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Three-car crash ties up area around Berkeley and Stuart
By adamg on Fri, 10/18/2013 - 7:13am
Teddy Kokoros photographed part of the aftermath of a three-car smashup at Berkeley and Stuart streets in the Back Bay around 7 a.m.
One person was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Andrea Estey was also on scene:
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Comments
The city keeps promising to
The city keeps promising to put in a traffic light a block away on Stuart at Trinity Place but nothing yet. Drivers coming off the Pike under the Prudential Center think they're still on an interstate and fly down Stuart at 50mph. They will not stop for the many pedestrians crossing at Trinity Place. The stopgap solution has been to station a traffic cop there at afternoon rush hour but it's even worse early in the morning. I don't know the details of this accident but to my inexpert eye it looks like at least on of the cars had to be going much faster than the speed limit to do that kind of damage.
1-2-3 Red light!
So the lights at Dartmouth AND Clarendon aren't enough - you want another mid-block light?
Yes
When drivers get a green light at Dartmouth after coming off the Pike they continue down Stuart at speeds appropriate for an interstate, not for a busy city street with, as you mention, a busy crosswalk in the middle of the block. The city monitored the situation and came to the same conclusion.
raised crossing
I agree with your goal but the appropriate traffic device would be a raised crossing not a traffic signal.
I can't stand raised
I can't stand raised crossings. In some vehicles, they're unsafe and uncomfortable at any speed, especially for people with neck and back problems. They're awful for bicyles. And I'm not convinced that making drivers pay attention to the bumps makes them pay attention to pedestrians.
A traffic light really does seem like the best solution there. It can be synchronized with the nearby lights on Stuart (since it's one way), and Trinity has very little traffic, so most drivers won't be slowed down. And pedestrians will have a much easier time.
Raised crossing works very well on Rindge Ave in Cambridge
It feels much safer to cross the street to the O'Neill branch library than before the raised crosswalks were built. And as a frequent bicyclist, I don't find them annoying at all. Bikes also should be slowing down where lots of pedestrians cross.
And they've been a disaster in Malden
Rindge Ave is not the Copley Square area. Completely different animal. More lights and stronger enforcement are needed, not raised crosswalks.
Please explain
A disaster ... how? Did they force you to slow down? Did you hurt your precious car when you didn't?
So you've been posting year
So you've been posting year after year.
Have asked anyone with a neck or back issue, or who uses a wheelchair van with low ground clearance, how they feel about it?
I walk across Rindge Avenue all the time, both at this crossing and at other places. I don't have trouble crossing at the places where there's no bumps.
I find raised crossings incredibly annoying as a cyclist. Especially the granite "crosswalk lines" at the edges of them, which inevitably cause big bumps as the asphalt next to them degrades over the years.
And there's no reason to slow down to 5 mph when there aren't actually pedestrians present. Cambridge is putting in raised crossings all over the place, even at crosswalks that never see large numbers of pedestrians. And even busy crosswalks aren't busy 24/7.
I've also found if I'm paying attention to the bumps, it makes it much harder to check for pedestrians, while also watching for cars ahead and behind,
I feel especially bad for people who have to live near a raised crossing. They get to hear cars scraping the asphalt, bouncing over bumps, and revving their engines 24/7, in places where cars used to breeze by with almost no noise.
Maybe
Bump-outs would have been my recommendation there but after gathering and analyzing data BTD decided on a light. I suspect they're also anticipating the increase in traffic of all kinds from the big new building (hotel, etc) slated to go in at the SE corner of Stuart x Trinity.
With a webcam!
For some reason when you mentioned raised crossing and highway speeds, the Dixie Horn from Dukes of Hazzard played in my head.
If that's what it takes to
If that's what it takes to get drivers to obey the speed limit and not drive at highway speeds on these blocks YES!
Maybe the Pike exit ramp should be redesigned
so that cars have to make a hard 90-degree right turn instead of a merge onto Huntington Ave/Stuart Street?
This would also allow re-connecting the missing section of sidewalk on this part of Huntington.
We can blame this on bike
We can blame this on bike lanes, right?
Thank you for your helpful
Thank you for your helpful input!
Early morning in that area
Early morning in that area the traffic lights are flashing rather than solid. That could have contributed to the crash.
It happened
Around 7am not 5am!