Needham working group asks for numbers on traffic diversion; consultant to deliver analysis by mid‑January

At the Nov. 19 Envision Needham Center Project Working Group meeting, several members urged the project team to present traffic impacts as numbers rather than only narrative descriptions, citing business and neighborhood concerns about diversion to side streets.

Chair (Speaker 2) and Speaker 1 led the discussion about presentation format. "Is it in words or is it in numbers that we think provides the best amount of information for somebody to make a decision?" Speaker 1 asked. Multiple members said they want a concise, one‑page overview that highlights trade‑offs and includes a quantitative appendix for three key traffic movements during peak times.

On timing, Speaker 1 reported the diversion analysis contract is under way and said, "It will be done, I would hope, in the next 6 to 8 weeks," which would place results in mid‑January. Project staff and traffic analytics personnel (Speaker 12) said they can use current camera counts to compare against the Sept. 9 baseline used for the initial study to address concerns that Sept. 9 was not representative.

The group agreed on a dual approach: an accessible summary for public outreach plus detailed percentages and travel‑time ranges under an appendix or technical memo. Members asked staff to show both the projected percent of diverted trips and estimated increases in travel time for non‑diverting trips, broken out for peak and off‑peak hours.

Next steps: staff will finish contracting and modeling, share draft results with the working group, and present diversion ranges and the one‑page trade‑offs at an upcoming January information session.