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Memo to MassDOT: He votes on your budget
By adamg on Wed, 02/04/2015 - 10:18pm
State Rep. Ed Coppinger (West Roxbury) despaired of the state ever shoveling the Park Street bridge over the Needham Line. So tonight, he and a volunteer went out with shovels and dug a path so people don't have to worry about slipping and killing themselves on it.
MassDOT ignored - We deserve better.
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Comments
shoveling
Didn't Romney fire a few folks for not shoveling, maybe it's a Republican Governor thing and Baker will jump on the bandwagon.
DCR Property Takeover
We need to do a NYC-style takeover of state property within the city -- meaning all urban areas. The DCR maintains nothing, and it puts lives at risk.
In East Somerville, we're having a similar battle over already unsafe crosswalks across routes 28, 38, and 93. The citizens complain to the city, the city complains to MassDOT, MassDOT passes the buck to DCR, and nothing gets taken care of.
Not just DCR. MassDOT is
Not just DCR. MassDOT is equally culpable for doing a perfunctory, single pass at a very select few of their sidewalks. Then, they're ignored for the duration of the season. Other sidewalks are never attended to; abuttors often clear them.
DCR = Dept. of Conservation
DCR = Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, not dept. of cars and roads of whatever else is being thrown around here. For subject at hand, buck stops with MassDOT or local city/town government.
Sorta
DCR maintains all parkways in Massachusetts, as well as a select number of bridges. They're in the process of transferring responsibility for many of these roads, bridges, etc.. to MassDOT, but there's still an annoyingly balkanized "this isn't my road, it's your road" mentality until the switch can be fully executed.
Not sure about outside Boston,
Not sure about outside Boston, but in Boston, property owners are responsible for clearing sidewalks abutting their property. If DCR owns the property (as opposed to the City or State), guess who's supposed to do the clearing?
You come here often? Dept of
You come here often? Dept of Cars & Roads is a term of snark. If there are any comments on UHub that don't make sense to you, try reading it sarcastically. It works almost every time!
And a post about one public entity quickly draws comparisons and comments on others, usually on which is worst. As a rule. Welcome to UHub!
I bet the city never even passes it to MassDOT, or
MassDOT never passes it to anybody else. The state doesn't give a wet rat's ass, because it's so full of politics, patronage and cronyism. It's disgusting.
DCR as in Department of Cars
DCR as in Department of Cars and Roads. They have got to be just about the worst stewards ever of pedestrian (and bicycle) infrastructure.
Actually this winter so far I
Actually this winter so far I've been pleasantly surprised by how much effort has gone into clearing the SW Corridor bike path. Unless the DCR transferred it to the city this past year or something.
except they didn't bother to plow toward franklin park
I trudged through about a foot of snow this morning.
Where does the SWC bike path
Head towards Franklin Park?
My question exactly...
as there is no real connecting path (yet!)
Really looking forward to the teardown and redesign of the area, aside from the coming era of demo and construction.
Aren't there homes in the way
Aren't there homes in the way? Annoying, I know, but...
I think
He's referring to the redesign of Forest Hills which will make it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to access the park and Forest Hills cemetery. Right now there's certainly no direct connection between the SWC bike path and Franklin Park that doesn't involve regular streets and sidewalks so I'm still not sure what the first poster is referring to. The White Stadium entrance has been well plowed; Glen Road not so much but it's usually an icy mess anyway this time of year, partly just because of the poor drainage.
pedestrians are pedestrians clarification
Pedestrians are people who travel on foot.
I-93
I got a ride home this evening on I-93 North between Boston and Medford. They had closed off the right lane so that 6 or 7 dump trucks and front end loaders could remove snow from the shoulder. (Plus several troopers, of course.) Even in the sections they had not yet removed snow the shoulder was still fully usable and of course the roadway itself is free of snow and ice.
It's pretty infuriating to see the state spending so much money to clean roads that don't really need it meanwhile countless major pedestrian walkways remain untreated from the storm a week ago. The BU Bridge and Kenmore Sq are the two I pass daily. God help them if the woman who went over the BU bridge today slipped on ice. I guess it's OK so long as she was able to drive into the city unimpeded.
Resource allocation at its finest.
BU Bridge
When I was at BU, the sidewalks on a stretch of Comm Ave that passes over the Mass Pike was never shoveled. To get to class, you'd find an ant-like line of students walking one-foot-in-front-of-the-other through a narrow, packed-down icy channel of snow while clinging to dear life to the chain link fence of the overpass so as not to slip on the ice.
God forbid you be carrying books or have to pass someone else going the opposite direction.
still not shoveled
Thank you for mentioning this. Yesterday, I crossed the BU bridge, the Beacon Street overpass by the new Fenway commuter rail stop (where there is still no crosswalk to reach the station over 4 lanes of traffic) and the Mass Ave bridge. Without my Yak Trax, each one of them would have been a slippery nightmare.
Yeesh.
Maybe this does explain what happened to the poor woman yesterday who fell off the bridge. I admit I was a little skeptical since things on the other side of Comm. Ave seemed ok, but...anyway, be careful out there, people.
No way, man
She was drunk. Burzum said so and all right-thinking people agree.
Pedestrian Access To Wonderland Ⓣ Station Is Heartbreaking
The MDC/DCR does a fabulous job of clearing snow from the pedestrian/bike path along Revere Beach Boulevard, but pedestrians trying to access the Wonderland Ⓣ Station from North Shore Road have no plowed sidewalks, and so are forced to walk down the travel lanes of A1A.
What's truly heartbreaking about this situation, is that there's no opening in the fence surrounding the surface parking lot between Wonderland and Revere Street. If there were, pedestrians could take the safer (and shorter) pathway through the parking lot.
With no alternative but to walk in the travel lanes of such a busy highway, I have an ominous feeling that someone will be struck and killed here.
Even the C Line
was a mess the other night--the rear doors couldn't even open at Coolidge Corner because of the snow and this was at the end of the day. I can understand not clearing every little in between stop but Coolidge Corner? I don't understand how anyone older or with any kind of infirmity is supposed to get around.
AIA?
In case you haven't noticed, this isn't sunny Florida.
A good word for DCR
My feeling -- from attending community meetings, working with DCR on various projects and seeing the snow removal in parks near me -- is that I want to put in a good word for DCR. They put extensive time and resources into snow removal, with lots of planning up front and with a huge mobilization of both staff and contractors during weeks like this.
Some of the complexity is around areas of criss-crossing jurisdictions; made worse when snowbanks create a barrier to further snow removal. Sometimes what seems like DCR land is not -- various areas around DCR roads and parks are DOT or MBTA or city/town property
That's the problem!
Yes, which is what every agency says when someone complains. There might be jurisdiction problems or it might be managers trying to save their budget by try to pass it off to other agencies. But regardless it's a bullshit answer. If need be have Boston shovel and send a bill to DCR & MassDOT (or whoever) and sort it out in the spring. It would be refreshing to see some elected leader (looking at you Marty) having the balls to say, "Not our problem but we still fixed it."
First responders (Police, FD, etc) get this right -- they might pass off to another agency mid-rescue but the first responders aren't going to let a building burn or someone die in front of them when there is questions as to which jurisdiction the accident occurred upon.
It's like children fighting.
It's like children fighting. Why all of these agencies don't work together when we have these storms is beyond me. But it's not just them. It's the neighbors that do a shitty job of shoveling or no shoveling at all. Its the businesses that think having a sheet of ice in front of their stores is ok. No one gets fined.
We need money so how about during winter we put ppl to work and have them go around and fine people and businesses.
We always try to think of the elderly or people that may be in wheelchairs when we shovel. Full sidewalk and down to pavement - always.
I wonder
I wonder if lawyers/litigation has anything to do with this?
Agree -
I was thinking a similar thought -- trouble-spot clean-up, with the billing to agencies, city/town or property owners worked out later. Along with thoughts about the next step in online snow maps that can pinpoint trouble spots, especially across jurisdictions.
Manchester, NH does it right
In Manchester, NH, the city has a number of sidewalk plows that they send out after the storms. They just go down each sidewalk, one by one, methodically clearing everything. The machines leave a nice, consistent 4'-wide path down every sidewalk. They clear all the sidewalks, including the ones in front of residences, City-owned roads, and the State-owned main street (Route 3/Elm St.). If the storms are particularly big, it might take them two days after the storm to get to all the sidewalks, but they get it done.
In Boston, you have this silly ordinance that landowners are required to clear their sidewalks, plus these jurisdictional issues with different state agencies. So you get one stretch of sidewalk nicely done, 3' wide, with a snowblower, and the next an "ant trail" as someone upthread put it, because the owner just went along once with a shovel. Then the problem of completely uncleared sidewalks. And DCR and MassDOT fight over who's supposed to clear in front of public property, because the other agency owns the property, and nothing gets done at all. (Does Boston ticket DCR if they haven't cleaned within 3hrs of a storm? They treat their private citizens that way; they should do the same to DCR.)
I would advise everyone who lives in Boston and the Boston area to look at how Manchester does it and start pushing your city councils to adopt a similar system. A few heavy-duty tractors/Bobcats with snow-blower attachments is not going to cost that much, compared to the rest of the snow-clearing budget, and would solve all these problems.
You can look much closer to home than Manchvegas.
like at the paramecium-shaped town next door, which has multiple sidewalk plows/throwers that take care of at least all of the commercial areas (e.g., Coolidge Corner, Wash Sq.) and the school areas promptly after storms.
I'll make it even worse for you - many of the "suburban" towns have these (e.g., Brookline, Weston (who even walks there?), Wellesley, Newton), and many of them even drop salt behind them!
The Manch ones drop salt too,
The Manch ones drop salt too, and sand, but they seem to wait until all the plowing passes are done, probably so they don't waste sand on snow that's just going to be thrown in a heap the next day.
Boston has the equipment
Boston already owns far more snow removal equipment then Manchester and the problem isn't the areas in front of commercial buildings -- these are generally cleaned up right away.
The problem is intersections, crosswalks, and other "no man lands" that don't have someone directly abutting. These belong to the public (any number of agencies) and they aren't being cleaned.
Boston/MassDOT/MBTA/etc aren't claiming inability to clear these spaces, they are claiming jurisdiction. At least in Manchester you don't have 10 major state/local agencies all responsibility for some unconnected slivers of land.
I'm tired
I'm real tired of this "well look at Manchester NH for snow removal ideas" argument.
First off, Manchester's city center is a lot smaller than Boston. Far less roads and sidewalks to clear. Boston has so many more roads and sidewalks to cover.
Secondly, you mention the law about shoveling.. NH Politics is far different than Mass's. And people up there don't like being told to what to do. Its apart of that "live free or die" mentality that NH residents have. (Please, this one of the few states left that doesn't have a seatbelt law for adults still because of that mentality)
But on that note, NH also has some of the highest property taxes in the country. Gotta pay for all that fancy snow removal some how. Not sure if raising taxes here in Boston is worth it for the 2-3 large snow storms we get a year vs the many more NH gets. (they do get more snow than we do since we're on the coast)
Thank you Rep. Coppinger
Good guy.
It's ridiculous that he had to do this, but it's nice to see someone doing the right thing.
Real nice guy. See him
Real nice guy. See him everywhere in the community. My 5 year old son is addicted to hockey thanks to his Fallon Field league.
DOT
Called Mass DOT last week a few days after the blizzard to report that a big chunk of the sidewalk alongside 28 (O'Brien Highway) near the galleria had not been cleared. Talked to 4 people, including the district 6 operations desk, all of whom said 'Mass DOT does NOT clear sidewalks'. City of Cambridge and DCR both said it's Mass DOT jurisdiction when called. The level of buck-passing was crazy, and the fact that there isn't a clear mandate for keeping sidewalks clear even days after a storm is embarrassing.
Baker
That's good that he did this. But didn't he endorse Baker because he thought Charlie would focus on West Roxbury issues? So what happened here? Coppinger should have pull with his friend Baker now right to get this ordered clean?
Thanks Ed!
Now the sidewalk coming the other way up Railroad St. to Highland Station needs to be done. Not that I expect someone with a shovel to do it. Roche Bros does it all the way to the crosswalk to the post office, but the rest of the way is never done. The MBTA does the whole platform including the end that is never used, but I have yet to see them clear the sidewalk along the station or the pedestrian entrance at the crosswalk with Corey St. In fact, the pedestrian entrance is where they pile the snow. Considering the lot is rarely full, it would make sense to clear the pedestrian entrance and leave the cars with a space or two less.