Remove the Centre/Cypress bumpout, they said. It’ll back southbound Parker Street traffic all the way to Dedham Street!
Biking up Parker at 7:30 this morning I noticed that the southbound backup was at least four car lengths from reaching Dedham Street. I assume that that correlates to the four-car-length lane segment added back when the bumpout was removed.
#winning
Seriously, folks, if we want less traffic, we’ve got to figure out how to discourage driving.
Northbound Dedham Street traffic was being detoured onto the first couple of blocks of Parker Street this morning (and for the last few(?) days), due to apparent utility work on Dedham. I was dismayed to see that now that school has started, this detour was in force during drop-off times at Newton South and the middle schools. As with the entire Centre/Cypress bump out issue, whatever passes for “planning” in this town suffers from extreme tunnel vision where no one seems to realize that an action taken at point A will impact points B and C.
And if you think Parker is congested now, on September 16 (as threatened by the flashing signs), the traffic lights at Parker and route 9 will be turned on. Although these lights seem like a good idea to me from a safety standpoint (I dread making left turns on or off Parker at this intersection), they are certain to lengthen the back up on Parker. I’m surprised that I’ve seen no discussion of these lights in the discussions of the Centre/Cypress changes, as these lights might have affected the flow of traffic from Parker at Cypress. I’m agnostic on the Centre/Cypress changes as I try to avoid Newton Center, but it seems to me that it might have been prudent to wait for other intersection changes to be completed before jumping to conclusions.
Increased traffic will at some point discourage driving but you are not going to reduce congestion in this area unless the high school and middle schools are relocated to sites capable of handling the traffic.
I’m dreading the ignition of the lights at the intersection of Parker and Route 9. I don’t know what the statistics are about accidents at that intersection but I travel through there often and I’ve never had much of a problem coming off Route 9. When school lets out, I expect traffic to be awful.
Traffic lights won’t necessarily increase congestion. When there aren’t lights, people waiting for an opportunity to turn can clog up the intersection as long as any light would, but for less predictable lengths of time plus fewer cars get to turn at once. The lights may actually improve traffic flow through the intersection overall.
An example of that would be the Woodward/Boylston intersection. In the past, cars spent more time trying to find a lane on Woodward St. so they could dodge one another to go either straight onto Eliot or left on Boyleton, creating a traffic jam in the middle of Rte 9. . It was a nightmare and very unsafe. Now the traffic lines tell you where you should line up for your particular turn and the intersection works more efficiently.
Bruce Blakely (are you new to the Blog? Welcome!) said
Where would that be?? Never mind that the idea of rebuilding NSHS or the middle schools somewhere else would give us the collective vapors, where is there in Newton that anyone thinks could handle more traffic? Waban? 😉
I’d hope the lesson learned is that we need to design neighborhood schools (think pedestrian- friendly Angier and a new Emerson) and provide transportation options that makes it possible for fewer kids to be driven to school, not more. Passing transportation charges along, rather than subsidizing them as we used to, may help the bottom line, but it’s got to be contributing to traffic problems at Oak Hill, Brown and South. In the end, that hurts everyone.
Gail, I believe Parker & Route 9 was the second worst intersection in the city for accidents, but I’m not looking forward to the signal either. I do hope mgwa is right.
Jane, route 9 traffic at Woodward still backs up as much as it ever did. Don’t know if Woodward Street is much better. My main complaint about that intersection is that there’s no guidance on making left turns. When cars pass each other in the intersection prior to making left turns, it causes gridlock in the intersection. If cars do this
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/imageserver/dmv/images/dlhdbk/29a.gif
as my NSHS driver ed teacher specifically taught me to do at this intersection, there’s no gridlock, but unless everyone follows this same rule, it obviously doesn’t work. What you end up with is people doing a little of each. I was hoping they’d paint dotted lines to guide people one way or the other.
I’m with Adam re: school traffic and our short-sighted bus policies. NPS transportation will only put bus stops 2+ miles from a middle school or high school, making the bus both inconvenient and expensive (for those who bother to pay the fee.) Getting the majority of kids, even those who live relatively close (like Weston does) would reduce traffic congestion significantly.
Adam is exactly correct regarding neighborhood schools. Encouraging kids to walk/bike to school sets the tone for later on in life and significantly reduces traffic. A win-win.
There is no plan at this time for any additional elementary schools, but there is a plan for “balancing out” the number of students at the 15 existing ones.
@Tricia- The 2 miles bus policy should be brought down to 1 mile or perhaps slightly lower. Make it attractive and convenient enough so there’s essentially no excuse to not walk or take the bus. Reduce/eliminate the fees, too. Its a step in the right direction.
Adam – Have you been there in the last two days? The lanes are very new. I’ve had to use the intersection about 5 times and it’s working much better. At least you know where to go and there isn’t that horrible gridlock in the middle of Rte 9. That being said,, the amount of traffic using Woodward will always cause problems. It’s one of the intersections I avoid.
@Jane and Adam: I believe you’re actually talking about the intersection of Elliot and Route 9 (not Woodward) but Jane is correct, the changes to lane configuration as one crosses Elliot towards CVS and the gas station is much improved.
And I write this as a person who felt it was a HUGE mistake when they first did it. But over a few weeks I came to see how it, as Jane says, actually eliminated some scary gridlock right in the middle of Route 9.
Is there a lesson that could have been learned here that would apply to a rush to judgement on Cyress/Centre Street? We’ll never know.
Elliot on one side, Woodward on the other with two clear lanes on each side now and other modest improvements, bumpout and all, but I think there’s still the gridlock potential with facing left turning traffic hooking around each other. The real problem is the back up on route 9 and I don’t think that’s improved at all. It remains the bottleneck on route 9, probably for all of Newton.
Charlie, word!
Charlie,
I’d like you to meet this guy. Anything you might have told him to convince him not to drive his kids to school?
Does anyone know why those new traffic lights on Parker St @ Rte 9 have such HUGE POLES that are like those normally found on highways? The multiple new traffic lights on Parker St use several different pole types (normal diameter & metal, normal diameter & painted, huge diameter & metal) … I don’t get why they aren’t all the same, most aesthetically pleasing style.
@Sean – Yes. Bring the school closer. Make bus service cheaper and more convenient. But more importantly we tell our children to avoid being smug and to respect the lifestyle of everyone.
@Newton Mom-
I’ve been asking the same question. Wayland and others seem to have been able to source aesthetically more acceptable polls.
I’m not sure there was ever a discussion in any type of long range planning meeting regarding aesthetics here in Newton. It would seem not because most of the new lights that are going in are G-d awful ugly and I can’t imagine it’s our only option.
The broader question: Is Newton’s small village feel being slowly eroded by the desire of some to encourage greater development?
“But more importantly we tell our children to avoid being smug and to respect the lifestyle of everyone.” Including drug lords, mass murderers, and child molesters? Yes, those are extreme examples, but is respect an entitlement or is it some thing something earned? Treating innate differences with respect is different from treating all personal choices/behavior with equal respect. For example, it is socially acceptable to disrespect smokers because their personal behavior affects bystanders (second hand smoke – though I do wonder how this will change with the new pot laws).
Not sure I understand. Was the above actually a comparison of drug lords, mass murderers, and child molesters to Newton parents who choose to drive their kids to school?
I believe we have witnessed the “jump the shark” moment in this thread. 🙂
No, not calling myself a mass murderer. Just doubt you taught your kids to ‘respect the lifestyle of everyone.’
Lifestyle: noun
1.
the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc., that together constitute the mode of living of an individual or group.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Lifestyle?s=t
Charlie,
If you’re school transportation choices had no impact on anyone else, you would be entitled not to be judged and you might have a case for calling others smug. But, your transportation choices are not without impact. Each time you drove your children to school, you added a little more noise and traffic to the neighborhoods you drove through. You added some additional noxious emissions to the environment. You made the streets incrementally less safe. You increased carbon emissions.
Your transportation choices — all of our transportation choices — have an effect on our neighbors. That gives our neighbors the right — if not the moral obligation — to question your choices.
If pointing that out makes me smug in your book, I can live with that.
@Newton Mom 2 I asked the same question about the jumbo-sized poles & arms the state gave us at Parker and at Centre/Beacon. The answer I got: these withstand wind speeds of up to 130mph. I think Sandy got the DOT thinking about signals surviving storms.
As for putting more kids on the bus: great. I support lowering the congestion & emissions around schools and I want to see kids getting around independently. But today I heard a disturbing number from the schools’ transportation coordinator: even with the current bus fee (what, $310/year?), each bus, traveling full of kids, costs the city $50K to run.
Andreae, the jumbo traffic light that confuses me is the new one on Parker Street towards Newton Centre. It seems to be nowhere, i.e. not at any kind of an intersection, and is therefore a fairly major investment with little purpose. The only road it seems to service at all, and not directly, is a small side street where one of the contributors to these blogs lives, who in the past tried to get the city to reconstruct his inconsequential street. If the city made this investment because he has some kind of political clout, it’s pretty self-serving, given all the real and more dangerous intersections that are around the city.
@Sean- It does. And we can both live with that 🙂
Barry,
The light you are referring to is a new pedestrian crossing. Many Bowen students who live west of Parker cross there twice a day, as do many Oak Hill and NSHS students who live east of Parker and take the city bus each morning and afternoon. The new light will both reliably stop traffic and indicate to pedestrians when it is safe (or not) to cross. There is a similar light further south on Parker.
Other than making the pedestrian crossing safer for folks who live on my street (and other streets in the neighborhood), I’m not aware of any benefits to me or my near neighbors. The signal is part of infrastructure improvements designed to make walking to Bowen safer and more attractive. (There is a new pedestrian crossing at Bowen, too.) Analysis and construction were provided by the state through its Safe Routes to School program.
Hope that answers your questions.
The real solution is for everyone in Newton to be wealthy enough to move each time their kids change schools.