Board of Directors Meeting

1. Call to order at 6:14 p.m.

2. The June minutes were approved as corrected.

3. Officers’ Reports

A. Fred R. Moore, President

(1) Regional Transportation Advisory Council (RTAC), today.

Herb Pence presented his Artery Streetcar proposal. RTAC questions raised:

• Handicapped access. Why does this have to be a ‘vintage’ operation?
• Why limit the scope of this proposal to a Greenway routing?
• Highway lobbyists: Why not a ‘tourist trolley’ [i.e., a non-rail, rubber-tire bus], which is more flexible in terms of routing? Fred’s reaction: Compare this to the actual ridership of streetcar and ‘tourist trolley’ systems. Streetcars are ridden, and if we look at the recent San Francisco experience, they are patronized so heavily that they are often overcrowded.
• Wouldn’t this compete with the proposed North-South Rail Link? Fred: No, it is complementary.

(2) A Progress Report was issued by the Central Artery Oversight Committee.

This referred among other items to the public transportation improvement commitments involved as ‘mitigation’ that have not been done.

Our comment: These projects should have been done BEFORE the artery was built. What this means is that the State-level transportation agencies cannot be trusted. We should oppose any further highway expansion until all transit commitments have been met.

(3) Fred has been involved in a land use project in Saugus, where he lives. The locals have trouble perceiving the transportation link to land use. As a result, they see the proposed bike path as ‘transportation’, even though bike paths are typically neither illuminated at night nor plowed in the winter. This illustrates their use as park rather than moving people or vehicles. As a result, they are seeking transportation funds for non-transportation uses. This despite Fred’s efforts for real transportation along the route.

B. John Hostage, Treasurer.

The organization is on a solid financial footing.

C. Barry D. Andelman, Liaison to the T.

There were a number of items that the T has committed to at a previous time to APT committees and which were implemented, but now have reverted to previous procedures.

Barry attended the Washington Street Corridor Coalition meetings on the Silver Line. Barry A. has ridden the Silver Line purposely at non-rush hour times, and has found delays due to traffic interference. Specifically delivery trucks. These usually disappear before Boston Police arrive.

We have a community of interest in killing the current Silver Line Phase III proposal, which is both horrendously expensive and cumbersome. We at APT want to write something that ‘has traction’, i.e. is going to be noticed and perhaps quoted. Barry A. is looking into meeting with some prominent state personalities who might weigh in on the side of ‘righting’ the project. He will report back to the Board at a subsequent meeting.

Barry A. is going to get an APT "Bunching Committee" (referring to vehicle bunching) together.

D. Rick Arena on the North-South Rail Link.

The current committee has been operated by the Sierra Club. The intent is to separate this movement from the Sierra Club while keeping it active. There is a problem with encroachments by pilings on the proposed routing along the existing Central Artery alignment.

4. New Business.

A. Fred Moore proposed the following resolution referring to local security. Motion by Barry Steinberg, seconded by Barry Andelman, and approved with one abstention:

The Association for Public Transportation opposes the implementation of the MBTA random search security procedures adopted for the Democratic National Convention, and their possible part of a permanent security policy.

This practice is an unprecedented incursion on a citizen’s Fourth Amendment constitutional rights, an insulting denial of one’s civil liberties, and makes a mockery of the concept of the free society that the convention public relations spokespeople claim to celebrate.

The Association joins in coalition with other civic activist groups or organizations that have taken a similar position.

B. Fred Moore proposed the following draft for inclusion in the "Framework for Advocacy":

THE PURPLE LINE SYSTEM

APT considers the term "commuter rail" to be a misnomer. Commuter rail service functions merely as satellite parking benefiting a small core area of the central city, with limited utility to the surrounding metropolitan area.

APT advocates the use of the terms ‘regional service’, ‘suburban service’ or ‘local metropolitan service’.

APT’s long-standing position is in support of the proposed North-South Rail Link, which would function as a super subway forming the core of a local and regional rail service—An express rapid transit overlay which would expand the envelope of destinations available by providing convenient, reliable and frequent rail service.

Stations should not be mere parking lots out in the middle of nowhere, but should be in established suburban commercial and residential centers. When stations are placed as park and ride "interceptors", they should be at the intersection of railway lines and major highways. New branches or spurs should be built to achieve this goal.

APT supports and endorses the proposed Fairmount Line service upgrades, recognizing this as a pilot project to work out operational issues with running frequent headway services using equipment compatible with national railway system engineering standards.

This statement was tabled for consideration at the next Board meeting.

C. Webmaster.

Barry Andelman cited constant rants about mail to our e-mail list being delayed. Should we do something about this? He proposed that APT have a webmaster.

Rick Arena is going to look into an enhanced web site.

A recurring investment of $40 or $50 a month would give us a more powerful site, which of course we would have to pay for, but would avoid the problems we have when using the current free site. We must however think about the potential uses. To provide for growth in functions of such a web site, thought must go now into how deeply we want this site to go without having to undergo considerable alteration. To have more functions, or at least the potential for more functions, we would need a more flexible site costing us around $150 per month.

5. The next meeting has been set for the usual place on 11 August.

6. The meeting adjourned 8:23 P.M.