Leverett Circle Pedestrian Bridge

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Semass

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Re: North Washington St Bridge

I think that's what the state prefers, it's the area residents who pushed for the overpasses. If I remember correctly Mayor White hated those foot bridges and tried hard to get rid of them;

And when Frank DePaola, MassDOT's acting highway administrator finally made the announcement earlier this week about plans to build a pedestrian bridge over Leverett Circle, most of the 30 or so audience members at the Amy Lowell House stood up in a round of applause.

"It's not often I get that reaction," DePaola joked.

But for those at the public meeting Tuesday evening to hear plans for adding a pedestrian bridge to Leverett Circle, a high traffic area between the West End and North Station, the news culminated years of advocacy for the overpass, which they said will increase safety and make their streets more navigable for walkers and bikers.

A previous Leverett Circle overpass was removed in 2005.

Louise Thomas, a West End resident, said she's been involved in overpass discussions "since the beginning--since the Big Dig."

"We never thought it would happen, so we're thrilled," she said after the meeting. With three highways converging in the area and visitors (including kids) trying to get to the nearby Museum of Science, she said, "it really is a no-brainer."

Some elderly people in the area, she said, "are just afraid to cross [the street]."
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http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/beacon_hill/2011/06/long-awaited_leverett_circle_p.html
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

There has GOT to be a better way to rationalize that whole mess than building overpasses.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

PaulC said:
And apparently this one too:

http://rgabridges.com/docs/projectSheets/competition/R+P_leverett-circle-pedestrian-bridge.pdf
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You have to love the architecture double speak in the fluff statement about the Leverett Circle pedestrian bridge:

This statement "The simplicity and understatement of the bridge allows for uninterrupted views of the Charles River and adjacent historic buildings." appears above a rendering of the bridge that almost completely blocks the view of the river and the old MDC stable buildings.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

But for those at the public meeting Tuesday evening to hear plans for adding a pedestrian bridge to Leverett Circle, a high traffic area between the West End and North Station, the news culminated years of advocacy for the overpass, which they said will increase safety and make their streets more navigable for walkers and bikers.
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It's the 1960s all over again! Why make the roads safer when you can just segregate the pedestrians onto tiny, obnoxiously long footbridges?
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

Seems like a waste. The cross walks through there aren't bad considering, and I can't imagine it'd be faster to take some long looping overpass.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

It's all the old people in the West End. They really want their pedestrian bridge. (I don't fully understand why, other than the state promised and tried to back out of it, and they want what they were promised!)
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

underground said:
Seems like a waste. The cross walks through there aren't bad considering, and I can't imagine it'd be faster to take some long looping overpass.
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They station cops there to direct traffic most weekends because the old overpasses were gone. While it may be true they can functionally get away with not building, bureaucratically they've made it nearly impossible because of all the special interests that force the pointless police OT there.

I think Leverett does need ped bridges since there's just not a whole lot more you can do to de-clog the traffic. Their utility gets a lot better when the Somerville Community Path touches down at Northpoint since then the bridge allows for grade separated connection to the SCP and Esplanade path networks. The ped/bike volumes are going to increase steadily enough that staying at-grade and getting rid of the cops gets tougher, not easier over time.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

Seems to be designed to keep pedestrians out of the intersections and out of the cars way to improve traffic flow rather than to improve pedestrian access in the area. Does anyone know why the tunnel from Storrow eastbound only connects to 93 North and US1 and not to 93 South? Seems like routing a lot of this traffic under the intersection would have alleviated a lot of the traffic concerns.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

BPLange7 said:
Seems to be designed to keep pedestrians out of the intersections and out of the cars way to improve traffic flow rather than to improve pedestrian access in the area. Does anyone know why the tunnel from Storrow eastbound only connects to 93 North and US1 and not to 93 South? Seems like routing a lot of this traffic under the intersection would have alleviated a lot of the traffic concerns.
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Because it was herculean to get all the movements underground that they did. That one wasn't deemed to be a high priority, since traffic from the West bound onto 93 South tends to (and really should) use the Turnpike.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

BPLange7 said:
Seems to be designed to keep pedestrians out of the intersections and out of the cars way to improve traffic flow rather than to improve pedestrian access in the area. Does anyone know why the tunnel from Storrow eastbound only connects to 93 North and US1 and not to 93 South? Seems like routing a lot of this traffic under the intersection would have alleviated a lot of the traffic concerns.
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I agree-- this seems to be the biggest driver of traffic issues in that area.
 
But what about the shadows? Also I'm not sure this will be comfortably wide enough for both pedestrians and bicyclists at the same time.
 
I've never seen this intersection at rush hour, but frequently ride my bike through here on weekends, and never have any trouble getting across in any direction. The only possible use I could see for a bridge is for people getting off the t who are already up there.... There's no way it's worth the trek up stairs or elevators just to get across. Really actually is disappointing because it will en another hulking, shadowing structure and gives the intersection away to the cars, both in a physical as well as psychological sense.
 
FK4 said:
I've never seen this intersection at rush hour, but frequently ride my bike through here on weekends, and never have any trouble getting across in any direction. The only possible use I could see for a bridge is for people getting off the t who are already up there.... There's no way it's worth the trek up stairs or elevators just to get across. Really actually is disappointing because it will en another hulking, shadowing structure and gives the intersection away to the cars, both in a physical as well as psychological sense.
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I couldn't quite figure out where the bridge was going to be positioned, but I think it would be an improvement for anyone walking between MGH/West End and the T stop. One must currently go through three crosswalks and I can't imagine the timing of the signals is very coordinated to make this an efficient trip (Wait for Signal, Cross, Wait for Next Signal, Cross,). Right now, I don't think demand for this type of trip is very high but should increase with the GLX from employees getting to/from Somerville.

I'm not a fan of the bridge idea either. There have to be better ways to improve the intersection than this.
 
Looking at the visuals, this appears to be 1) stairs only in most places, hence only for pedestrians and able-bodied ones at that--hopefully our West End elders can mount a staircase-- and 2) not connected to the McGrath west side (by far the more popular ped/cycle side of the road).

So, if I want to walk from the Esplanade or the West End apts to the Science Park stop, this is useful. Other use cases, not so clear. I don't see many commuters using this to access the North Station area. It's a way for families to take a roundabout route to MoS and West End residents getting from Science Park back home.

Not helpful for Somerville/NorthPoint/Cambridge East End. Unless I'm missing something.

Oh. One more perk to this: If I'm a jogger and I want to get to the Nashua St park I can use this... then wonder what the hell to do once I dead end at the vacant Spaulding Rehab. Wouldn't it be more useful to build those *legally required* ped bridges between NorthPoint, Spaulding, and North Station? That actually creates net new ped access rather than merely bolster existing as is the case here.
 
^ It must be more complicated than that? What you're describing is against ADA regulations.
 
Re: North Washington St Bridge

Kahta said:
I agree-- this seems to be the biggest driver of traffic issues in that area.
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Location of the tunnels prohibits a direct Storrow to 93S connection. The way it all corkscrews around at differing levels of tunnel to differing elevations of Leverett ramps is a three-dimensional "can't get there from here" situation. Hard to visualize on a 2D Google overhead, but that's the constriction they were stuck with. At least there is a Storrow EB to 93N ramp now peeling something away from the intersection. It used to all have to run through the light.
 
BPLange7 said:
I couldn't quite figure out where the bridge was going to be positioned, but I think it would be an improvement for anyone walking between MGH/West End and the T stop. One must currently go through three crosswalks and I can't imagine the timing of the signals is very coordinated to make this an efficient trip (Wait for Signal, Cross, Wait for Next Signal, Cross,). Right now, I don't think demand for this type of trip is very high but should increase with the GLX from employees getting to/from Somerville.
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Nobody who is heading to MGH gets off at Science Park unless they're just dying for a long walk. Much faster to go Green to Red. Maybe that will chaneg a little when the Green heads north, but I doubt it. 'Tis a shame there is not a tunnel connecting Storrow to 93-S...
 
FK4 said:
Nobody who is heading to MGH gets off at Science Park unless they're just dying for a long walk. Much faster to go Green to Red. Maybe that will chaneg a little when the Green heads north, but I doubt it. 'Tis a shame there is not a tunnel connecting Storrow to 93-S...
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Sorry, but this statement is simply not true.

May people accessing the Blossom Street side of MGH, including employees, access MGH via Science Park. If you are on the right branch of the Green Line, or are coming from the Orange Line, it can be a more efficient connection, and an equal walking distance.

I use Science Park pretty often for meetings at MGH.
 
What is underground that prevented them from building an underground EB Storrow to SB 93 connector? As already mentioned, a huge amount of the traffic there is from this movement.
 
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