What’s missing from this picture?
Along Newton’s northern border is one of the region’s gems: the Charles River Greenway. Except for one crucial gap in and around the intersection of Bridge St. and California St.
This intersection is on Newton’s short list for traffic signal improvements this year, but the city and its engineer currently have no plans to move the ball forward to help bridge this gaping gap in an otherwise world-class facility. Instead, the city’s plan is all about increasing motor vehicle capacity. Bike accommodations, I was told vaguely, may happen sometime “down the road”.
There are innovative bikeway designs, including safe, clearly marked shared sidewalk-cycle tracks, that are good for moving not just cars, but people who want other ways to get around. Let’s not waste this golden opportunity for Newton to make the Charles River Greenway whole, and live up to its complete streets commitment by improving this intersection for all users.
I cross at this intersection regularly. It is very busy and the road is narrow for 4 lanes. A bike path along the bridge will never happen and it would be dangerous. I use several different methods to navigate the crossing depending the time of day. Bikers for safety should ride or walk bike along the sidewalk. Cars turn abruptly at the corners whether there are all walk signals flashing or not. I would never walk into the intersection until looking carefully to make sure cars come to a full stop.
I think the biggest need is for a safe crossing along California Street crossing the bridge, not a path over the bridge. The latter goes beyond Newton’s boundaries anyway. I don’t think any of us are in a position to say what’s dangerous, especially without seeing a proposed design. It’s wrong to make assumptions of safety based on the current geometry.
The point is that now is the opportunity to change the way the curbs and the roadway is shaped, and that is what will change driver behavior. Cars are more likely to stop and/or yield when travel lanes are more narrow and well-defined. Pedestrians and bicycles will get more attention too if the infrastructure is there to support them, and there are many options.
The main improvement of the project, as I understand it, is that the new, modern signals will make synchronization possible with the Pleasant Street signal across the bridge in Watertown. While this does increases vehicle capacity, I think it’s fair to say it’s a welcome improvement all around that will help reduce gridlock and chaos, particularly on the Newton side.
Colleen, it wasn’t clear, do all your methods of navigation involve a vehicle? Bicycles are entitled to use our roadways, by law. Bicycles do not belong on sidewalks, especially where people are walking.
To say that the Charles River Greenway is a gem is an incredible understatement. Over the last twenty or so years it has been developed into a unique, beautiful resource that will let you walk or bike from way out west through Newton and on into Cambridge and Boston, sometimes on both sides of the river, other places along one side. Areas that used to be blighted industrial sites are now cleaned up, new housing and other projects have been and are being built. The situation at Bridge St is part of the good news/bad news. Bottom line, you’re not going to solve this with a bike lane or a couple of signal changes. Newton has to get together with its neighbors, Waltham and Watertown, and figure out how we’re going to live with what the next five or ten years are going to bring to the area, in terms of growth, housing, traffic, transportation and so forth. Newton does not do this kind of thing well, in fact we suck at doing it. If you engage, find ways to participate in the process, you will be happier with the results.
Nathan, thank you for bringing more attention to this issue and for posting the map. As you point out, Newton residents can access some very good east-west corridors for multi-modal travel, including the Charles River Greenway. Perhaps more promotion of those corridors may lead to a few of our north-south corridors becoming more friendly to people who are not necessarily in automobiles.
I usually cycle into the city via the Arboretum and Southwest Corridor Park, and then come back out via the Charles River Greenway; IMHO, the latter in its current condition is a deathtrap.
Cambridge St., North Beacon St., and Bridge St. form a trifecta of intersections that offer no safe way to cross – either as a cyclist or as a pedestrian walking your bike – without putting your life in grave danger. The traffic light signalization at Cambridge St., in particular, shows nothing but contempt for human life.
With regard to Bridge St., I’m saddened to hear that the city and its traffic engineer has failed to seriously consider adequate accommodations for cyclists. If that’s the case, then the government has failed its citizens. My choice of whether to use a bicycle or a car for a quick trip into the city shouldn’t have to be determined by which means of transportation is more likely to result in death or serious injury.
[For what it’s worth, I’d propose that in the near-term, a modest level of safety could at least be provided by “No Turn on Red” signs at all corners of the Bridge/California intersection.]
Actually, instead of “Charles River Greenway” I now realize that I should have been referring to the “Charles River Bike Path” (i.e. from the Esplanade to Newton).
Is someone suggesting that Newton and Watertown purchase or ‘take’ the private property abutting the Charles River and make it into “green” space? IMO Newton already does a poor job maintaining our public outdoor space and it seems the priorities in the Parks and Recreation Department is running summer camp programs, overseeing public swimming holes, running 55+ activities programs and keeping a large staff to do this.
Newton once had a large Forestry Department which cared for what we now call our “green spaces”. This is all rolled into P+R. I suggest we separate public land oversight from recreational programs.
BTW, Did you know that Newton now has a Park Ranger on staff? I would not make this up. What does a Park Ranger in Newton, do? S’il vous plaît?
That intersection is very close to my house and something that I, and my children, use quite regularly. Yes, it needs improvement. Right now in order to move from one path to the other, we need to bike on sidewalks, which puts us in direct conflict with pedestrians. Given the development on the Watertown side of the river, that area will only become more crowded.
I can see a short cycletrack and some light improvements making a large difference there.
But as Michael already mentioned, a number of other intersections along the river also need attention. I often pull up to those spots and have no way of telling how long I have to cross before the lights change. It’s not easy at all.
I live very close to this intersection, and have regularly walked/jogged across. The “WALK” signals work well here and people use them. I don’t understand what it is that people expect the city to do here. There’s a very small break in the bike path, with sidewalks to ride on (yes, I know, they’re for pedestrians, but for the short time bikes are on them, I don’t foresee any fistfights breaking out), and before you know it, you’re on your way on either the Newton or Watertown sides on a proper path.
It’s basically an intersection without bicycle accommodations. Not the worst along the greenway, but certainly far from the ideal. Newton should at least explore what is possible.
That video certainly hit the nail on the head, especially with respect to the Cambridge St. intersection in Allston.
The design of that intersection demonstrates pure negligence on the part of MassDOT, and it unnecessarily puts thousands of lives at grave risk every day. In the video, it’s particularly troubling to see a toddler and a young child scurrying to the other side of the street just in the nick of time, with absolutely no possibility of ever getting the motor traffic to yield. Yet it happens all the time.
I suspect that MassDOT would respond with some vacuous statement along the lines of “traffic is already backed up past the tollbooths on the Pike ramp, imagine if we added 30 seconds for a pedestrian crossing!”
It’s hard to believe that there hasn’t been more outrage about the unsafe condition of that crossing – I would have expected that a bunch of cyclists and pedestrians would have gotten together to shut down the intersection in protest by now, but I guess this is the state of infrastructure that we’ve come to expect. Maybe it will get fixed by 2024 if we win the Olympics…pretty depressing.
Anyway, hats off to Newton’s traffic department for taking the same “who-gives-a-darn-about-anyone-who’s-not-in-a-car” attitude toward the Bridge St. intersection. You win; I’ll stick to riding into the city via the Southwest Corridor and the Arboretum.
Dave, the point is that the city is already planning work at this intersection. And its not doing a thing to enhance usability and safety of the Greenway. I’m not worried about fistfights breaking out over sidewalk usage; I’m worried about a young child just learning how to ride a bike on the Greenway, or a parent-with-child-in-trailer, coming off the Greenway to be welcomed into bike-unfriendly Newton streets.
…and I’m personally worried about getting rocketed into the river via a right hook by the westbound traffic that tries to makes a game out of how fast they can peel onto the bridge.
This could all be solved with a tape measure and a can of paint. Any chance that the vigilante crosswalk-painting selectman in Billerica also does bike lanes?
That video is awesome. I’ve thought about making something similar.
The one thing it doesn’t address directly is the sidewalk ramps at Arsenal Street. They are relatively steep, narrow and shoot you out into traffic significantly far away from the crosswalk.
That video is worthy of starting a new thread at the top of this site. I’m closing comments here and suggest continuing the conversation here.