Village14 regular Adam Peller was just telling me about an intriguing idea – let’s call it the Highlands Link.
The state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) is working on plans that will extensively change traffic patterns in the southern side of the city in years to come. Among these, widening Rt 128, adding a new exit from Rt 128 to Kendrick St., reworking the 128/Highland St. exit, re-engineering Needham St., expanding traffic flow on Winchester St. by adding new lanes, etc. What all these have in common is that they’re designed to add to the total traffic flow and to one degree or another, they’ll make it tougher on pedestrians and bicyclists.
Just last month, the DOT announced a new goal – “a statewide mode shift goal of tripling the share of travel in Massachusetts by bicycling, transit and walking.”. The Highlands Link is a small tweak to the DOT’s plans for Winchester St, that will help with their goals for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as increase the traffic flow.
This coming year, the city is planning to build the Upper Falls Greenway, a mile long bike and pedestrian trail on the railroad right-of-way behind Needham St. The initial plan is that it will end at Easy St, right around the very congested corner from Winchester St.
The Highlands Link is a way to extend the route right into Newton Highlands. There are three pieces to the puzzle.
1. Extend the off-road Greenway trail from Easy St. to Curtis St. It’s a very short distance but there are a number of obstacles. The right of way doesn’t extend that last little bit so the city would have to negotiate some sort of access with a private property owner (the Create a Cook building). There’s also a few small technical/engineering obstacles – getting over or around some utility hardware,etc. The folks working on the Upper Falls Greenway have considered that option but for now at least the consensus seems to be – let’s leave out this tricky bit and get the rest of the trail built in the next year. There’s no reason this piece couldn’t be tackled later, with a longer schedule.
2. Where Curtis St. meets Winchester, add a two lane bike track (see photo above) on one side of Winchester St. that would get the walkers/bicyclists safely under Route 9. Winchester St. is currently two lanes. The DOT is proposing that it be changed to four lanes. With a two lane bike track, they could instead increase it from two to three lanes … and work towards their public goal of balancing vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic.
3. Once under Rt 9, a “contraflow bike lane” would run opposite the one way traffic on Floral St., right into the heart of Newton Highland to the businesses and T stop there.
The Highland Link could tie together the villages of Newton Highland and Upper Fall, and provide a safe and pleasant pedestrian and bicycle route to/from the businesses in the Highlands and Needham St. One way or another, that portion of Winchester St. will be re-engineered in the near future for more cars. Why not include bicycles and pedestrians in the plan too?
— here’s a Google Map that shows the route.
Great post, Jerry. The Greenway will be a great asset to the community on its own, but it can be a catalyst for so much more, encouraging walking and bicycling, stimulating business and development, and connecting communities. The key strategic points on each end of the old railbed are owned by the state, and we have what amounts to once in a lifetime construction events abutting that corridor with the redesign of Needham, Winchester, and Centre Streets and 128 add-a-lane. DOT shows a lot of foresight with their new goals for “sustainable transportation,” but will they follow through? Designing Winchester Street for less throughput (even 3 lanes over 4) would be a step in the right direction. Build a wider road, and we all know what will happen.
I just added a link to a Google Map of the route at the bottom of the post (above)
I wish the city did something to make the Winchester St. Route 9 Underpass safer for pedestrians.
And Jerry, thank you for pushing so hard for the Greenway. I’m sure it’s a great satisfaction to see it actually happening.
I wonder if the climb up that ramp to Floral Street would present a challenge. Note that all these ramps under the Route 9 bridge is all planned to be under signal control, I think, and again bicycle and pedestrian improvements must be taken into account. Not sure which MassDOT project that would be.
@y –
Yes, that’s one of the big reasons I like Adam’s idea of using a two lane “bicycle track” on that stretch. On such a busy road, having the bicycles and pedestrians separated from the traffic is key to making it safe.
Thanks to Adam and Jerry. Like just about every other Greenway supporter, I’ve tried to visualize how we could put in place that critical small link between the end of the proposed Greenway at Easy Street and Newton Highlands Square. I had pictured the link as something that would leave the Greenway at Chandler Place in Newton Upper Falls, cross Elliott Street, proceed down Circuit Avenue, turn right on Route 9, walk the bicycles up the handicapped ramp to Eliot Station, and proceed up Lincoln Street to Newton Highlands Square.
What Adam has proposed is clearly better and more logical than my mental Rube Goldberg and a safe and efficient link here might be the catalyst that eventually opens up a safe set of bicycle paths and lanes from Newton to Medfield and maybe even to points beyond.
There appears to be no rush on this, but I do think it’s something that should prompt down the road discussions with the Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council down the road, and with the Upper Falls Council as well.
Bob, more connections are good. A connection to Elliot Street would be nice, either through Chandler or the DPW yard, and Eliot Station would be a great connection, too. It’s tough to tell from looking at a map, but perhaps there is a way to get to that ramp and overpass without going all the way down to route 9.
this is great news — it feels like its about time that bike travel is included from the ground up in transportation planning, and not just resolved by a ‘share the road’ mentality by traffic engineers. Now if they can only get college kids to wear their helmets while riding!
@John Hilliard – “it feels like its about time that bike travel is included from the ground up in transportation planning”
Yes, we’re hoping we can get DOT’s attention on this and some other pedestrian and bicycle issues. Maybe the DOT’s recently promoted goal – ““a statewide mode shift goal of tripling the share of travel in Massachusetts by bicycling, transit and walking.” signals that they will begin taking these sorts of issues more seriously than they have been in the past.
@Adam, Jerry et.al. What about considering a pedestrian and bike overpass at Route 9 and Elliiott/Woodward streets as a supplement to Adam’s proposal. Then some kind of signs to guide the bikes down Elliott and through the DPW yards to the Upper Falls Greenway. This is just one of the most horrific intersections in all of Newton and it causes a huge backup of traffic on Route 9, particularly at rush hour periods and an awful scramble among cars on Elliott or Woodward trying to get onto or across Route 9. Pedestrians crossing at the intersection contribute significantly to this backup and impatient drivers on Route 9 make things even more tense particularly when an old or slow walker is crossing the highway. The overpass would have to be on the side of Elliott away from the Sunoco Gas Station, probably utilizing some part of the CVS parking lot. I feel as though I’m taking my life in my hands every time I try to cross at this intersection and cars on Route 9 regularly run the red light.
Just a thought.
Use Hartford Street and Erie Avenue as a conduit between Newton Highlands Square and Woodward Street. Have bikers walk their bikes the 50 yards between the intersection of Erie and Woodward and the overpass.
Bob, with a pedestrian overpass a few hundred yards away at Eliot Station, it would probably be difficult to justify the expense of an additional overhead crossing. The Eliot Station overpass could serve as a very friendly bike/ped route both to the T and to Lincoln Street if proper connections could be made on the Upper Falls side.
As for backups on Route 9, they’ll all continue, I’m sure, but with the new “MassWorks” construction going on, the curbs are being extended to make crossings a tiny bit shorter, and I think they’re going with concurrent crossing (that is, crossing signals with the green light) which should prevent the problem you speak of where a pedestrian setting off the signal adds to the backups.
John, locally, I think it’s more a problem with budget. I think our city engineers get it. It’s the local MassDOT projects that seem to be lacking imagination in the kind of first class bicycle / pedestrian facilities that would really alter the balance. You’ll see this in the list of route 9 projects associated with Chestnut Hill Square, from Newton Highlands to Hammond Pond Parkway. While they do incorporate the latest standards in pedestrian and bike-activated signals, they’re really doing the bare minimum to accommodate them. MassDOT needs to go above and beyond if they’re going to meet their goals.
@Adam. Thanks for the update. The conflict with having 2 pedestrian crossings so close to each other on Route 9 was at the back of my mind, but I wasn’t certain the T wanted bikes to use the Eliot Station Rte 9 pedestrian overpass. I guess that is okay.