The Boston Courant reports state transportation officials are working on plans to stick both sides of Storrow Drive under a Longfellow Bridge arch, which would let Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary expand one of its buildings and dig a new parking garage under the current Infirmary parking lot in exchange for giving up the parking lot for the new road alignment and new parkland (Ed. note: Link goes to a JPG image of the article, because the Courant remains one of the few newspapers in America to resist the Web).
The Courant reports the re-alignment - which would include "a lane reduction" and garage construction is at least two years away, but will not start until after the current Longfellow Bridge work is done. And before the permanent re-alignment of the entire road to what is now the inbound side can begin, the state will first have to build a temporary new road section along the outbound side, in part to let Mass. Eye and Ear build the garage.
State Rep. Jay Livingstone (D-Back Bay, Beacon Hill) filed the bill that will pave the way for the work, which would include a 240,000-square foot, 15-story expansion at the Infirmary and a new 1,040-space underground garage under what is now the hospital's Storrow-enclosed parking lot on land leased from the state.
Livingstone says that beyond helping out the hospital, the work would mean a straighter Storrow Drive, which he says would make the road safer. The land now occupied by the parkway's outbound lanes would become part of the Esplanade.
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Comments
This is a great idea to free
By DTP
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:28am
This is a great idea to free up more parkland, but an absolutely terribly disastrous idea to reduce Storrow from 6 to 4 lanes. That is a really, really, really bad idea.
Disagree
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:31am
This is a fabulous idea.
Anything that will lessen the incentive for people to drive and use other modes of transportation is a good thing!
Cars ruin cities.
induced demand works...
By b from Ros
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:42am
Not a fan of adding parking but always thought storrow could use a narrowing.
Based on personal observations (fromstaring at the road from foot bridges), the three lanes tends to cause hyper competitive driving. This leads to a lot of dangerous traffic situations.
Less lanes could calm this and probably increase traffic speeds and safety.
Reduce your salary and increase your work output
By Markk02474
Sat, 10/25/2014 - 12:19am
If employers reduced the salaries of people like you, it would make you calmer, safer, and increase your speed. Yeah, what you wrote makes no sense either.
Reducing lanes on a highway
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:48am
many people rely on without improving alternative transportation options for those people is always a bad idea. And for what, so a private orginization can benefit with a new building and parking garage?
Another example of bad public policy.
There is this alternate route
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:18am
It is called the Mass Turnpike.
It is located a short distance away from Storrow, and is an interstate.
And has no exits downtown
By Kaz
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:23am
Get to Exeter and Newbury...from Medford. Don't use Storrow. Go.
Easy
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:45am
Use surface roads - much faster anyway. It takes less than 40 minutes to bike over there as it is by cutting through Somerville and Cambridge.
Mystic Ave. to McGrath/O'Brien to Memorial Drive. Or cut through the street grid - Cedar St. to Somerville Ave. to Park to Beacon, etc.
Also, Memorial Drive. Better choice most of the time than Storrow.
Roads that are good bike roads are often the better roads for cars if you can get over the idea that you are somehow entitled to high speeds.
Heaven Forfend that a Masshole have to actually read a map and plot a course!
Storrow is the alternative to the Mass Pike
By downtown-anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:30pm
Storrow is flooded with cars coming and going from Longwood and Fenway Park. Memorial really isn't a good alternative (I've tried many times) to Storrow - slower and more lights and crosswalks. Just as the bike path on the Boston side is better than the bike path on the Cambridge side.
90,000 cars a day use Storrow and there is nothing else that can handle the volume.
I know there are proposals to put lights on Storrow. Neighbors on surrounding streets will go nuts with the extra traffic.
Additionally the Charles River Conservancy is pushing for a lane reduction on the east end of Memorial.
Clearly if you could get cars from Longwood and Fenway on to the pike reducing the size of Storrow would be a lot easier.
Question
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:23pm
Where is this 90,000 number coming from?
Actually they are incorrect, its 131k cars daily.
By cybah
Sat, 10/25/2014 - 6:32am
I wasn't going to reply because I thought the thread was dead.. but last night I was looking up some history about Storrow and came across this article from NPR from 2009.
90,000 car isn't correct. According to this NPR story Storrow Drive...
So its even MORE than 90k
http://www.wbur.org/2009/07/17/esplanade-future
Thanks for the update
By downtown-anon
Sat, 10/25/2014 - 9:42am
About half the volume of the pike I guess.
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/highway/Highlighted...
Except
By Waquiot
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:31pm
Now Memorial Drive is chocked full of cars that used to be on Storrow. As would Beacon Street and Comm Ave. Of course, I don't know how people would now be getting out of the Back Bay, since Boylston Street is for some reason insane before the theoretical demise of Storrow.
I use Storrow to avoid driving through the Back Bay proper, and I won't even start on how it's basically the best way to the New Balance area of Brighton from Roslindale (yes, I could go via Cleveland Circle and Brighton Center, but that would entail having to go through Cleveland Circle and Brighton Center, which should be avoided at all costs while driving during the day.) It's a great bypass, and a mighty pretty one too boot.
Now, were ramps added to the Pike, I'd be willing to chip in $.50 a go, maybe a buck to go that way, but Storrow serves a purpose, and despite the naysayers doesn't detract from the Esplanade.
From Rozzie?
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:51pm
Please explain how you get from Rozzie to Brighton via Storrow.
Sure
By Waquiot
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:48pm
blah, blah (my anonymity) Washington Street to Forest Hills, then along the Emerald Necklace, following the Muddy River to its source, which is at Storrow, which after the BU Bridge becomes Soldiers' Field. Beyond the Harvard athletic fields I get a bit confused, but keep left. At the end of Artisani Park, exit right, then hook left and right to Birmingham Parkway. Cross the Turnpike, then you've got the Stockyard, GBH, New Balance (my destination) and various sundry other locations.
Mind you, if I were going to St. E's, I would probably go via Brookline, as there are easy ways to avoid Cleveland Circle and the parts of Allston/Brighton that are best avoided by car.
If a road is full of cars
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:54pm
Why is yours any different?
I would take that as a hint that driving isn't going to be the best way - unless the point of using your own car is to stay dry, stay warm or cool, and/or have your own habitat bubble for the duration. There is no guarantee that it will be fast, nor should their be.
I used to commute from the Medical Area to/from Medford. For some of that time, I had to use my car because I was hauling lab equipment all over the 128 area. The best way is not always the way with the highest speed limits, but the way with the least distance and highest average speed. Even if that means that you are going 20mph over a shorter distances for a higher percentage of the time.
Of course, the best way for me was to bike much of the year - 45-55 minutes door to door.
I wouldn't
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:47am
I would park at Wellington, get off at North Station and take a Hubway bike down Storrow Drive...wait, i have to take the bike down the esplanade because storrow is filled with cars.
Another reason to shutdown Storrow to only bikes and pedestrians! It would make commutes better for Medford and other residents living north of the city.
Don't bike? take the green line from north station. or from the money you would save by not driving and parking...u could do an Uber from north station.
man, so many options.
a car is a car is a car
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:43pm
You're full of contradictions today. So its OK not to drive, but its OK to use Uber? *confused look*
A car is a car is a car, no matter who is driving. Still uses gas. Still emits green house gasses. Still is added onto city streets.
Advocate for LESS cars on the road, and yes that includes taxis and Uber.
In a perfect world..
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:14pm
yes, no uber and taxis....but it takes baby steps.
using my solution should get many able-bodied people out of their cars and on bikes / public trans.
there is the elderly and disabled that my solution would not work for...they could taxi or uber. they are small %... so not as bad.
Your vision of a perfect world
By RhoninFire
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 4:29pm
Your vision of a perfect world seems to aim get a lot of able-bodied people to take something that is a not a car by vinegar rather than by honey. And ignore the possibility that a lot of people want to drive willingly unless it is made too hard to do so.
Don't bike? take the green
By Scratchie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:40pm
Great ideas. This very blog is a testament to the reliability of the T, and what a bike-friendly city Boston is.
So.,..
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:16pm
these are things the city needs to work on.
when demand for these services gets out of control...they'll be forced to address the T reliability and bike safety.
Uh huh...
By Kaz
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:46pm
And clearly the logical place to start is to close the second biggest east-west connector in the entire city.
Yep. It is.
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:56pm
An influx of ppl on the T would stink at first..and for a couple weeks, maybe months. but it forces the MBTA to get its isht together.
Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette.
it forces the MBTA to get its
By Scratchie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 3:47pm
Ha ha ha ha. Yeah, sure. That'll definitely happen.
The T
By KBHer
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 4:08pm
has leaned itself considerably since 2000 and the "forward funding" half-baked ideas. The T doesn't need to get its shit together so much as a critical mass of people to be mature and recognize that funding the T is in their interest, and then dedicate a better funding mechanism than 20% of the damn sales tax.
That's borderline absurdly
By RhoninFire
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:53pm
That's borderline absurdly-optimistic. It assumes the primary reason they aren't addressed is city is responsive and reflective, but just not enough pressure has been added. You very well can be underestimating how much can people adapt to suckier normals and how much a city can ignore such pressures.
There's nothing borderline
By Biggie_Robs
Sat, 10/25/2014 - 11:32am
There's nothing borderline about it!
(as a new transplant from SF)
By smirkette
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 9:05pm
The T is better than MUNI (and a lot of other cities that are not NYC) by a factor of at least 100. That said, it's not perfect when it breaks, it's awful. I live on teh Red Line, so I'm not completely naive.
Swirls, follow the Budweiser
By kvn
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 8:08pm
Swirls, follow the Budweiser trucks from Medford , they do it everyday !
How exactly is the Mass Pike
By DTP
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:33am
How exactly is the Mass Pike useful for people going from 93 or the Tobin to, say, Fenway?
I've said this countless times on here, but the Pike and Storrow serve completely different traffic with completely different origins and destinations. That's like telling people who ride the B C or E branches of the green line that they really should all just take the D, it's kinda nearby at one point.
And the Pike doesn't exactly have capacity to spare.
Get the feds to kick in for a couple of exits
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:46am
Then get rid of Storrow Drive.
Storrrow drive should never have been built, and it is a giant money hole and whining point.
exits off the pike
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:26pm
It's just not technically possible to do so. Too many buildings abut the pike to add more exits. It would be too much land taking and/or NIMBYism would totally kill it.
Storrow Drive was meant to be. It was designed to take thru traffic off of Beacon and Comm Ave and put it somewhere else that wasn't a residential neighborhood (remember Storrow pre-dates the Pike). After the pike was built, Storrow became local traffic, and the Pike is meant for thru traffic. Getting rid of Storrow would push the traffic back onto local streets, and I'm sure the residents of Comm/Beacon would have a lot to say about that...
And I use the Tobin Bridge, and even though from my door its a tad further to the Pike (via East Boston/1A), I always use the Tobin. Why? Because it's just far faster to get to points in Cambridge (MicroCenter), BackBay, and Allston. The Pike adds time to my trip.
I couldn't imagine the
By gotdatwmd
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:34pm
I couldn't imagine the clusterfuck that would be added to the Pru exit of the pike without Storrow. Copley Square would be ruined with all the traffic.
Pike exits are technically possible
By downtown-anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:07pm
Althought the east bound ones would required a lot of changes. There is a proposal for a west bound enterance at Fenway. However you are correct it would be very costly in land and getting agreement from neighbors.
This is the best I could find on the idea of new west bound entrance to pike.
http://patch.com/massachusetts/fenwaykenmore/trans...
Well, Storrow Drive
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:07pm
WAS built, and a large number of people DO USE it. So quit your whining about getting rid of it, and this fallacy that even more parkland is more important than maintaining a vital commuter artery.
Commuter Artery?
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:28pm
Spending on transit should be a much higher priority of that's what it is all about.
Unless you want to pay a $5 a ride toll to maintain Storrow, I'd say we have far better and more efficient places to put our collective money than down a nasty sinkhole for the sake of a few people.
90,000 cars (many of which do
By DTP
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:56pm
90,000 cars (many of which do have more than one person in them, so really over 100,000 people) is not a "few".
In fact, that's about half the ridership of the red and orange lines, and almost twice the ridership of the blue line. So if maintaining a road that serves more than 100,000 people a day is "for the sake of a few people" and thus shouldn't be a priority, I presume you think we should stop paying for the blue line too, since it serves virtually no one (by your logic, at 60,000 daily riders)?
right
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:57pm
And the MBTA is not a sinkhole? Please, you live in another world.
Swirls, I'm 150% in support of more public transit, but even I know the MBTA is a sinkhole of an agency.
Because it works so well in
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:20pm
Because it works so well in Texas. Pay taxes for roads and if you can afford it, pay a toll to get around that pesky traffic. Oh, if public transit doesn't work because it doesn't fit your hospital hours, you got to pay to get to work on time or your ride can you the backed up surface roads.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/in-texas-toll-roads...
Induced demand: Less Roads = Less travel time?
By b from Ros
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:30pm
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2014-09-...
Road narrowing led to decreased travel times while maintaining vehicle volumes (page 11).
Yes, all those people
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:18am
Yes, all those people commuting into Boston to work to earn a living are absolutely RUINING the city of Boston. Horrible, evil working people!
commuting into Boston to work??
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 2:33pm
well, there are the thousands of meathead sox/bruins/pats/celtics fans that come into the city and lower the quality of life. then there is the Faneuil bar hoppers from the burbs...
just to name a couple.
I disagree.
By ChrisInEastie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:57am
Cars do not ruin cities, I absolutely hate that argument. Piss poor urban planning, sub par transit systems, and people who do not know how to balance using transit and driving ruin cities.
As much as I hate paying for parking, take the garages and lots and meters around the area out of the equation, and the economy takes a hit. Jobs lost as attendants, valets, etc., not to mention the losses businesses would take if nobody drove in. And if I decided to jump on the 3 trains and a bus to get to East Cambridge from East Boston with my hockey gear, the smell and amount of space being taken up would ruin a lot more people's nights than me jumping in the car and driving 10 mins through the Sumner.
And if you really do feel so strongly about cars, you probably shouldn't support this since they're building a 1,000+ space garage as part of the project. More spaces for cars to park, less space for them to move, BRILLIANT!
Thanks Chris
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:15pm
I wholeheartedly agree with you.
and <3 this
LOVE This. And I agree. How can you support this project when it will BRING MORE CARS INTO THE CITY? The Op invalidated is whole argument by supporting a parking garage.
agreed, sort of...
By b from Ros
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:28pm
Poor urban design is often a result of our misalocation of resources in favor of cars. usually caused by those who worship the "gods of free parking and traffic flow".
i do agree that parking causes traffic. And bad parking policy exacerbates it. However, road diets also impact traffic flow.
Edit - example: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2014-09-... (page 11)
Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see its outcome.
Still not a fan of the parking lot... :/
there is the problem
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 3:15pm
you shouldn't have to jump on 3 trains and a bus! Fix the "piss poor urban planning problem".
we put a man on the moon, we can certainly figure it out.
One option that doesn't require a whole lot of new infrastructure is smart buses that can figure out demand, adjust routes and schedules in real time, (no.i do not work for bridj).
I'd love to.
By ChrisInEastie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 3:53pm
And believe me I would. Especially since I can essentially see East Cambridge from my house.
But until the MBTA can do something about it, that is the problem, and my car solves it.
Russia
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 4:29pm
Can you see Russia though?
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
In Soviet Russia
By KBHer
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 5:59pm
house sees you.
People can use the Mass Pike,
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:38am
People can use the Mass Pike, its crazy to have two highways so close together, one free and one toll. The state stole a lot of parkland from Bostonians to make storrow before the Pike was made, now we have the pike and the 20 billion dollar extension to the airport and connection to 93. Storrow Highway should end by Harvard Stadium and put drivers onto the Pike. There are plenty of commuter rail trains if the pike is unacceptable.
Needs new access ramps
By aldos
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:00am
For the Masspike to be a viable alternative to Storrow (which it should be), new on/off ramps need to be built so that people in Back Bay, Fenway, Kenmore, etc can use it to connect to downtown, Logan, and I-93. Until then, traffic is going to continue to clog up Storrow and the lane reduction will be untenable.
If we to want the Pike to be a viable Storrow alternative
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:15am
it's going to need lower overpasses for trucks to run into.
People would use the Mass Pike more
By Sock_Puppet
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:03am
If there were more places to get on and off it. The Pike isn't set up to be usable for transport within Boston, Storrow is. How much of the traffic on Storrow is intra-urban?
You can't use the Pike inbound if you're not out past Newton. Want to get from Brookline to Mass General? From West Rox to the Tobin? Drive over the Pike to get on Storrow at BU or Charlesgate. I'd be happy to use the Pike, but it's only usable to and from the burbs.
Not only that
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:19am
We could probably get the feds to pay for some of that work - unlike Storrow Drive, which needs hundreds of millions of dollars, all from state budgets, and will still be inadequate.
Not possible
By cybah
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:28pm
See Above
It's not about money Swirls, it's about NIMBYism and land takings. People would be up in arms if you took out a few city blocks for exits.
Demolishing city blocks not a good idea
By Anonyme
Sat, 10/25/2014 - 6:07pm
Knocking down buildings to create more ramps to the Pike would be very damaging to the neighborhoods affected. It would create all kinds of holes in the streetscapes, plus they would become magnets for cars.
Storrow works well enough. I use it three or more times per week, and also use the Mass. Pike. Leave them alone.
There are not plenty of
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:53pm
There are not plenty of commuter trains. Have you ever looked at the commuter rail schedule? Especially at the Newton stops, where there's that 8 hour gap in inbound service in the afternoon...
What a great idea! We should
By Mike Anderson
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:29am
What a great idea! We should definitely reduce the # of lanes of one of the most heavily-trafficed roads in Boston to make things easier for a hospital!
Yep. In fact, they should
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:39am
Yep. In fact, they should just shutdown storrow drive to only pedestrians and bikers.
it would make Boston better.
Cars ruin cities: vehicular homicide, drunk drivers, pollution, tax dollars going to road maintenance...just to name a few.
Are you by chance also the
By gotdatwmd
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:56am
Are you by chance also the mayor of Portland? If you are tell your parents to buy a monorail system.
No but..
By SoBoYuppie
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:04am
Portland is a fabulous city. The mayor should send a team out there to learn and come up with new ideas for Boston.
Like, maybe
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:21am
How to convert a disused warehouse district into offices, hotels, and residences while including public transit enhancements and important walkable amenities (grocery stores) into the fundamental design of the area.
Sorry, I do not own a puppet
By gotdatwmd
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:07pm
Sorry, I do not own a puppet theatre, a chinchilla nor multiple accordions so I do not want anything related to Portland to come to Boston.
Spoken like a man
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:36pm
Who has never been there.
Just keep watching Portlandia and thinking it is real, mmmkay?
(and thanks for reminding me about the property tax bill ... gotta buy more public puppet theaters ... um ... trains and trolley lines that is)
I've been multiple times.
By gotdatwmd
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:40pm
I've been multiple times. Nice to ride around in, still too twee for comfort.
Living there is different
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:50pm
I rather like being able to meet my cousins downtown for, say, a large civic event or picnic with a bottle of wine while there is a free concert at the Zoo, then return to the neighborhood via public transit and still find open pubs for a snack and a pint before walking home.
That's the Portland that I know. A place that is easy to get around no matter what mode you choose, because there are choices. Lot more tolerant of a wide variety of folks, too - not everyone is a hipster. Lots of working class folk living in the same spaces, enjoying the ease of getting around with good transit, bike lanes, and the nanny state nearly absent.
Some places are more twee than others - you just have to know where the regular folk live and work and bike.
Swirly is right about diversity
By downtown-anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 3:05pm
Portland also has a high per capta strip clubs. No need to go to a narrow area around Chinatown.
Haven't seen the puppet theatre or accordians. I've only gone past the strip clubs.
Portland also has a really
By anon
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 11:04pm
Portland also has a really large Porn Industry; it also lags most similar cities in wage growth and job creation. The 16 Sept. NYT Magazine had a good analysis of Portland entitled " Will Portland Always Be a Retirement Community for the Young"?
In that article one of the people (unemployed himself but his wife is working as a barista) says "Jobs are thinner here... but intelligent urban planning makes my heart sing"
But as the article says.... heartwarming planning only can go so far in a city of the overeducated and underemployed.
But to give balance here... it does have a 24/7 donut shop in which, unlike Dunks, you can also get married.
Rule One of UH
By Michael
Fri, 10/24/2014 - 1:56pm
1.) Do not insult Portland
Pages
Add comment