Category: crosswalks

New RRFBs at Mt. ALVERNIA Road, the eastern terminus of the Carriage Road Two-way for Bicycles, Make Cycling Safer

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

The official eastern terminus of the Carriage Road Two-Way for Bicycles is located at the eastern side of the intersection with Mt. Alvernia Road.

Cyclists riding east on the Carriage Road, toward Boston College and Boston will find that the eastbound Carriage Road bicycle lane ends HERE.

New RRFBs – Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons – make it safer for cyclists to cross Commonwealth Avenue: and to continue east toward Boston College or the City of Boston via Commonwealth Avenue. And of course the RRFBs make it safer for pedestrians (and pedestrians who may be walking their bikes across the wide street).

Note green sign: “BIKE LANE ENDS” and right-pointing arrow. Note also the paved footpath and the manually-operated RRFB.

Fortunately there is an excellent paved pathway that is also ADA-compliant – that cuts through berm leading to Commonwealth Avenue; from there, you’ll now find an excellent crosswalk and RRFB (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon) located on both the north side and the south side of Commonwealth Avenue to get you further east. (See image below.)

View of the bench and the RRFB located on the north side of Commonwealth Avenue at Mt. Alvernia. Simply press the button, wait for the lights to flash, look both ways to ensure all vehicles have stopped and it’s safe to cross, and cross.

In the distance is College Road.

This is the south side RRFB, eastbound side toward Boston College, if you are beginning your ride at Mt. Alvernia on the south side. The motor vehicles in this image are heading west.

To cycle toward Boston College and Boston, continue from here.

Note in the image below, the Carriage Road at the top of this image. Note two pedestrian crossings: one at the east side of the intersection with Mt. Alvernia Road coming, and one on the south side of that intersection. Note also that on the south side of the intersection with Commonwealth Avenue, two separate roads, College Road and Old Colony Road come in.

There is one RRFB on the north side of the pedestrian crosswalk leading across Comm Ave at College Road, the formal eastern terminus of the Carriage Road Two-way for Bicyclists, and one RRFB on the south side. There is also one RRFB on the north side of the pedestrian crosswalk leading to Old Colony Road, and one at College Road. The four RRFBs work in tandem. When a person presses the button at Colony Road, the College Road RRFBs also flash.

View of the pedestrian crosswalk across Commonwealth Avenue and the RRFBs at Old Colony Road on the north and on the western side of the berm opening.

We hope that the City of Newton and the City of Boston will work together to make it safe for bicyclists to continue east along the Carriage Road, to where the Carriage Road ends, just before the Boston College MBTA Greenline“ “B” line station and Blue Bikes station.

Eastern/Boston College END OF THE CARRIAGE ROAD. Carriage Road into Newton on the right. Commonwealth Avenue on the left.

Valentine Street Gets a Pedestrian Crosswalk, a Makeover, and More, at the Carriage Road

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

Before

At first, for drivers of the Carriage Road, the STOP sign was too far from the intersection. We had it moved closer to the intersection and DPW installed a second STOP sign on the right side.

Also, for southbound drivers of Valentine Road, there was no stop sign before the Carriage Road, with its many runners, pedestrians and bicyclists.

The only existing STOP sign was located at Commonwealth Avenue.

So DPW painted “DO NOT BLOCK THE BOX.”

Still drivers would stop and wait in “the box,” thus blocking pedestrians and bicyclists from travel east/west.

DPW added a STOP sign on the right, but it was under the tree limbs and not particularly visible, esp as drivers were coming out of a bend in the road. So a second and larger stop sign was installed on the left. It too didn’t help much to get drivers to stop.

A Pedestrian/Bicyclist sign was added for drivers from Comm Ave, by DPW engineer, Zach Bosch.

We observed there was no STOP sign along Valentine before the Carriage Road. We docketed for one, and it was approved and A STOP sign was added on top of the “DO NOT BLOCK INTERSECTION” sign.

No STOP sign before the Carriage Road
STOP sign added above “DO NOT BLOCK Intersection.”

STILL drivers continued to pass straight through the intersection. That’s when we asked Chief John Carmichael from the Newton Police Dept. if he would meet with us on-site. He did, and he also brought along several other officers.

We looked at the shrubbery and the overgrown shrubbery that pedestrians had to walk through. Chief Carmichael agreed that shrubbery needed to be cut back to allow a clearer path for pedestrians. He also saw the cobbles as problematic. (See before and after, below.)

Before

After working with Parks and Recreation to keep these bushes off the sidewalk.

Before

After working with Parks and Recreation to trim bushes and trees so pedestrians can safety and comfortably pass.

With Chief Carmichael and the three other officers from NPD, we stood at the intersection of Valentine and the Carriage Road and continued to observe the Valentine Street drivers going right through the two STOP signs, amazed that this was occurring even though there were four police officers standing there! We surveyed and discussed the effectiveness and location of the single existing stop sign on the Carriage Road, and its location so far from the intersection.

We also surveyed and discussed the effectiveness and location of the single existing stop sign on the Carriage Road, and its location so far from the busy intersection.

Chief Carmichael agreed that 1) the STOP sign needed to be relocated closer to Valentine (see left image) and 2) a second stop sign added on the right (see right image). DPW did both.

Only one stop sign, and too far from the intersection
Stop sign moved closer to intersection; AND second STOP sign added, to the left.

Chief Carmichael noted that a pedestrian crosswalk needed to be installed at the base of Valentine Street, before it intersected with the Carriage Road. After the Carriage Road was repaved in 2023, new ADA-compliant curb cuts are installed. A pedestrian crosswalk was installed across Valentine, as well as several others: One was added across the Carriage Road berm to the east of Valentine and then across Commonwealth Ave, for people wanting to safely cross Commonwealth Avenue; and another one was installed to the west of Valentine across the berm from the Carriage Road and then across Commonwealth Avenue.

As hoped, this, in combination with the other improvements, has been effective in changing driver behavior to STOP the motor vehicle before reaching the intersection with the Carriage Road.

Additional improvements at the heavily-traveled Valentine Street were also made, with the re-paving of the Carriage Road. RRFBs were added along Commonwealth Avenue to both pedestrian crosswalks, both east and west of Valentine St.

Across the berm to Comm Ave.,
Across the berm to Comm Ave

Beaumont Avenue: Western End of Footpath from Centre St

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

Though it’s across the street from City Hall, it is was included in the City Hall Sidewalk Restoration Project. We’re glad it was!

View across Beaumont, looking east.

View across Beaumont, looking west.

New sidewalks, new bollards, new ADA curbs wide enough for wheelchairs, runners and bicyclists to safely head both east and west at the same time.

Cobbles Removed

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

DPW removed the cobbles along the Carriage Road.ย  While some bemoaned the loss of the cobbles with their mystique, this is a tremendous improvement for public safety. The Carriage Road is now safer for pedestrians, runners, people with disabilities, and bicyclists (whose tires sometimes could get stuck in between the cobbles). Some day we hope for funding to add flowers and foliage in the berm to further adorn the Carriage Road.

Before:

Current:

Signs? Striping? See What We Are Proposing for Two-Way

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

You may be asking yourself, “What’s this I hear about the proposed two-way bicycle travel on the Carriage Lane?” People of course want to visualize what our proposed changes to the Carriage Lane will be. We want to make it easy for you. Whether you are a driver, a walker, a dog-walker, a bicyclists or a runner, we also want you to feel safer with these modifications.

We have provided you two downloadable documents; see the links below. Read what the major modifications proposed will be, and why, and what they will not be:

  • NO changes to vehicle direction of travel
  • NO parking removal
  • Signage and occasional paint added, generally only at intersections, to ensure safe travel for all users.
  • NO white stripe down the middle of the Carriage Lane

1) You can download a .pdf of the PowerPoint presentation which Phil and I made at that meeting. You can put yourself in the point of view of a bicyclists or pedestrian, or a driver. Please note these are not official Dept of Transportation drawings, but Phil’s and my rendering of approximately what the signs and striping would look like. Final decisions are of course made by the Transportation Dept. engineers in compliance with State law.

2) The Transportation Engineer of the Transportation Dept made a presentation (downloadable) which is from a transportation engineer’s point of view. Most of the images are aerial.

The current phase of this two-way bicycling plan excludes signalized and other large intersections.

The two-way would end, on the east, at Mt. Alvernia St. When CIP funding can be obtained to make these intersections safe for eastbound bicycle traffic, other sections and intersections will be discussed one by one.

Whether you are a driver, a pedestrian, a bicyclists, a runner or a dog-walker, the changes we propose will be low budget and safer for all.

Bullough Park and the Carriage Lane

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

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 crosswalk here. Due to regulatory requirements, that request could not be fulfilled, but engineer Isaac Prizant worked with the Traffic Coordinator to add additional signage 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 Bulloughs Park.
View south toward Commonwealth Avenue. Note new sign on the right.

More recently, Traffic Council approved a parking restriction and added, all new signage on existing poles to ensure visibility of exiting runners.

Stop Signs along the Carriage Lane Relocated to Be Closer to the Intersection

Posted By: Jane HanserPosted On:

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: our first success.

CEDAR STREET: 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.