At a City Council committee(s) meeting last night, Newton Chief of Police David MacDonald expressed satisfaction that he had convinced the team redesigning West Newton Square to remove the parking-protected eastbound bike lane along the south side of Washington Street between the I-90 overpass and Chestnut St. Now, the proposed design has the bike lane between parking and the travel lanes. Chief MacDonald explained that he views the redesign proposal “through the prism of public safety.”
Chief, time to get a new prism. What you’re proposing is not safer.
A bike lane between parked cars and the curb protects cyclists from:
- Conflicts with vehicles in the travel lane
- Conflicts with vehicles pulling into and out of parking spaces
- Having to go into the travel lane to avoid the inevitable double-parked vehicle
- Being doored by a driver exiting a vehicle
- Being doored by a driver and thrown into moving traffic
A parking-protected bike lane also reduces the apparent width of the travel lanes, which reduces speed of through traffic, which is the number one overall safety improvement that the city can make in West Newton Square (or anywhere else, for that matter).
Admittedly, the chief (and his Fire Department peers) have a legitimate concern about the ability of emergency vehicles to get through the square, particularly at peak volumes, which seem to last most of the day. But, this is not the last century, where emergency vehicles had to rely on using lights and sirens to have vehicles move onto the shoulder to allow passage. Modern technology uses the traffic lights to clear lanes before emergency vehicles get there. We don’t need space for vehicles to pull over. There is no real tradeoff between providing safety for bicyclists and acceptably rapid emergency response.
Beyond that, Chief MacDonald provided the worst policy justifications at a public meeting since one of his predecessors said we needed the winter parking ban, because bad guys like to hide behind cars parked along the street (apparently not a concern in the warmer months). Chief MacDonald’s concerns about throughput, congestion, and driver frustration reflect a car-centric vision that is completely at odds with what are (or should be) the objectives of the redesign.
The redesign of West Newton Square should:
- Make the square safer for all people, especially those on foot and on bike
- Make the square a lively, human-scaled destination
- Encourage mode shift from driving to foot and bicycle
Except as a secondary benefit, it should not be an objective to move more traffic through the square. It is an immutable rule: creating capacity does not ease congestion. If the redesign makes it easier to get through West Newton Square, that will attract more people to drive.
Getting back to Chief MacDonald, he’s just not aligned with the city’s commitment to Complete Streets. Somebody needs to brief him on the vision and the values.
This doesn’t sound like it’s any of his business.
@Yuppie Scum
How can you seriously think traffic and public safety are not the Chief’s business?
And anyone who thinks cars actually pull over for fire engines, ambulances and police cars is delusional.
I have recently had to travel on Beacon Street from Kenmore Square into Brookline, and then again on Beacon Street in Brookline, and I really like the new setup found there of sidewalk, then bike lane, then parked cars. I found it a bit strange the first couple of times I drove there, but now I have gotten used to it, and it’s great. I can’t imagine having the bike lane being in the line of traffic. How do the parked cars get out and around the cyclists? Without a lot of bumper car action, and doors hitting bikers?
Thank you for your article Sean. West Newton Square is currently in the top 5% of worst crash clusters for pedestrian/motor vehicle crashes and bicycle/motor vehicle crashes in the Boston Metro Region as tracked by MassDOT.
Protected bike lanes are the best way we can improve safety in this highly dangerous roadway.
Way back in September 2016, the enhancement team had two concepts, “A” without protected bike lanes, and “B” with them. The public response was overwhelmingly for “B” with protected bike lanes.
In the big picture, I would welcome active participation in transportation planning from the police and fire departments (including EMS) as part of the Transportation Advisory Group. In such a forum, concerns and best practices can be exchanged. That way, all departments and the public can be on the same page when plans like West Newton Square come up.
There is a legitimate safety concern regarding emergency vehicles getting through the square. But even putting aside bicyclists’ safety, there is also a real concern about the use of a traffic side bike lane for double parking, or worse, as an additional impromptu travel lane.
Both risk generating the same kinds of unpredictability and unsafe behavior that make West Newton so infuriating today. That’s an invitation for uncontrolled traffic, road rage, and congestion.
Requiring what is effectively a breakdown lane on our major roadways is simply not compatible with complete streets best practices. We can find better ways by working together through the whole process.
Other communities have figured this out. Perhaps MassDOT can bring traffic engineers together with police and fire representatives from across the state to share experiences. Everyone wins.
In the big picture, I would welcome active participation in transportation planning from the police and fire departments (including EMS) as part of the Transportation Advisory Group. In such a forum, concerns and best practices can be exchanged. That way, all departments and the public can be on the same page when plans like West Newton Square come up.
There is a legitimate safety concern regarding emergency vehicles getting through the square. But even putting aside bicyclists’ safety, there is also a real concern about the use of a traffic side bike lane for double parking, or worse, as an additional impromptu travel lane.
Both risk generating the same kinds of unpredictability and unsafe behavior that make West Newton so infuriating today. That’s an invitation for uncontrolled traffic, road rage, and congestion.
Requiring what is effectively a breakdown lane on our major roadways is simply not compatible with complete streets best practices. We can find better ways by working together through the whole process.
Other communities have figured this out. Perhaps MassDOT can bring traffic engineers together with police and fire representatives from across the state to share experiences. Everyone wins.
@TheWholeTruth public safety is absolutely the chief’s business but public safety is more than how fast emergency response can get through the square. If the chief is truly looking through a Public safety prism he would support the roadway being designed to prevent the crashes from even happening. And as part of this project the city pledged to spend $500k to upgrade the city’s signal preemption to a new state of the art system.
@Alicia, with all due respect, technology to help control traffic lights is only good when people pay attention to it. Motorists are FAR too distracted these days and in too much of a rush to get wherever it is they are going. Just sit at any intersection with a traffic light and watch as 2-3 cars continue through even after the light has turned red. This is not unusual, it’s the norm. I see countless drivers wearing ear buds thus blocking out the sounds of sirens coming in their direction. So all the new technology in the world will do nothing for this square or anywhere else until people start actually paying attention to driving, biking and walking safely.
@TheWholeTruth, the signals of which Alicia speaks are not as much about giving the red to cross traffic as giving the green to traffic in the path of the emergency vehicle. If navigating a congested square is the Chief’s concern, this technology is a far more effective solution than waiting for distracted drivers to wiggle over to the side, don’t you think? It also requires less road width. This isn’t about pitting bicycle safety against emergency vehicles. Both can win here.
By contrast, adding unnecessary width to what’s already a 4-lane road has many safety issues already mentioned, not just for bicycles, but for emergency and non-emergency vehicles as well, such as navigating around the cars that will invariably double park there. It’s infuriating that the police and several city councilors are compromising on safety and stubbornly refusing to consider newer alternatives.
@TheWholeTruth – MA cars have been running red lights since before I learned to drive here almost 40 years ago. In fact, the first rule a co-worker taught me about traffic lights was “Red means Stop. Green means look for the cars running the light before proceeding.”
@Adam, what’s infuriating to me is someone suggesting this issue is none of the Chief’s business. Yes, there is probably room for some kind of compromise but people need to be realistic and honest about how cars, bikes and pedestrians navigate the streets.
TheWholeTruth, fair enough point. I would completely agree that public safety is an important part of street design. So much so, that the police and fire department should have staff that are well versed in street design issues and who can participate meaningfully as a partner in the planning process from the earliest stages. That includes best practices from around the country, not only local intuition.
And the public safety challenges we design for with the police and fire department should include day-to-day infractions and hazards (double parking, illegal/dangerous behavior on the roads by anyone) as well as emergency response. That means inherent balancing of designs.
Good engineering has been shown time and time again to reduce the need for enforcement.
I’m not expecting the police and fire chiefs to have that expertise; they have enough responsibility as it is. They just need to make the commitment to be a partner at the table to make Newton safer and better.
West Newton Square is a short span of very congested traffic. Cyclists ought to walk their bikes through the very difficult intersections. I ride often and never try to ride through places like Newtonville Sq. The police chief is correct about the dedicated lane proposal. It should not be part of the new design. It is very unsafe for riders. I also dislike the new lane designs because traffic will become a worse bottleneck. To avoid the back ups drivers will speed through side streets. The entire plan is poorly conceived and should be stopped. Robert Korff is buying land in the square now with the goal to redevelop the housing scheme and commercial scheme of the area. The present new road designs should wait until more is understood about the Washington St. corridor redevelopment plans.
@colleen, I don’t often say this, but you are ENTIRELY wrong. Bikes are a part of our transportation infrastructure. Asking cyclists to get off and walk through congested areas is like telling drivers that they need to take three left turns rather than a right. By hiding your head in the sand and trying to “leave it as it is” or prioritize cars is making life MORE unsafe for everyone else.
The answer is to find a way for different modes to operate together, and the original W. Newton plan did just that. What the Police did was prioritize one mode over another, a method that has proven ineffective for the last 50 years.
I bike through Newtonville, I bike through W. Newton. My kids walk and bike in both of those places. I know the dangers and I know it can be better. But I am part of this community and my commute, whether on two wheels or four, is as important as anyone else’s. It’s unfair to expect me to bike into a spot, walk, and then continue on. It turns a 1 minute ride into a 5 to 10 minute walk, adding significantly to a 30-minute commute.
No one is asking all of Newton to give up their cars, no one is telling you that you need to bike. But stop trying to make it unsafe for me and my children to ride.
Colleen,
Your comments fly in the face of extensive design experience with similar projects both locally and across the US. There is absolutely no need that a village center such as West Newton or Newtonville cannot be bicyclist and pedestrian friendly, though I agree with you that many intersections and streets in Newton are formidable today. There are literally thousands of urban centers comparable to West Newton that successfully balance drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians through good design.
Your comments also do not fairly represent the plan. Maximum traffic delays at rush hour for any one travel “move” will increase by 20 seconds. Delay is not the major traffic problem in West Newton Square. It is the unpredictability and poor synchronization of traffic lights that infuriate drivers, often forcing them into intersections that block traffic. In my experience, Chestnut and Washington cannot be traversed legally at rush hour.
The new plan fixes this problem with synchronized traffic lights with emergency vehicle overrides (possibly MBTA buses in the future as well) that can be adjusted as a system. As a result, backup may actually be reduced, because some traffic moves will be faster than today (and the signals will adapt to get the most people through high demand routes).
The idea of delaying the plan ignores that people of West Newton that have been working for decades to see improvements. The public meetings regarding this plan have been among the most positive I have ever attended in the twenty-some years I have been engaged in this type of stuff. The small businesses in the area have endured erratic traffic, decrepit sidewalks, inconvenient and dangerous pedestrian crossings, a dying or non-existent tree canopy, and even a horrific and tragic vehicle crash. They need this to survive. The residents of West Newton, and the rest of the city, deserve this.
Yes, development will happen, somehow, some time. Newton will change. Washington Street will change. We will adapt and react. But this is our chance to make a long neglected village center better, safer, and greener with a plan that has been for the most part very well received by neighbors and businesses.
Mike, you make very good points about synchronized lights. I agree with you. Why spend millions to do this, why not improve this within the current system of lights? Thank you too for making your points in a well mannered way. Chuck could take a lesson from you. His comments are quite derogatory.
Given the number of them, modern signals probably DO represent a 6-figure portion of the budget. So Colleen, you advocate spending all that money and putting in modern signals but leaving else everything exactly the way it is. Why exactly? Because it’s so beautiful and functional? Because we had everything right in the 1950s? I think Chuck was far too respectful of that argument.
Colleen, thanks.
Fixing the lights is actually extremely expensive, since the controllers must be completely replaced and the streets dug up to rewire them. Because the new lights will work in sync, one of the lights at Washington/Waltham/Watertown will be removed.
Most of the rest of the changes are really oriented toward making the square more enjoyable, accessible (for everyone) and green. The work near the Washington Street bridge will use some of the excessive overpass width to make it easier to bike and walk across the street (for example, to make the MBTA station more accessible). There will be more parking spaces over by the restaurants on the western edge of the square, hopefully with electric car charging stations in the future. Parking will be restructured to meet the needs of the businesses nearest the spots. There may finally be a short term parking spot by the post office!
The sidewalks will be improved throughout, with benches, sidewalk dining opportunities, and scores of new trees in pits of current design. (As you may have heard, only eight of the eighty-eight trees survived from the last planting years ago.) West Newton Square will be the first village center where the pedestrian and street lighting will actually be designed based on modern standards, which is a special interest of mine.
There will be a new park next to Sweet Tomatoes. I hope it will become a place of community that will perhaps heal some of the pain of the tragedy that happened there.
There actually won’t be a huge amount of moving curbs, for better or worse. Even the bike lane question (next to sidewalk or next to traffic) is essentially paint.
We can, and we should, discuss the details. But walk around West Newton Square. You’ll see these things are needed. Doubly so if you were disabled and had to navigate by wheelchair.
Actually one of the things that makes this plan work better for vehicles is the removal of one of the traffic signals which greatly simplifies the light coordination. In order to do this you must restructure much of the roadway on the east end. As for the other costs, the sidewalks are in horrible shape and the crossings are very treacherous and must be made accessible for all. If the city spent millions of dollars fixing the lights and didn’t address the pedestrian issues of the sidewalks and crosswalks , there would and should be an uprising. The trees and other landscaping and hard scaping are the final touch to make this a liveable village. Something we should be striving for in the whole city.
Thank you Mike and Alicia for such great explanations about the new proposed changes to the square, most helpful.
I too support public safety for cyclists. But Chief MacDonald has a duty to view this change from a public safety standpoint of the entire community. A vocal minority are pushing for these changes from a narrow perspective. Common sense alone shows that a bike lane between 1-90 overpass and Chestnut St. will present a dangerous situation to all concerned.
Sean Roche may assume technology will improve safety and civility but I have failed to see that elsewhere. Keep in mind the chief does not have a horse in this situation, all he can do is present his views for the entire community from the prism of public safety.
Bike lanes and improved sidewalks in this village center are the nucleus from which pervasive bike and pedestrian infrastructure can spread. This project is a once-in-a-generation chance to get it right.
Vinnie,
The chief isn’t making the argument you claim he’s making. He didn’t say a bike lane is dangerous. He just wants the space available for vehicles yielding to first responders, which several of us have noted may have unintended consequences, including for public safety.
You may invoke “common sense” based on your own experience. I would counter that it’s common sense that a village center should be safe enough to accommodate people safely walking, biking, and driving so that residents and visitors can enjoy it and that businesses can thrive. I would also claim this general view is shared by the clear majority of people who attended the public meetings, including many long time residents and business owners who I would not identify as a “vocal minority” with a “narrow perspective”.
I would be interested in what these “dangers for all concerned” you mention are. It would be hard to imagine dangers lurking that are worse than what’s out there now. These intersections are among the hottest of crash hotspots. That was a primary reason for this plan, and the plan uses best engineering practices to make things better.
It’s admittedly too easy to look at Newton’s infrastructure, throw up one’s hands, and say things won’t get better. But they can. Many of the surrounding cities and towns have done it.
Mike, could you provide examples for us of cities and towns which have redesigned centers like West Newton square. I too believe that the revamped square at the cost of several million dollars may not achieve the level of safety and beauty that many people think it will. Human error is often the reason for multiple crashes.
@Colleen – Both Cambridge and Boston are making use of protected bike lanes as part of their overall traffic plans:
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Transportation/design/bicycling/cycletracks
https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/Boston%20Bike%20Network%20Plan%2C%20Fall%202013_FINAL_tcm3-40525.pdf
I bike through Beacon st regularly and the protected lanes they added on the Brookline/Boston border feel much safer, especially around the restaurants where you would have to deal with both people exiting parked cars along with Uber/Lyft drivers pulling into the bike lane.
Also common in Europe, which in general is light years ahead of the US in bicycle infrastructure. Here’s an example showing junctions in the Netherlands compared to US, I believe the concept design for West Newton square incorporated a bit of this for the Elm/Washington St intersection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA
This isn’t an either-or problem, it’s possible to redesign this in a way to be safe for both motor vehicles and cyclists but it means getting out of the car-centric focus.