I’ve been to a lot of public meetings, read a lot of campaign materials, and watched a lot of candidate forums. There seems to be near-unanimous consensus that we’ve got to fix traffic congestion in Newton and that new development can’t make traffic (significantly) worse.
Maybe it’s time to rethink congestion, reject the underlying premise, and change the frame.
There is an unspoken expectation that underlies the general concern about Newton’s growing traffic, especially new-development-generated traffic. That unspoken expectation is that neighbors should be allowed to continue with their current contribution to baseline congestion; we want to stop additional new traffic being added to our streets, but accept the existing traffic. But, even without a single new square foot of development, we drive too much. We’re killing the planet and the city. So, why should our public policy start with the expectation that we need to treat existing traffic as either inevitable or worth protecting.
To be fair, there are a number of candidates and activists who will say that we need to provide robust alternatives to car travel, so that we can get people out of their cars. And, a few might even say that new development and related infrastructure improvements may take cars off the road as people choose to walk. But, to my knowledge, nobody is saying that traffic congestion is an overstated concern. Nobody is saying, if you are worried about your ability to drive on Newton’s streets, you might be part of the problem. Nobody is saying that, as the city moves forward, we’re going to plan on current residents driving less.
A fair response might be: fine, now make Newton a city where you don’t have to drive as much. In the neighborhoods around Riverside and Northland, the developments themselves will certainly add traffic, but they will also provide opportunities for neighbors to do some things by foot that they have to drive to do now. Elsewhere, the city should be taking aggressive steps to make it much easier to walk and bike to schools and local stores. An enormous number of daily trips are under two miles, a perfectly reasonable distance on a bike, especially an electric-assist bike, provide that there are super safe, super comfortable accommodations.
Candidates and activists, please stop promising to alleviate congestion or prevent it from getting too much worse. Don’t promise to protect residents’ ability to drive. Shift the conversation. Promise to help residents walk or bike. Don’t validate congestion concerns.
In the neighborhoods around Riverside and Northland, the developments themselves will certainly add traffic, but they will also provide opportunities for neighbors to do some things by foot that they have to drive to do now.
Can you expound on what those things are?
Run, do not walk, away from any candidate who proposes to “fix” congestion by building wider roads. We’ve been doing that since the 1960s, and it’s not working.
Dare we suggest prohibiting (or limiting to legitimate needs) the use of cars by students going to high school? There are plenty of mass transit, biking, and walking options for the vast majority of students to get to school; but it seems to have become accepted wisdom that kids should be allowed to drive to school and park there.
@Paul: The problem is that many of the students – particularly – middle school and high school have after school activities – off-site. So those – who say – maybe row at CRI – have no way of getting there by public transportation in time for practice. And those kids that do afterschool activities – like basketball or track – often miss the late bus – which takes (those who live in Auburndale and go to South) – more than half an hour to get home after a late practice.
There might be some with legitimate needs, but I’d be willing to guess that most wouldn’t have those–or wouldn’t have them for the whole school year. Check the traffic on Parker Street or Dedham Street or Walnut Street or Lowell Avenue some day and see who’s driving.
Middle school kids don’t drive.
@Paul: No – but their parents, or caregivers, do. I know. I did it for my kids who – although we lived in Auburndale, traveled to Brown and South for middle school. So my kids- who did track or crew at CRI – either couldn’t take the “late” bus or needed a ride down to CRI. And believe me, my car was full of kids who either lived in Auburndale, missed the bus, or had no other transportation to CRI.
I love my car. I drive it here, I drive it there, I drive it on short trips, and I drive it on long trips. It took me a long time to get a nice car, and I am going to savor every minute I have to enjoy it.
Climate scientists say we have 10 years to go before we are toast, so I’m going for broke. No amount of hectoring,
lecturing, shaming or hatred will deter me. I don’t know if this post will pass V14 muster, but I’m feeling like living dangerously tonight, so I’m going to let it rip,
then I’m going to get in my car and drive 1 mile to the CVS before it closes and get some essentials.
Dude, to suggest adding 2,000 households across Needham Street, Riverside and Washington place within adding more traffic is pre-school math. Sorry, someone had to say it.
And to assume that people would not travel beyond their mixed use environment is also optimistically naive. As much as I like Wegman’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Star Market is a nice change now and then. Last I checked, humans do not like being caged. Some might call it jail. This is a country built on individual freedom.
To get people out of their cars, the white elephant in the room is public transportation – more frequent, more routes, more reliable. That’s where substantive change can be made!
@Amy, I’m talking about the kids who drive to school and are given places to park there, not the parents who need to cart them around. I’m just wondering why we should have a policy that encourages kids to take cars to school.
@Paul: The kids who drive – are likely to be juniors or seniors who also have to get to those same places. As for the other kids – how about no bus fee or having extra buses that run late? When my kids were old enough to drive, they would drive a car load of kids home – back to Waban, Lower Falls and Auburndale.
my kids are grown and out of college, but the amount of driving my wife and I did for music lessons, soccer practice, soccer games, Birthday parties, back 15 -20 years ago was crazy. And that includes a bunch of carpooling.
It’s not possible to use public transport for all that we did.
Anyone with kids would know.
Should we cut that way back? Well, it would be ok with me. thought it was excessive back then.
But, I drive to Southborough 4 days a week for work, drive to play tennis ( indoors) 3-4 days a week.
My wife flew to Chicago last week to see a sick relative, and thus weekend to see another sick relative….
Should we all not do these things? 100 years ago we wouldn’t.
@Paul, agreed, but why are policies that encourage parents to drive their kids to school any better? At least the kids have to pay a hefty fee at South ($325/yr) for the privilege. Buses cost even more. Driving to school? Free.
At most of our schools, we have “blue zones” and instruct parents how to drop off / pick up their kids each day. In fact, the time period where kids arrive at school is often called “drop off” rather than “arrival”. That says a lot, don’t you think?
Parents taking their kids to school generates at least 2x as much congestion since the parents make round trips. Our newest school buildings were designed like fast food joints to facilitate getting parent vehicles as close as possible to the front door. Thankfully, the design committees reconsidered and made improvements at Zervas and Cabot, but at Zervas, there’s a timed half-closure on Beethoven Ave to increase school traffic (see Ted’s warning about induced demand from widening roads)
If we want to do something about school traffic, which some say makes up more than 25% of our morning traffic, we ought to reconsider the incentives and disincentives.
The real elephant in the room? How much of the traffic on our roads neither begins nor ends in Newton? Traffic is a regional problem, and Newton’s position near the ‘hub’ of our region with overwhelmed state highways means it’s going to absorb the overflow, no matter what we do locally. Wanna fix traffic? Build Regional Rail. Fix Route 9 and I-90 interchanges, including Newton Corner. Toll drivers on our local roads.
Congestion can be significantly reduced by relatively small reductions in driving. But I am not worried as much about congestion as I am about climate change. I am absolutely telling people I am talking to across Newton they are going to have to drive less if we are going to reach climate goals, at least 15% less. That assumes a pretty high EV adoption rate and a halt to the increase in driving we have experienced in the last several years. This is going to require making it easier to walk, bike or take transit and much, much more difficult to drive.
As for high school students driving, there is a lot going on and I hope it continues to get better. We have seen a record number of students biking to both North and South this past year. Racks are overflowing on any relatively nice day and even many that aren’t. South after many years of pushing by parents has implemented some changes to the parking lot to make it safer for kids walking and biking. Lastly the report on transportation for the later HS start times listed noted bus delay at the HS as a big issue. Buses are delayed by… parents driving to school. So if fewer parents would drive to school buses wouldn’t have to add so much buffer time to their schedule.
Honestly the school bus system is part of the problem. When my kids were in elementary school the bus took 45 min-1 hr to get them home. Great for them in the morning when the bus picked them up towards the end of the route but not so great for when we had to leave for afternoon activities. The closest middle school stop picks up at 7:45 to get the kids to Brown at 8:20 along the way taking a scenic tour of Highlands, Newton Centre, and Waban then proceeding through Upper Falls. For high school sports I was told to get a carpool as the teams often get back after the late bus has gone. The late bus is also a long route. Crossing RT 9 on Parker is treacherous. There are so much going on on that tight area that it makes me nervous for bikers especially but also walkers. I saw a light turn green which allowed people to turn left off of Clark and right off of Rt 9 westbound while the crosswalk right there gave the walk symbol the other day.
As someone said above there is so much traffic surrounding Newton …RT 9 is jammed especially at the intersection of RT 128 then you have congestion on 128 which is often a parking lot starting at 2 in the afternoon along with similar conditions on the Pike. Needham St, Centre St and many other local roads all feel repercussions of that traffic.
I have to agree with my fellow posters here. Make bus fees ZERO. I pay $350 for each kid to take the bus, because I am a firm believer in public transportation. Provide free school buses and parents will use the buses. BUT, you also have to provide a working school bus schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays my son gets out of school at 3:20 at South, but his bus doesn’t show up til 4 PM. Yes, he can get homework completed, however anytime for an afternoon appointment, means I have to drive to South and pick him up. It doesn’t work.
My younger kid at Brown takes the Late Bus home during the winter, however, we are the first stop (lucky us) and four houses away. There is no way I would allow her to use it if we werent’ that close. The Late Bus is great, but there are fewer stops and a longer route.
We need to make transportation work for everyone – kids, teens, parents and seniors.
My Brown kid is allowed to take the Green Line anywhere between Waban and Newton Center.
My South kid takes the Green line into Boston for rehearsal once a week. BUT, it doesn’t work on the ride home, since the trains run later.
We are a two car family and we will not purchase a car for our South kid. We don’t allow Uber or Lyft either. If you don’t know the person driving the car, you aren’t allowed in it.
My kids don’t use GATH pool because there is no way there during the summer.
I don’t see how denser housing is going to help relieve the congestion around the city.
@Alicia, if the comments here are any indication, I’m guessing that you will not have many converts if you tell people that “they are going to have to drive less if we are going to reach climate goals, at least 15% less.” I think they are likely to nod, out of guilt or a desire to appear agreeable, and then go home and behave in the same way.
@Levy I have to disagree that people will simply nod. I think awareness levels, at least in Newton, of potential climate change impact will change behaviors. Now, I realize that changing behavior is very difficult – but when people take small steps, they begin to realize it’s not as difficult as it seems. And, part of this change comes from hearing about others making the change one by one, and hearing about the challenges of climate change, over and over. Am I dreaming? Maybe. But I’d rather be optimistic than not.
@Green – We live around the corner from each other. I know that 1 mile drive and also takeit sometimes. But, just try biking to CVS (the one on Needham St) – it’s not bad. And, once the State has completed it’s work, it will be a lot easier.
Excellent observation @Paul Levy.
I believe most people are concerned about the environment and Climate change. Public transportation while improving, is still unreliable, bikes are not practical if you are carrying sports gear or other necessary items and are out if the weather is wintery or lousy, and walking is laudable, but again impractical if you need to get from point A to point B in a timely fashion.
When I went to South there were kids
who had jobs to get to after school, hence the need for a car.
At the end of the day, most people are just trying to get through their daily grind as painlessly as possible, and having and using a car makes that possible however bad for the environment it may be. It doesn’t, nor should it, make people bad or evil or immoral. Some car owners use them judiciously. At the end of the day. It is what it is. Unfortunately, getting the bills paid, getting to appointments, dealing with our families etc etc takes precedence over stressing over climate change.
After a while though, people do end up tuning out members of our society who are hell bent on controlling other people’s lives or behaviors. I do give a lot of credit to Sean Roche for not owning a car, which i assume he doesn’t.
Or does he?
Amy Sangiolo said: “Can you expound on what those things are?”, referring to the comment “In the neighborhoods around Riverside and Northland, the developments themselves will certainly add traffic, but they will also provide opportunities for neighbors to do some things by foot that they have to drive to do now.”
Amy you’re more familiar with the Riverside area than I am, but Riverside is well within 0.5 mile of the neighborhoods along Grove Street (including apartment buildings) and most of Lasell Village. That means a market, pharmacy, doctor’s offices, UPS store, coffee shop/bakery, park/playground/playing field, or even a dreaded bank would be within easy walking distance along the nice part of Grove Street. That’s in addition to serving the people who would live in the development.
That’s much closer and more pleasant than having them walk over the pike to the Auburndale Star.
Even if that distance was too far for some people all the time or most people some of the time, we’ve eliminated a bunch of potential trips by giving people local choices. Fast and efficient delivery becomes possible. And if people drive, it’s short trips that don’t impact other neighborhoods, using less fuel, and wasting less time.
Are there currently plans for these specific kinds of services at Riverside? Not that I know of. But that’s because we aren’t asking. This kind of stuff should be top of the list for developer negotiation. It will have a much longer impact on the neighborhood from a trip generation and quality of life point of view than +/- an extra 100K square feet or another story. And if we get it wrong, the impact will be longer lasting.
Yes, the calculation is different for each development. Northland has a lot more existing retail and services around it. The same principle holds though. We know the kinds of things people typically drive to. If we can bring as many of those as close as we can, we pick off more and more low hanging fruit. We save people time, give people more convenient choices, and build self-sustaining neighborhoods in spirit of the Newton village model.
The school bus system needs an overhaul. Encouraging biking is good but not a replacement. Some kids aren’t comfortable biking on our streets and I don’t blame them. Others may have disabilities and they can’t bike. Others may live in smalll apartments without a place to store a bike. Some may not be able to afford a bike Saying that everyone should bike comes from a place of priviledge. Overhaul or school bus system and everyone can benefit.
The school bus thing has always seemed insane to me, ever since I moved to Newton. I grew up in a much less dense and less densely populated New England town, one that is 100% car-dependent… and I don’t remember a single kid whose parents drove them to school. Within a mile or so of the school in the little downtown, you walked, and literally 99% of the other students took the bus, from K through license age (most commonly because you needed the car to get to your after-school job, as someone else mentioned). The bus was free (or included in the school budget paid for by the town’s taxes, if you must) for everyone, of course. The fact that there are so many car drop-offs and pick-ups in a city that is a third of the land area and 10x the population, especially at the younger ages, would be unfathomable if it wasn’t right in front of me.
MMQC, I agree with you to the extent that biking, or any other one mode, isn’t the answer. We need more safe choices, ones available to everyone, and we need to encourage people to favor the ones that are best for our community.
I think a fundamental problem is that we lock kids and families into transportation choices. Sign up and pay for the bus? You use the bus all the time. Pay for a parking space at the high school? Use it all the time, and definitely don’t give it up because you can’t get it back. If you bike or walk to school, and the weather is awful/unsafe or you hurt your ankle or you have a project to transport, your only option is being driven. Yet we barely acknowledge these exceptions or the utility of giving people flexibility.
Then, just for fun, we throw early release days into the mix, creating an entire cottage industry for private after school help and transportation. Thank goodness we’ve gotten rid of the rollercoaster kindergarten schedule.
I get why it’s like this. There’s no obvious answer, and even incremental ones will cost real money. But the way we are doing things now waste so much time, money and effort for everyone.
Well said as usual, Mike.
Also Jonathan, I had the same experience. I grew up in a very suburban area, bordering on rural, and we all took the bus every day, aside from the kids who lived close. I don’t remember kids getting driven to school and if they were it wasn’t enough that they even needed a dropoff zone. When the snow made the sidewalks too icy even the walkers were provided a bus. All of this was free. I grew up in a suburb of NYC.
Mary Mary,
And the back packs that kids carry and sports stuff means riding a bike isn’t practical either! Of course having the late bus leave 10 minutes before a sports practice ends is silly. Happens all the time at south. More parents driving!
Most of the comments here concern school-related traffic/driving issues, which is quite understandable — that’s certainly a major component in the congestion. But what about the other (non-child/family) variety, especially during morning or evening commutes?
I work within several miles of my house, and can usually get there via a combination of public transportation and my own two feet, so I’ve always tried to use my car as little as possible. When I have had to drive in recent years, though — because I’m carrying a lot of stuff that particular day, or I have an appointment elsewhere that is difficult/impossible to reach without a car — it’s definitely taken significantly longer than I remember to get from point A to point B. I’m not sure how much of what I encounter might be non-Newton-originating traffic (like, for instance, people bypassing the Pike), but in any case I do find myself wondering whether more public transportation would ease things even just a bit.