Transportation For All

Downtown Amherst

The Amherst Transportation Task Force held their first meeting yesterday since the Planning Board voted to absorb the Amherst Transportation Plan into the town's Master Plan.

The committee was first appointed by the Town Manager in 2011 and consists of six members, two each from the Public Works Committee, Planning Board, and Public Transportation and Bicycling Committee.

The meeting started with a moment of silence for Vice Chair Charlie Moran who recently lost a battle with cancer.

Town Manager John Musante (rt), DPW Chief Guilford Mooring (left)

Town Manager John Musante was in attendance at the request of Chair Richard Roznoy to give  some direction on what the future holds for the Task Force.  "Let's not have the report collect dust" said Musante, who then suggested the Task Force concentrate on "Bringing to life a traffic calming toolkit."

But the first question was does the Task Force continue to meet as an official committee and work in a leadership role to implement structural changes highlighted in the Transportation Plan, or simply make recommendations back to their home committees?

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring confirmed the consultants Nelson/Nygaard had signed a three year follow up  hourly consulting contract.  Task Force Chair Roznoy said he would arrange a conference call with them at their next July 13 meeting  to "pick their brain" in regards to moving forward.

Either way "traffic calming" will be a major focus of the Task Force in the near future.  Guilford Mooring pointed out that involves the "Three E's":  Education, Enforcement, Engineering.

He also pointed out that "80% of the problems (speeding, bad driving, etc) are caused by people who live there, so that's an education thing."