you go to the next slide, you know, this design was actually installed and I came out to watch it being painted. And this is a photo I took right next to the ghost bike of Charlie Proctor, who is unfortunately killed at this intersection by a driver. And it never should have happened.
00:15:28:17 - 00:15:48:00
Petru Sofio
And the intersection was redesigned in 2015 with a repaving project. And something like this I wish happened so there wouldn't have been this tragedy. And so it's really sad that it took this long. But if you go to the next slide, you can just see how much safer. You know, it's really unfortunate that we're in America. We're having to let you know, it's often a process.
00:15:48:00 - 00:16:16:11
Petru Sofio
You know, you start off a tragedy and that's how our roads get safer. And I think that after this, Arlington is starting to learn to proactively go with this, the safety improvements that we needed as Vision Zero communities. So in one hand, I'm really happy that the safety improvements were installed and on the other, it's really tragic that someone had to die before this intersection could get safer because people have been saying it's been dangerous for years and nothing ever happened until this this tragedy.
00:16:16:14 - 00:16:49:03
John Simmerman
How much has you mentioned it? I think in passing there, how much is being in close proximity to Cambridge and Somerville that are two communities that have really been, I think, pushing the edges and pushing the limits and really working hard to create safer places. And I like to say that I think Cambridge is in particular has been like really even pushing across the river, you know, Boston to to get with it and get moving.
00:16:49:06 - 00:16:59:16
John Simmerman
How much influence is that on on your town in terms of like, yeah, we can see that there's a better way to do this is I'm assuming that's influencing you guys as well.
00:16:59:19 - 00:17:26:26
Petru Sofio
Absolutely. I mean, the dichotomy is enormous. Like, you know, I believe when, when, when this the our select board, which is the voting board for our town, was deciding on this plan removed, I think, you know, less than half of the parking spaces and it was not approved the same night Cambridge had a meeting where they were on a much longer longer stretch of the same street, planning on removing all of the parking on the street and protected bike lanes.
00:17:26:29 - 00:17:52:29
Petru Sofio
So seeing that was really you know, on one hand, I'm really excited for Cambridge that they were able to do that project preemptively before anybody died to make the corridor safer. But also it really showed us like, wow, okay, we can't even remove a couple parking spaces that aren't really being used when someone died. So I think that in that way, you know, it kind of keeps people, you know, it's it allows us to see them as a role, a role model.
00:17:52:29 - 00:18:16:21
Petru Sofio
And it also allows community members who maybe are suspicious of bike lanes to check it out. And they're able to to see see the improvements at one of our SELECTBOARD members, Selectboard Selectman Eric Holness, he actually now rides his e-bike and he's gone through Cambridge and he sees the protected bike lanes and and now he's become one of our strongest champions for for safer streets in Arlington.
00:18:16:21 - 00:18:35:10
Petru Sofio
So I think that having them close by, it makes, it makes it extra doable. You know, we have also we also have constraints like snow and other and other issues like that. And people would say, well, how are we going to deal with the snow? You can't put in bike lanes because they're not going to plow it. And we can just like to Cambridge because they've already done it for us.
00:18:35:15 - 00:18:53:19
Petru Sofio
So it's really, really powerful to have that type of role model. And I think that they definitely influence the community, especially because we have such small towns and cities in Arlington and or in Massachusetts, so that people, you know, if it's safer to bike in Cambridge than people, more people are going to be biking in Arlington to that effect.
00:18:53:19 - 00:18:56:12
Petru Sofio
And then once we have more bicyclists, we need to protect them as well.
00:18:56:17 - 00:19:16:23
John Simmerman
So, yeah, because I mean, when you really think of it, I remember riding in the area and I'm like, I'm filming down Western Avenue and, you know, it's and by the way, you know, that's a great example of where they were able to pretty put in a protected bike way and retained some parking in that area. So it became a parking protected.
00:19:16:29 - 00:19:38:29
John Simmerman
But the bike lane is also up at the same level as the pedestrian realm. And so they were able to do continuous sidewalks and continuous crossings of the bicycle path, the bicycle lane through the minor intersections. But what was really interesting for me of riding around that area is I'd be like riding along and like, wait, I'm in Somerville now.
00:19:39:01 - 00:19:48:19
John Simmerman
So you all are very, very close. I mean, when we're talking about, you know, the distances between your town and Cambridge, I mean, it's you're very, very close.
00:19:48:21 - 00:20:07:02
Petru Sofio
Right? Yeah, I think Arlington's only about six square miles, and Cambridge is around that same size, maybe ten square miles. So. And very small communities. And I think that that really has helped the Boston area, you know, get better, you know, better infrastructure because, you know, there's just not one huge government that decides where everybody gets bike is bicycle infrastructure.
00:20:07:02 - 00:20:29:03
Petru Sofio
It's each, you know, local governments that can decide that. And then we see different approaches to bicycle infrastructure. So like we had the cycling safety ordinance in Cambridge that mandates the installation of protected bike lanes. And we have Boston's approach to just installing it, you know, as needed on the mayor's approach. And in Somerville, kind of has a hybrid effect and we can see how that works for each community.
00:20:29:03 - 00:20:54:05
Petru Sofio
And then other communities in the suburbs can explore from that. Massdot has also been a really important influence in our designs and across the state as well, because they have what's called controlling criteria for their complete streets projects, which requires, you know, projects that are getting reconstructed to have protected bike lanes and have bus lanes and have sidewalks.
00:20:54:08 - 00:21:14:13
Petru Sofio
And all of these things, that should be standard. And it's really allowed, you know, projects all across the state. You're starting to see separated bike lanes, you know, just going up everywhere and it's really that's how we're going to get that network because it's not going to fund projects without protected bike lanes. So we're going to have projects that protected bike lanes.
00:21:14:14 - 00:21:18:26
Petru Sofio
They control the funding and that's really powerful. You know.
00:21:18:28 - 00:21:22:27
John Simmerman
We've got a nice rainbow here.
00:21:23:00 - 00:21:44:09
Petru Sofio
Yeah, this is just kind of right after the bike lane was installed, I think it was like the day after and I went for a walk and there was a rainbow and it made me honestly pretty emotional just to see that it's just been such a such a wild process of mass in Appleton to get even this little bike lane installed after the tragedy.
00:21:44:09 - 00:22:04:28
Petru Sofio
So it really meant a lot to me. And I was just seeing bicyclists. It was the first warm day, you know, using using that lane. And now people feel safe to ride year round there too. So it's really, really, really special. And you can just see from this drone shot just how odd that intersection really was. And it's it's just so much safer now.
00:22:05:01 - 00:22:22:11
Petru Sofio
I believe the next photo even has like a sunset, you know, just it's it's part it's more part of the community now. And it's just is a much safer intersection. Even drivers have said that this is a huge improvement. So it's really nice to have everybody come together and really support this solution.
00:22:22:13 - 00:22:42:11
John Simmerman
I think that's a really good point, too, that you're making here, is that, you know, when we create a safer environment, especially when we're dealing with sort of an odd shaped intersection like this, if we can bring motor vehicle speeds down, it's safer for everybody. Everybody benefits, including drivers.
00:22:42:13 - 00:23:02:09
Petru Sofio
Exactly. And the visibility to I mean, just having that bump out to the right next to the bike lane, you know, having people approach that intersection at that angle, they can see much better than they would have if they're coming down, you know, at the previous just, you know, just angle. It was just much more much more dangerous.
00:23:02:09 - 00:23:23:05
Petru Sofio
And this this really clarified all those movements. And what was really exciting after that was, you know, after the short term project, the town decided to go forward with reconstructing the corridor. And I believe there's some photos in the slideshow that that show that design. But it's a sidewalk level protected bike lane, just like the one on Western Avenue in Cambridge.
00:23:23:05 - 00:23:44:19
Petru Sofio
So so we go from having this short term design and now we can go forward to starting construction next year of a fully protected bike lane on the sidewalk level called standard. And that's going to be constructed in the near future. 11 is my concepts that I made first and then 12 is the one that the engineer engineering consultant made.
00:23:44:21 - 00:24:03:17
Petru Sofio
So once the short term limit and I wanted to push forward, you know, like the town was going to do to get reconstruction projects going. So I made this diagram and Adobe Illustrator and that was to show what we could have, you know, if we're doing a full reconstruction, we have all this space because the sidewalks are up for grabs.
00:24:03:17 - 00:24:37:13
Petru Sofio
So obviously we don't want to shorten the width of the sidewalks. But but there's a lot more space there, so a lot more possibilities for traffic, signalization and such. And I made this concept to show what a sidewalk level bike lane could look like here, because the average rider on Massachusetts Avenue today is or at least was a cyclists, you know, kind of like a mammal for say, like a racing cyclist going very fast, not a not someone who's biking for transportation, but more so many like a weekend warrior type.
00:24:37:13 - 00:24:56:19
Petru Sofio
And obviously we want to welcome those users, too, as bicyclists and keep them safe. But but the overall goal is to try and do some road shift that allows people not just use cars to get around or not just to walk, but also to use bicycles and if we want people to feel safe biking, we need to provide them with protected bicycle facilities.
00:24:56:21 - 00:25:05:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. So, so you use this app, Adobe Illustrator, as you mentioned, and then what did you do with this?
00:25:05:06 - 00:25:26:07
Petru Sofio
So I gave it to the town. The transportation planner at the time, Daniel Amstutz, he's a superstar and he was working on with the consultant Stantec to, to redesign this corridor. So I sent that design to him just to say, hey, you know, this is really what we have, what we should do because we have the space for this.
00:25:26:10 - 00:25:46:28
Petru Sofio
Cambridge has started to do it. Somerville has, you know, and we have the space. And eventually that became one of the project goals. And even people who opposed the design previously, it made a lot of sense to them to have the parking, protect the bike traffic. You know, they don't really most of them are not against having bike lanes or having bicyclists.
00:25:46:28 - 00:26:13:14
Petru Sofio
They just want to make sure that they're able to park, too. So if we're able to have parking protected bike lanes where bicyclists can actually feel safer because there's parked cars separating them from the fast moving vehicles, you know, it's it's kind of a perfect solution. Unfortunately, it did come with some parking removal. But I'm happy to say that this time after a parking study was done, this board moved forward with the new proposal, even if it did remove some of the parking.
00:26:13:14 - 00:26:35:28
Petru Sofio
So it kept all of the most utilized parking. And and this is the design that Stantec made and they're refining it and adding in some more landscaping, which I'm really excited about. And it's going to be it's just, you know, in credible transformation from what we had before, you can still see it in the red with what the existing curved lines were and now just how it's tightened up.
00:26:35:28 - 00:26:42:11
Petru Sofio
And with the new protected bike lanes, it's just going to be an amazing community asset and I can't wait for that.
00:26:42:13 - 00:26:56:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. So when you handed it off to, you know, the person at the town, were you already a known quantity to him Was did you guys already have a relationship ahead of time or as you kind of kept catch him off guard.
00:26:56:23 - 00:27:15:00
Petru Sofio
So I actually met Daniel for the first time back in 2019. I was in the eighth grade and the town was installing a bus lane and I use the 77 a lot to get to school. So I saw a poster on the bus stop. Paul and I decided to go, and that's where I met Daniel for the first time.
00:27:15:00 - 00:27:37:29
Petru Sofio
So he's been with the town for a while, so I've known him from then. But but, you know, fast forward to 2021 when we had the short term design going on. I was engaged in that process and I would send a lot of feedback to Daniel, and that's how we kind of developed relationships. So by the time I had my concept reconstruction concept, a sports, we knew each other pretty well.
00:27:37:29 - 00:27:50:27
Petru Sofio
So it was good to have that. Good to know him already. He's he's a great guy. Unfortunately not with the town anymore, but he's doing great, great things too. And we also have a new transportation planner, John Alessi, and he's fantastic as well.
00:27:50:27 - 00:27:54:14
John Simmerman
So that's great. So what year did you do this?
00:27:54:17 - 00:28:18:03
Petru Sofio
So this I designed in 2021, 2022, I believe is 2022. So yes. So here's a right. Yeah. Two years ago now. So you know, it started with the bike lane and then I decided to add in, you know, some landscape architecture just just some sort of design that could really reimagine the corridors, something more bicycle and Christian friendly than than what we have today.
00:28:18:08 - 00:28:39:09
Petru Sofio
Because short term solutions are great and a lot of cities are employing them because they're so easy to get out there. But obviously the long term goal is to have, you know, what what the Dutch have, having separated the bike lanes on the sidewalks and bike signals and all those wonderful amenities that we can really have to transform our streets because we can make streets more bicycle friendly in the short term.
00:28:39:09 - 00:28:48:15
Petru Sofio
But you don't really get the added benefits like landscaping that come from, you know, complete streets and Dutch style street design that we really want to see.
00:28:48:18 - 00:28:56:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, You know, and for those who may have missed earlier, what age were you when you did this? Two years ago?
00:28:56:22 - 00:29:02:29
Petru Sofio
I would have been about 15 or 16. So yeah, pretty young.
00:29:03:02 - 00:29:24:22
John Simmerman
I just I adore the fact that you were so inspired at such a young age to get engaged in this. And yeah, I am stoked to, you know, continue following you and your career as you move on. So so this is the Stantec plan they're working on improving it. What are we looking at here? This does not look like much fun.
00:29:24:25 - 00:29:43:11
Petru Sofio
Yeah. So this is, as you said, Avenue is a very long street. So, you know, it goes it's the center of town. We have to center of town streets. We have the bike trail, which is the minivan bikeway. And then we have Mass Avenue. And a lot of times we hear in the town, bicyclists can just use them and bikeway and, you know, that's just not the case.
00:29:43:11 - 00:30:00:01
Petru Sofio
I would love to use the bike path to get around. But, you know, I'm trying to go to my high school that's on Massachusetts Avenue. I'm trying to go to town hall. I'm trying to go to local businesses. All those places are on Massachusetts Avenue. And this photo shows what it's really like today. You know, we have a shero.
00:30:00:03 - 00:30:22:02
Petru Sofio
Okay. That's something, I suppose, but it's not really, really any protection. So I took this photo and I was biking home from school and it shows, you know, to, to people younger, younger child and, and a mother, I believe, you know, cycling on Massachusetts Avenue right next to the semi-truck. Thankfully, you know, the traffic signals a new turn on red.
00:30:22:02 - 00:30:41:12
Petru Sofio
So they have at least that question safety benefit. But, you know, it's not a comfortable place to ride. It's very dangerous. And I've had so many friends like get doored in this section of Massachusetts Avenue because people are just are not alert for cyclists. And and it just could be so much better. There's just a business of asphalt.
00:30:41:12 - 00:30:57:13
Petru Sofio
And it's really it doesn't even I mean, this truck, you can see it only takes up to a third of the lane. You know there's there's so much more space that we have there that we knew we could unlock. I mean, this is this lane is 14 feet wide, right? Actually, I believe it's 16 feet.
00:30:57:19 - 00:30:59:14
John Simmerman
It's looking like it's more like 16.
00:30:59:14 - 00:31:10:10
Petru Sofio
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's four feet wider than interstate travel links. There's no reason that any lane should ever be that wide. It just induces people to drive faster and more dangerously.
00:31:10:13 - 00:31:28:25
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And to your point, too, you know, because we were just looking at the, you know, the previous design that's going to be, you know, have the parking protected on here. You can really see how much more comfortable this would be for this parent and for this child if they were, you know, to the right of where the parked vehicles are.
00:31:28:25 - 00:31:31:26
John Simmerman
And so if we're able to shift those folks over.
00:31:31:28 - 00:31:34:07
Petru Sofio
Absolutely. And then the next slide.
00:31:34:09 - 00:31:38:16
John Simmerman
Is this the the likelihood for for this or is that what the next slide is going to be?
00:31:38:22 - 00:32:01:27
Petru Sofio
So the next slide is a you know, that intersection that you can see kind of to the bottom, right? That's the traffic signal that they were queuing up at. And this is a design that I made in my engineering class at school, which is computer aided drafting and design for what this corridor could be like. So the town unfortunately hasn't begun a process to reconstruct or redesign this corridor yet.
00:32:01:27 - 00:32:19:04
Petru Sofio
But we are looking at doing or the town is looking at doing road diets, you know, across across the you know, where we have four lanes of traffic because that's a lot of traffic to introduce bike lanes and other safer facilities. So, you know, the process is unfortunately slower than I'd like. But yeah, this.
00:32:19:04 - 00:32:41:24
John Simmerman
Is for sure. It always is. Get used to that young whippersnapper. Yeah. Yeah. It takes away longer than it should. And it's good for us to have a sense of urgency and it's a good good for us to be able to keep pushing harder and make things happen faster. Is this is this stretch of the road? Is this a state owned road or is this owned by the municipality?
00:32:41:27 - 00:32:44:29
Petru Sofio
So this is owned by Arlington. So, you know, it's.
00:32:44:29 - 00:32:48:00
John Simmerman
Their responsibility to design it and upkeep it and.
00:32:48:00 - 00:33:09:27
Petru Sofio
All that, right? Absolutely. You know, there is kind of an interesting Massachusetts Avenue in general is well, it's owned by the town. A lot of the grant funding that we go for or the town would go for if they were looking to reconstruct the street is complete streets funding and that is the funding. And that is actually with the control and criteria on bike lanes.
00:33:09:29 - 00:33:36:23
Petru Sofio
And, you know, back when I was super young, like 20, 2013, 2014, the town was reconstructing Massachusetts Avenue in the eastern part that bordered Cambridge. And there was a huge controversy over the design because the design was going to take a four lane road and bring it to three lanes and there was a vote over it. There was a lot of like all of the Arlington voted over this proposal and there was a save Massachusetts Avenue group.
00:33:36:26 - 00:33:57:17
Petru Sofio
And ultimately the state said, we will not fund this project if you don't include bike lanes and there are bike lanes there today, obviously, we don't want to have to go to a point where, you know, there's a lot of controversy in the community. But at some point, you know, Massdot or the Roadway Authority needs to take charge and say, hey, we need a safe street.
00:33:57:19 - 00:34:06:26
Petru Sofio
We're not going to fund a dangerous design because people have died. And I think that that was Massdot did their was really appropriate. And I think that it saved a lot of lives.
00:34:06:28 - 00:34:27:13
John Simmerman
When Massdot did that at that time, was there any qualitative context in terms of you must have bike lanes? Is that back then was just a painted bike lane enough or was was the the barrier there that it needed to be a high comfort some form of separated or protected bike lane.
00:34:27:16 - 00:34:42:16
Petru Sofio
So unfortunately it was you know, just a standard buffered bike lane. So it wasn't the high, high comfort facility that we'd want today. I don't believe parking protected bike lanes. I don't even think we had one in the state at that point, which is, which is unfortunate.
00:34:42:18 - 00:35:17:02
John Simmerman
I mean, that's really when, when you think of it, you know. Petru I mean, this is an indication of just how far along we have come just in the last decade here in North America. I mean, obviously we're decades and decades behind the Netherlands. But, you know, it's it in my realm in the amount of time that I've been active working in this, I'm seeing just a sea change of momentum towards getting away from just a paint, you know, painted bike lane towards some form physical protection separation.
00:35:17:04 - 00:35:27:29
John Simmerman
We both have mentioned Western Avenue where, you know, you're literally grade separated and you know, having the ability to to have some parking protection to.
00:35:28:01 - 00:35:37:29
Petru Sofio
Exactly. Yeah. It's it's crazy. You know, I'm young so I don't really have that same concept of of time because, you know, everything seems like a long time between citizen.
00:35:37:29 - 00:35:43:01
John Simmerman
Research and I disagree. Even in your young life, you have seen a huge sea change. Yeah.
00:35:43:04 - 00:36:10:14
Petru Sofio
Yeah. I mean, I guess you're right, you know? But, you know, just going from standard bike lanes being the default treatment to having, you know, protected bike lanes be the new treatment that that seems to be used everywhere and even embraced by state DOT And that's that's just amazing how fast that that that's happens that transformation because you know we were it was you know that was a strange design that would even in 2013 2014 when that product was designed.
00:36:10:14 - 00:36:30:11
Petru Sofio
I don't think that there was a single protected bike lane in Massachusetts. So I really grateful that, you know, certain practitioners and planners took that on to try to make, you know, make that early investment. It's great to be to live next to Cambridge because they were doing protected bike lanes back in 2003. So, you know, they were they were fully built.
00:36:30:11 - 00:36:48:29
Petru Sofio
But, you know, it was still having that that resource. And, you know, people from Arlington could go to Cambridge and they'd be like, wow, you know, this really makes a lot of sense having the bike lane on the sidewalk and just having that cultural shift in Cambridge has really helped Arlington and surrounding communities embrace, you know, safer streets design.
00:36:49:01 - 00:37:03:08
John Simmerman
Yeah, I mean, as as taxpayers, you know, you don't want to feel like, when you cross the border from Cambridge into Arlington, you feel like you are second class citizens. You know, it's like, no, we need to keep up with them. You know, it's the Cambridge.
00:37:03:08 - 00:37:11:24
Petru Sofio
And that is how it is, how it feels today. So, you know, we're all working on it, though. So it's going to be it's going to be a lot better.
00:37:11:25 - 00:37:39:10
John Simmerman
Yeah, it's it's interesting, too. We could call that the Cambridge Effect. You know, it's it's they've because of the progress that they have made, they've had an impact on Somerville trying to catch up and then obviously you know having both Somerville and Cambridge next to you, it's it's having an impact on what's happening there in Arlington. As I mentioned earlier, you guys are all three of you are having an impact on what's happening in Boston.
00:37:39:12 - 00:38:07:12
John Simmerman
I used to look when I lived in Boulder in the 1990s. We have an amazing network of Off Street Pathways and in Boulder that, you know, have been in place since the 1970s or that's when they got started in building out the off street network pathways and that had a huge impact on other cities in Boulder County because you I used to call that the boulder effect you know is like people wanted to have similar stuff.
00:38:07:12 - 00:38:17:05
John Simmerman
They'd see what was available in Boulder and say, well, why can't we have that? And so you do have that impact on the surrounding communities, which I think is a really good thing.
00:38:17:09 - 00:38:34:11
Petru Sofio
And I think that's an absolutely great point about bike trails. You know, Arlington, you know, we got a bike trail that goes right through the center of town as kind of a spine to the bicycle network. You know, back in 90, in the 1990s. And I think if we didn't have that bike trail, I don't think that we'd have any bicycle infrastructure in the town.
00:38:34:14 - 00:38:55:17
Petru Sofio
Maybe a couple painted lanes, but nothing like what we have today because people if you become a bicycle community, if you have a bike trail like that, yeah, you know, high quality and safe and you know within a quarter mile of almost everybody's house because because the town is so small, people, you know, biking is more normalized and people commute by bikes.
00:38:55:17 - 00:39:17:22
Petru Sofio
And and that kind of shifts into allowing people to see bicyclists more like your neighbors than just like weekend warrior types that you would never, never know or talk to. And I think that that's really the minimum bikeway itself, you know, not just in Arlington, but across its entire entire length into Lexington as well. It's really inspired a lot more bicycle infrastructure because people want to connect to that trail.
00:39:17:22 - 00:39:35:05
Petru Sofio
And it really widens that the, you know, the amount of people who want to and feel safe to ride a bike. So it's it's really, really nice to have like that. I think that that really transforms the entire community when you have a bike. True in ways that people wouldn't really think it would.
00:39:35:07 - 00:39:44:22
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. So what's going on here with this particular image, it looks like we've got a fairly large intersections is a continuation of what we were looking at earlier.
00:39:45:00 - 00:40:11:12
Petru Sofio
So this is Route 16 in Somerville. So this is another project that I was involved in on the advocacy side. So 16 is a four lane wide 40 foot highway just kind of, you know, runs right through Somerville and Arlington. It borders, you know, it kind of creates the border between the two communities. And recently there's been a push to to make it a lot safer.
00:40:11:12 - 00:40:34:13
Petru Sofio
As you can see, this is a pedestrian only phase. You can see people crossing the street, but it's just there's a lot of cars and it feels really unsafe and people can turn on red and people drive extremely fast and the roadway is extremely narrow. The lanes are actually less than ten feet wide, which in some ways is nice because it means people drive a lot slower.
00:40:34:13 - 00:40:40:17
Petru Sofio
But in reality, people still drive really fast. Well, yeah, I feel comfortable doing it.
00:40:40:19 - 00:40:54:20
John Simmerman
Yeah. You know, this I mean, this is this is the absolute worst design thing, you know, from a safety perspective, it's it's like four lanes. And so, yes, it's hey, kudos. And I'm assuming this is a state highway, correct?
00:40:54:22 - 00:40:55:19
Petru Sofio
Yes, this one.
00:40:55:26 - 00:41:17:08
John Simmerman
So this is a state highway. So this is Massdot. And, you know, kudos to them for at least having incredibly narrow lanes. But the reality is, whenever you have four lanes, you you constantly as a driver, you're constantly sort of jockeying and you're going from one lane to the next and you're you're trying to maximize the amount of speed because, you know, you're human.
00:41:17:08 - 00:41:42:21
John Simmerman
You you want to try to decrease the amount of time that you're having to drive. Because let's face it, driving is not that much fun. And so these, in fact, are some of the most dangerous street designs that we can have are four lane roadways, strobes and four lane highways. So yeah, it's I could totally see that even though it's narrow lanes, you still see some pretty high speeds.
00:41:42:23 - 00:42:04:08
Petru Sofio
Right. Four lane roads are extremely dangerous because there's no turn lanes and there's no space and people to really drive fast. So this is kind of this Broadway intersection was kind of the start to the whole coalition to improve in roads road to the corridor. And you know, one thing we looked at was we had a walking talk and this is Jeff Rennie.
00:42:04:10 - 00:42:38:02
Petru Sofio
He's the chief traffic. He was the chief deputy chief traffic engineer for the DCR. So something interesting about Massachusetts is that we have an agency, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, that actually owns several roadways in in Massachusetts in the greater area. So we have massdot we have a secondary state agency of TCR that also controls roadways, except they have a lot less funding and they interact with a lot of communities, especially closer to the Boston area.
00:42:38:04 - 00:43:03:21
Petru Sofio
And their roadways are a lot more narrow and a lot more dangerous because they're they're often that four lane, nine and a half foot wide design. That's that's really dangerous. So one thing we did is we invited them on this walking talk and, you know, when we got to this crosswalk, I'd already done some research on it and I knew that the intersection had, you know, the intersection with Electric Parkway and Broadway and Broadway 44 feet wide.
00:43:03:23 - 00:43:24:23
Petru Sofio
So that meets the manual. And uniform traffic control devices has a stipulation that when you provide a crosswalk with the flashing countdown, you need to provide three and a half feet per second of crossing speed. And that makes it so everybody can cross the street fairly safely and have enough time to do so. But this intersection did not give enough crossings crossing time.
00:43:24:23 - 00:43:51:05
Petru Sofio
It only gave about 8 seconds of crossing time, and that left a lot of people stranded because they actually deserved five more seconds. So when we went on this walk, Jeff and I were talking and I pointed this out to him and he had a cab key to the traffic signal cabinet and actually changed the signal timing right there to make it make it safer for pedestrians immediately.
00:43:51:05 - 00:44:11:07
Petru Sofio
And it was it was pretty awesome. You can see Brad Rossen, he's the director of transportation for the City of Somerville. I'm looking on with Jeff, seeing that that change being being made, it was pretty surprising. And we actually did the same change at another intersection on the walk too. So, you know, added 5 seconds to two crosswalks and it was pretty awesome.
00:44:11:10 - 00:44:20:01
John Simmerman
Yeah, it was pretty awesome. And you were one happy dude, you know? Yeah, there was some. Thank you smiley face.
00:44:20:03 - 00:44:22:00
Petru Sofio
Yeah. And good work for you, man.
00:44:22:02 - 00:44:32:06
John Simmerman
You're you're you're making a difference on that. So let's let's start talking about a left on Green Arrow only. What do we what are we talking about here?
00:44:32:09 - 00:44:55:09
Petru Sofio
Well, this is kind of the vision we started with for Broadway. So our goal is to have protected only left and left turn only lanes. And this is the first slide that we made on that. And if you go to the next slide, you can actually see how that kind of transformed into another diagram. So we take that four lane parkway and we make it down to three lanes, but we have a left turn only lane.
00:44:55:12 - 00:45:16:07
Petru Sofio
And our argument was we already have effectively a road diet every single cycle because nobody drives in the left lane because they're worried that they're going to get stuck behind a driver turning left. And when you're stuck behind a driver trying less, it's terrible. I mean, you have to put your blinker on and try to get to the right, but there's tons of cars in the right turn lane.
00:45:16:07 - 00:45:38:10
Petru Sofio
Nobody's going to let you in. It's Boston. So, you know, it's just a lose lose situation. So, you know, if we already have that effective road diet, we may as well just strip it and make it safer for everybody by providing those dedicated left turn phases and the thru and adding in bus lanes on the side street too because we have that extra space.
00:45:38:12 - 00:45:39:12
Petru Sofio
Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:39:19 - 00:45:42:03
John Simmerman
So needing stuff. Yeah.
00:45:42:06 - 00:46:00:17
Petru Sofio
Yeah. It's a pretty, pretty exciting project. And this is just the single plan that I developed for that intersection. So yeah, it's a great project and I'm excited that the city is going to move forward with that. I think it's going to really transform the, you know, the community and that goes in to make it a whole lot safer.
00:46:00:19 - 00:46:01:27
Petru Sofio
Yeah.
00:46:02:00 - 00:46:25:29
John Simmerman
So obviously you're very passionate about signals and signalization and being able to optimize that. We talked about that earlier and we talked about the Netherlands effect of of, you know, being able to do that. But in many cases in the Netherlands, they almost depending on the context, they almost feel like if we're if we're having to put in a signal, we're not doing our job well.
00:46:26:02 - 00:46:52:03
John Simmerman
And, you know, one of my favorite things to see, you know, happen and one of the things that I you know, when I first visited the Netherlands back in 2015 was being able to realize is that based on the the traffic volumes and the number of people driving, the number of people walking, the number of people riding bikes, you we may not need any signalization We mean mere may.
00:46:52:03 - 00:47:14:26
John Simmerman
Maybe this could be a, you know, a low speed roundabout type of situation with protection for people crossing, you know, walking and biking. And that's the one thing that I wish would take off here in North America more is, you know, taking some of these, you know, these intersections, these roadways and saying, well, what if we didn't have any signals here?
00:47:14:26 - 00:47:42:01
John Simmerman
But what if we actually had the situation where it's, you know, you know, because you'd mentioned it earlier, one of the biggest frustrations of people driving is when they're, you know, stuck behind somebody trying to turn you know, they're stuck at a light. Why are we here at this light? There's nobody else around. Again, a small footprint roundabout with a 15 mile an hour per unit per hour design one lane in each direction.
00:47:42:03 - 00:48:08:15
John Simmerman
A lot of that is just completely saved without having any signalization, which as you well know, saves, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure and ongoing programing. You know, you know, from from from that standpoint, I hope I'm not, you know, saying anything that's like controversial for you since you're so passionate about signals. But in my mind, the best, the best.
00:48:08:15 - 00:48:11:02
John Simmerman
You know, design is one that doesn't even need signals.
00:48:11:09 - 00:48:33:08
Petru Sofio
Yeah. I mean, I'd like to think that that would be you know, obviously, if you think about an intersection, that's very question friendly, you don't see any cars, you know, it's just pedestrians and Christians and bicyclists that don't really need traffic signals. In the Netherlands, there are a lot of traffic signals that have bike only phases because other bicyclists can just go all at once because they don't really need traffic signals.
00:48:33:09 - 00:48:44:24
Petru Sofio
We can kind of, you know, figure it out on our own, you know, make eye contact and just, you know, we just have that that way that drivers just will never you know, it will never be that way with cars.
00:48:44:26 - 00:49:21:14
John Simmerman
Well into your into your point to you know sticking on on the Netherlands and we're looking at a nice touch it looks like an urban arrow here in in frame in this particular image and earlier saw you know, the image with the shero you know the shero that was right down there on on Massachusetts Avenue with the the truck and you know, we when we take a step back and we think about the Dutch network and we think about, you know, the the massive number of roads that have, you know, really no signalization to it they don't have stop signs.
00:49:21:17 - 00:49:47:11
John Simmerman
These are almost always, you know, paved in either red pavement or red bricks. And it's it's a slow speed environment. So it's a 30 kilometers per hour environment, which equates to just about 70 miles per hour. And you don't need traffic control devices because, you know, motor vehicles that are there are traveling at a reasonable speed and the design reinforces the reasonable speed.
00:49:47:11 - 00:50:17:12
John Simmerman
They don't need a whole bunch of signs and signals and all of that. The design dictates that. And so I like to point that out when we talk about, you know, cycling infrastructure, it's like, yeah, you know, 70%, 60, 70% of a typical Dutch city is some form of shared space, where to your point, it's, you know, maybe there are some motor vehicles, but they're not there in overwhelming numbers and they're certainly not driving fast.
00:50:17:14 - 00:50:39:03
Petru Sofio
Yeah. And that's a huge that's a huge difference because we have you know, we may have similar traffic streets, but unfortunately, American drivers are not like Dutch drivers. You know, they are more angry. A lot of them just do not like cyclists. And that is really scary if you've ever experienced that kind of behavior, aggressive behavior behind you.
00:50:39:09 - 00:50:56:18
Petru Sofio
You know, I've been on a bicycle in Priority Street in Cambridge, and and we've had people with, you know, aggressively tailgating honk at me. And it's like, well, there are signs that say, I can use the full lane. I'm over Oshiro and this is not a street for you. So I think that, you know, one of the biggest changes we need is a cultural shift.
00:50:56:21 - 00:51:08:00
Petru Sofio
And we need you know, people think streets are are for cars. That's not the case anymore. That's right. Yes, exactly. Yes.
00:51:08:03 - 00:51:37:13
John Simmerman
And when we talk about, yes, we do need a cultural shift and we do need that reinforcement of, you know, better driving behavior. And it is frustrating to be a driver in an environment where, let's face it, you know, the problem, of course, in in verbal, in urban environments is that it's very, very frustrating to drive around because the more people who drive, the less satisfying that experience gets.
00:51:37:15 - 00:52:11:02
John Simmerman
And so that brings us right back full circle to, well, what can we do to create networks of alternatives and options so that, you know, really the only people who are left driving are the people who absolutely need to absolutely want to, you know, and, you know, for other people, because, again, many of these trips that we're talking about, especially in this little circle of areas there in the Boston area, many of these trips are just inherently bikeable distances.
00:52:11:04 - 00:52:40:07
Petru Sofio
Absolutely. You know, I think that I think that to get that done, you know, you need to look at Cambridge and and see the cycling safety ordinance having something in law that says we need to have protected bike lanes on this street no matter what. Everything else can be decided later. That is the type of conversations, you know, device that can really force conversations that we need to have about making our streets safer because ultimately, you know, we're kind of at the hardest point.
00:52:40:09 - 00:53:14:16
Petru Sofio
We have some streets, have, you know, bike lanes, and they're built for, you know, bikes and for have bus lanes. So they're built for busses, you know, and that makes it a worse driver experience sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's great for everybody. But, you know, when we have, you know, only a couple really great bike lanes and they're not connected to each other, people are not going to be able to switch their commute because there's still that one intersection or that one section where I'm in a shero and I feel really unsafe, you know, people, you know, we need it to be everywhere.
00:53:14:19 - 00:53:38:13
Petru Sofio
If it's not everywhere, then there's gaps and people won't feel safe. And so now we just have we're in this liminal period where we have a lot of streets for cars still, and then we have some bike streets. And that's when people really get angry because we're not at it at a place, you know, we're seeing a mode shift, a mode shift slowly, You know, it's happening, but it's not happening as fast as as some people would want it to.
00:53:38:13 - 00:54:07:26
Petru Sofio
And that's because, you know, we can't infrastructure like build the infrastructure as quickly as we want to. So, you know, if Cambridge is solution, they're going to have their network done by 2026. Right. So we're almost there. And once that's done, then I think that that's really going to change, change the conversation in the community because, you know, I mean, even Cambridge just got sued over their bike lanes, over the cycling safety ordinance, and ultimately the time was thrown out, you know, because it's just not, you know, not the case.
00:54:07:28 - 00:54:11:04
John Simmerman
Well, haters are going to hit. So. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:11:06 - 00:54:33:12
Petru Sofio
But it's sad to have, you know, that that controversial element, you know, my dad gets gets his haircut at this very anti bike haircut place in Cambridge that was along one of the sections that got a bus lane. And I think I have a photo of it. If you just go to to the right, it might be the next slide I even know one more.
00:54:33:14 - 00:55:00:01
Petru Sofio
One more. Yeah. There it is. See, you can see the street. It has it used to be parking driving lane driving lane driving lane driving, parking. So the city decided that that was unsafe as a cycling safety ordinance. Need to change this. There's a deadline and they brought in the bike lanes. And while they're already redesigning the street, they may as put in the bus lane.
00:55:00:03 - 00:55:17:20
Petru Sofio
And this bustling has extremely good compliance. I'm not really sure why. I think it's because there's good enforcement. And, you know, people are usually pretty good at following traffic laws around here. But, you know, the bustling is usually empty of cars and it's just there for busses. And you can even see in this photo that there's nobody in the bus lane.
00:55:17:20 - 00:55:38:13
Petru Sofio
And there's a bus. And that's you know, my dad still goes there and he even bikes there. And, you know, sometimes the conversations that he has over here are tough because people are just, you know, really upset at the bike, at the bus lanes and the bike lanes. And he's like, well, my son, like, you know, helped work on work on these projects and is like and he even bikes.
00:55:38:13 - 00:55:57:13
Petru Sofio
I mean, he bikes to get his haircut there, you know. So it's it's just kind of weird how, you know, people are so angry about all these different designs and when some of their customers are in fact cyclists. And overall, I think that they're even if biking is not for them, it could be for other people, too. So Cambridge's model is is really difficult.
00:55:57:13 - 00:56:19:03
Petru Sofio
And I'm not sure if other communities are ready to take that on yet. I think Cambridge is uber progressive and liberal and other communities that don't don't have that type of politics, political identity. It might not happen for them, but hopefully we can get to a point where building separated bike lanes is the norm. And I think we're getting there.
00:56:19:07 - 00:56:20:12
Petru Sofio
I really do.
00:56:20:14 - 00:56:46:27
John Simmerman
Well, and it's honestly, at the end of the day, we know this from the experience around the globe. It's like building safe and inviting all ages and abilities networks for everybody where everybody is safer, everybody feels like they have mobility choice. It's actually good for business. And so at some point in time, this should not be a right versus left, you know, conservative versus progressive issue at all.
00:56:47:04 - 00:57:15:21
John Simmerman
It's it's actually good for business. It's good for the public health. It's good for literally it's good for everybody. In other words, active towns are good for everybody, regardless of your politics. Actually, I want to go back a couple of images to this image here where we were kind of paused for a second because it occurs to me that this is a really good image that sort of speaks to what we were talking about earlier, too, of, you know, that.
00:57:15:23 - 00:57:29:16
John Simmerman
So we've got the the mammals represented there. You know, we've got the dude in the Lycra, but you also have just a person who's dressed for her destination. You know, she's just on her relaxed upright bike and no.
00:57:29:16 - 00:57:31:04
Petru Sofio
Helmet, just a chill bike.
00:57:31:04 - 00:57:31:28
John Simmerman
And. Exactly.
00:57:32:05 - 00:57:33:04
Petru Sofio
Just hanging.
00:57:33:07 - 00:57:45:13
John Simmerman
Yeah. And doing it. And this is not an ideal piece of infrastructure. This needs to be redone, obviously. But I did want to hone in on the fact that. Yeah, and we even have a bike signal here though.
00:57:45:14 - 00:58:11:20
Petru Sofio
Yeah. So this was, you know, this project is the Porter Square project that was extremely controversial, even though it was, you know, less than 0.25 miles in length. So, you know, the city wanted to fast track safer bike lanes in Porter Square because a lot of people got doored there as were very unsafe. And, you know, I came in at this, you know, somebody who bikes into this area and I felt like this intersection was extremely dangerous.
00:58:11:22 - 00:58:25:14
Petru Sofio
There are a ton of vehicles that turn left and right, so left turning vehicles, I believe there's over 150 to an hour. Right. Turning vehicles, 375 an hour. That is a lot of turning vehicles.
00:58:25:16 - 00:59:08:02
John Simmerman
Can I say something real quick about the number of vehicles and the number of turning vehicles just so that we can kind of hone in on something that's related to? What we were talking about earlier is that if we are able to get truly safe and inviting facilities in place and this is one of the that I like to emphasize with, you know, in traffic engineers and people who are are looking at current traffic levels and they're thinking about the future is like, stop, don't worry about how many people are driving now and turning now and all of that other than the context of let's build the environment that we want to have.
00:59:08:02 - 00:59:36:22
John Simmerman
What do we want? Regardless of how many vehicles are in here right now, think about In other words, oftentimes they say, no, no, no, we can't do that because of X number of traffic, you know, turn vehicles and all this kind of stuff, etc.. I'm like, time out. Let's let's really stay focused on do you want this to be a place where an eight year old is going to be able to ride her bike, you know, to get to school or to the park, etc.?
00:59:36:24 - 00:59:48:16
John Simmerman
And if the answer to that is yes, then then we really do need to get beyond trying to support the movement of, you know, the vehicles per se, because.
00:59:48:16 - 00:59:49:09
Petru Sofio
Absolutely.
00:59:49:16 - 01:00:11:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. Ultimately the way that induced demand works with capacity when it comes to motor vehicles and we could see the same thing with active transportation is that if you build it, they will fill it up. And that's exactly what's happening there. There's that many vehicles turning there and occupying that space because it's been built, it's been prioritizing their movement.
01:00:11:13 - 01:00:29:15
Petru Sofio
Yeah. And, you know, I think that that's something that you can see of Cambridge as well, is that, you know, you know, the traffic counts, They're you know, they're not going to say, okay, we're going to take out, you know, the bike lane, we're going to put in a turn lane. No, they're going to say, wait a second, that's a lot of conflicts because we have so many conflicts.
01:00:29:22 - 01:00:41:00
Petru Sofio
We need to give bicyclists. They're protected fees so that they are not getting, you know, in harm's way because drivers are failing to turn to them.
01:00:41:03 - 01:00:57:27
John Simmerman
And hopefully they get beyond just a protected phase and they get to the point of, you know, because right now it's clear that as they they may have a protected phase in terms of being able to get across. But again, this is a great opportunity. This could be a protected bike lane, you know, parking protected bike lane here.
01:00:57:29 - 01:01:21:26
Petru Sofio
And that's exactly what the city is planning on doing, which really exciting. But yeah, this this reading interval I kind of reached out to the city about and Andreas Volsky is he's one of the product managers for the city of Cambridge and and he and I met at the intersection and you know discussed it and saw the hazards and decided that they were going to push forward with this new single timing.
01:01:22:03 - 01:01:28:11
John Simmerman
I'm laughing. I'm laughing at you because you're already having a huge impact on your community.
01:01:28:14 - 01:01:45:13
Petru Sofio
Yeah. Even after this design went in, you know, it still isn't safe enough. Honestly. You know, there's no protection at this intersection. You know, you're you know, because we have these bump outs. You know, it's a quick build project. You can't go to other bump outs.
01:01:45:16 - 01:01:52:11
John Simmerman
Yeah, it's still it is still a road. You know, when you look at this, this is still highway designs and multiple multiple lanes.
01:01:52:14 - 01:02:08:24
Petru Sofio
Yep. So I'm excited that the city is going to, you know, be redesigning this corridor just next year. I mean, they're in the process of doing it now and it's going to have bus lanes, protected bike lanes and protected intersections. And that's going to be something we can all look forward to.
01:02:08:26 - 01:02:10:16
John Simmerman
Looking at this. And this is.
01:02:10:23 - 01:02:40:10
Petru Sofio
This is some this is some know bicyclists in Cambridge, you know, just enjoying a new protected bike lane. Brattle Street is one of the most interesting projects that just was built this year. I also work, you know, help to advocate for traffic signal phasing at this intersection. So I you know, the left this is a two way cycle track which, you know, goes back to our earlier conversations about how those, you know, have their own set of risks because basically they're driving both directions, right?
01:02:40:13 - 01:03:00:03
Petru Sofio
So the original design was to provide, you know, not provide any protected phase for drivers and drivers turning left. We're supposed to look for oncoming drivers, bicyclists coming this way, bicyclists coming the other way and pedestrians. And, you know, an average driver is just not going to be able to handle that much information. Unfortunately, you know, it's just not going to work out.
01:03:00:05 - 01:03:12:23
Petru Sofio
So the solution here was to provide a dedicated left turn arrow. And that means that these bicyclists don't have to worry about drivers turning left while they proceed. They have their own protected face.
01:03:12:26 - 01:03:15:15
John Simmerman
And no turn on red.
01:03:15:18 - 01:03:40:12
Petru Sofio
Yes, absolutely. The whole city of Cambridge, actually, you know, I worked with Councilor Zinn and Councilor Mallon at the time, I believe it was back in 2022, and I introduced this idea of, you know, saying, Hey, we have a lot of no turn road signs that we need to ban and citywide. So that was something legislatively that I got involved in with this policy order for not turn on red.
01:03:40:15 - 01:03:47:10
Petru Sofio
And a lot of cities are doing this, you know, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Seattle, Washington, Washington, D.C..
01:03:47:13 - 01:03:55:20
John Simmerman
I want to say gosh, and I want to say in the last six months, I mean, it's I've been hearing no turn on red. Let's push for this. Let's push for this. So, yeah.
01:03:55:23 - 01:04:04:15
Petru Sofio
Yeah, I think a lot of advocates are realizing that, you know, turn on red signs. They're fairly cheap and they yield a lot of safety benefits.
01:04:04:20 - 01:04:08:01
John Simmerman
Especially if you also get the policy change, too, especially.
01:04:08:01 - 01:04:08:19
Petru Sofio
Exactly.
01:04:08:20 - 01:04:16:02
John Simmerman
We'll see change at a high enough level in there. So we've got signal separation on this one, talked through this image.
01:04:16:05 - 01:04:45:06
Petru Sofio
So is this is a really cool design because this, as you can see further down, you can see that beautiful sidewalk level protected bike lane. Yeah. With trees. But signal separation is something that I've really championed and really advocated for a lot in the past couple of years. And this is basically having a bike signal and a right turn signal and saying, drivers, you can't turn right when the bikes are going through and the pedestrians are walking.
01:04:45:09 - 01:05:17:20
Petru Sofio
It's something that was introduced to me to their young age just because this type of phasing was very uncommon and still kind of is across the US. But my town actually was one of the first installers of of this type of phasing back at our old intersection back and you know, there was a woman who got hit by a car who was turning right on a green light and she had a walk sign and they ran and ran into her and she broke her leg and she started protesting every day that this town needs to change the traffic signal pattern.
01:05:17:22 - 01:05:44:18
Petru Sofio
So they looked into it and they looked into this type of phasing that was, you know, up and coming with a protected right turn arrow and they installed it. And now it's becoming a more common treatment, you know, not just in Cambridge, but but also nationwide. So Inman Square has this type of treatment. You know, anywhere you have a high volume amount of right turn vehicles, you know, there is obviously we can use protected intersections, but at some point you need to separate out that movement.
01:05:44:18 - 01:06:07:17
Petru Sofio
And that's something that happens here in the US, not just here, but in the Netherlands, too. And having that seamless operation can be installed fairly easily compared to the installation of the constructed, constructed element like a protected intersection like we have here in the square. So yeah, this is another signal, separate intersection. But I mean, in this square is just gorgeous.
01:06:07:19 - 01:06:35:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, you were incredibly excited when this whole was coming down within one square because you were I was seeing on Social media your posts on this. And I can remember being here in Inman Square back in 2019. Yeah, what a great, great thing to see. You know, this, you know, get taken care of and put in place. Talk a little bit about why this project was just so important and impactful.
01:06:35:07 - 01:06:59:05
Petru Sofio
Inman Square is, you know, one of my we used to be one of my least favorite intersections, and now it is my favorite intersection in all of Massachusetts in the United States. And it was just this really convoluted mess before we just had this wide intersection. It felt so dangerous. There was a lot of green paint that was installed and you were just on that green paint conflict zone just for for ages.
01:06:59:05 - 01:07:32:25
Petru Sofio
It felt like, yeah, the project was not started by a fatality, but it was kind of insane the way it unfolded. So this is before I really got into the advocacy scene and was aware about these improvements in Cambridge. But but there was a meeting to improve the safety of them and square a lot of controversy. And the very next day a woman biking from her job in Admin Square was doored by a driver, come and then thrown into traffic and run over by a truck and was killed.
01:07:32:28 - 01:08:06:16
Petru Sofio
The very next day after the meeting. So that really started the process of redesigning this extremely dangerous, dangerous intersection. And, you know, Cambridge had their Vision Zero policy and they needed to act with it. So this project, it just you know, I love traffic signals as well. And I'm really passionate about, you know, Dutch style traffic signals. And I think that this is really, you know, as close as we've gotten in America so far to Dutch style, Dutch style traffic signal design, we have those near side foreign space signals know like you see in the Netherlands.
01:08:06:16 - 01:08:23:26
Petru Sofio
And then, you know, the other thing that's wonderful about Indian Square is that there's a ton of bicyclists already. And I think that since the design has been installed, a lot more people are starting to bike there as well. So you can see in this photo just how many people are just biking up, up the street, you know, freshly installed, you know, project.
01:08:23:26 - 01:08:46:01
Petru Sofio
And it's just so much it's just a totally different intersection and vibe. There's a lot more community space know, there's this awesome 12 foot tall deer that's so random and I just love it. I mean, it's just so cool to have to have all this, you know, greenery and and it really just feels more like a place less of just a a you know, a thing that you go through.
01:08:46:03 - 01:09:10:19
Petru Sofio
There's that's a place I want to stop. Yeah, there's the deer. It's just somewhere you want to stop and look around. And I think it's totally, you know, it really shows how you can take one of those really weird Massachusetts intersections and twisted and turn it and redesign it and introduce new public space and all sorts of really awesome, awesome elements that can totally transform the intersection and make it safer, too.
01:09:10:21 - 01:09:32:22
John Simmerman
Yeah. And To your point, you know, looking at the deer here and the public space that here is we're taking what was, you know, probably, you know, previously just a bunch of overbuilt auto sewer space, you know, where you're just like pushing traffic through and you're making a place, you're creating a square. Inman Square. It's in the.
01:09:32:22 - 01:09:54:13
Petru Sofio
Name. Yes. So exactly. Yeah. And you know, Inman Square before it was just Yeah. You can even see really well in this that you have to turn now to get around the new public space previously if you can imagine it even just drive right through you know straight on through this through intersection and that's that's just not how it is anymore.
01:09:54:15 - 01:10:13:21
Petru Sofio
You know, some drivers have complained about it, of course, as they will. But, you know, really everybody walking around just a much more happy environment. And once this landscaping grows, I'm really excited to see see what it would be like. And there's me taking a little selfie with the the new four inch nearside bike signal. I just I just love it.
01:10:13:21 - 01:10:33:21
Petru Sofio
It's so awesome to have that that, that style of design. I really think that that's it's really cool. And also just you feel it feels more people oriented like when you see these huge traffic signals a million feet tall, you know, you don't really feel safe, but when you have something more human sized people size, it just feels it feels more comfortable.
01:10:33:21 - 01:10:36:17
Petru Sofio
You feel like you're meant to be there. And that's really important.
01:10:36:19 - 01:11:20:05
John Simmerman
Yeah. And to your point, too, you know, we referenced it, you know, the near side, more Dutch style traffic signal approach to it. And I would love to see you getting sticking with your area of passion with signals. I'd love to see North America embrace that concept of nearside traffic signals, even for motor vehicles, because that really would actually help kind of counteract the fact that when we have the signals far side on the other side of the intersection, what we end up seeing is is motor vehicle drivers creeping up and creeping into the crosswalk because they can still see the light.
01:11:20:09 - 01:11:30:13
John Simmerman
But if the if it was nearside traffic signals, they'd have to stay back behind the stop bar and not encroach up because then they wouldn't be able to see the signal.
01:11:30:16 - 01:11:48:26
Petru Sofio
So Exactly. Yeah. I think this is something that we're going to have to see see going into the future, not just, you know, supplemental nearside signals, but fully nearside signals. And if we talk about neutron read compliance, if we have nearside signals, drivers will be less likely to turn on red illegally or just turn on red at all because it feels more uncomfortable.
01:11:48:26 - 01:12:02:18
Petru Sofio
So there's there's a of of benefits to nearside traffic. So it's like there's a there's a video maybe you can link it down below that I really love by Ontario traffic man he's this yeah he's this great YouTuber. I don't know if you've talked to him before, but he's a great.
01:12:02:22 - 01:12:04:12
John Simmerman
He's a great guy. He's awesome.
01:12:04:12 - 01:12:05:25
Petru Sofio
Super traffic signal nerd.
01:12:06:02 - 01:12:09:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, he's traffic signal nerd. He now works for Moby Conn.
01:12:09:11 - 01:12:10:14
Petru Sofio
Yeah, right, Right.
01:12:10:15 - 01:12:27:27
John Simmerman
We'll get that. We'll get that into the show notes. You know, we need to wrap this up. We've we've been talking for about 75 minutes and is I'll give you the last word. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you just want to mentioned, you know, to the audience before we say goodbye?
01:12:28:00 - 01:13:01:11
Petru Sofio
You know, I think, you know, honestly, I think that we've had a great conversation. I feel like almost everything everything we talked about has been what I wanted to discuss. But I guess I end with just don't be afraid to get involved and, you know, nerd out over transportation infrastructure. It seems really intimidating and it definitely was at the start, but it's really, really special when you can get introduced into advocacy circles and once you learn more, you can also gain some sort of respect with traffic engineers and transportation practitioners.
01:13:01:14 - 01:13:31:04
Petru Sofio
So you can try to, you know, have better, better designs because ultimately we're not the Netherlands yet, but maybe we will be if we have more people advocating in their communities about getting safer infrastructure, even if it gets, you know, advocacy burnout is real. I've definitely field felt it with this mass in Appleton, you know, whether it's, you know, the Selectboard voting on a proposal for the design while it's a school night and nobody told me about it and just feeling so frustrated.
01:13:31:04 - 01:13:52:19
Petru Sofio
And but the work that you do as an advocate, it's just so, so important or any, you know, any sort of advocacy or you know, you know, like what you do. John Just spreading awareness about the importance for complete streets and active towns. It's really important and we're well on our way to having these beautiful networks of protected bike lanes and safe streets.
01:13:52:21 - 01:14:08:24
Petru Sofio
But we still need a lot of help. So if you're able to get involved in your local communities, advocacy organizations, I think that that would mean a lot. There's great people you can meet through that and just anything you can do to help, it just means your impact will be enormous and it's just going to make it much better society.
01:14:08:24 - 01:14:15:22
Petru Sofio
So that would be my my parting parting words to folks watching might get involved. It's great.
01:14:15:25 - 01:14:41:07
John Simmerman
And I'll say this. You know, talked about this with Joshua Funches recently in an interview. And, you know, we talked about the fact that, yes, don't forget about getting more youth involved in this. You are a great testament to this. And he and I had talked about the fact that the younger members of our society have some really interesting and valuable perspectives to give.
01:14:41:07 - 01:15:01:27
John Simmerman
So for anybody who tuning in, listening to this, watching this, if you are younger, be shy, you know, get engaged, get, you know, get going. Yeah. You know, the powers that may be may give you a little bit of difficulty. They may not take you seriously, but stay the course to to your point and Absolutely.
01:15:01:27 - 01:15:03:24
Petru Sofio
Very well said. Yeah. Yes.
01:15:03:24 - 01:15:07:07
John Simmerman
Good stuff. Pedro, thank you so much for joining me on the active towns.
01:15:07:09 - 01:15:12:01
Petru Sofio
Thank you, John. This was decision tastic. I hope you'll have me back at some point.
01:15:12:03 - 01:15:19:22
John Simmerman
Definitely. Definitely. And look forward to following your career. Do you know at this point where you're going to be heading for college?
01:15:19:25 - 01:15:24:04
Petru Sofio
Still considering a lot of options, but I'm excited to look into that.
01:15:24:06 - 01:15:27:02
John Simmerman
Yes. Fantastic. Keep us posted.
01:15:27:04 - 01:15:28:02
Petru Sofio
We'll do a.
01:15:28:02 - 01:15:44:05
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode with Pedro Silvio. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, I'd be honored to have you subscribe to the Active Towns Channel. Just click on the subscription button down below and ring that notification spell.
01:15:44:13 - 01:16:05:29
John Simmerman
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01:16:06:01 - 01:16:29:06
John Simmerman
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01:16:29:06 - 01:16:44:26
John Simmerman
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