What's with the "Route 9 Boylston" in the post below?
The debate over Chestnut Hill Square is, at least in part, a debate over the vision for the Chestnut Hill shopping district and even the larger Boylston Street corridor. The current Chestnut Hill Square design is a vision that turns its back on Boylston Street, consigns it to its Route 9-ness.
Some of us have a different vision, a vision that acknowledges that Boylston Street is a significant artery, but that it can also be host to an attractive and meaningful commercial and pedestrian experience. As part of an effort to articulate—and champion—that alternative vision, this blog will no longer refer to Boylston Street as Route 9.
Boylston is a street. People live on it. People shop on it. And development that turns its back on it is not welcome.
Friday, October 5, 2007
It's a street
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Getting Florence/Heath unbackwards
What if, regarding Heath and Florence Streets, Chestnut Hill Square is not the problem, but a potential solution?
A staggering 95% of current (2004) weekday peak hour Florence/Heath eastbound traffic is cut-through traffic. In New England Development's Final Environmental Impact Report, the traffic study for the weekday evening peak hour traffic show that 474 cars enter Florence from Route 9 Boylston. (Appendix D, figure 5.) All but 25 continue on to Heath and Hammond Pond Parkway. Westbound, about half the 171 cars that enter Heath at Hammond Pond continue on to Route 9 Boylston.
New England Development's projected eastbound figures for 2010 post-build are 513/14, or over 97%. (Appendix D, figure 21.) Westbound about 80% of the 151 cars that start at Heath and Hammond Pond Parkway will be cut through.
No wonder Brookline wants to close Heath Street. If you could get rid of 513 cars an hour while only inconveniencing a handful, wouldn't you do it? (The key is that everyone agrees those 513 cars really ought to be on Route 9 Boylston and Hammond Pond Parkway.)
What's really mind-blowing, though, is a comparison of the projected cut-through traffic along Heath/Florence and total projected traffic in and out of Chestnut Hill Square. According to the FEIR, during peak weekday hours, the site will generate 1349 trips, in and out.
Imagine reconfiguring Florence Street such that it was no longer an attractive cut-through and it provided an entrance into Chestnut Hill Square. Florence and Heath would have to absorb more than a third of the Chestnut Hill Square traffic to equal the existing cut-through traffic. Trade the cut-through traffic for a Chestnut Hill Square entrance and you'd also end up with a Chestnut Hill Square that is much better integrated into the neighborhood.
In part, this is what Brookline is proposing by blocking Heath Street. There will be no more cut-through traffic. And, most likely, Chestnut Hill Square will have to create access through the site for traffic from Florence. The solution is incomplete because it does not provide access to Chestnut Hill Square from east along Florence. And, it cuts off access to the Newton side of the neighborhood from Brookline and vice versa.
A more complete solution is possible. The Chestnut Hill Square frontage along Florence Street is long and the Chestnut Hill Square site is a completely open canvas. There are few limitations.
Imagine rerouting Florence Street north into Chestnut Hill Square. (It would probably require moving some or all of the residences onto the south side of the new Florence and figuring out a way to get into the existing homes along Florence. Details.) Make the route through Chestnut Hill Square circuitous or otherwise an unfit cut-through.
Maybe a roundabout at a Florence Street entrance to Chestnut Hill Square would discourage cut-through traffic.
There has to be a better option than living with cut-through traffic or creating a dead end.
Previously: Florence Street kink
Chuck writes
Chuck bikes, finds that area roads aren't very accommodating.
Chuck drives, finds that Newton North is short on bike racks.
Go, Chuck, go.
Florence Street kink
If the Florence/Heath Street cut-through is a natural because it describes an almost straight line between Florence and
What follows is a very crude idea of how New England Development could re-route Florence onto its property to add a kink to the street. Forget about whether the chicane I've drawn is the chicane a trained traffic engineer would draw. It's meant only to illustrate the concept.
The chicane could provide at least two advantages:
- Slow speeds, perhaps enough to make Florence/Heath a less attractive cut-through.
- Create a safe place for a pedestrian crossing.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Street repair
Cold-planing on Langley Road started this morning.
They are cold-planing and patching on Beacon Street around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.
Walk to School Day
Today was International National Newton Bowen Walk to School Day. (I'm sure some other schools participated, too.)
What a wonderful morning. Traffic was not just noticeably less, it was dramatically less.
Son of NS&S, unprompted upon waking: "We should all wear 'No Cars' signs."
Lauren the crossing guard: "Wow."
Two young ladies behind me: "Do you think your class will have the most walkers?"
The drive in front of Bowen, which is usually backed up, had no cars on it for stretches at a time.
Police Officer Devine stood quietly in a corner with literally nothing to do.
But what really moved me was the human scale of the morning. The front of the school was packed with people, not overwhelmed by cars. It was a community, not a line of traffic.
I'm at a loss of words to describe how much better it was.
It's not all improvements
Alderman Rick Lipof was at tonight's public hearing in Brookline. Near the close of the meeting, he encouraged the good folks of Brookline to work together with Newton to address the traffic problems in the area. Then he trotted out the New England Development line that this project will include $8 to 13 million dollars in mitigation money, some of which could be Brookline's if the town plays ball.
We've covered this ground already. New England Development, in its Final Environmental Impact Report, included a table of proposed "improvements" that total over $10 million (p. VIII-51). But, over half is allocated to projects for which New England Development, not the city or its neighborhoods, is the primary, if not exclusive, beneficiary: $5.8 million to widen Route 9 and $660,000 to create a signalized median break. As I wrote in the earlier post, these two measures won't "'help ease the expected traffic increase.' They will help create the expected traffic increase."
I'm not sure if Alderman Lipof is aware of the nature of the allocations or of the fact that the proposed changes hardly constitute unalloyed benefit to the City. Before he next lauds New England Development for its generosity, he ought to take a look.
By the way, I don't mean to suggest that New England Development is being irresponsible or stingy. Some of the $10 million is principally for mitigation. I think the City should require more money from New England Development, with the allocation skewed more towards alternative transportation. But, it ain't nothing.
Still, let's be more careful discussing the money New England Development says its willing to spend, shall we?
Previously: NED's Overstated mitigation commitment
Three generations of cutters-through
Tonight, Brookline held a public hearing on a proposal to close Heath Street somewhere between Heathwood and Arlington. Closing Heath Street would make Heath and Florence Streets dead ends, until and unless New England Development created a street that connected Florence to Route 9 through Chestnut Hill Square.
The problem is cut-through traffic, not traffic that would travel to Chestnut Hill Square along Florence or Heath. Chestnut Hill Square is designed so that there is access from Florence only to the apartment building on the south side of the site (a mistake for a host of reasons). Chestnut Hill Square's contribution to the -- already existing -- problem is the traffic that it will add to and back up Route 9. The more backed up Route 9 is, the more attractive the Florence/Heath cut-through is. Also, Chestnut Hill Square will introduce two new lights for traffic to contend with: in front of the development and at Hammond Pond Parkway (which one assumes will have allow right turn on red).
A fundamental cause of the cut-through problem -- existing and future -- is the design of Florence and Heath. They describe an almost perfect diagonal from the Route 9 at Florence to Heath at Hammond Pond Parkway. It's no wonder that one of the Brookline selectman described how he was a third-generation cutter-through.
Here are three alternatives to closing Heath Street:
- Put a kink in Florence Street right in front of the apartment building. The current design has a bit of open land between the apartment building driveway and Florence Street. Use that space to reshape Florence from a smooth curve to a sharper turn or two. This is something that can be introduced and tried now.
- Extend Louise Road into the development and provide access to the entire site from Florence. Ironically, protecting the neighborhood from the traffic in and out of the site may contribute to more traffic trying to bypass the site. A light at a Louise Street entrance into the site might discourage more cut-through traffic than it generates.
- Focus on making Florence and Heath Streets pedestrian friendly. Sidewalks, wide shoulders, narrow travel lanes, raised crosswalks would all mitigate the effect of the traffic, may slow it, and may even . Go really crazy and lower the design speed to 20 mph with horizontal and vertical deflection.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Boston bike czar
I know I'm late to this, but a few thoughts on Mayor Menino's latest push to lift Boston from the depths of the bike-friendliness ratings:
- Great.
- All the grassroots in the world can't beat the influence of a mayor to get things going. (See also, Chicago.) Fortunately or unfortunately, progress in Boston may end up being more a function of the Mayor's new-found love of biking than all the good work by MassBike and other groups.
- I hope that Boston takes a coordinated regional approach, recognizing that many of Boston's bikers come from the surrounding cities and towns, which are on a spectrum of bike-friendliness.
- Matt Viser's report in the Globe is nicely researched and balanced.
- There's a great opportunity for incremental improvement to be had with bike racks. Every block that has more than 3 bikes locked to meters or fences ought to get a bike rack. (There's another great small opportunity along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.)
See also this piece in BostonNow, which quotes friend of NS&S Peter Furth.
This is promising
Governor Deval Patrick is going to introduce a comprehensive overhaul of the Commonwealth's transportation policy before Thursday's Turnpike Authority board votes on toll increases.
Not so promising? Patrick is against a gas tax increase and says "user fees" (presumably using a congestion pricing-like automated system) are at least ten years off.
Meanwhile, the Turnpike Authority has scheduled a public hearing about toll changes on October 10 in Newton at 6:00 in the Veterans War Memorial Auditorium at City Hall.
By the reservoir
I'm getting some good feedback to a nascent effort to get some sort of bike accommodations striped on Beacon Street along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.
It seems like an easy and valuable win for the City of Boston.
- The stretch of Beacon is plenty wide, even near Cleveland Circle where there's resident parking.
- Along a reservoir is a good place to promote biking.
- It is a well-used bike commuting route.
- While a short stretch, it would connect to and extend Brookline's good work on Beacon Street.
- It would connect BC into Brookline's bike-friendly Beacon.
- It would nicely tie into Newton's efforts to make Beacon bike-friendlier.
The timing couldn't be more right. Mayor Menino has pledged to improve biking in Boston. The DCR has a project on the boards to improve access to and the paths within the reservation itself. Bike accommodations on Beacon (which is Boston's in that stretch) would be a nice complement. The near completion of the Waterworks construction seems to promise at least a partial repaving effort.
Kids love their cars
She's only one young woman, but Newton South senior Katie Sander's spirited defense of kids driving to Newton South is depressing:
You can take away my soul but don’t take away my car.
Perhaps I’m being a bratty, entitled Newton kid, but driving to school and work has significantly improved my quality of life (and that of my parents, who no longer have to lug me around). And Sean, I am suprised that you’re surprised that high schoolers aren’t bigger proponents of self-propulsion. If anything we’re leading a call for more parking spots.
Ms. Sanders thoughts are in the comments to a TAB blog entry about a student hit by a car in a school crosswalk.
At who's expense comes the improved quality of life? The neighborhoods along her route to school, particularly those close to the school? Her future self who will suffer the effects of climate change? Not to be too dramatic, but the soldiers dying in the Middle East because we want to protect our oil interests? The kid hit by the car?
It's also depressing that school traffic, much of which is unnecessary, is perhaps impossible to regulate, short of some sort of congestion-pricing scheme. So, the only hope is to convince kids and parents to alter their behaviors.
Based on Ms. Sander's comments, it won't be easy.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Take a chance
Is this likelier to encourage or discourage auto use?
From today's Globe. (Cartoon won't be there if you follow the link after a more recent Wasserman cartoon is posted.)
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Grossman's and bikes
As reported by the TAB, there is proposed development on Washington Street in Wellesley, right over the Newton border on the former Grossman's site.
One bike/ped hook to the project (and there are sure to be others): Wellesley is looking at the project to provide mitigation funds that might be used to rehabilitate an old bridge on a proposed rail trail. (Search on "Trail Project" for the relevant entry.)
I'm just learning about the rail trail project. It's currently on hold while abutters litigate claims to the rail right-of-way.
Apparently, it would be a great way to get folks to the Riverside T station.
More as I learn more.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Funding imbalance
Next year, the Federal Transportation Agency is going to dole out $42 billion in highway aid v. $1.4 billion in transit aid.
Imagine what would happen if the numbers were switched. Imagine what could be done if transit aid were merely doubled by shifting $1.4 billion from highway.
Figures from a Washington Post article that notes not only the funding discrepancy, but the regulatory hoops that transit projects have to jump through to get federal approval (via Ryan Avent).
