Meeting minutes from BUMC focus group meeting - Green Line ...

Data Shows Route 16 Station Helps Green Line Project
Achieve Air Quality, Environmental Justice Objectives
Analysis of census data by the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance
(MGNA) shows that extending the Green Line beyond College Avenue to Route
16 (Mystic Valley Parkway) would put nearly 10,000 additional residents within a
10-minute walk of Green Line service.
In addition, a Route 16 station would provide Green Line service within a 10minute
walk of five neighborhoods designated as Environmental Justice
communities that would not be similarly served by a Green Line terminus station
at College Avenue.
Both of these findings support the MGNA’s position that extending service to
Route 16, rather than terminating it at a College Avenue Station, is important to
helping the Green Line extension project meet two of its most important
objectives:
IMPROVED AIR QUALITY
The more person trips shifted from autos to transit, the better the project’s
potential to achieve its No. 1 objective – to improve regional air quality in the
corridor northwest of Boston and bring the Commonwealth into compliance with
Clean Air Act requirements for ozone levels.
• A Route 16 station would be within a half-mile – or a 10-minute walk – of
9,116 residents of Medford, Somerville and Arlington, based on 2000 U.S.
Census data (See Figure 1, Pg. 3). The MBTA considers a half-mile the
optimal spacing between transit stations.
• The proximity to Green Line service – vastly more frequent, efficient and less
polluting than existing public transit service in the area – would be a strong
incentive for residents to travel via the Green Line rather than by car.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The Green Line extension project is bound by the environmental justice
principles that no segment of the population should be denied environmental
benefits, or bear a disproportionate burden of the environmental impacts, related
to the project.
One measure of achieving environmental justice in this project is providing fair
and equitable access to stations – and to economic and educational
opportunities.
• A Route 16 terminus station would be within walking distance of five
neighborhoods – two in Medford, two in Somerville and one in Arlington – that
are designated as environmental justice communities (See Figure 2, Pg. 4).
MGNA Route 16 Demographic Analysis 1 Aug. 4, 2008