Ward 6 aldermen Vicki Danberg, Greg Schwartz and Dick Blazar sent this via email last night. The message line read: “Admitting our mistakes takes courage”…

As you probably know by now, we were successful in persuading the Board of Aldermen to approve cutting back the bumpout expansion at Cypress and Centre Streets-thus allowing two lanes of Cypress traffic to merge into Centre Street as had been the situation before the road changes were made in June.  In addition, the “yield” sign will go back to the Centre Street side, allowing Cypress traffic to have the right of way where they merge.  There will also be some road markings and possibly additional signage at this location.

We feel that going back to what was previously there is a far better choice than the new “improvements”, which caused extensive backups down Cypress and Parker Streets, all the way to Route 9 and even further toward Dedham Street.  We also believe that waiting till September, when many residents return from summer vacations, in order to test what happens at the Cypress/Centre Street intersection was not a good idea, as we could see no evidence that anything substantial would change.  A lot of good questions were asked at the Board meeting, including why the changes did not work out as forecasted by the traffic engineers who proposed them, why the changes were not tested before the actual work was done,  and what can be done to get the traffic moving quicker and safer at this location.  We will let you know when we get answers to these important questions.  The traffic, pedestrian crossings and bike safety issues will continue to be a concern in the Centre and finding a way to get all these elements in sync will be a challenge.

We know that not everyone will agree on what should be done, but we have done our best to do what we believe was the right option.  We appreciate your input, emails, phone-calls, etc.  We may not be able to respond individually to every one, but we do read and listen to them all and take them into account in making our decisions.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Vicki Danberg, Greg Schwartz and Dick Blazar