Fewer Airplanes

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

I know this is a touchy subject, but just thought this was interesting to share. I've notices fewer planes over Somerville this year so looked into it. It looks like the Milton area is now bearing the brunt of the noise that used to come to Somerville due to changes in the flight path earlier this year.

Story from January anbout flight path change
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/01/31/plans-change-logan-flight-paths-causing-concern-canton-dedham-milton-and-randolph/g94AAgwWzkGxnkLDlbGEFK/story.html

"Wig Zamore, the advisory committee’s vice president and a Somerville resident, said the system change will result in a decrease in noise for nearly 68,000 people, most of them in Boston and Cambridge. Zamore said the environmental assessment projects that fewer people overall will have planes overhead in Milton due to the more precise flight corridor.

“I agree with Judy that her neighborhood will be more affected, but East Milton will benefit,” Zamore said. “Most committee members realize it’s not what benefits ourselves and our towns, but the whole region. It’s about fairness.”"


Recent story from last week - Milton is not happy. Link to a presentation is at the end
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/milton/2013/06/milton_citizen_group_to_speak_out_against_new_logan_departur.html

Comments

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I work near the milton-quincy-boston tri-border, in a rather tall building with a north facing office window/view. There are A LOT of airplanes that fly over that way, though I wasn't here last year so I can't compare.

I haven't noticed it being very noisy though--it's generally so windy and there aren't a lot of hills around here for sounds to get channeled. Plus, enough highways, trains, and major roadways are around to drown things out for the most part. I'm sure in the leafier/sleepier parts of Milton they have a more crotchety view :)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

What will we talk about now? :-)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

True fact: every time I hear a noticably loud airplane when I'm sitting on my Somerville porch, I think of DSLJ.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I do too!

[georgy.livejournal.com]

Hah, me too! And I miss the airplanes. Definitely fewer as of late. *ducks*

[thedonk.livejournal.com]

Burritos, frozen yogurt, frozen yogurt burritos, burrito flavored frozen yogurt, and creeps.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Mr. Crepe should PWN us all and make fro-yo burritos out of crepes. :-)

[cos]

For a moment I thought you were saying "Mr. Creep".

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

True, true.

Also, i lol'd.

[courtney o'keefe (from livejournal.com)]

I was on the BLANS email list and can vouch for how much time and effort went into clearing the skies over Somerville. Sitting on a neighbor's porch, we counted 27 planes on a Sunday afternoon.

[ron_newman]

What are BLANS?

[courtney o'keefe (from livejournal.com)]

The BLANS email list was from the Boston Logan Airport Noise Study. They would send out updates on studies and meeting minutes.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Considering the other transportation burdens Somerville has, it's nice that this one has lightened. (Not that I was complaining; I lived in East Boston before I moved to Somerville years ago.) But hey, if Global Partners gets its way soon, there will be plenty to complain about -- their 100-car ethanol trains running thru our back yards.

[lizzyclean.livejournal.com]

It's funny you should bring this up now. For the past week or so the planes have increased TREMENDOUSLY over Teele Square. Last week it was so loud and frequent that our cats were cowering and doing that thing where they get all low to the ground with their ears back. And it had us wondering if we needed to take shelter in the basement because we were sure something was about to crash.
This is not a complaint - I was just expecting to see a post about the increase in noise, not the decrease! And mostly because before last week I don't think I've heard a loud plane go over our area in a long, long, long while.

Next time they start flying over our neighborhood with any regularity we should host an impromptu BBQ and invite all of the plane-lovers over so they can get their fix.

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Yea, I also noticed an increase for a day or two recently, which is what sparked my idea to look into why it had been so long since we had plane noise...

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how adding an RNAV satellite guidance system to runway 33L would shift planes from Somerville to Milton.

I'd think that wind direction is still the most important factor determining which runways get used. And northwest winds (sending planes over Somerville) are more common in the winter.

Once a given runway is chosen, an RNAV system will concentrate planes into a narrower corridor. So the RNAV systems on 4L and 4R (which have been there for a few years, unlike the new 33L system) concentrate planes over certain people's houses in Milton, instead of distributing them more evenly across Milton. But I don't see how this is a Milton-vs-Somerville issue.

I'd be interested in an explanation if there's someone who's an expert on this stuff.

[austein]

This matches my understanding. If you take a look at the Final Environmental Assesment, Figures 2-2 and 2-4 (pages 46 and 48) show what the new and pre-existing flight paths look like. As far as I can tell the new one has several departure paths going over Davis Square which would otherwise have crossed Somerville further to the east.

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Detailed document you found there. I think you are right actually - based on this document, the re-routing helps East Somerville, not the Davis area. Mayor Curtatone says so much on page 154.