Do you like to walk, run or bike along the Carriage Road? Do you want to feel safer when you do? We are thrilled to invite you to now come learn about the proposal to create two-way bike travel on the Carriageway. Yes, the Planning Department has scheduled a public information session. After this public session, the proposal will be tweaked and heads on over to the Traffic Council.
The public session will be held MONDAY OCTOBER 19, 2020, from 5:30-7PM via Zoom.
To download the flyer, click here.
The session will be headed by Nicole Freedman, Director of Transportation Planning of the City of Newton.
Learn about a new proposal to allow for two way bike travel on the Carriageway.
•No changes to vehicle direction of travel
•No parking removal
•Signage and occasional paint added to ensure safe travel for all users.
Monday October 19, 20205:30-7:00 PM Via Zoomhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/81304556425Meeting ID: 813 0455 6425
One tap mobile+16465588656,,81304556425# US (New York)
This section is a special case: As Bulloughs Park approaches Commonwealth Avenue, it bisects a section of the Carriage Lane on the east that is open to EB driving, and a section of Carriage Lane on the west that is a footpath only, and closed to motor vehicles.
It is also a very popular section: Drivers get a view of Bulloughs Pond on their right, and also get to bypass the traffic light at Walnut Street.
This design however has presented several dangers. We identified a few problems and a few solutions and below you will see how these have turned out.
First, in 2012 at our request, DPW added an “EXCEPT BIKES” sign to the bottom of the “Do Not Enter” – which had previously not had any such signage at all – where the footpath begins, for those heading west:
Footpath between Bullough Park and Walnut St: View west toward Walnut Street
Another problem was the cobbled area immediately east of the intersection. The cobbles were seriously coming apart, with gaps as wide as 8 inches, and this presented a serious tripping hazard to the thousands who walked and ran here.
It took some time, but in the autumn of 2017 DPW removed the cobbles and replaced them with a new experimental surface.The Dept of Public Works was so proud of their work that they even tweeted about it (The Tweet has since been deleted, as the DPW isn’t carrying Tweets earlier than 2018 now.):
Carriage Lane before Bulloughs Park, after
With the rise in the popularity of walking on the Carriage Lane, we noticed that people started parking their cars on Bullough Park, very close to the intersection with the footpath, and this would block a southbound driver’s ability to see a pedestrian or bicyclists exiting the footpath area. Councilor Downs agreed to docket regulations that prohibited parking for some distance north of that footpath.
Potential Danger!
Once again, thank you to Councilor Downs for docketing this new signage.
Recently we put in a request to add a pedestrian cross walk here. Due to regulatory requirements, that request could not be fulfilled at that time, but engineer Isaac Prizant worked with the Traffic Coordinator to add additional signs here, to awaken, and warn, drivers to the existence of bicyclists and pedestrians using this area as a crossing along the Carriage Lane. (The original diamond-shaped signs were added in 2015 by Transportation Zach Bosch (at our request) at various locations up and down the Carriage Lane.)
view north (for drivers just leaving Commonwealth Avenue and turning onto Bullougs Park.
Washington Street (Route 16) is heavily used by light and heavy vehicles, especially because the exit and entrance to the Mass Pike is not far away. As a result, the area where where Commonwealth Avenue crosses it in Newton creates unique dangers to all, particularly to bicyclists traveling west or east.
But this area has been especially notable: At Oldham Road, the Carriage Road is taken over by westbound Commonwealth Avenue traffic, so those lanes of traffic shift right (or north) to the Carriage Lane. For a distance, all lanes of Commonwealth Avenue north of the berm now are completely devoted to traffic heading east. Soon, one lane becomes devoted to right-turn only traffic, one straight ahead, and one left-turn only.
On many levels, the situation presents many dangers to bicyclists who, until now, have enjoyed a safe and “local traffic only” protected lane. Children, runners, anybody who has been enjoying the Carriage Lane is now fighting a for space with motor vehicles and trucks.
Here is a photo of this area, before the striping:
The view from vehicles on the Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Lane heading westbound, before they cross Washington St in Newton
The situation is not rectified until Arapahoe, when motor vehicles are directed back onto Commonwealth Avenue, and where a barrier was erected to keep motor vehicles out of this portion of the Carriage Lane. Bicycles could get through the barriers, but the space between them was narrow so cyclists would have to dismount, walk through the barriers, then continue on. Additionally, there was no signage giving them permission to continue along the Carriage Lane. In winter, the opening might be entirely blocked by snow.
Many bicyclists, while passing through this intersection, were being cut off on their left by cars and trucks. Why? In 20XX, I realized that there was a big shift in travel to the right, as all westbound vehicles tried to shift to the right, and this made crossing this very large intersection exceedingly dangerous for bicyclists.
In the summer of 2018 I realized that bicyclists needed striping through this entire intersection. I contacted the Director of Transportation Planning Nicole Freedman, who gave this her attention: She created a striping plan, and a bike box. Next, Mayor Fuller’s office set up a meeting at the site between me, Director of Transportation Planning Nicole Freeman, City Engineer Lou Taverna, Councilor Downs, Director of Transportation Operations Jason Sobel. The result of that on-site meeting produced many solutions to the danger caused by the lane shift, and many ideas for a safer future.
See the results of our discussion below:
A clearly striped bike lane keeping those faster cyclists who want to ride on Commonwealth Avenue safetly separated from motor vehicles. Greater separation between the two barriers are Arapahoe. “No Motor Vehicles” signage on the barriers, which allows bicyclists to continue separated from heavy vehicular traffic.
Commonwealth Avenue’s berm is a beautiful cascade of grass, trees, and flowering bushes, which makes it an ideal linear park. The corners of the crossroads and the Carriage Lane are adorned with statuesque lights on the SE and SW corners that sit in beds of perenniallly blooming bushes. The crossroads are lined with lovely and tall trees. However, often these overhanging branches and bushes grow to obstruct the vision of drivers. When this happens, these bushes and branches need to be cut back.
We think that the Dept of Parks and Recreation needs to be a part of the team, and needs to be invited to play a fundamental role in ensuring safety along the Carriage Lane. We think also that keeping foliage trim can beautify the garden area, as you’ll see in the photos below, and they are happy to be a part of that team and ensure safety for all.
In walking, biking and running up and down the Carriage Lane, we identified a number of intersections (see below) where safety is compromised because pedestrians going in one direction and drivers going in another cannot see around corners to see each other approaching and behave appropriately. Often the foliage was a modest size when small, but it has now grown to be too large in that location.
Below are some examples of locations where we contacted Parks and Recreation, who came in and saw the problem, and appropriately – and quickly – addressed the situation.
1. The first example is the intersection of Bulloughs Park and the Carriage Lane. Here, on both the NW corner and the NE corner, Phil and I personally got permission from Parks and Recreation to cut down the massive amount of foliage and eliminate the long strands of bittersweet that were was killing other nearby trees. Before, drivers approaching the opening to the pedestrian walkway between Bulloughs Park and Walnut St could not see eastbound pedestrians as they were about to approach the road, and southbound drivers could not see approaching pedestrians. See some photos below:
NW corner, before
NW corner, after (ignore piles of clippings which were later removed by DPW, who also came in and dug out the stumps.)
NE corner, before
NE corner, after
The ewes on the NE corner of Morseland and the Carriage Lane were extremely overgrown, and this compromised visibility of drivers on Morseland Road heading south and drivers (including bicyclists) on the Carriage Lane heading west. Happy to say that Commissioner DeRubeis personally came and saw this, and made sure that the bushes are kept low on a regular basis.
The pedestrian crossing on the berm east of Cedar Street created a sight line problem due to the existence of the utility pole and a row of ewes there on the left. Drivers along the Carriage Lane could not see pedestrians crossing over to the Carriage Lane side until they were second from colliding.
Commissioner DeRubeis graciously had removed an entire row of those ewes to give better visibility. (The mound of mulch has since lowered.)
This intersection at the NW corner of the Carriage Lane and Hammond Road had been ignored for years. The gas lamplight was totally consumed by trees.
Comm. DeRubeis sent the team out right away and they got to work. See the finished product below. They also identified cherry and other blooming trees that had been totally obstructed, which could now be showcased.
Around the corner, the view of the NW intersection of Hammond and the Carriage Lane was so overgrown that foliage had gobbled up tall directional signs.
before: NW corner, Hammond Road and the Carriage Lane, view from Hammond
The NE intersection of Hammond and the Carriage Lane was also so overgrown that foliage had gobbled up directional signs, and traffic signals.
before
after. So beautiful.
We hope that all the intersections below, and others, will be catalogued and pruned back annually. We also know that there are other locations where foliage has grown to impact safety and can and should be pruned back, or removed entirely.
The addition of stop signs heading west has been an important safety feature that has been a big step toward ensuring that the Carriage Lane is used for local traffic only. It also has minimized the risk of a collision between a driver heading south on the side street and any vehicle heading west on the Carriage Lane. It also protects pedestrians and others along the Carriage Lane who are walking, running or biking eastbound, as it allows them to be better predictors of driver behavior.
The installation of these stop signs also had to go through and be approved by Traffic Council. City Councilors Emily Norton and Andreae Downs made these changes possible. In time, Traffic Council came to see that the presence of these stop signs before each westbound intersection needed to be consistent: Drivers and other users of the Carriage Lane needed to have a consistent set of expectations. The addition of these stop signs also reduced the usage of the Carriage Lane as a by-pass road.
One serious safety issue was that very often there was no official stop sign along the crossroad, north of the Carriage Lane, for southbound (SB) drivers. This presented extreme dangers: motor vehicles would head on a non-signalized crossroad south toward Commonwealth Avenue and drive straight through an intersection with the Carriage Lane, with no warning to any non-driver using the Carriage Lane. Furthermore, runners were coming from the west and heading eastbound, and near-collisions between EB runners and SB drivers were not uncommon.
We eventually learned that in Newton, the Traffic Council, a sub-committee of the Public Safety and Transportation Committee, has to approve all requests for stop signs. To the Traffic Council we went.
We began by asking Councilor Emily Norton to docket for stop signs for a few intersections, and were thrilled to have success. With that success in hand, we moved forward, in 2018 enlisting the enthusiastic assistance of Councilor Andreae Downs as a co-docketer. With the 2020 elections, City Councilor Andrea Kelly also co-docketed for these items. We are appreciative to all who played a role in this important essential feature. Below you can see all the intersections where we had success with the addition of a STOP sign for SB drivers on the cross road before the Carriage Road.
We also would like to thank traffic engineers Jason Sobel and Izaac Prizant, from the Transportation Division, for supporting these requests.
Very often there was an official stop sign along the crossword, north of the Carriage Lane, for southbound drivers. However, Newton roads twist and turn, and often twist and turn while going downhill. Add to that overhanging branches from large trees nearby, and we have a dangerous situation.
See a few of these dangerous situations and the solutions we presented to the City. These required no new Traffic Council dockets, because stops were already in the TPR.
Morseland
Morseland southbound curves around. Between the curve and the tree, drivers simply could not see the stop sign until they were at the corner, and by then it was often too late to stop for runners and pedestrians coming west from the Carriage Lane.
We identified both the problem and a simple and inexpensive solution.
Morseland, after
Valentine
Valentine was particularly challenging. At first, Valentine did not even have a stop sign there. (Bill Paille is responsible for the DO NOT BLOCK THE BOX paint.) To get an initial stop sign, we had to go to Traffic Council. Councilors Norton and Downs docketed this item.
Valentine
Traffic Council approved the stop sign at that intersection. In that discussion, we identified the issues with the heavily curving road accompanied by a sharp downhill. We suggested a “Stop Ahead” sign up the hill, as you see in the image below, in addition to the stop sign at the corner.
Valentine, after
Visibility problems remained, however, as many drivers were contractors coming from West Newton who did not know the neighborhood and weren’t aware that there were pedestrians to the right at the road below, and also because many drivers thought the stop sign was a reference to the beyond, the one at the corner of Valentine and Commonwealth Avenue.
Thus, we suggested a stop sign on the left. Our Transportation Division outdid us, and placed a really large and visible stop sign on the left.
Compliance is now much much higher than it was before. One contractor in a large van recommended the stop sign to the right be placed lower on the pole, since it’s had to see beneath the tree leaves. Getting feedback from people driving, at the site, asking them the question directly, “What would help you here?” is something the City needs to be doing more of.
Many Newton residents do not remember when the Carriage Lane looked like this:
All along the Carriage Road, the stop signs, and the stop lines, were 20-23 feet away from the intersection. Often the stop signs were located before a band of cobbles. Westbound drivers would stop before the stop sign and then roll right through the intersection, never really stopping. This was incredibly dangerous for those not in motor vehicles, as well as those in motor vehicles. It was also dangerous for drivers on the cross roads heading north and south.
In 2018, I eventually realized the problem, and set about finding a solution. Going through 311, I requested, and achieved, having the following stop signs moved to be closer to the actual intersection.
WESTBOURNE was our first success.
CEDAR STREET
This was our next success. And we also had a stop sign added on the left.
Lowell Avenue:
Note: Councilor Andreae Downs was especially helpful in having this particular stop sign moved closer to the intersection.
Morton Road:
It didn’t take very long for westbound drivers to drive much more safely. We were one step closer to to a safer experience on the road for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. Intersection by intersection, drivers would come to a complete stop right before the intersection, where they could see left, right and straight ahead, and where drivers at the crossroads could have clear visibility of any vehicle – bicycles included – heading west and about to enter the intersection.
With attention paid to things like this, we can be incrementally and inexpensively making it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
Valentine Street
September, 2021: Phil and I met with Chief Carmichael, Cpt. Boudreau and Lt. McMains.
Carriage Road before (east of) Valentine
Carriage Road before Valentine: AFTER
Thanks to Chief Carmichael and engineer Isaac Prizant for agreeing to and implementing these important safety modifications.
