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Pedestrian hit by car in West Roxbury, seriously hurt
By adamg on Sat, 06/18/2016 - 10:42am
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Centre Street outside the little plaza with the West Roxbury Pharmacy and the Subway. A resident photographed the scene. The car involved in the crash is the one on the sidewalk.
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Comments
??
How did that car manage to get inside the parked cars in order to run down some poor person on the sidewalk?
Its a protected car lane
Ain't you never heard of 'em?
When it comes to Centre St.,
When it comes to Centre St., driving, walking, strolling or biking along this thoroughfare brings out the absolute worst in human nature...especially during hours of heavy traffic (e.g. every Saturday morning).
It's easily the worst thing about the place...except maybe for the way those West Roxbury residents who have never lived anywhere else treat everyone else.
Hey what does being a west
Hey what does being a west roxbury resident have t o do with how you're treated? Maybe if they do make it a one lane highway since it is essentially a one lane road.
Wow
Way to take it from a bad accident to putting down an entire town.
Neighborhood
West Roxbury hasn't been a town for about a century or so.
Ah, right where an SUV belongs
Am curious to hear more about this incident if information becomes available.
Centre St, West Roxbury
is ridiculous. The people act psychotic. And yes, as someone else pointed out, the snotty rudeness of a lot of the people is off the charts.
Who exactly is rude?
I've encountered nothing but nice people in West Roxbury.
Hah.
You've never had to pick up an order from the surly teens at real deal or comella's, have you?
We must go at different times, then
Because as a Comella's regular - and a frequent-enough Real Deal customer - I've never run into a teen at either place who was anything less than pleasant.
100% success rate.
That's almost unheard of in customer service. Perhaps Sloan or HBS will publish a case study.
100% grumpy rate
Sadly, that's pretty common, but maybe Psychology Today will do case study.
I mean, you go into a place all grumpy and spoiling for a fight, you're more likely to get surly help.
i love that game.
https://www.tumblr.com/search/jump%20to%20conclusions%20mat
The surly teens of Comella's and Real Deal
They make me afraid to walk down Centre Street.
fruits & veggies
be afraid.
Real Deal
The last time I walked into Real Deal I was feeling a little down and tired. Then the teenager behind the counter spontaneously complimented my glasses.
Maybe you just don't have cool glasses.
Haven't been to Real Deal in years
Not since one of those surly teens told me and a friend that they don't sell slices on Friday nights since they're too busy then for slices. I thought I had heard wrong but then a woman behind us said "I can't get two slices for my kids?".
And surly teen said "No."
Your assessment is important but need some clarification...
Depending upon which census data one accepts as most current or valid, there are between 25,000 to 30,000 people living in West Roxbury. I assume in your scientific research on residential psychosis you had a data collection methodology to formulate your conclusion.
You referred to"a lot of people" - how did you gather your data - did you rely on a statistical sampling of those people you determined to be psychotic? - did you actually survey folks - talk to let's say 1% of the West Roxbury residences (250)? Was it 10% (2500)? a quarter of the population, half the population. When you say "a lot" it must mean something.
Curious, what exactly do you mean by "psychotic" and what criteria did you rely on to identify those who are psychotic? Incidentally, how did you determine which residents you assessed as being "so mentally impaired that they were detached from reality" were from West Roxbury - ID check? Check list?
I also assume you had safe-guards in place to prevent your research results from being corrupted by responses you received from stealth residents of Brookline, Newton or, God forbid, Wellesley.
Also, what do you mean by "snotty rudeness" - precision is important here…was their rudeness caused because from their nose being full of or covered by nasal mucus or did they just exhibit a superior attitude?
My hope is you'll get back to me on these questions - given your obvious assessment expertise, I stand ready to defend your research results when potential detractors accuse you of being a miserable son-of-abitch who pulls his opinions out of his butt.
?
It was probably just an opinion.
I've lived here all my life,
I've lived here all my life, and the only people who think otherwise are from West Roxbury.
I always said from the time I was young that WR folks think they're better than all the rest of us but they've got the same garbage man. You're showing the same arrogance that the OP was referencing.
Are you going to give me a multi-syllabic sermon too?
I agree 100%
I agree 100%
Boston citizens need to learn
Boston citizens need to learn from cyclists and start organizing: pedestrians in this city are the most vulnerable and least protected. If a cyclist is killed by a car or truck there is an uproar and a ghost bike memorializes the site of the crash. When a pedestrian is hit by a motor vehicle, there's a brief mention, no memorial, silence, no arrests, little follow-up.
Not so in Roslindale
We have these up at every location of a recent serious pedestrian crash. https://twitter.com/adamdrogoff/status/708625504438525952
https://twitter.com/walkboston/status/709826827209089025
WalkBoston
has been around forever and is an excellent pro-pedestrian advocacy group.
But officer...
Here I was, driving down the sidewalk minding my own business, when this pedestrian appeared out of nowhere! /s
Centre street is a hot mess
Centre street is a hot mess for a pedestrian. People drive like a-holes and some of the bikers are no better.
Yeah, but
The pedestrians tend to be safe while on the sidewalk.
Damn driverless cars strike
Damn driverless cars strike again.
That intersection seems well designed for pedestrians
Based on where the car is, nothing may have helped this situation. But other intersections on Centre St. are very poorly designed for pedestrians. LaGrange and Willow come to mind. Added turn lanes create more lanes to cross and require traffic to pass right at the curb, eliminating the buffer of a parking lane. And people tend so speed through these areas. Proper design would slow traffic down, not encourage it to speed through at the expense of pedestrian safety and comfort.
The city should be focused on creating conditions that attract, not repel pedestrians. (Why do we have a CVS set back from the street suburban style with a parking lot that's never full?) More pedestrians and activity on the street make conditions better for pedestrians. Fewer pedestrians make it less likely for drivers to expect pedestrians and more likely to see the street as a highway.
Centre St by its very design
Centre St by its very design is unfriendly to pedestrians. Two-lanes in both directions and very little to calm traffic there. This crash looks pretty odd from the location of the car so too early to say what caused it. But either way, the stretch of Centre in the main business district should be one lane in each direction. Problem is too many people in that area already complain incessantly about traffic congestion, so I don't know that's there political support to do this.
We need to decide what Centre St. is
If one sees it as a highway to get from Dedham to JP, one might say it is congested. If you see it as the main business district for a community of tens of thousands of people, you might wonder why traffic is allowed to barrel through so fast.
Because it is the main business, shopping and restaurant district for West Roxbury, and because this is a city, I think it's important to discourage traffic and make opinions well known to local politicians. People who live, walk and spend money in the neighborhood are the ones who have a vested interest in quality of life issues. Walkable neighborhoods are also good for business.
People who see it as a highway to speed on, are less likely to be then ones who live near, walk on, or spend money on Centre St. Should they be the ones who dictate its use?
According to this twelve year old blurb from WalkBoston, the Boston Transportation Department thinks four lanes are needed on Center, but they are engineers, interested in throughput, not quality of life for neighborhoods.
http://www.walkboston.org/sites/default/files/Winter04NewsletterPDF.pdf
Even with four traffic lanes, I think more can be done to slow traffic. An enforced speed limit would be a good start.
Traffic Calming?
Maybe I just have bad luck, but I spend more time at red lights than moving when I'm driving on Centre St., and I drive up and down every day. I can't remember the last time I saw a car going over 30 mph, never mind speeding.
I really don't understand why people want to slow the traffic down even more.
There is heavy traffic there, which is made worse by double-parking and delivery trucks that park in the right lane, along with buses that stop in the right lane. There is also heavy commuter traffic during rush hours. Many pedestrians cross the street wherever they feel like it, walking in between the cars stuck in traffic.
I agree it's dangerous for pedestrians who are trying to cross in the crosswalks - sometimes drivers don't see them trying to cross from behind parked cars, but many drivers just seem to ignore the crosswalks and don't stop, even if they appear to see the person trying to cross.
I do like the idea of more left-turn lanes (although there really isn't room), or more left-turn signals at the traffic lights, but until there are no trucks or buses or double-parkers blocking the road, I cant see how a single traffic lane could work.
Choices
Bad road design breeds bad motorist behavior. Centre St is a textbook example of that. A friend was hit in a crosswalk when one car stopped for him but the motorist in the adjacent lane did not stop - this is exactly what happens on these two-lane roads.
You could do a single travel lane in each direction with a turning lane in the middle for cars going left, like you see in other towns. That would keep a steady flow of traffic but also improve the pedestrian experience dramatically, especially for seniors in the city neighborhood with the most per capita. In the end, the question is what do people want this road to be: a) simply a means to get from Point A to Point B as rapidly possible in a car or b) a road that encourages walking and commerce in the main commercial district while still enabling steady traffic flow.
Good Points
I don't know how to fix it, but you make good points.
It would be nice if we had your b.) option, with a vibrant retail district, but we don't really have a vibrant retail district, and, unfortunately, the main roads in W. Roxbury are commuter roads, for people just passing through to the suburbs during rush hours. If we could get the suburbanites onto reliable mass transit, we'd have much less local traffic. Or bring back the Southwest Corridor! (Kidding!)
More traffic law and parking enforcement would help with the safety and traffic issues too.
Vibrant-ish
We have a vibrant (somewhat) retail district. It might not seem like it when you see the retail strip at the corner of Maple St. where Espresso pizza was. It had several thriving businesses, but they were all kicked out because the landlord had other plans. It remains to be seen what those plans are. Not a nice thing to do to the neighborhood.
Better zoning would help. Why do we need more banks? Why did the defunct gas station by Macy’s liquors become a never-full parking lot for the exclusive use of Macy’s? That could be a storefront business that draws more foot traffic to the neighborhood.
If people want to drive through West Roxbury that’s great. I’m sure they will understand if they are expected to drive slowly and carefully while transiting a densely populated retail and pedestrian oriented neighborhood. I do the same when going driving through Dedham and JP.
It would be nice if we had
A well-documented way to enhance a business district is to make it inviting for people to walk around and linger in. Enhancing the pedestrian experience on Centre St would be a major boon to the businesses and help create a more vibrant business district. Right now its not inviting or safe to even cross that street. Seniors and families with young children make up a huge percentage of the West Roxbury population and the main business district is not inviting to either segment.
I am so sick of the way WE all drive
Just yestreday I was telling my friend I would never walk in the grass meridan strip on the VFW Parkway . . . Too dangerous! My friend thought I was being overly dramatic . . . "A car is not going to jump the curb!" he said. Ya, right, I said. And my point is proven. I am so sick of the way WE all drive.
We have far too many 4 lane
We have far too many 4 lane streets in Boston with 2 lanes in each direction. These are the most dangerous types of streets there are. The lack of left turn lanes creates dangerous weaving when drivers change lanes to get around cars waiting to turn left. And having to turn across 2 lanes of opposing traffic is very difficult, as a car in one lane may obscure the view of a car in the other lane. (It's very dangerous for pedestrians where there are unsignalized crossings for the same reason.)
The City really needs to aggressively restripe these roads with 3 lanes (one lane each direction plus left turn lanes.) This also makes room for bike lanes, too. This configuration is FAR safer for everyone.