Conditions could not have been much better for my bike ride this morning to BSC Newton. The Wells Avenue sports club lies about four miles from my Waban home. At 10:30, under blue skies, traffic had subsided and skies were sunny.
My journey began along Woodward Street, a quiet residential road except during rush hour. Things got trickier when the road swung right for the long block to Route 9. Without a bike lane, I passed with caution alongside trucks and cars to the corner.
Once across Route 9, I traveled down and up Elliot Street until I reached Columbia Avenue, my shortcut to the greenway behind Needham Street. My hybrid bike, with wide tires, had no problem pedaling along the sandy path. Once I reached Oak Street, more peril awaited me. This narrow street carries a great deal of traffic from the Upper Falls to Needham Street. To my left lay the desolation that, according to plan, will someday become the immense Northland project: more than 800 residential units, as well as small businesses. Imagine how many cars the tenants will operate; where will they park them? Poor residents of Oak Street, Needham Street, and Christina Street!
Once I turned right towards Needham, I faced my greatest challenge: crossing Needham Street in the face of incoming traffic to reach a half-mile greenway on the other side of the river. Fortunately, an inbound driver took pity and waved me across. The path led to Fourth Avenue in Needham, which in tandem with Second Avenue, connects Highland Avenue with Kendrick Street. At the corner of Kendrick/Nahanton, I faced a left turn without a traffic signal- hazardous for both cars and bikes- and the ensuing stretch to Wells Avenue was choked with speeding cars.
Wells Avenue, hellishly congested during rush hour in the morning and evening, is quiet mid-day, and no surprise: many buildings are only half-rented. Thus, it baffled me when I passed by 2 Wells Avenue, a large office building finally completed in the spring. Since then its huge parking lot has sat empty, the building vacant despite the large “To Lease” sign in front. Why construct such a building without a tenant in mind, given the apparent glut in office space?
After my workout, I journeyed home via Nahanton Street, Winchester Street, Centre Street, Walnut Street, and finally Beacon Street. En route I shopped at Whole Foods and Walgreens and ate lunch at 4 Corners Pizza. The route was treacherous in two spots: on Nahanton Street, especially as I had to cross traffic to make that left onto Winchester; and the crowded stretch of Winchester and Centre Streets from National Lumber to Walnut Street. Less experienced cyclists might have hesitated to push forward. But those are the precise conditions of many stretches of roadway in Newton. Little wonder that active cyclists like me are uncommon in Newton.
Not only did this odyssey provide me with some stimulating exercise, but it taught me some hard lessons about the Garden City: 1) If civic leaders are serious about promoting bicycles in Newton, many roads will require reconfiguration; 2) The city’s traffic infrastructure seems outdated, consisting largely of crowded, antiquated streets with little room for cars, let alone pedestrians and cyclists; 3) I passed no buses though at least one bus crosses my route at points. But it runs so infrequently that most people with cars would rather drive than take it; 3) Plans for mega-developments like Northland and Riverside must take this antiquated infrastructure into account. Without drastic improvements, Newton will become as choked and impassible as other congested areas in greater Boston.
The only thing that could make everything worse would be an e-scooter program like Brookline is testing out!
The Tour de Newton was yesterday. It’s an annual bike event that draws 500+ bicyclists every year. The event is aimed primarily at casual riders with lots of parents and kids. The riders travel in group of 20-30 riders with very experienced, trained riders at the front and back of each group.
What we hear from many participants every year is that they absolutely love the event because it’s the ONLY time that they feel safe and comfortable when bicycling on our city streets … and otherwise they mostly avoid doing so.
It’s a shame that we have plenty of ready, willing and able bicyclists in the city that aren’t generally willing to ride in Newton. Paul painted a good picture of why that is.
Unfortunately as I’ve become old enough to finally understand my own mortality, I’ve pretty much eschewed cycling in the Boston area because, with the exception of a handful of unconnected gems such as the Upper Falls Greenway, any given bike ride in these parts ends up being a series of stressful and potentially injurious or fatal arterial entanglements. It’s taken a few decades for the idea to sink into my noggin that it’s just not enjoyable risking your life on this crap cycling infrastructure.
Compare the biking situation in Boston to the
1,000 km of beautiful and ubiquitous bike paths in Montreal,
or even the increasingly amazing bike infrastructure in Los Angeles, including the 16 mile coastal path I rode last week which gets my vote for America’s most beautiful path. And never mind attempting a comparison with the Netherlands, Denmark, or Germany.
I used to bike into Boston all the time, but now I usually just shoot 135 minutes walking the 11 miles into the city from Needham and take the train back out. My travel time is almost doubled compared to the bike but I reckon that my move from two wheels in the Beacon Street bike lane to two feet on the Beacon Street sidewalk has lowered my systolic pressure about 20 points.
Happily they’re installing new signalization at the Oak/Christina/Needham Street intersection which might help if you’re willing to ride on the sidewalk for 100 meters, and FWIW there’s actually an abandoned railroad bridge which I used all the time connecting Christina Street to that DCR path in Needham, but back in June a new CEO took over at the adjoining Price Center locked the gate so you can’t get through anymore. I spoke to the city’s incredibly knowledgeable Chief Environmental Planner, Jennifer Steele, and as it turns out the MBTA basically gave away its right-of-way across the Price Center parking lot for a very small monetary consideration, so there’s nothing that can be done now. On the other hand there are supposedly discussions to eventually integrate the bridge into a greenway extension along the old railroad tracks that crossed Needham Street at the Jiffy Lube and South Meadow Brook.
Speaking of river crossings, I wish Needham town government would do something with the abandoned railroad tracks between Needham Heights and the Charles River, especially in light of MassDOT’s and DCR’s obligations to reconstruct the bridges over 128 and the Charles, respectively. The Needham Select Board has refused to do anything and as a result Newton’s beautiful Upper Falls Greenway ends at the river. There may finally be some hope, though, as last month the Select Board identified a 2020-2021 goal of “evaluating the feasibility of creating a shared use path from Needham Heights to Wexford Street.”
I bike nearly everywhere in Newton. I’m slow and careful, but it can be done. It is admittedly best on separated, protected paths than on the street, but there are some great streets that are already pretty slow. You just need to know about them! I would like to see the city put down some kind of sign to let cyclists know where the alternative routes are. Google Maps can help, with its bicycling function–but not always.
Some good news for Bob: The city is working to connect the Upper Falls Greenway to the nearest next street (Curtis), and the state DOT is planning to construct a protected “multi-use trail” (aka wide sidewalk) to get cyclists and pedestrians under Rt. 9 at Winchester. That’s a real pinch point now.
Newton absolutely needs to get moving on striping and protecting paths for all kinds of mobility (bike, scooter, skateboard, wheelchair) to achieve its climate goals and to reduce traffic. Glad you’ve joined Bike Newton, Bob, so we can work together on that!
@Andreae, I’m sure you already know about it, but for those who don’t, there’s an old crowd-sourced map of “low-traffic bike routes” which might help –
https://village14.com/2014/02/01/low-stress-bike-routes/
I’ve stopped riding my bike altogether in Newton. The aggression of the drivers renders it unsafe in my opinion. Too many near misses with three young kids to raise.
Thanks though I have been working with Bike Newton for a while. Speaking of sidewalks, it is common in some European cities and in Israel for sidewalks to be so wide that bicycles and pedestrians can safely coexist. As a matter of course, most cyclists in Newton occasionally veer onto the sidewalk- though it is a no-no- simply to avoid impossible intersections like 4 Corners. The drivers are glad that we get out of the way there. Many of Newton’s sidewalks are devoid of pedestrians anyhow; we are too spread out and the distance too great to walk routinely, say, from Route 9 to Newton Centre via Parker Street.
In my view, Americans are entirely too reliant on the automobile, in part because, even in cities where cars should be less necessary, public transportation is missing or some people aren’t active enough. I admire Europeans, who seem to walk everywhere, or at least whenever possible.
Paul,
Given your druthers, you’d rather share the road with an SUV than an e-scooter?
You are aware of the laws of physics, right?
The SUVs are already there and will not be going away anytime soon. The scooters are not, yet.
Btw, have you seen reports on how long those scooters stay in service before they need replacement? Several weeks. So much for being environmentally friendly, in terms of waste generation.
Bob, veering onto the sidewalk is not illegal outside business districts but in fact it can be much more dangerous for the cyclist who will eventually veer back onto the street. That’s where collisions often happen. I ride through 4-corners and I find it’s generally not that difficult to navigate, though that intersection is slated for redesign over the next few years and hopefully will include better bicycle accommodations. Needham Street’s planned cycle track and the Greenway improvements Andreae mentioned are examples of some very hard fought for bicycle infrastructure that could be a model for the rest of the city. Change is happening, but progress can be frustratingly slow.
If that was sarcasm (I certainly hope it was) then I agree. We all need to get out of our cars and walk more. I often take the walk you mention, most recently about an hour ago. It’s under a mile.
As for Northland, hopefully the new residents will use the new bike/ped infrastructure to get to nearby businesses and avoid the short car trips that the rest of us in Newton routinely make that cause so much congestion. Why is it ok when the rest of us use our cars but a tragedy when new tenants do?
Paul,
So long as we just accept the status quo of SUVs, the status quo isn’t going to change.
You’d have to burn through an awful lot of scooters to match the environmental cost of an SUV. Plus, a city full of electric scooters is going to have a whole host fewer externalities than a city full of SUVs, starting with safety to others.
The next shiny new thing to come is going to be electric mopeds/scooters. Let’s reconfigure our streets for micro-mobility and reap the benefits.
Bob,
Our sidewalks are not devoid of pedestrians. Even the worst sections have people who walk, many of whom have little choice. When we’re in cars, those people are invisible to us. But, sit and watch for a bit and you’ll see pedestrians everywhere.
At the very least, we should do a better job taking care of those invisible pedestrians. The upside of taking better care of those who already walk is that better facilities will encourage others to walk. Virtuous circle.
The mystery of 2 Wells Avenue has been solved: mayor Fuller has announced that Bright Horizons will move in, bringing 400 employees and apparently occupying the entire building.
Say, that is a bright horizon!