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DCR adding short second Arborway lane away from clogged rotary as it works on a more permanent fix
By adamg on Tue, 10/03/2023 - 4:05pm
DCR crews last night began two weeks of overnight road restriping to add what is supposed to be a temporary second car lane between Murray Circle - the big rotary at one end of the Arboretum - and the main entrance to the Arnold Arboretum, about 500 feet south, as work continues to map out more permanent fixes to the Arborway that include permanent bicycle paths and safer pedestrian crossings.
The new lane will give motorists heading south on the Arborway that much more room to merge into a single lane, rather than backing up in the rotary and jamming up motorists trying to get to Centre Street or points north on the parkway - sometimes as far back as Faulkner Hospital.
Even with the new lane, the existing bicycle lane will remain in place, a DCR spokeswoman said today.
DCR is adding a temporary car lane to a small portion of the Arborway while maintaining an on-road bike lane for cyclists. This temporary lane is intended to address local concerns about traffic as DCR continues to work with the community and stakeholders on the Arborway Improvement Project, which is intended to improve bike and pedestrian access to the Arborway.
The entire project stretches from Kelley Circle - the smaller rotary by Jamaica Pond - to Forest Hills.
DCR removed a longer second lane in 2021 as it added bicycle lanes around the rotary and the roads that connect to it.
Once that was done, traffic started grinding to a halt well before the rotary. DCR initially said the problem was a mistimed traffic light. Fixing the light, however, didn't fix the traffic.
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Comments
Let's be honest. Nothing will
Let's be honest. Nothing will fix drivers turning right from the leftmost lane, and not following lane directions in general.
Oh ye of little faith
A collision will stop them. Or the risk of a collision. Once you have lane markers, many people will not give way to someone not following them.
i typically do this
if you have a better suggestion on how to make that right turn coming from arborway during rush hour, i’m all ears.
you are naturally going to come into the rotary on the left while the centre street traffic just flows unbroken into the circle on the right. you have about 50 feet to get into the right lane. if you wait for someone to let you in–which they won’t–then you’re holding up the left lane which is typically free flowing.
Temporary lane addition? Like
Temporary lane addition? Like the temporary E line suspension from forest hills to heath street? Or the temporary summer reduction in subway frequency Baker told us about two summers ago? Maybe imploding the mbta has something to do with the traffic problems?!
Subway frequency is up
In September daily frequency on the Orange Line went from 10 minutes scheduled to 9. Considering it was 12-15 in the summer of 2022, I'd call that an improvement. Not the 5 that the T promised when the bought the new trains, but going in the right direction.
As for the lanes, they won't be temporary, or they'll be temporary until the rotary is redone. It never should have been brought down to 1 lane before the traffic light. Afterwards? Yeah, no need for 2 lanes until you get to Forest Hills, where there are 3 lanes.
Want to "fix the traffic"?
Want to "fix the traffic"? Put in a congestion toll for every person who drives into Boston. And raise the gas tax to what other first world countries charge.
Silly, silly troll
Unless you can name me a low density mostly residential area 10km from a city center that charges a congestion charge, I can safely say that you are on the delusional side of the vehicle debate.
What's your take?
I don't go through here during rush hour, so I'm not up to speed on how bad it is.
But certainly seems like you do, so what is your contribution to this debate about resolving traffic here?
Edit: Being fair here, your comment above on another reply does seem to allude to this being temporary, the work in the rotary should hopefully fix things and it shouldn't have been reduced to one lane prior to work completing. I might be paraphrasing too much but please let me know if I'm off base here
I'll defer to Adam's response
You'd be surprised to find out that I avoid driving during rush hours, but I've been around this rotary a few times during rush hour times. Honestly, a lot of what they are doing is good, like making the carriage roads single lane, and changes that will make the lanes less of a cut through- it will take construction, but it's doable- will help the area a lot.
The only thing that snafus things is the lane drop right after the rotary heading towards Forest Hills. Not that they need the whole length to Forest Hills to be 2 lanes, but having the merge right after the rotary is a solution looking for a problem.
And I'll note that the lane the need to remove isn't the bike lane. They could easily keep a bike lane and remove the parking lane. They'll just need signage and enforcement.
Understood and thank you!
Appreciate the details, all good ideas and a well thought out response
One more thing
As a runner who occasionally runs the Emerald Necklace and stays on the Arboretum side, I don't find crossing Centre Street at the rotary to be too bad. For the traffic heading into the circle, there's a light- to be clear I don't run up to it, but it's a calming measure- that slows cars down, and amazingly the traffic coming out of the rotary is good at stopping.
And there isn’t exactly
And there isn’t exactly robust public transit for all the trips these drivers are taking.
As somebody who actually drives that section of road ...
The issue at that one rotary isn't hordes of people from Dedham or Norwood or wherever all evilly sucking up Boston's precious bodily roads.
The issue is being stuck in a limbo between what was once a decentish rotary but just for drivers (daughter went to school with a woman who was slammed into on her bike at that very rotary) and the state's long-term utopian plans for a complete road re-do.
So you now basically have three, maybe four lanes of traffic merging into one lane in an incredibly short space, starting right in the rotary - two lanes coming from within the rotary itself, i.e., people coming south from the direction of Jamaica Pond, then two lanes coming north from the direction of VFW Parkway, all trying to jam into a single lane south on the Arborway towards Forest Hills with virtually no merge space, not just because of the bicycle lane but also the parking lane before the Arboretum entrance.
And that's even before you add in people like me, who are coming up from the south and want to either keep heading north past the rotary or who want to take the second rotary exit from that point towards Centre Street in JP. Once that single southbound Arborway lane gets clogged, it backs into the rotary and so people like me get stuck in the mess and pretty soon you have traffic backed up toward Faulkner Hospital (pro tip: If you are coming from the south and want to head north at the rotary, make sure you approach it from the left lane - you will often get lucky and be able to head straight into the inner rotary lane on your way to freedom, while if you are in the right lane, you need to hope you have enough gas in your tank).
I'm not a traffic engineer, don't know the answer, perhaps would have liked it more had DCR done all the work at once instead of this piecemeal approach, but I can't blame people from Dedham for this.
Right - and the pedestrian
Right - and the pedestrian-activated signal to cross by the Arboretum entrance doesn’t help congestion there (and I say this as someone who is both a frequent pedestrian there and as a frequent driver through this rotary towards Forest Hills). I wish DCR could construct an ADA-compliant and bike-friendly overpass similar to the Arthur Fiedler footbridge there, so that car traffic didn’t have to stop and people wanting to get to the Arboretum on foot/bike/etc. could do so without having to wait for a light to change.
Overpasses
An expensive "solution" to driver impatience and entitlement.
https://www.itdp.org/2019/10/01/pedestrian-bridges-make-cities-less-walk...
This rotary is so bad it’s good…
First off, this is literally the worst engineering failure in the history of the DCR. But in a way it’s not so bad. When you get to this rotary (from any direction) everyone driving is clueless as to what’s going on and everyone seems to be nice and just let everyone merge and cut over lanes as needed. Everyone is fucked here, and they know it.
I drove through that Rotary
I drove through that Rotary twice yesterday. I approached carefully and after a moment, I slammed the gas pedal and yelled “WWWHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”
#masshole
That's me
This is also me when I approach any rotary where I have to go around.
I say a quick prayer and say Weeeeeeeeeeeeee
I did student driving in rotaries
It was good.
Lesson #1- don't let a car honking rattle you- while waiting for the break to enter the rotary.
Lesson #2- don't stop until you are ready to leave the rotary.
Lesson #3- as always, don't hit anything.
NH
I learned how to drive in NH in the mountains. It was hard for them to teach highway driving because a) instructors were not allowed to take us to Vermont, even though I-91 was minutes away b) I-89 was more than 30m away so I think we went once.
So boy was I surprised when I moved to Atlanta.
I never learned how to use a rotary either because they just didn't exist in NH at the time (early 90s folks).
It remains absolutely bizarre to me
that a driver's license acquired in a totally different state (or country, even!), with totally different road conditions, laws, etc, can be legally used somewhere else without any additional training or testing required.
To be fair, I don't know exactly what other system you'd put in place, but it's still weird to me that we just accept this without any second thoughts.
Parking
A girlfriend who grew up in Florida used to ask me to park her car in Boston when she visited (from upstate NY)
Why?
Because parallel parking doesn't exist in Florida. Its all angle parking, so they don't teach how to parallel park.
I got mine in a state that cared
Only recently has Massachusetts cared about basics.
I had a 45 minute scored exam by a professional with 75% to pass. There was a set route, including merging on and off a freeway and negotiating a neighborhood of unmarked intersections.
My husband did a victory lap around Cohasset Common with a cop, and then pulled his license from a crackerjack box after a ceremonial parallel parking maneuver.
So it isn't just the conditions - it is also whether your state cares to actually make it a certification of competency.
Rotary
Mid-afternoon yesterday, traffic entering the rotary closest to Fresh Pond had to stop while a driver backed up because they had "missed their exit". Mind-boggling to behold.
More people should take student driving lessons in rotaries.
Vacation?
I guess they haven't see National Lampoon's European Vacation? (or at least clips, no need to see the whole thing)
"Look kids, Big Ben! ... Look kids! Big Ben!"
It’s a pickle!
I live in Roslindale and pass by this backup frequently and I have to say it’s a pickle. It’s clearly just too many cars all trying to go to the same place and you would have to be clinically insane to sit in that mess if public transportation were an option for your commute. No easy solution there….
Bike lane
I don’t know what the confusion is here. As the article states this problem is a direct result of taking a car lane away to add a bike lane as has been done all over the city. Advocates will deny there is any negative effect on traffic but this is an obvious example.
Disinformation
When you say it has happened "all over the city," you are making a factually incorrect statement. Very few bike lanes have been added that involved replacing a lane of traffic. Yes, there are some cases, including the lanes added on Arborway, but the vast majority of bike lanes have been wedged in between parking and existing car lanes. Feel free to make an argument about these specific lanes, but when you generalize the point with a lie, that's a signal that people shouldn't take you seriously.
But red lights would mean nothing still
I’m glad DCR is at least trying something to make crossing Arborway safer, but it would sure be nice if drivers and some cyclists would actually stop at red lights in front of Jamaica Pond and the arboretum. I cannot tell you how many near misses I’ve either witnessed or experienced. It amazes me how selfish people can be that they’d risk someone else’s life just so they can hurry up and wait a little further ahead of other cars in traffic.
Eliminating car parking along the Arborway
worked really well during Covid, and somehow people still managed to get to the Arboretum in record numbers.
Triple wide sidewalks
Do something with the triple wide sidewalks! That whole stretch of sidewalk, to forest hills, is useless. It's humongous and needs repair for bikes and pedestrians, like the rest of the SW corridor.
Removing the overpass
Is a big cause of the street level traffic. It's common sense. Adding more bike lanes will only make street level traffic worse. It was a mistake to remove the overpass. If it was that ugly (I never found it ugly), you could have installed ambient multicolor lighting like you see on bridges and skyscrapers.
How?
What does the absence of an overpass at Forest Hills have to do with the traffic at the rotary and the squeeze down to one lane just after it?
Even if it were somehow proven that an overpass would reduce congestion southbound (and that's a big if), more traffic northbound would work to clog the rotary as well.
Merging vehicle and "bike lanes"
I guess I'm not using the Arborway entrance of the Arboretum anymore. When you intermittently merge vehicles into bike lanes then you really no longer have a bike lane.
This is also what they do at the intersections on VFW Parkway and why I avoid that as well.
DCR truly is just the Dept of Cars and Roads in this neighborhood.
Unbelievable. Doesn’t take a
Unbelievable. Doesn’t take a genius to realize when take away car lanes, you cause traffic. It is happening all over the city. Some of these streets with new bike lanes have no bikes. Look at Mass Ave near methadone mile, there are no bikes in the new bike lanes and it caused a traffic nightmare. Idling cars sitting in traffic is causing more pollution.
False. Look up Induced Demand
False. Repeated studies have shown removing lanes and/or building bike lanes are not the cause of increased congestion and in many examples reduced traffic due to a little thing called induced demand: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2019/jul/03/ten-common...
The concept of induced demand when it comes to automobile traffic has been exhaustedly proven for decades but sadly is only just being factored into planning in the U.S: https://www.governing.com/now/why-the-concept-of-induced-demand-is-a-har...
As an inpatient driver you may not like the sight of bike lanes but the only harm is to your ego.
Why doesn't induced demand
work for bikes?
Because "Induced Demand" assumes an underlying demand for the product if restraints are eliminated.
There is underlying demand for auto travel.
There is little underlying demand for bike travel.
I hope that helps your understanding of economics.
Put up or shut up
Please cite your sources and do your homework before I BELIEVING and NUHHUHHING your way into an argument.
Back to the kids table with you.
But it does happen
Just look at the number of bikes using the Southwest Corridor vs, say, Columbus Ave and it should be clear that people are moving to use the better infrastructure when available. You can also look at raw numbers of people biking to see that biking increases when safe and convenient infrastructure is built (see here).
It just doesn't become a problem in the way of "adding another car lane", because it turns out, you can fit a lot more bikes in the same space and its a lot easier for them to move around each other if needed.
Are you expecting me to
Are you expecting me to believe traffic was not bad on Mass Ave before? Are you expecting me to believe there are not more people driving than from when you remember the traffic was better?
Traffic is backed up due to pedestrian signal
If people didn’t keep trying get into the arboretum traffic would never back up there. Simple solution is that people should just never go to the arboretum.
Or we should just get rid of that stupid rotary.
Decorative bike lane
I'm so glad the bike lane will stay lacy. It's always a shame when decorative ornamentation is removed.
The frilly Arborway
Typo fixed!
DCR
Department of cars and roads strike again!
I sorta think
if there was just some sort of overpass at the southern end of the problem, then maybe traffic would be able to continue, without stopping, to the cemetery entrance and beyond.
But forcing pedestrians to
But forcing pedestrians to cross 7 lanes at grade will knit the neighborhood back together!
I see plenty of people
I see plenty of people crossing the intersection since the overpass came down. It was a goddamned concrete and asphalt wasteland at grade level before, in every direction. Up down, left right, forwards and back.
The traffic problem has
The traffic problem has nothing to do with the former overpass section. It's well before it, and the southbound traffic is not backing up from Forest Hills to the rotary.
The curse...
...of Old Route 1 continues...