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Ambiguous sign modification in JP
By cosmo.catalano on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 8:52am
The Arborway sign was altered to read "Motorway" this morning. The message is somewhat ambiguous - are pedestrians and cyclists protesting the speed and noise of traffic along Boston's parkways? Or is it motorists laying claim to their turf?
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Comments
Sounds like a job for ...
Barrel Monster.
Arborway makes a mockery of the C & R in DCR
r
Ahhhh ...
Yes, the arborway has little to do with trees and much to do with traffic.
Got it.
Arborway makes a mockery of the C & R in DCR
Ambiguous? I doubt any suburban burghers would bother to pull their infernal combustion engines to the side of the road to further mark the turf they so manifestly dominate.
This is how the post should have read.
broken necklace in need of repair
I agree, carburbanites have well marked their territory, I think this is more pointing out the obvious and the absurd, that our parks have been chopped up so that carburbanites can drive faster and avoid walking or public transportation.
The Pond and the Arboretum used to have a beautiful strip of parkland connecting them like the Commonwealth Ave Mall (without the statues). But, instead, it was destroyed to add 4 more lanes to the existing 4 of the motorway.
Menino has done NOTHING to improve the Emerald Necklace (the parks from the Fens to Franklin Park), and for all his talk of 'americas walking city' and wanting Boston to be bikeable, our parks are still chopped up. Is he the mayor of the suburbs or the city- hes been ruling Boston for 16 years, whats his excuse?
Arborway
The Longwood hospitals would freak if there were no four lane road leading to them from points west.
but what does that have to do with the Arborway?
Route 9 is four lanes wide and probably always will be.
Good point
It would be awesome if Menino built a wall around the city, so all those suburbanites who ruin our city by driving in to work at the hospitals, colleges, banks, etc.. would be kept out. And when will someone speak out against all the harbor shoreline lost by the airport being expanded? Why hasn't Menino scaled back the airport? It's like he thinks the economic health of the city is more important than pedestrians or bicyclists.
we don't mind you coming
we don't mind you coming here, just wish you could get your fat ass out of your space-hogging suv and maybe take public transit like most civilized cities outside of the US. Unclog our arteries and yours at the same time, fancy that!
car phobia
OK I don't agree with that, I live in Boston and it takes me over an hour to get to work on the T -- and that's if all the bus trips actually run, which they don't. For plenty of people it's not a practical option for somebody who has to be at work on time, or get home on time.
The solution is to tame the car, not kill the car.
Better yet ...
Fix the T so that it actually runs on schedule like transit systems in most civilized cities outside the US. Redoing schedules to reflect actual route run times costs zero money, and would be a great start!
Also, use some basic sense to improve the road systems.
When a brand new roadway entirely lacks any semblance of light timing, something is very very wrong. Much can be done to optimize what is there using existing methods in use in other places for decades that the relevant authorities can't seem to get done for whatever reason.
We built this city on yogurt and salads
Is Menino's plan for the city to sell to the lunchtime crowd and survive that way?
Cities have been going downhill and their response was to build roads to the suburbs and beg people to come in. How about actually making the city livable so that people who have a choice don't move out?
Maybe it's there.....
....to keep the bikes off the roadway! That would be nice.
it would be nice to keep
it would be nice to keep double-wide strollers off of the sidewalk, too, but sadly they have every right to be there, just as the cyclists do in the street.
Git offa my asphalt!
Kathode, do you realize that the roads in these parts were originally paved because cyclists insisted on it? Yeah, you read that right. Cars are interlopers, cyclists are original.
So if you don't need an SUV to navigate dirt ruts or cobbles during your travels, you can thank the League of American Wheelmen by obeying the laws regarding cyclists and their rights to the roadways.
This is a road through a park
so of course bicycles belong on it, just as they do on the Fellsway or Circuit Drive (in Franklin Park) or Chickatawbut Road in the Blue Hills.
Hillarious
Sounds about right. 8 lanes of high speed traffic with few pedestrian crossings (and those that exist are only for the most daring) and nowhere to ride a bike. I wonder what the people who live in those big expensive homes along the Arborway think about that Interstate running alongside their lawns.
Broken park, broken roadway, broken transit
Oh dear. Comment threads like this seem always to erupt in fractious distortions. I contributed to it by my wise crack about suburban burghers. No one has suggested a wall to keep out the suburbanites. No one has suggested the Longwood Medical Area be starved of workers. But, the facts remain:
What would work is an intentional reduction of the Riverway/Arborway capacity and a concomitant and serious investment in transportation options along the Southwest Corridor (beyond Forest Hills), with feeders from the outside-128 towns to that extended and enhanced Orange Line. The same is true for the Route 9 alignment. It is a straight shot to Boston; it needs a reduced automobile capacity and decent heavy rail (though not rail designed by aircraft manufacturer).
how to slow down a road
If it wasn't you, it would have been somebody else going after the suburbanites and SUVs. I drive on the road too, and I use the parks. Right now the road has taken over.
I recommend the reconstruction of Beacon Street in Brookline, which has shorter light spans but more frequent light changes. It really made a difference.
Anyway your roundup was good. The generalized rudeness and aggressiveness that comes out on the Arborway is a pretty big problem that design isn't going to solve.
Brilliant.
Just brilliant! i've nothing to add but if you ever run for anything, you have my vote, even if i can't legally vote for you.
commuter rail
The Needham and Franklin commuter rail lines serve the communities that the majority of the cars are likely originating from. Certainly not as convenient as frequent subway service, but it counts for something.
So this demonstrates that the commuter rail has "issues' ?
"the majority of cars" originate in a place that has commuter rail service
methinks that says something about commuter rail service. Who'd prefer a car when a lovely, on-time, comfortable and well-priced ride is available?
or to put it more succinctly, as they say:
what do you mean by 'serve' ? is that like 'abuse residents of' ?
Where do these Arborway/Riverway/Jamaicaway trip originate?
Where do these Riverway/Arborway/Jamaicaway trips originate? Are the cars full of West Roxbury residents coming to work? Or, do commuters from Needham, Dedham, Canton, Brookline, Westwood, Dover, Norwood predominate?
Arborway
I doubt anybody knows for sure. My guess is West Roxbury, Roslindale, Newton and Dedham. But it could also be from points south like Hyde Park... Center St in JP is a nightmare during any kind of traffic, as is Washington Street.