It saddens me that I am the only person in Newton with the insight and vision to either identify the problems on Adams St. or propose solutions. But, at least the singularity of my analytic abilities explains and excuses the failure to act by folks who could have done something.

JK*, as the kids say. JK. This is easy stuff and has been well understood for well over a decade. Newton has just lacked the political and executive will.

Backing up a bit, there are some things in Newton that are getting better in terms of street design. There has been some focus on the disasters in our village centers. The results are uneven. Newton Centre changes have been very good, if incomplete. Auburndale is not nearly as good as it could be. West Newton looks pretty promising. But, at least it has been understood that the existing car-centric design is failing us and change is required.

There has been some effort to think about safe street design and reconstruction in the context of school building projects. Unfortunately, the starting point for discussion has been uniformly car-centric design and the effort to change designs to be people-centric has been laborious and not wholly successful. But, there are some promising signs that School Committee members are beginning to understand what’s at stake.

And, there have been some successes with high-profile intersections. For instance, the planned work for the intersection(s) of Nahanton, Dedham, Brookline, and Carlson is quite encouraging.

But, the city fails year after year after year to take a thoughtful approach to routine repaving work.

The model could be quite simple. The city has a list of proposed repaving for the next few paving seasons. Like any project backlog, it’s something of a work-in-progress, but that’s fine. With sufficient lead time ahead of the scheduled paving, the city could begin a process with public meetings to solicit input about the projects on the top of the backlog. Staff or consultants could design changes that reflect the input, adhere to the city’s Complete Streets policy, and fulfill the universal desire for reduced design speeds. Have another round of public meetings to gain public feedback and support. Tweak the designs. Repave and reconstruct.

Is adding process a burden to reconstruction? Sure. But, the process doesn’t need to be heavyweight for most streets. A few years ago the mayor’s Transportation Advisory Group (TAG), of which I am a member, prototyped the process. We held a public meeting to solicit input on a few upcoming street projects. The response was great. Attendees had valuable insights and professional staff shared some terrific design ideas. But, DPW took over the process and never held the promised follow-up meetings. There is no indication that the community input is reflected as changes to the roads.

Is doing full-blown redesign on every paving project worth it? Absolutely. We were sold an override on the promise of safer streets for all users. Our existing streets are not safe streets. Our existing streets do not discourage speeding. Our existing streets do not encourage walking and biking. The only way to deliver on the promise of the override is to redesign just about every road in Newton. Certainly we should redesign roads like Adams St., where the deficiencies of the existing design are so obvious and there are such promising design options.

We cannot continue to repave the carpath.

I have heard from some who would know that there were neighborhood meetings about Adams St. and that neighbors were anxious to get a crummy road repaved. They worried that a design cycle would delay repair for too long. Setting aside jokes about potholes being the best traffic calming, it’s not fun to live on a street with longstanding (long-sinking?) potholes. I know. And, there were concerns from neighboring streets that discouraging speeding down Adams St. would push cut-through seekers to their streets.

But, none of that excuses the city’s failure. TAG has been promoting early design review of repaving projects from almost its first meeting, seven years ago. Other groups were asking for it before then. The political problem of displaced traffic has been thoroughly understood in this city for over a decade. There are lots of options, among them to calm traffic on adjoining streets in tandem. The city has had an endless supply of talented traffic engineers and other professionals inclined to create the kind of streets Newton says it wants.

We’ve just lacked the political will to make safe streets a real priority, not just an empty promise. The mayor hasn’t empowered his staff to do the little that would be required. And, the city council has wholly failed to insist on it.

Currently, Boston mayor Marty Walsh is getting raked over the coals for repaving the carpath on Congress St. between City Hall and Faneuil Hall. Boston has city policy and design guidelines that provide clear guidance on how to make Congress St. a Complete Street. Walsh has staff who know how to do the job right. And, there are a bunch of possible interventions that could have been done cheaply during repaving. He just didn’t make it a priority.

Adams St. is Newton’s Congress St.

* Just kidding.