Wellesley Selectmen Green Light Bike Committee

Good news for riders in town: Wellesley is getting a bike committee. 

With a few minutes of discussion, the Board of Selectmen approved both the charter and membership of the ten-member bicycle committee at their Monday night meeting at Town Hall.

While there are some road construction projects in the works which a bike committee could have input for, Executive Director Hans Larsen explained that the Committee is more of a long-term measure which, he says, will "be a case of evolving opportunities and needs in town."

Larsen explained, "We need to focus on bike safety in the long term. This is not something where we’ll do some work, be satisfied with that work, and then disband the group."

The committee will be made up of: 

• Police Deputy Chief Jack Pilecki
• From the Department of Public Works, Mike Pakstis
• Dave Hickey of the town's engineering department
• Representing the Planning Department, Ethan Parsons
• Trails Committee representative Jared Parker
• For the Schools, Diane Campbell
• From the Selectmen's Office, Exectuvie Director Hans Larsen
• Selectmann Ellen Gibbs
• Two community advocates, representing bikers and pedestrians in town: Angus McQuilken and Matthew Kressy. 

Both of the two community advocates--Kressy an industrial design professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, and McQuilken, the Vice President of Communications at Mass. Life Sciences Center--are also avid cyclists. McQuilken is a regular rider in the Pan Mass Challenge, whose bike was stolen a few weeks before the fundraising ride.

The vote was approved unanimously.  

Said Selectman Ellen Gibbs, "Once we approve the charge and membership of committee, we plan to convene the committee in September. We will begin to develop long-term goals, and year-end steps, and will report periodically to the Selectmen."

At a previous meeting with the Board of Selectmen, cyclists around town thanked the Board for being willing to discuss the topic, and added that they generally feel unsafe while riding the town's roads. 

At that same meeting, the brother of Alexander Motsenigos, Spiros, came to a Board of Selectmen meeting and was "heartened by level of sophistication of discourse." 

He added, "It speaks volumes about the quality of the people here."

Alexander Motsenigos was the cyclist killed in July 2012 at the intersection of Linden Street and Weston Road. That crash among the driving factors in the discussions of bike safety in Wellesley.