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Pedestrian hit, seriously injured in West Roxbury
By adamg on Tue, 02/05/2019 - 5:40pm
UPDATE, 1:45 p.m., 2/6: City Councilor Matt O'Malley reports the woman died.
WFXT reports a pedestrian suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in a crash around 4 p.m. at Centre and Hastings streets. The driver remained on scene and tried to render aid.
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Comments
I kept on hearing helicopters in the area
I was sitting at my desk and I kept on hearing helicopters in the area; I figured there was a huge accident on West Roxbury Parkway. (I think they were being airlifted to Brigham & Women's and they had Medflight on the parkway - I could be wrong.)
Also, I was coming home from Roslindale (ironically, on the other side of Hastings) when the police had blocked off Park St near the Irish Social Club...there was a suspicious package on (or under) the bridge. The police were very helpful, but better safe than sorry.
sad but unsurprising
Centre is a nightmare corridor. Unsignaled crosswalks, people double parking, lights that don't talk to each other so poor traffic flow, delivery trucks blocking visibility, people turning without signalling, people walking into the street without looking, too much parking..... just a bad stretch of road for literally every mode of transportation.
Illegally double-parked cars
Illegally double-parked cars and legally parked tall trucks and large SUV's near crosswalks which block pedestrians line of vision make crossing streets safely a difficult challenge. That's an issue on streets where parked cars are now pushed out into the streets to make a bike lane in between parked cars and the sidewalk... more added danger for pedestrians legally crossing. Let's face it, as pedestrians we have to anticipate that drivers will blow through stop signs and red lights, so now we have to walk even further into the street, past the bike lane and in front of cars now parked way into the street in order to be able to see oncoming traffic. The city has made streets MORE dangerous for people who walk instead of less which is beyond moronic.
What a horrible nightmare for this woman and her family.
Centre St. in West Roxbury
It is one of the few places where I will not ride a bike. I'm comfortable on two wheels just about anywhere else in the city, but not there. What needs to happen is a road diet, dropping it from 4 to 3 lanes, with one lane for each direction and a middle lane for left turns. This would make room for parking protected bike lanes, offset bus stops, and with the turning lane, it would actually improve traffic flow.
I think the reason
why there are four lanes rather than 3 or less, well, there is probably a very good reason and it is called traffic. It would be nice for those who suggest "road diets" to perhaps advocate more for better, more accessible, more affordable public transit (I mean really advocate for it). And, if you do, than bravo.
Until there is a viable alternative for folks to ditch their cars (and I am not talking about putting everyone on a bike), people will drive and thus, it is not wise to put busy roads, like Centre St. on any diet.
If you do, traffic would probably be so backed up with agitated drivers who are stuck in traffic that, well, do you think more agitated drivers are good for cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers? No. They are not.
No diets please
If you constrict the main artery, cars will flow onto "less congested" side streets and now you've got more people driving down residential streets where you've got kids and dogs and the occasional coywolf.
Well, it's not even really 4
Well, it's not even really 4 lanes.... it's 6. but two of those lanes are taken up with parking. maybe if we cut down a little on that, we could make some wider sidewalks, bike lanes, hell, a bus lane, making it more feasible to take public transit to places in West Roxbury....
Sounds like you're advocating for congestion pricing/tolls
Until we make efforts to discourage driving, while at the same time using those systems to fund improvements to public transit, it'll be a never ending cycle of excuses that there isn't a viable alternative. So lets give them a reason to consider the true cost of driving while also making our streets safer. Win win all around and something that is actively being advocated for.
You aren't in traffic, you are traffic after all. If that agitates you or others to the point where you are being coy about violence towards vulnerable roads users and other motorists, then you/they shouldn't be driving.
Public transit
We badly need more affordable public transit. Unfortunately the constituency that doesn’t care about biking or walking safety also fiercely opposes transit expansion (and more public money towards making existing options cheaper). Mention expanding the orange line to Roslindale or WR the old colts lose their minds.
I don’t think narrowing the road would affect volume getting through. People hurry up and wait with this bad design, darting around double parked cars and left turners; using the shoulder as passing lanes. Terribly unsafe. There are designs that add more parking spaces while keeping corners more clear (that’s what he meant by too much parking). Also, why must we resign our neighborhood to being a highway for residents of communities to our south and west? One way to advocate for more public transit is to make Centre St. a less welcoming commuter cut-across and in doing do activate those people impacted to advocate for themselves as well.
Have You Driven on Centre Street?
If you have, then you know that the main problem is not volume of vehicles, but lanes blocked by turning vehicles and/or double parked vehicles. Right now, when you drive down that street, you have to constantly shift between left and right lanes to avoid cars waiting to turn left or cars double parked. My suggestion will eliminate the turning vehicle problem altogether, and will likely also cut down significantly on double parking. People are far more hesitant to double park when there isn't another travel lane parallel to where they want to stop the car.
As for public transit, I do indeed advocate for improvements. The best improvement for West Roxbury, aside from an expensive extension of the Orange Line (which I do want to see eventually) would be better traffic flow for the buses on Centre St. The road diet, though perhaps counter to your intuition, will actually help in that regard.
It's a first!
(Hope the woman is going to be OK.)
No one has ever complained that there is TOO MUCH parking. The standard complaint is ALWAYS that there isn't enough parking.
Well, as someone who travels on it regularly,
I would not say it is not a "nightmare". It is a very busy stretch of road, to be sure. Many crosswalks are un-signaled, not just here. ( I do agree that the crosswalks that cross busy stretches of street need signals.) Some people do double park but not all and usually not for long, I am not sure about the timing of the lights, delivery trucks have to deliver so not much one can do about that, some drivers do not signal but most do, some people do walk into the street without looking, but most do not, and, too much parking? Huh?
Plenty of options for delivery trucks
Well, yes there is - we can require that delivery trucks use loading zones or commercial short-term parking spaces, and ticket/tow those who don't follow that - or we can require smaller trucks for city deliveries, or require that deliveries take place at times when there's less traffic around. Trucks are not a natural force like snowfall or the tide we have to live with - they're around because of the choices we've made as a society, and we can make other choices if we have the will to do so.
I believe
I believe that the woman and her husband just finished their meal at Real Deal, not the Squealing Pig.
Hope she is alright. So horrible!
Damn
That sucks. May she rest in peace.
Marilyn Wentworth was 66
And a lifelong West Roxbury resident. She leaves her husband and two children. Her obituary.