How cool is this?! Complete Streets demonstration in Newtonville today and tomorrow. #newtoninmotion pic.twitter.com/jq6OYjDGo6
— Sarah K (@skurpie) June 10, 2016
The weather did mostly cooperate this time, up until mid-afternoon Saturday. It was great to see people interacting with the demonstration and discussing how to make our streets safer and more welcoming for all. I hope the city is able to do more events like this one. However, I think the demonstration also highlighted how challenging it is to make an effective temporary demonstration.
While this demonstration was very well thought out and visually more attractive than past ones done by the city, the same chalk markings which were very visible standing on the street corner were easily missed as a motorist. Driving through yesterday, all I really noticed were the orange cones and barrels. Cyclists still used the sidewalk and motorists still used the bike lane. And standing at the parklet opposite Madison Avenue, it was shocking to see one driver after another ignore pedestrians in the crosswalk, sometimes waving as they drove by. Perhaps we need to invest in longer, more visible demonstrations? Or perhaps we need to try other techniques, some which might not lend themselves as well to trials.
If you were able to walk, drive or ride your bicycle through the area, please fill out a survey and feel free to share your thoughts here as well. There will be a follow-up workshop Monday June 13th from 5pm to 8pm in the War Memorial Auditorium at Newton City Hall with short presentations given at 5:30 PM, 6:30 PM, and 7:30 PM. RSVP preferred.
@Adam
My impressions were similar to yours. I could tell stuff was happening, I could see cones and barriers, think I might have seen a new bike lane, but really didn’t understand what was happening. And that was with the prior knowledge of quickly skimming the prior post. Without that, I think I would have been even less aware.
If we’re looking to really try something out, a longer trial of a couple of weeks with a concerted awareness campaign would make sense.
I volunteered for 3 hours on Friday and 4 hours on Saturday. On Friday I was there mid-day during step up day and Newtonville was packed with kids. I think the bike rack and the parklet (I know it took some imagination to see this) prevented what certainly would have been an accident. This part of the demonstration was set up in 2 former parking spots that were removed to “daylight” the crosswalk providing better sightlines for drivers of pedestrians entering the sidewalk. Unfortunately people routinely park in these no parking spaces creating a hazard for pedestrians crossing. Equally frustrating and dangerous are the people parking across the street ON THE CROSSWALK leaving people to walk around them and risk being backed into. Rumor has it that an off duty officer approached a car doing just this on Saturday and the driver wasn’t concerned about the safety hazard he was creating. Bike racks and parklets are CHEAP ways for the city to create a safer and easier to move around city. The city should move forward with these easy fixes. As for the bigger fixes like narrowing intersections at Washington and Walnut, they should do these too. I did have the opportunity to see a fire engine going north on Walnut take the right at full speed on Friday with plenty of vehicle traffic around. The truck did great. I also saw a Shaws truck take the right on Austin St. just fine. And in both these situations, the pedestrians crossings are so much safer. I took the opportunity to utilize the bike lanes and thought they worked pretty well, certainly better than the current lack of any accommodations. During my 7 hours of volunteering I had a good number of very interesting conversations. Most were very supportive of anything that would make it nicer, easier and safer to get around Newtonville. Many of the people I spoke to drove to Newtonville, but many were neighbors. All agreed it didn’t feel safe to cross the street and the traffic goes too fast. A few were downright convinced that narrowing , intersections and roads makes them less safe and the only way to go is to ticket more, ticket everybody until they get the message. I did speak to a few older residents who really feel uncomfortable with the tighter intersections but admitted they will likely appreciate it more when they are no longer driving and they are the very old person trying desperately to cross the street before the light runs out.
I have to say, I was disappointed. Perhaps someone can clear up some confusion for me.
I’m not against the proposed changes, especially the pocket parks. The additional bike racks aren’t needed in my view, or if they are can be better located near the bus stops. I’d rather have more green space in the middle of the village, perhaps with some benches.
I watched a few trucks struggle with the austin street turn, having to go deep in the other lane to make the turn. I’m also not sure why the changes to Washington Street are needed. I take that bus all the time, it doesn’t block the intersection (of if it does, gets on its way so quickly I’m not sure it makes a difference.)
Here is where I am confused? Is this it for the village improvements? I thought the plan was to do away with the center lane that folks illegally park on to offload trucks? Is that all we get? Some new bike lanes and a pocket park? Where is the 1 million dollar impovements to the village center.? Surely this can’t be the walnut street improvements promised for so long…
Newtonville area council had some great designs from my recollection. I’m just hopeful that this was not the “plan” for the walnut street redo.
Figgy,
The official word is that these were not specific proposals for Newtonville, just that Newtonville was a hotspot for collisions and therefore a good place to hold the event to raise awareness for complete streets and try out some of the techniques for doing trials. I don’t think they wanted to start out with anything all that extreme, but hopefully the city can work its way up to more specific and more meaningful trials. Eliminating that wasted space (the “UPS parking lane” in the middle of Walnut Street) is probably the single best thing that could be done to improve the village streetscape. I think it would also go a long way to making that crosswalk in front of Newtonville Pizza safer, just by narrowing the roadway and the crossing distance, and it’s not just about elderly pedestrians. The excess street width lends itself to speeding and gives drivers more comfort going by peds. I’m told there have been many peds hit at that spot, including a fatality.
I saw an 18 wheeler make the Austin Street turn on Saturday without too much trouble, but of course it’s going to be a trade off. Either we design our streets with 6 lanes and wide radii so trucks can make turns effortlessly, or we have a comfortable pedestrian environment where trucks have to struggle a bit. You can’t have it both ways. Design for pedestrians, and maybe someone will take that parking space on the wrong side of the street or a block away and visit a store or two or three instead of fighting for a space directly in front of a restaurant or a bank.
Bike parking near bus stops for commuters is wonderful, but locating corrals near businesses would encourage non-vehicle traffic, too. One corral can accommodate many more customers than a single vehicle parked in the same space. There are, however, better ways to use parklets than for daylighting. I think a parklet would work very well around the corner on Highland Ave (for the Rox?) Look at how unnecessarily wide that street is! Now, instead of taking 25′ on each side of the crosswalk at Madison, build a bumpout with some bollards and the pedestrian can have at least as much safety and visibility without removing as much parking. The Highlands has some crossings that badly need “daylight” too.
Alicia, as for making drivers uncomfortable, a wise Newton traffic engineer once said that making drivers uncomfortable was a good thing, as it forces them to pay attention. With technology and distracted driving what it is, that’s even more true today than it was when he said it almost a decade ago.
People drive like they walk, walk like they think, and think by their handheld technology. This demonstration supports the dumbing-down of pedestrianism, esp high schoolers so commonly found in the ville. Sure, road diets are the first initial frontline for speedsters, but will government know when enough is enough demonstrated by bulimia nervosa?
Remember, this was not a test of these specific changes. It was a test of a method of testing the impact of proposed changes before committing to them. From the discussion here, it sounds like it was very successful at this aim.
Adam:
Got it. Thank you for the clarification. One of the reasons I love this blog.
I’m swayed by your bike rack argument too.
Harry, I would argue that the current road design in Newtonville (and pervasive throughout much of Newton) represents the “dumbing down” of driving that has been allowed to happen over the last few decades.
Being a pedestrian *should* be simple. It *should* be safe. It *should* be convenient. While everyone can’t, or shouldn’t, drive, we should all be able to walk safely until we are physically unable to.
Changes like those suggested in the demonstration are also about improving driver safety by improving the visibility of other road uses, reducing the size of intersections, and improving reaction time by slowing traffic down (which does not necessarily reduce traffic throughput). Predictability is extremely valuable and goes a long way to reducing the stress of driving (or walking, or biking).
I think there isn’t much worry about the forces that be “going too far”. These designs are widely deployed and understood in the transportation profession, if not fully so in Newton. We just need the expertise and will to produce great designs and implement them right.