Pine Street Coalition $125 Parkway Update May 18--Rally Events June 11 and June 18!

 Pine Street Coalition Update on the Now $125 Million Fatally Flawed Champlain Parkway—May 18, 2022

WCAX covers Pine Street Coalition lawsuit May 10—report by Melissa Cooney https://www.wcax.com/2022/05/10/champlain-pkwy-opponents-seek-injunction-stop-june-construction/  Coalition injunction to stop July construction. Tony Redington interviewed.

Note 1: Burlington no longer has an obligation to pay back even a postage stamp to Federal Highway Administration in regard to Champlain Parkway now the Infrastructure Act signed by President Biden in November removes power to force state or locality of payback.  In fact it appears even under the old law we did not owe a dime. The Federal Highway and VTrans threat was a false flag! The Coalition has asked the City Council Transportation Committee to look into this and obtain a detailed legal opinion.
Note 2: Champlain Parkway which among other elements cuts King Maple neighborhood in two, lacks an inch of safe bicycle accommodation, lacks a single inch of sidewalk now reaches a cost of $125 million!  Construction cost about double long term estimates. See attached estimation.  Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) another $26 million! RIGHTway cut Parkway cost by millions!

In this update:

Pine Street Coalition Files Amended Complaint, First Steps of Injunction to Stop Any Parkway Construction as US District Court Lawsuit Begins May 16!

Call to Action Time to Take to the Streets!—Mark the Dates: Noon Saturday June 11 at File Case Sculpture/Flynn Coop Housing; and Noon Saturday June 18 for a King Maple, a “Honk and Wave” at Pine St/Maple St Intersection

Youth Movement—Champlain Elementary Englesby Brook Study Students Support RIGHTway’s Saving Acres of Trees, Englesby Brook and Natural Areas Preservation/Protection—May Testify at US District Court

Infrastructure Act signed last November deleted language allowing Federal Highway to seek any payback from Burlington for Parkway expenditures

                                   ———————————-

Pine Street Coalition Files Amended Complaint, First Steps of Injunction to Stop Any Parkway Construction as US District Court Lawsuit Begins May 16! Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) filings at US District Court this week were the first paper to move since we filed June 6, 2019. Papers were filed Monday, May 16, and include first steps for an injunction on any Parkway construction now set for July 1 until litigation ends.  The almost three year delay occurred as the City/VTrans through the now known totally empty and insulting steps to apply new Environmental Justice rules.  Yes City/VTrans ignored all the lengthy comments, meetings, etc. The City/VTrans concluded—though they had totally failed to meet the letter and spirit of the new rules (our position)—the box they checked in 2009,13 years ago, continued to be sufficient!  The 2 1/2 year process did in fact certify King Maple neighborhood a community of color but no need to change a whisker of design change. Then City/VTrans went lickety split to bid and OK’d construction ($45 million, about double budgeted) the single bid less than four months later!  An unfortunate example of government reenforcing distrust in it performance!

Call to Action Time to Take to the Streets!—Mark the Dates: Noon Saturday June 11 at File Case Sculpture/Flynn Coop Housing; and Noon Saturday June 18 for a King Maple, a “Honk and Wave” at Pine St/Maple St Intersection Let’s gather to express our opinion on the Parkway at two June Saturday events as the US District Court mulls action to stop the July 1 Parkway construction!  We have just gone through 3 years delay as the City/VTrans went through the nothing burger on the deeply serious Environmental Justice regulations—King Maple is a blatant example of transport racial injustice!  Low-income injustice too!  Let the Court know what our community thinks of the current design of the Champlain Parkway!

    Saturday June 11—Flynn Ave at Filecase Sculpture Opposite Coop

We will have speakers and exchange views and ideas on the Parkway across from City Market South End on Flynn Ave at the Filecase Sculpture.  Consider bringing a sign, help us let our District Court know we do not want this harmful, hurtful and 1950s design in an era when we want to preserve our natural areas, stop installing unsafe signals and roadway, keep our connection to SBTV, etc.  We actually thinks a sidewalk and separate and safe bicycle accommodation would be a good idea a la Vermont’s Complete Streets law (not an inch of either on the Parkway!)!  Hope to see you there!  More to come on this. Will need some volunteers to make signs, organize, etc.

    Saturday June 18—King Maple Neighborhood—Pine St/Maple St
         Intersection

A good old fashioned “honk and wave” event.  With this all-way-stop intersection we can all be reasonably safe as pedestrians—each car at the stop signs can read our signs like “No Parkway through King Maple,” “No Way for Parkway Transport Racism in King Maple!,”  “No 22% and 37% Parkway traffic jump!”  We will need some sign makers—four signs allows us to give the message to all four approaching vehicle streams!!  Parkway installs a traffic signals at this and the next intersection at King upping speeds, forcing kids to push a button and wait around to cross streets, colored lights all day and night onto adjacent housing, etc., etc.   

Youth Movement—Champlain Elementary Englesby Brook Study Students Support RIGHTway’s Saving Acres of Trees, Englesby Brook and Natural Areas Preservation/Protection—May Testify at US District Court An expert in natural areas who instructs in schools, Judy Dow who is Abenaki, has been working with group of 5th graders on scientific learning experience with adjacent Englesby Brook including how wildlife cannot traverse the Pine Street tunnel—similar to what is in the Parkway.  They students want to testify at the Court on the importance of the RIGHTway keeping Englesby out of another pipe, preservation and protection of the Brook floodway and the roughly one mile narrow natural corridor enabled by a scaled back road design between Home Ave and Lakeside Ave.


Infrastructure Act signed last November deleted language allowing Federal Highway to seek any payback from Burlington for Parkway expenditures The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill deleted language that in the past allowed Federal Highway Administration to on a discretionary basis seek repayment of federal transportation from states but only to the point of completing right-of-way purchases.  Since about 2012 Federal Highway (FHWA) and VTrans have threatened payback demand if the Champlain Parkway did not go forward—even though opponents have always sought making the project safe, climate positive, and avoid cutting King Maple neighborhood in two (to cite just three changes the Coalition seeks!).  In fact, the base right of way for the project from Shelburne Road through to Lakeside Ave was mostly obtained in the 1980s and all expenditures one planning and engineering since are not eligible for repayment!  That issue is moot since the new law deletes the power of FHWA to obtain payback of any funds spent on highway projects.


Thank you all for your continued support and counsel!


      Tony Redington
      Walk Safety Advocate
      for the Pine Street Coalition

Pine Street Coalition May 1 Champlain Parkway Update

 
    Injunction Against Parkway Construction at US District Court
    May 16!

The first US District Court papers and motions since the Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) first filing since June 6, 2019 due by May 16, and the Coalition will file a motion for an immediate injunction on any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  

    Fortieth Burlington Joins in Coalition Lawsuit!

Fortieth Burlington LLC (40th) which owns the major modernized office space in the historic cotton mill, Innovation Center on Lakeside Ave, joins shoulder to shoulder with your Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) in the US District Court Champlain Parkway lawsuit calling for a strong supplemental environmental document process or an entirely new one--the current 2009 document clearly now obsolete and stale.  

The Coalition and 40th immediately seek an injunction against any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major Environmental Impact Statement update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the transportation reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”  That reality includes seriously addressing safety, climate change, racial and low income environmental justice, community economics, and major changes in practically all rules, laws, regulations and practices as well as changes on the ground since the final public hearing on the project almost 16 years ago!  

    Disappointing City Council Action

Certainly we are disappointed—but not discouraged—by the City Council action approving a contract for part of the Parkway from the sole bidder at a cost of $45 million, a figure about 100% higher than budgeted by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. This shows overall construction costs at about twice the $35 million full Parkway construction estimate!  Note the Pine Street Coalition/VT Racial Justice RIGHTway would cut about $8 million in the required tax dollars!  

    The Lawsuit

The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major 2009 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”

The stale, obsolete 2009 EIS contains not one sentence on addressing climate change, not a paragraph addressing safety for users, and identifies no issue of racial and low-income equity.  Yet, even after a three year Environmental Justice new rules application the City and VTrans (not a whisker of Parkway change!) utterly failed in application of the rules and ignored unanimous opposition at the one public hearing on the Parkway cutting in two the King Maple community of color, also designated low-income by Gov. Scott.

We all know the basics of the lawsuit

The threat of payback required of the City never made sense as such a requirement still remains discretionary on the part of the Federal Highway Administration—no law absolutely requires it.  That the City Council operated out of fear rather than the best interests and safety of its residents and businesses is troubling.  Much less the issues of racial and low income justice, air quality and climate change, Englesby Brook protection, a newly found endangered species (including the Northern Long Eared bat), and simple waste—all inherently negative in the current harmful Parkway design.

An example of waste is the building of two streets instead of one, Briggs Street and Parkway for an entire block.  Add a sidewalk to a “new” Briggs (now the mud flats), the Parkway and shared use path (mixes 20 mph ebikes and pedestrians including toddlers, those with canes and walkers, etc.)—there are upwards of 125 to 150 feet width of pavement!  This is twice what is needed!  This section is so bizarre Petra Cliffs and perhaps even our City Market Coop have been quietly informed that the City will just put in a driveway across the “new” useless Briggs Street directly onto the Parkway!  Public Works Director Chapin Spencer in the 2016 presentation to the neighborhood where not a word was allowed spoken by the 100 attending could not have been more correct when he said if the project were designed to today it would be different—those words resonate even more today, six years later!

The Flynn Avenue/Briggs Street/Parkway intersection analyzed by the now adjacent City Market Coop also fails with an average vehicle delay almost two minutes (110 seconds) at afternoon peak.  Pine Street Coalition focuses changes on the ground and numerous changed laws and regulations as the basis of its case to call for discarding the current obsolete design. But there is also substantial waste with about 1.75 lane miles of no longer needed roadway and ongoing maintenance costs which would be added to the capital costs of the Parkway.

Unfortunately our Department of Public Works retains little credibility on the Parkway safety or safety on our streets with its decade long record of no serious attention to even one of the City’s twenty high crash intersections on VTrans current list.  All but one of those 20 intersections are signalized and three lie on the edge of the low-income/people of color King Maple neighborhood. With almost one in five of the Vermont high crash intersections on our mostly 25 mph streets, Burlington streets are among the most dangerous in Vermont to walk, bike or travel by car.  About weekly a pedestrian or cyclist is injured along two car occupants.

We can and must do better when spending $130 million now and counting for our South End.  We must “do it right the first time” and install a street, almost a corridor long dedicated pedestrian only sidewalk, and a “bikes only” 2-way bikeway—in short, a roadway we can love!

Informed and focused efforts to alter a major roadway project succeeded early this century in the City supported fight against the Circumferential Highway, and in the Keene, NH citizen battle against a $80 million bypass expansion which was converted to three roundabouts with even better safety and service!

Thank you all for your continued support and counsel!

Champlain Parkway Update--Court Starts, Racial Equity Ignored, Price Doubles?, Private Group Joins Lawsuit

 Pine Street Parkway US District Court Lawsuit Begins,
     Finally, May16

City Ignores King Maple Neighborhood Certified
      Community of Color with Zero Change in Parkway     
      Blatant Environmental Injustice Design After
      Almost 3 Years Public Review

City Quietly Puts Parkway to Bid—Only One Bid  
     Received Two Weeks Ago, About Doubles the
     Overall VTrans/City Estimated Total from $30
     million to as much as $60 million! (Yes, Pine Street
     RIGHTway would cut project construction costs by
     about one quarter!)

Fortieth Burlington, LLC Owner of Major Lakeside
     Office Complex, Innovation Center, joins Pine
     Street in Litigation at Vermont’s US District Court


April 2, 2022

Good Day Pine Street Grassroots Members:

Please note recent highlights as the Champlain Parkway moves from an almost three year delay to apply new Environmental  Justice regulations (not a whisker of change in the harmful Parkway design!) to the Pine Street US District Court lawsuit filed June 6, 2019 (D-Day).  And the apparent ill-timed rush to Parkway construction by the Mayor Weinberger administration. The one bid received March 18 signals a doubling of estimated construction costs!  The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and VTrans estimates of $30 million for construction based on a partial Parkway construction bid of $40.1 million suggests construction costs doubling to about $60 million!

If you have not yet signed the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance petition to support our joint Champlain RIGHTway, please take a moment to visit the petition site provided at the end of this message.  And continue to encourage our City Councilors and Legislative representatives to push for the exciting RIGHTway and its benefits (and save up to 25% of the construction estimate!) instead of the current harmful to the South End design!

When asked the question of who makes the decisions on the Parkway, one is reminded of a conversation between then former Secretary of Transportation Sue Minter following a campaign appearance in her campaign for governor when she told Pine Street leader Jack Daggitt in response to questions about the Parkway design, she responded simply “this is a City project!”  Minter herself is said to have nixed roundabouts in the project in a 2015 meeting.  Still, the point she makes is the Mayor of Burlington is the key person in decisions making regarding the Champlain Parkway.  The Parkway is a City project!!

    Tony Redington
        Walk Safety Advocate
    for the Pine Street Coalition
 


Pine Street Parkway US District Court Lawsuit Begins,
     Finally, May16

Grassroots volunteer Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) filed at US District Court here in Burlington on D-Day June 6, 2019 with the purpose of stopping the obsolete, harmful Champlain Parkway design and obtaining a re-design which responds to safety for all modes, addresses climate change, and most important, relieves not adds to the overburden for King Maple neighborhood.  The City now opposes and always has the current design cutting in two the now certified community of color King Maple and adding 22-37% more traffic and installing two injury generating traffic signals to an already overburdened low-income, community of color area.  

Now the plaintiffs, Pine Street and Fortieth Burlington, LLC, Innovation Center owner face off with the City, VTrans and Federal Highway Administration with first legal brief filings due by May 16.   

City Ignores King Maple Neighborhood Certified
      Community of Color with Zero Change in Parkway     
      Blatant Environmental Injustice Design After Almost 3
      Years Public Review

It remains puzzling after almost three years and a unanimous strong public hearing opposition and comments against the Parkway cutting through the now certified King Maple neighborhood as a community of color—just why not a whisker of design change in this overburdened neighborhood where 32% of residents have no car access and are pedestrian dependent?

A major change this year is the National Roadway Safety Strategy document from the US Department of Transportation (January 2022)

https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS

This policy document calls for a “Safe System Approach” and “Safe System Intersections” (primarily roundabouts) to transport funding to address “preventable” serious and fatal roadway injuries—there are at least 21,000 preventable fatalities each year on US roads, about 30 in Vermont.  (US plunged from first in world road safety in 1990 to18th today, ped deaths up 51% since 2010 with two recorded in Burlington.)

The new national strategy expressly makes both racial/low-income equity and climate change the two vital companion objectives in safety spending. The National Roadway Safety Strategy ties directly to 2021 Executive Orders https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafetyEquityClimate  EO 13985 on Equity and EO 14008 on Climate Change.

It is difficult to conceive of a roadway investment in Vermont which could be more damaging to racial and low income equity and the climate than the current design of the Champlain Parkway!

City Quietly Puts Parkway to Bid—Only One Bid  
     Received Two Weeks Ago, About Doubles the
     Overall VTrans/City Estimated Total from $30 million to
     as much as $60 million! (Yes, Pine Street RIGHTway
     would cut project construction costs by about one
     quarter!)

On March 18, Burlington opened the one bid for construction of just part of the Champlain Parkway between Main Street and Home Avenue—that bid, reportedly $40.1 million alone exceeds the $30 million City estimates on the books for about three years.  The $40.1 million when added some time in the future of the balance of the Parkway from Shelburne Rd to Home Ave (“Road to Nowhere”) means the current Parkway design will double to about $60 million the current estimates.  

This number also calls into question the $20 million estimate for the Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) which just about all in the City favor being built first to bypass the King Maple neighborhood already overburdened with traffic, pollution, and social disruption of high traffic volumes.  The City is responsible for 100% of REP costs over $20 million.

Some say the Weinberger administration ill-timed bid maneuver was to avoid facing the court challenge and avoid a possible injunction stopping construction.  That occurred at US District Court in the Circumferential Highway lawsuit when VTrans let contracts followed by the Court rejected the environmental document and the project died—same issue here with the Parkway?  

Fortieth Burlington, LLC Owner of Major Lakeside Office
     Complex, Innovation Center, joins Pine Street in
     Litigation at Vermont’s US District Court

It is news that the owner of Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue took action recently to also oppose at US District Court the current Parkway design and seek a quality, modern South End transport facility which is safe, addresses climate change (Efficiency Vermont was a longtime tenant) and corrects the overburden for the low-income and community of color King Maple neighborhood.
Pine Street and Innovation Center have worked closely in the past in regulatory and State courts to obtain a responsible Parkway design.

Attached please note a simple example of a street, a dedicated bikeway, and sidewalk.  This is the type of design Pine Street and Vermont Racial Justice Alliance call for between Queen City Park Rd to Home Avenue and from Home Avenue to Flynn Ave.  It is the RIGHTway!  It is “doing it right the first time!”

Please stay safe!

    Yours truly,


    Tony Redington
    for the Pine Street Coalition

 

What can you do?

Sign the Stop the Champlain Parkway Project and Choose the Champlain RIGHTway Petition: http://chng.it/tS9Ts5FjDx   SafeStreetsBurlington.com

 

 

 

 

Two Year Environmental Justice Rules Application to Parkway Design Results in No a Whisker of Change

Frustration and consternation remains that after 2 years of applying new Environmental Justice regulations to the obvious current Parkway design injustice to low income (26 of Burlington residents have poverty incomes, a population mostly in King Maple and Old North End neighborhoods); and blatant injustice to the community of color (King Maple largest such community in Vermont).   

Frustration and consternation the result of two years was nothing of outreach and hearings, etc., and not one design change!  No recognition even of known degrading of safety, air quality, and livability, particularly along Pine Street part of the Parkway which cuts King Maple in two!  Not even an admission that in King Maple there will be more traffic, higher speeds, and degraded walking conditions and increased pollution are not a bad thing!

Tweets on 2 year Environmental Justice rules application to the Champlain Parkway with unanimous opposition at the one hybrid 2021 hearing and not a whisker changed in the hurtful, obstolete and global heating design!! Here are some recent tweets in this regard.

     "US Transport Boss Pete/VT Fed Highway chief Hake/VTrans Secretary Flynn last Friday after 2-year look leaves untouched Champlain Parkway blatant racial/low-income injustice in King Maple community of color. South Ender Carolyn Bates montage reflects reactions of many. Add Mayor Weinberger to this group! #btv #vtpoli"

      "Champlain Parkway 2-year Environmental (In)Justice work completed a design trifecta of planet heating and upped road injuries. Add Mayor Weinberger to the non-perform list!. #btv #vtpoli"

     "Robust[ed] System of Transportation" says Burlington Public Works director on WCAX. $100 million spent on 2.3 miles Parkway through the South End and not one inch of sidewalk, not one inch of safe bikeway/protected bike lane. That "Robusted!" #btv #vtpoli Go RIGHTway! ]

Red Light for Traffic Signals

The current Champlain Parkway design calls for 6-7 new traffic signal systems, a technology considered pause and dangerous in every way.  Here is a tweet announcing Freakonomics feature on roundabouts replacing signals:

“Traffic signals in most cases belong in recycling bins (highly toxic for pedestrians!). "Should Traffic Signals be Abolished?" on Freakonomics. City of almost no signals left (about 140 roundabouts, a dozen signals) Carmel, IN Mayor Brainard https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/ #btv #vtpoli"

Burington—A Pedestrian or Bicycle Injury Weekly

Pedestrian and bicycle injuries are a weekly occurrence in Burlington.  The Champlain RIGHTway reduces bike/ped injuries versus the increase inherent in the current design. 

My recent tweet:  “Numbers in BTV are clear, about one pedestrian or cyclist injury weekly and two car occupants (from recent 5 year data set). BTV has 20 high crash intersections on state list, each 1.5 injuries/year average. City has not addressed any of these. #btv #vtpoli"

 

The Equality Street--A Step Up from the Complete Street, Accounting for Racial Bias

The Equality Street: Battle for a Champlain Parkway “RIGHTway,”

                      North Street Burlington, and Beyond

The Pine Street Coalition battle in the South End for a Champlain RGHTway moves to a new level as the City Council may well shortly approve building the Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) before any current pending Parkway is built—this would assure the King Maple neighborhood gets immediate relief from current levels unsafety, traffic, pollution and congestion instead of an additional onslaught of traffic from the City’s’ current obsolete, unsafe Champlain Parkway design. 

The REP was always wanted by the City as the Parkway route through to Main Street (Alternative 1 in the 2009 environmental document) instead of through Pine. REP extends from Kilburn St/Curtis Lumber on Pine Street to Battery Street so the Parkway route effectively bypasses King Maple neighborhood. King Maple has the lowest median income in Burlington, over 80% low and moderate income population and highest Vermont concentration of persons with black and brown skin.

  Pine Street and Two Principal Allies, a Major Victory

    —FHWA Funds Railroad Enterprise Project for $20 million and Likely Moves to the Front Burner 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) promised to walk away from the now $100 million project unless the Parkway cut King Maple in two and increased Pine Street traffic there 22-37% through King Maple to Main Street. The Parkway current design through King Maple degrades pedestrian safety and delay with two traffic signals replacing all-way-stops at Maple and King thereby raising speeds and pedestrian injury rates by 20% (all-way stop or a roundabout equal in their pedestrian safety superiority). 

Mayor Kiss and City Council rather than losing all funding accepted the current route under the duress in 2009 in spite of long time community opposition. The grassroots group Pine Street Coalition began in 2015 and following the leadership of the Burlington Walk Bike Council and undertaking community outreach, adopted a set of Parkway re-design guidelines, little changed to this day. The basics: (1) full sidewalk and separate bikeway along the entire route (none now, not an inch); (2) retaining connectivity between Pine Street and Queen City Park Road Kmart Plaza versus the current design dead ending Pine short of the Parkway; (3) use of engineering “best practices” including safest-for-all modes and climate change prevention champion roundabout (the one and only FHWA pedestrian safety “proven countermeasure” intersection); (4) cutting 1.5 miles of expensive excess lanes miles of roadway; (5) preservation and protection of Englesby Brook, the City’s largest stream entering Lake Champlain which the Parkway would stuff into a long pipe; and (6) accepting the Parkway as an ordinary City street and dropping full controlled access restraint at Pine/I 189 intersection. 

The Pine Street Coalition re-design guidelines and challenge documents issued in April 2018 clearly led to a change of heart by FHWA which suddenly offered the City the REP it rejected in 2009, and later even sweetened the offer with a better financial deal for the City after Pine Street Coalition went to US District Court on D-Day, June 6, 2019. Thanks to Pine Street’s long time partner (they were there before Pine Street) Fortieth Burlington, LLC owner of Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue and joined by the second Vermont Racial Justice Alliance (VRJA) in summer 2019 during the now ending Environmental Justice two-year-plus outreach—a direct result of the Pine Street lawsuit—REP has now moved from a $20 million initial reluctant offer by FHWA toward front burner status. 

One cannot overstate the importance of the Environmental Justice process for the education it brought to all in detailing the blatant transportation racism and injustice not only in King Maple now acknowledged, but also the special core role the safest pedestrian design plays in avoiding disproportionate negative impact of roadway projects on communities of color and low income. That core safest pedestrian design when twinned with the best accommodation of bicycles is the very definition of an “equality street” in all senses of descriptive—from transportation equity for all modes to racial equity for communities of color with their far higher dependence on the walking mode. 

  Next Challenge—Achieving Champlain RIGHTway "Complete," “Equality Streets” 

Very simply, an equality street is first and foremost a busy street with sidewalks and roundabout intersections which also contain either on-street cycle track (protected bikes lanes) and/or a separate safe two-way bikeway. There now is not a single inch of “equality street” along the existing Champlain Parkway and Rail Enterprise Project design! Quite the contrary the current Parkway and REP design are clearly racially and transportation unjust and discrimination by the inferior treatment of those who walk and bike versus those who travel by motor vehicle. Burlington actually established a landmark “equality” street model in the North Avenue Corridor Plan (2014) which contains three basics—sidewalks and roundabouts at key intersections, and end-to-end cycle track. 

It was the Parkway Environmental Justice process and leadership of VRJA, its director Mark Hughes and their staff, that led over the last two years which led to the expanded and deepened definition of an equality street. Expanded in the sense of applying directly to the lexicon of racist transportation practice where a community of color or low-income neighborhoods are present or affected. Deepened in clearly defining sidewalks and either all-way-stop or roundabout intersections as the minimum standard of pedestrian design of busy streets. It is the Parkway converting of two all-way-stop intersections with many pedestrians to traffic signals which set up the real life conflict which has arisen in the Parkway Environmental Justice process. 

The Parkway environmental document of 2009 and previous public process ended two years before the Vermont Complete Streets Law (2011) enactment which calls for consideration of safe accommodation of pedestrian and bicycle modes in road projects. Even a cursory examination of that law along with Burlington practice and plans shows the use of a shared use path treatment in the Parkway and REP fails the Vermont legal standard and is inconsistent by mixing two modes to the detriment of both as well as in an unsafe manner. Key to understanding the equality street definition, particularly the need for a pedestrian sidewalk treatment, is recognizing that neighborhoods of low income and communities of color are in fact disproportionately dependent on safe walking facilities because they are significantly pedestrian and transit dependent. In Burlington’s King Maple and Old North End neighborhoods fully 30% of residents lack access to a car. Burlington Public Works Commissioner and UVM professor Pablo Bose is not only a researcher in this regard, he is also active in assisting New Americans and others lacking a car obtain necessary transportation services.

Further, the pedestrian mode has always been pretty much ignored in transportation by government. For example there have been incentives and tax breaks for solo commuter drivers to give up their annual $2,000 parking garage spaces and $600 surface parking lot space, incentives for van group participants, incentives for taking transit to work and incentives to bicyclists—but never any formal incentive to the sizable walk-to-work set who cost the employer the least and do so in a healthy way! In a word, the pedestrian mode is the apartheid transportation mode, the right-turn-on red allowed today which kills about 30 pedestrians being the most obvious outrage of transportation discrimination not to mention the 50% increase in pedestrian deaths since 2010 (two such deaths in Burlington). 

In the larger picture of discrimination, people of color die at 50-90% higher rates per population than white-non-hispanic (Native Americans 2 to 3 times the lower "white" rate). We must assure the highest level of quality and safe pedestrian facilities in our urban neighborhoods, particularly where there are numbers of low income and persons of color—something totally lacking in the current Parkway and REP. With tabulations showing a bicycle or pedestrian injury weekly in Burlington (plus two car occupant injuries) and a bicycle or pedestrian death every five years, safety on our streets is major concern.

  Parkway/Railyard Enterprise and the Controlled Access Versus a Complete, Equality Street Standard

The Parkway and Railyard Enterprise Project are a vestige of 80 year old ring-road around Burlington concept with the circle to be closed from I 189 by the Parkway through the South End, through the waterfront and Old North End to the VT 127 Beltline which dates from the 1980s— finally the completed circle via the Circumferential Highway from Colchester through Essex to VT 289 and interchange with I 89. The Circumferential Highway was effectively canceled by Governor Shumlin in 2011 and the waterfront/Old North End section of the ring road was discarded decades before. 

Pine Street Coalition has assumed from a the start the “controlled access” of the interstate is relaxed, ending at the I 189/Pine Street/Queen City Park Rd/RIGHTway interchange intersection. From that intersection pedestrian and bicycle facilities as well as additional intersections (like one at the City Market South End parking access, for example) could be installed as the RIGHTway onward becomes an ordinary busy street following the Vermont Complete Streets Law (2011) which calls for safe accommodation of pedestrians and bicyclists, a step now better described as employing the “equality street” model contained in the City’s North Avenue Corridor Plan or the Pine Street/VRJA/Fortieth Burlington, Champlain RIGHTway design guidelines necessitated by the presence of a community of color and a number of safety considerations, pedestrian safety paramount. 

  The “Shared Use” Pedestrian/Bicycle Facility—Second Class, Racial and Low Income Discriminatory

    Accommodation for Bicyclists and Especially Pedestrians

The current design of the Parkway and REP both utilize either nothing or a shared use path (REP) exclusively thereby mixing high speed bicycles and e-bikes with on foot children, families, and those who move either temporarily or permanently by cane and walker. In a rural setting this might be satisfactory but in a busy metropolitan center like the South End of Burlington with practically unlimited space for a sidewalk and separate 2-way bike lane through out the REP and Parkway use of a shared use path considering the community of color is nothing but straight, blatant racial discrimination and injustice! 

It can be expected the REP/Parkway which connects at either end with the Burlington Bikepath (a recreation path) will bring a large number of visitors and City residents making a “circle” tour—Bikepath and "South End Bikeway”—as Pine Street supporters envision thereby aiding the South End economy. Further the longer term promise of a full service bikeway from the north tip of ONE south to Queen City Park Road is moved ahead with the “South End Bikeway.” South End residents during public meetings on the REP expressed the importance of their using the REP to access the Bikepath—now with only two South End at grade connections—one via Austin Drive/Oakledge Park and the other at Harrison Street opposite Sears Lane. Note the “new” Parkway roadway sections with right-of-way acquired decades ago (including Road to Nowhere) are about 100 feet in width to accommodate the early planned four lane divided highway, now to be two lanes requiring less than half the 100 foot width. Spending $100 million where there is more than sufficient right-of-way and getting not a single inch of sidewalk or separate bikeway is pathological and discriminating street design! 

  North Street and Beyond 

Burlington has a major task before it addressing the 20—all but one signalized—intersections on the State high crash list, 18% of the 111 statewide and averaging 1.5 injuries a year. The 19 signalized intersections (not all were tabulated in the statewide report) represent over one in four of Burlington’s traffic signals which total about 75. Not surprisingly many of the high crash signalized intersections are in the Old North End (ONE), including four of the six on North Street between North Avenue and North Union. North Street with its many commercial businesses is truly a “community street” and it can easily and cheaply be converted from perhaps the least safe Vermont community street to the most safe using the knowledge developed in the South End RIGHTway, the Environmental Justice process now ending, and the North Avenue Corridor Plan endeavors. The inexpensive mini roundabout first suggested in the AARP Vermont Pine Street Workshop (2014) is particularly adapted to the narrow right of way along North Street. So, the many lessons learned during the past several years can be applied to problem streets and intersections throughout Burlington. 

Tony Redington 

onyRVT99@gmail.com

Pine Street/VT Racial Justice Call for Railyard First, then RIGHTWAY to cut King Maple up to 59%!!

Pine Street Fights for Environmental Justice, Safe Walk and Bike Accommodation, and Economic Growth in a Champlain “RIGHTway Street and Street Design Pine Street Wins Key Change in Parkway: Still Miles to Go! …first build Railyard connection to Battery Street slicing current traffic in King Maple by 59%, then build a redesigned the Parkway to a complete “RIGHTway” by safe accommodation of pedestrians and bicyclists, employing “best practices” for minimizing injuries for all, preserving Englesby Brook and slashing 1.5 lane- miles of excess roadway. “Stop it! Stop it Now!…We’ll be back!” Mark Hughes, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance Parkway Hearing, July 29, 2020 Two years ago—June 6, 2019—the grassroots Pine Street Coalition stopped the 1950s South End still gargantuan highway proposal in its tracks by filing a lawsuit in federal court. That lawsuit caused the feds to apply new Environmental Justice regulations to the 2009 Parkway route which today cuts in half the King Maple community of color and 26% residents with poverty incomes! Lower upscale Pine Street traffic drops 76% while stressed King Maple gets flooded with 37% more cars and trucks! Suddenly after lawsuit federal officials who in 2006 dismissed the City fight against the King Maple routing retreated saying OK, you can bypass King Maple as originally advocated by our Mayor and Council with a connection between Battery Street and Pine Street adjacent to Curtis Lumber. The “Railyard” project now in planning cuts King Maple traffic by upwards of 59% while still cutting the majority of traffic along Pine below Flynn Avenue. Still, federal and Vermont officials want to build the current design first with its full bore devastation on King Maple only to come back at some as yet unknown future year “cure” the Parkway harms. Bypass King Maple now! Kill the Parkway through King Maple! A “RIGHTway” design saves millions in cost in a project now topping $100 million! Our all volunteer Pine Street Coalition, now about six years old, is composed of about 200 citizens.  Pine Street is an outgrowth of Burlington Walk Bike Council analysis and concerns 2014-2016 over lack of safe, separate walk and bike accommodations  anywhere along the Parkway base route, and a larger community opposition which caused a complete rewrite of the planBTV South End to include a future vision of the South End with and without the Parkway as then designed.  Add the numerous laws, policies and plans now in place since the 2009 now rescinded environmental document--plus the one the ground changes like the South End City Market Coop Store, Blodgett Oven moving out being replaced by a generator space type development, etc.  Those laws, policies and plans include, among others: Vermont Complete Streets Law (2011), new Environmental Justice regulations, federal requirements that highway funds decrease serious and fatal injuries, and our own City plans and policies which include our the Climate Change Emergency (2019), Transportation Plan (2011), Racism as a Public Health Emergency (2020), and our landmark and regularly revised Climate Action Plan which dates back to the 1990s. Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and Fortieth Burlington (Innovation Center) Pine Street expanded last fall by joining with the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance (VRJA) which together with a long standing association with Fortieth Burlington, LLC (Fortieth) creates a larger group in a common cause. Fortieth owns the former 1800s manufacturing complex now reborn as a modern office complex, Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue. Without the appeal of the Act 250 permit to the Vermont Supreme Court by Fortieth, the current atrocious and harmful Parkway design would be in place today with devastating impacts on the King Maple community of color and a harmful bubble covering the entire South End! So, our Pine Street Coalition formed a joint effort with VRJA and Fortieth last fall and individually and jointly continue initiatives along a common set of accepted re-design guidelines originally developed in a community process years ago which continues today with little change--see the new "one-pager" which describes our common design elements we seek in a re-designed, Railyard first built modern transportation facility.  It is this "Railyard first" which means an immediate and permanent reduction in traffic, stress and pollution in King Maple which has come to the fore in our thinking and advocacy over the past three months!  Our common cause separate, parallel and joint actions. Both VRJA and ourselves are proud of the Vermont Sierra Club inaugural Transit Equity day award early this year, a joint award which recognizes our common cause efforts to address racial equity in the King Maple neighborhood as well as a quality, safe, “equality” streets Parkway design.    We here at Pine Street mark with sadness the recent passing of a founding member of our "presentation team", Charles Simpson, also a long time member of Neighborhood Planning Assembly 6 Steering Committee, and retired SUNNY Plattsburgh professor, expert in community land use and urban development!  

Pine Street and Vermont Racial Justice Call for Champlain RIGHTway cutting King Maple Traffic 59%!

Pine Street Fights for Environmental Justice, Safe Walk and Bike Accommodation, and Economic Growth in a Champlain “RIGHTway Street and Street Design Pine Street Wins Key Change in Parkway: Still Miles to Go! …first build Railyard connection to Battery Street slicing current traffic in King Maple by 59%, then build a redesigned the Parkway to a complete “RIGHTway” by safe accommodation of pedestrians and bicyclists, employing “best practices” for minimizing injuries for all, preserving Englesby Brook and slashing 1.5 lane- miles of excess roadway. “Stop it! Stop it Now!…We’ll be back!” Mark Hughes, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance Parkway Hearing, July 29, 2020 Two years ago—June 6, 2019—the grassroots Pine Street Coalition stopped the 1950s South End still gargantuan highway proposal in its tracks by filing a lawsuit in federal court. That lawsuit caused the feds to apply new Environmental Justice regulations to the 2009 Parkway route which today cuts in half the King Maple community of color and 26% residents with poverty incomes! Lower upscale Pine Street traffic drops 76% while stressed King Maple gets flooded with 37% more cars and trucks! Suddenly after lawsuit federal officials who in 2006 dismissed the City fight against the King Maple routing retreated saying OK, you can bypass King Maple as originally advocated by our Mayor and Council with a connection between Battery Street and Pine Street adjacent to Curtis Lumber. The “Railyard” project now in planning cuts King Maple traffic by upwards of 59% while still cutting the majority of traffic along Pine below Flynn Avenue. Still, federal and Vermont officials want to build the current design first with its full bore devastation on King Maple only to come back at some as yet unknown future year “cure” the Parkway harms. Bypass King Maple now! Kill the Parkway through King Maple! A “RIGHTway” design saves millions in cost in a project now topping $100 million! Our all volunteer Pine Street Coalition, now about six years old, is composed of about 200 citizens.  Pine Street is an outgrowth of Burlington Walk Bike Council analysis and concerns 2014-2016 over lack of safe, separate walk and bike accommodations  anywhere along the Parkway base route, and a larger community opposition which caused a complete rewrite of the planBTV South End to include a future vision of the South End with and without the Parkway as then designed.  Add the numerous laws, policies and plans now in place since the 2009 now rescinded environmental document--plus the one the ground changes like the South End City Market Coop Store, Blodgett Oven moving out being replaced by a generator space type development, etc.  Those laws, policies and plans include, among others: Vermont Complete Streets Law (2011), new Environmental Justice regulations, federal requirements that highway funds decrease serious and fatal injuries, and our own City plans and policies which include our the Climate Change Emergency (2019), Transportation Plan (2011), Racism as a Public Health Emergency (2020), and our landmark and regularly revised Climate Action Plan which dates back to the 1990s. Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and Fortieth Burlington (Innovation Center) Pine Street expanded last fall by joining with the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance (VRJA) which together with a long standing association with Fortieth Burlington, LLC (Fortieth) creates a larger group in a common cause. Fortieth owns the former 1800s manufacturing complex now reborn as a modern office complex, Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue. Without the appeal of the Act 250 permit to the Vermont Supreme Court by Fortieth, the current atrocious and harmful Parkway design would be in place today with devastating impacts on the King Maple community of color and a harmful bubble covering the entire South End! So, our Pine Street Coalition formed a joint effort with VRJA and Fortieth last fall and individually and jointly continue initiatives along a common set of accepted re-design guidelines originally developed in a community process years ago which continues today with little change--see the new "one-pager" which describes our common design elements we seek in a re-designed, Railyard first built modern transportation facility.  It is this "Railyard first" which means an immediate and permanent reduction in traffic, stress and pollution in King Maple which has come to the fore in our thinking and advocacy over the past three months!  Our common cause separate, parallel and joint actions. Both VRJA and ourselves are proud of the Vermont Sierra Club inaugural Transit Equity day award early this year, a joint award which recognizes our common cause efforts to address racial equity in the King Maple neighborhood as well as a quality, safe, “equality” streets Parkway design.    We here at Pine Street mark with sadness the recent passing of a founding member of our "presentation team", Charles Simpson, also a long time member of Neighborhood Planning Assembly 6 Steering Committee, and retired SUNNY Plattsburgh professor, expert in community land use and urban development!  

Pine Street Coalition and VT Racial Justice Alliance receive joint Transit Equity Day award by VT Sierra Club Chapter

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** 4 February 2021 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tony Redington, Coordinator Steve Goodkind Pine Street Coalition bludriver@aol.com 802-343-6616 802-316-6045 tonyrvt99@gmail.com Pine Street Coalition and Vermont Racial Justice Alliance Receive Transit Equity Award for Champlain Parkway Environment Justice Fight Burlington. VT. -- The Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club today issued its first Transit Equity Award to the Pine Street Coalition and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance for their collaborative work fighting the Champlain Parkway highway project in Burlington on environmental justice grounds. The award is part of the Sierra Club’s Transit Equity Day taking place on Rosa Parks’ birthday to highlight the need to transition to more environmentally-sound transportation including increased public transit. The Pine Street Coalition is a grass-roots group advocating for safer, greener transportation, particularly for bicyclists and pedestrians, in Burlington’s vibrant South End. The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance is an advocacy organization focused on dismantling racism in Vermont with a priority on public policy regarding housing, education, employment, and criminal justice. The two groups intersected over the City of Burlington’s plan to run the Champlain Parkway highway project through the middle of the Maple-King neighborhood, increasing traffic volume and speed through this predominantly Black and immigrant community. “The City’s own numbers state that their project would decrease traffic in the predominantly white, more affluent neighborhoods further south, but at the expense of increasing traffic in the Maple King neighborhood by 37 percent. More traffic and higher speeds significantly increase the safety risk to people walking and biking in this neighborhood, especially children and elders,” says Tony Redington, coordinator of the Pine Street Coalition and a prior transportation planner and policy analyst in Vermont and New Hampshire. The Pine Street Coalition filed a federal lawsuit in 2018 to stop the Champlain Parkway. Among their challenges to the project was environmental justice. The Federal Highway Administration agreed with the Coalition’s contention that environmental review had not fulfilled requirements to analyze the project’s effects on non-White and lower-income residents. The federal court case was put on hold so that the City could evaluate environmental justice impacts. Coordinating with the Racial Justice Alliance as well as Fortieth Burlington, LLC, owner of Innovation Center office complex on Lakeside Avenue, the Pine Street Coalition engaged expert witnesses from Burlington’s academic community and submitted substantial comments detailing the racial harm inherent in the City’s highway design. “As a matter of public policy, undesirable public works are often shifted to low- income neighborhoods as the path to least resistance in overcoming public objection,” said Pine Street Coalition expert Lionel Beasley, professor of Race and Media at Champlain College. “The decision to extend the Champlain Parkway along Pine Street to the Maple-King neighborhood represents the continuation of long-standing patterns that trace their origins to Urban Renewal programs and the placement of highways beginning in the late 1940s.” The City’s highway design “smacks of racism” according to retired Burlington City Engineer Steve Goodkind. “If there is any doubt about this, just imagine if the situation was reversed and downtown and affluent neighborhoods were being asked to accept greater traffic volumes in order for traffic to be reduced in the King/Maple/Pine neighborhood. There’s not a chance in hell of that happening, and we all know why,” he said. Working with the Racial Justice Alliance and Fortieth Burlington, owner of the Innovation Center on the Parkway’s path, the Pine Street Coalition developed a solution called the Champlain RIGHTway, a re-routed alternative to the Parkway which would bring traffic relief to the Maple-King community as well as more affluent South End neighborhoods, while increasing safety, decreasing environmental impacts, and costing far less. The Racial Justice Alliance, with support from the Pine Street Coalition and Fortieth Burlington, presented the Champlain RIGHTway proposal to state and federal officials three weeks ago, who have as of yet failed to respond to their demands for environmental justice. The Sierra Club granted the award acknowledging the unique collaboration between Pine Street Coalition and the Racial Justice Alliance because it “believes that these types of partnerships are what is needed to challenge systemic racism and institutional poor transportation planning.” www.SafeStreetsBurlington.com https://www.facebook.com/SSBPineStreetNOW Stop Transportation Racism! Redesign the Champlain Parkway!

New Street Proposal to City, Vermont Agency of Transportation and Federal Highway Officials

Let’s shape a street the City can love!

                                     PINE STREET COALITION PROPOSAL:

NEW STREET

                     …An economically viable, environmentally sound alternative to the

 “Champlain Parkway/Southern Connector"

NEW STREET is the forward-thinking transportation alternative to the stalled, obsolete Champlain Parkway/Southern Connector project. NEW STREET incorporates many  elements of the plan, so can proceed to construction with minimal additional state and federal review. 

NEW STREET eliminates previous safety, environmental and social justice roadblocks, addressing much community opposition which has until now stymied the Champlain Parkway. 

NEW STREET protects the safety of travelers (vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists) and vulnerable adjacent populations. It bolsters long-term sustainability and development of Burlington's South End. We anticipate that NEW STREET should cost millions less to build than the proposed Champlain Parkway project. The New Street design cuts 1.5 lane-miles of roadway construction, maintenance, and storm-water infrastructure.

NEW STREET incorporates the most recent Environmental Justice initiatives from the Federal Highway Administration, thus avoiding disproportionate impact to Burlington's predominant minority and low-income neighborhoods.  NEW STREET responds to the Climate Emergency resolution adopted by the Burlington City Council on 9/23/19 and signed by the Mayor on 9/25/19. New Street reduces pavement,  promotes bike and pedestrian travel, and protects the Englesby Brook natural wildlife corridor.

                           NEW STREET OUTLINE: SECTION by SECTION 

1. RESTORE and REFURBISH as a two-way, two-lane road the EXISTING PORTION of the never-completed SOUTHERN CONNECTOR. This runs from I-189 at Route 7 to Home Avenue. 

A roundabout intersection at south end of Pine Street retains connection between I-189, Queen City Park Road and South Burlington. LARGE TRUCK traffic, is REROUTED to the restored CONNECTOR roadway. Automobiles, light trucks, and bikes may travel this route or travel NORTH on PINE, and WEST or EAST on QUEEN CITY PARK ROAD.

From the Pine Street roundabout to Flynn Avenue the road will be posted as “TRUCK ROUTE.” The restored road ends at HOME AVENUE.

A sidewalk and separate bikeway is built on the west side of the restored connector from Pine Street to Home Avenue.

2.   NEW STREET FROM HOME AVE TO FLYNN AVE

Beginning on NEW STREET, at the intersection of restored CONNECTOR and HOME AVENUE, light trucks, cars and bicycles may travel NORTH or SOUTH on NEW STREET, or EAST or WEST on HOME AVENUE.  LARGE TRUCKS continue SOUTH ON NEW STREET which ends at FLYNN AVENUE.

A new intersection on NEW STREET serves as entrance to CITY MARKET and PETRA CLIFFS businesses.

Between HOME  AVENUE AND FLYNN AVENUE the sidewalk and separate bikeway continue on the West (City Market) side of NEW STREET as well a sidewalk on the East side.   

NEW STREET replaces BRIGGS STREET and a small section of BATCHELDER STREET in the new design remains as in the current design on the east side for residences access to the adjacent Addition road network.

From NEW STREET intersection with Flynn Avenue cars and light trucks will be routed  WEST and EAST on Flynn and SOUTH on NEW STREET. LARGE TRUCKS are REROUTED West on FLYNN.

3.  NEW STREET ENDS AT FLYNN AVENUE—SIDEWALK AND SEPARATE BIKEWAY CONTINUE TO MAIN STREET   

The Westside sidewalk and separate bikeway continue NORTH to ENGLESBY BROOK—the sidewalk and separate bikeway crossing the Brook will likely feature an historic iron bridge of the VTrans program of historic preservation.  The sidewalk and separate bikeway continue to Sears Lane and through to Lakeside Avenue.   At Lakeside Avenue the sidewalk and bikeway turn East one block to Pine Street, then North toward downtown on the  Westside of Pine to Kilburn Street-Curtis Lumber. From Kilburn Street  to Main Street the sidewalk continues and bicyclists use a protected bike lanes on Pine Street.  No traffic signals would be installed at either Pine Street/Maple Street or Pine Street/King Street intersections. 

May 16, 2020   Pine Street Coalition L3C     Rev. 1

SafeStreetsBurlington.com

Pine Street Coalition New Street Proposal--A Street our South End and City Can Love!!

 Let’s shape a street the City can love! 

                                     PINE STREET COALITION PROPOSAL:

NEW STREET

                     …An economically viable, environmentally sound alternative to the

 “Champlain Parkway/Southern Connector"

NEW STREET is the forward-thinking transportation alternative to the stalled, obsolete Champlain Parkway/Southern Connector project. NEW STREET incorporates many  elements of the plan, so can proceed to construction with minimal additional state and federal review. 

NEW STREET eliminates previous safety, environmental and social justice roadblocks, addressing much community opposition which has until now stymied the Champlain Parkway. 

NEW STREET protects the safety of travelers (vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists) and vulnerable adjacent populations. It bolsters long-term sustainability and development of Burlington's South End. We anticipate that NEW STREET should cost millions less to build than the proposed Champlain Parkway project. The New Street design cuts 1.5 lane-miles of roadway construction, maintenance, and storm-water infrastructure.

NEW STREET incorporates the most recent Environmental Justice initiatives from the Federal Highway Administration, thus avoiding disproportionate impact to Burlington's predominant minority and low-income neighborhoods.  NEW STREET responds to the Climate Emergency resolution adopted by the Burlington City Council on 9/23/19 and signed by the Mayor on 9/25/19. New Street reduces pavement,  promotes bike and pedestrian travel, and protects the Englesby Brook natural wildlife corridor.

                           NEW STREET OUTLINE: SECTION by SECTION 

1. RESTORE and REFURBISH as a two-way, two-lane road the EXISTING PORTION of the never-completed SOUTHERN CONNECTOR. This runs from I-189 at Route 7 to Home Avenue. 

A roundabout intersection at south end of Pine Street retains connection between I-189, Queen City Park Road and South Burlington. LARGE TRUCK traffic, is REROUTED to the restored CONNECTOR roadway. Automobiles, light trucks, and bikes may travel this route or travel NORTH on PINE, and WEST or EAST on QUEEN CITY PARK ROAD.

From the Pine Street roundabout to Flynn Avenue the road will be posted as “TRUCK ROUTE.” The restored road ends at HOME AVENUE.

A sidewalk and separate bikeway is built on the west side of the restored connector from Pine Street to Home Avenue.

2.   NEW STREET FROM HOME AVE TO FLYNN AVE

Beginning on NEW STREET, at the intersection of restored CONNECTOR and HOME AVENUE, light trucks, cars and bicycles may travel NORTH or SOUTH on NEW STREET, or EAST or WEST on HOME AVENUE.  LARGE TRUCKS continue SOUTH ON NEW STREET which ends at FLYNN AVENUE.

A new intersection on NEW STREET serves as entrance to CITY MARKET and PETRA CLIFFS businesses.

Between HOME  AVENUE AND FLYNN AVENUE the sidewalk and separate bikeway continue on the West (City Market) side of NEW STREET as well a sidewalk on the East side.   

NEW STREET replaces BRIGGS STREET and a small section of BATCHELDER STREET in the new design remains as in the current design on the east side for residences access to the adjacent Addition road network.

From NEW STREET intersection with Flynn Avenue cars and light trucks will be routed  WEST and EAST on Flynn and SOUTH on NEW STREET. LARGE TRUCKS are REROUTED West on FLYNN.

3.  NEW STREET ENDS AT FLYNN AVENUE—SIDEWALK AND SEPARATE BIKEWAY CONTINUE TO MAIN 

STREET   

The Westside sidewalk and separate bikeway continue NORTH to ENGLESBY BROOK—the sidewalk and separate bikeway crossing the Brook will likely feature an historic iron bridge of the VTrans program of historic preservation.  The sidewalk and separate bikeway continue to Sears Lane and through to Lakeside Avenue.   At Lakeside Avenue the sidewalk and bikeway turn East one block to Pine Street, then North toward downtown on the  Westside of Pine to Kilburn Street-Curtis Lumber. From Kilburn Street  to Main Street the sidewalk continues and bicyclists use a protected bike lanes on Pine Street.  No traffic signals would be installed at either Pine Street/Maple Street or Pine Street/King Street intersections. 

May 16, 2020   Pine Street Coalition L3C     Rev. 1

SafeStreetsBurlington.com